From Trujillo, Peru — a city better known for its surf breaks and colonial architecture than its emo lineage — comes maten a lucas, a young band threading together screamo urgency and math rock intricacy with a distinct local pulse.
Formed in early 2024, the quartet—Joaquin Vasquez (guitar, screams), Rodrigo Lucero (guitar, melodic voice), Eduardo Valdivia (drums), and Fabrizio Ramirez (bass)—arrived with “Cuerda Rota,” their first single and the opening signal from an upcoming debut EP produced by Andre y Punto of Fiesta Bizarra.
The band describes “Cuerda Rota” as “a raw song about overcoming heartbreak and abandonment,” written during a rough stretch for several members. Its title carries an inside joke: “Our guitarist sent us a playthrough of the same song in which his string breaks at the beginning,” they explain. That small accident stuck as a kind of symbol — not just of imperfection, but of the casual, self-aware way they work together. “We take the band as a friends project,” they add. “It’s not just a band, it’s the collaborative work of four friends who just wanna have a good time together and in this way be able to express themselves emotionally without remorse.”
That sentiment extends into their writing. “The things we write in these songs aren’t just for aesthetic or purely musical purposes,” they say. “They’re things that come from real situations that we’ve been affected by, something that we feel is the main objective of emotional hardcore.” There’s no posturing in that claim—just a plain admission that emotion, not image, drives what they do.
Working with Andre y Punto, bassist of Fiesta Bizarra—one of the group’s key influences—helped shape the band’s debut sound. “It is a pleasure to work with him,” they say. “Obviously he takes our sound to the best way and all his recommendations have helped us to climb better.” The connection feels natural; Fiesta Bizarra’s blend of emotional dissonance and melodic depth echoes through “Cuerda Rota,” though maten a lucas add their own sense of looseness and local texture.
In Trujillo, the scene that raised them is both tight-knit and diverse. “In our local scene we’re kind of the new blood of screamo and considered like the promising project of the new wave of emo in our city,” they explain. Screamo, math rock, and emo culture, they say, “are truly important in Trujillo.” The roll call of local names—Ok Boomer, El Mejor Verano de mi Vida, Kentucky Hut, Fiesta Bizarra—draws a small map of a city quietly feeding Peru’s underground. Around them, there’s no shortage of variation: “We have indie bands like Gidae, shoegaze projects like Aruca or Invierno Negro, indie-folk like Solo Lúcuma or the solo project of our guitarist called Sin Lucero, grindcore like Los Fríos or Audiotrauma.”
They’re aware, though, of how Lima’s centralism overshadows other regions. “We know that in Lima there’s a huge diversity too and of course that we’d like to play there,” they say, “but we feel that the rest of the cities in our country are overshadowed by the centralism that dominates us.” Still, maten a lucas point to other cities—Chimbote, Arequipa, Huancayo—as fertile grounds with bands forced to migrate toward the capital in search of opportunity.
For now, “Cuerda Rota” stands as both introduction and declaration: a rough-edged, heartfelt release built on friendship and catharsis. The band’s EP will follow soon, containing this track and four more—continuing what they’ve started, somewhere between mathy precision, emotional release, and the stubborn drive of four friends making noise in Trujillo.
Find a bunch of under the radar screamo and post hardcore bands in our special, lengthy playlist on Spotify:
