Nausea interview with Oscar Garcia

Oscar Garcia is a singer and guitarist from Los Angeles, USA. Oscar is an important man in the grindcore music scene, because he is the frontman for Nausea, an influential and longstanding band in the genre. Nausea has released several CDs, 7”es, compilations and demos over the years.

“The highlight for the band would have to be our last demo, Images of Abuse,” Oscar explains via email. “This was our best recording—four songs. It just did not get released well: many did not get their hands on this demo.”

But that isn’t stopping them. Nausea has an updated lineup, featuring Eric Castro, with whom Oscar started the band, and Leon del Muerte, who has served time in such bands as Exhumed, Impaled and currently Murder Construct. Oscar explains, “This line-up would have to the best we ever had. [It] made us a stronger band.”

With these guys, Oscar is working on new material, but the last few Nausea demos showed an industrial side to the band, close to an old Pitch Shifter style. But we won’t find that in the new songs: “Right now we want to get back to the grindcore old-school style, not so much industrial. Just good old grindcore doom, like fun-to-play music.”

Oscar isn’t only known for Nausea, however. Let’s turn our attention to a band from Oscar’s past, Terrorizer. Way back in 1989 Terrorizer released the album Word Downfall, which countless grindcore bands and musicians have taken as a major influence—this writer included. It can’t be understated how pivotal this record was for the grindcore scene. Appearing on the record with Oscar were original Terrorizer alums Pete Sandoval and Jesse Pintado, as well as and David Vincent from Morbid Angel.

By his estimation, Oscar wrote about 80% of the material on World Downfall, but he wasn’t involved in the band’s second album, Darker Days Ahead.

“I was going to [work on] this CD, but Jesse and I were so far apart about the music—he wanted more death metal and I wanted more hardcore/doom/crust style for this release. We just could not see eye to eye. He wanted me to leave Nausea and play with Terrorizer again. I did not want to leave Nausea, and so we parted ways.”

Sometime after the death of Jesse Pintado, following the release of Darker Days Ahead, Terrorizer updated its lineup, retaining Pete Sandoval as the sole original member, and released a third album, Hordes of Zombies.

On the subject of this record Oscar is less charitable. “The way I see it, they’re trying to make money off the name.” He says he didn’t have anything to do with the new lineup and album because, “I am tired of hearing Pete saying I gave up on Terrorizer when he left to play with Morbid Angel before [World Downfall] was recorded and Jesse took off to play with Napalm Death, so who gave up on who? I came back to form Nausea [and] recorded many demos throughout the years. So this guy has to get his story right. I never stopped playing music. As for Terrorizer, I wish them well. Pete can have it.”

Still, Oscar is looking to the future. Nausea’s plans are, “Right now to release a new demo and try to find a few shows, as well as try to let people know we’re back and stronger than ever.”

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