Choke Cocoi Interview:
1. How did the band get together?
Tweety: Odessa and I were the real culprits, we’re bandmates since highschool and we both want to form a new band, we met Qt and Joy in a gig in year 2000, all of us had previous bands that’s why forming Choke Cocoi was easy (that’s what we thought but we’re wrong). Days of spending too much time on the practice room without making any song of our own passed. The band was on and off in 2001-2003 from playing on shows and practicing. In early 2004 we started searching for a new vocalist coz Joy hardly find time to practice and be on shows due to her work. It was in 3rd quarter of 2004 when we found Sheryl and we started making songs of our own, luckily everything turned out really well. We all want fast music!
Where did the band's name come from?
Odessa: Our lack of seriousness and laziness to pick a decent band name pushed us to come up with a hilarious idea of naming it after a tricycle driver who is nuts about Tweety. (oooy!) hehe!
Tweety: Odessa and I were hanging out in a friend’s house and we just thought of including Cocoi’s name in our band (he’s the neighbor of our friend, and he owns a tricycle) Why Choke? Some people talk shit most of the time, hope they’d choke to death so they’d stop talking non-sense. (this is the only time I’ve found a deep meaning for Choke Cocoi) haha maybe we should stick to what Odessa said…
2. How do you usually come up with your lyrics and music? What inspires you?
Sheryl: depressions, oppressions, repressions,obsessions, frustrations and all... my sad life andthis sad world... I am not always inspired at all,maybe writing (what I write is based on the state of me at the moment… I am so inconsistent) things came to be because it is much of a displacement for me........what this entire outside world brought me... and
my feelings for those who’s been numb due to death of their futures...
Tweety: Most riffs are buzzing in my head when I’m traveling and meeting new people, and when I get home I’ll pick up the guitar and find those chords. We also have songs where the riffs are based on the lyrics or riffs that are based on the drums. We all like trying different style in making songs. Everyday experiences whether it’s good or bad inspires me to make music.
Odessa: Personally, writing song is my free reign to whine and express my clueless notion of women’s obsession to jewelry and other senseless shit to make themselves look and/or feel perfect. Add to that, I’m ecstatically inspired by chauvinists, gold diggers, some feminists’ issues that I don’t get (I am that slow!), vanity, heartaches, a certain pastry, etc.
3. What are your perceptions of how the media (mis)presents mass society and the punk lifestyle/culture?
Sheryl: It's the sad trend of today... the media(mis)presents this society just like someone saying he/she is a punk w/o knowing what it is... well I hope I am not digressing... But it is some sort it... anyone could be a punk today, just go to the mall, buy that punk stuffs and be with those who wear the same clothes as you and you'll be a punk... that is so fucked up!!! The media and the mtv made that tedious idea of making punk a fashion..... I hate that commercialization thing... I’m giving this fashion trend a year, until they lost these numbers and this media focus unto the new trend... giving back "underground" to the underground... ...yeah I know it is really hard to explain to others what's in here and what we're doing... maybe that is why there's this mainstream and there's this
underground... I know I sound hopeless on how this two things will meet, but maybe we'll wait more than a hundred years to have this things acclaimed... We’re not always heard, we're not always seen, we're not always given time to explain, they are not listening... the world isn't open... the doors of this world has been closed to us... and now we only hope for this world we hate to be destroyed so that we could create what we’ve always envisioned (I hope this didn’t sound too utopian-me) Maybe you’ve watched the documentary of I-witness entitled punks not dead…. There’s this sort of a comparison of the scene during the 80’s and today, it was so damned, it’s all a crap, only focusing on
fashion and musick and didn’t even manage to show the life style… an interviewed guy even had the balls to say he is a punk then, and now what? Discriminating
the scene today?... hahayy… maybe I really have a personality disorder…
Tweety: media/tv plays a vital role in our society. One example: Look at some of the kids today and MTV there’s a complete resemblance of the two. You’ll see kids having the same haircuts (that flatiron hairdo! Kids trying to pull off that Bleeding Through look after watching a video), black shirts with radical prints (without knowing what’s the print all about) and tight ass jeans that’s how powerful media is. They have the power to set standards, so we should be very wary on what’s seen on TV coz they might be giving us wrong information.
Odessa: I think almost everything the media has presented to the people is an absolute opposite of an actual truth or somehow manipulated depending on what sells and what their corporate sponsors told them and brainwash people on what to consume.
4. Are you discouraged by the fact that there is such a really small minority of active womyn punks in the movement? How can greater participation by womyn be encouraged?
Sheryl: I am not actually that discouraged, but just sad about it, I am so sad that “still” a lot of people misunderstood what individuality means, still cannot get the point of what is equality and underestimating ones strength (strength as only the power of our physic, that is so assed..) What does the world want from us? I wanted to erase the word gender unto each ones vocabulary… as what pins may convey… FUCK GENDER..! Another hindrance for what we are as an individual… it’s just that some wymin are not radical, victims of the past’s fallacies and the future’s lies, accustomed to be rivals, crashed from
social/spiritual/economical/physical/psychological/etc conditioning… to achieve this state where all’s equal is through annihilating the instilled/written/explained/showed/commercialized etc. brainwash showered by the dickheads of our history…maybe all we need is communication, spending more time
of reciprocating thoughts, discussing things up for enlightenment and sharing life for its disconnection to the norms of this pretty fucked society… counter-culture… transform… disseminating the true message of feminism…
Odessa: Bummed out, yes. Discouraged, no. I won’t be discouraged by statistics. There were even lesser women when we got involved in the UG scene but that didn’t stop us. Honestly, I’d rather be in a scene with almost no women but filled with people of sincerity, dedication, strength, optimism and integrity; coz what’s the use of having an equal part of gender platter if most of them are know-it-alls, scumbags, sexists, and dumb?
Tweety: I’m not discouraged coz there are still some women who are trying their best to participate or contribute something to the scene, what really matters is the scene itself is still alive it doesn’t matter if more men are active than women. Punk / HC scene is for everyone, I’d love to see more people, all gender! Fuck that gender classification anyway! I don’t really care about how many men or women are into it, let’s just break all the barriers and stick to our common ground which is punk/hc music and lifestyle. I really do believe that there are people meant for the scene and even if they get older they’re still into it. I do hope someday there’ll be greater number of people in the scene. I’d love to see an all gay band here in our country, I think that gender thing wont matter anymore if there are lots of women, men, lesbians, and gays in our scene…(I’m only talking about the scene here in the Philippines)
5. What are your thoughts on the state of the punk/hardcore scenes today?
Sheryl: not a half of what I’ve imagined, or at least it has been... I just hope there’ll be no more discrimination, all we need is to break the barriers and start having fun… yet we need to understand each one’s situation… that’s individualism… I dunno why we have these divisions … gigs were then classified… EMO gig, a PUNK gig or HARDCORE gig, why!!?... the fact that we’re here is that we wanted to make a difference and live-up the dreams we ones envisaged… but I guess we’ve been also one with the norms of the society we loathe… yet the thing that made me smile about is that right now I am foreseeing a future that there’ll be no obstructions at all.. et. Al. … at least I am optimistic about it… I am still dying to see no more clashes, and no more “mas astig this” or “mas astig that”, the more hardcore or the most hardcore, the punkier blah blah
blah… a good musick of this band and the better musick of this band… wtf.. what are bands for… for a fucking astig sense only? C’mon, will ya?… what is musick?
What is sharing musick… what is making musick? What do you really want.. just be applauded and disappear in the crowd after?...
Tweety: I’m not sure about other scenes in the world if they’re also experiencing the same scenario we have here, and that is division/classification blah blah blah! For me, the scene as a whole in the Philippines is getting better but even though we have all the great bands, shows, activities and all modes of communication there are still some misunderstandings… I think we all need to break boundaries and respect each other and enjoy what we have right now. Let’s be thankful b’coz at least there’s a scene existing in exotic country like ours, we should help each other out rather than talk shit all the time. I just hope that people from the scene would learn to appreciate other bands or shows and not just stick to one show watching the same bands on the line up. And I do hope that shows will not turn out to be like battle of the bands or like a catwalk for people trying to look so stylish or tough, that sucks! For some people who’s so judgmental or maybe insecure: stop criticizing people / bands on who’s faster or who growls better, who’s playing blast beats like a machine gun, the most stylish, who’s sxe / who’s not, who’s punkier than you blah blah blah– we’re forgetting the main purpose of attending or playing in an underground show, which is all about voicing our opinions, sharing music, meeting friends and just simply enjoying the company of people who makes you feel appreciated. It’s also a moment where we can all get together (aside from other scene related activities) it’s like a reunion – where else?? in a show! forgive me for being so optimistic that things will improve here..hehehe
6. What sort of things you do outside this band?
Sheryl: uh... aside from studying FA, and school paper thing, I also have this hoax conflict zine, someone in the milieu every FnB (Sundays @ Perez park and
discussions after)... part of a.larm.a kolektiva (any activity it holds... anti-mcdo/earth first/buy nothing day...etc)... i also do vocals for Master
Titan/P.S.E.B., a noisecore band and drums for a 3 piece punkrock band theFalse... and
just-a-lethargic-me-in-the-outside-world ... I have this obsessions with words and the world's ironic blobs ... frustrated wrioter more often got nothing to share at all except being self-centered and the personality disorder (according to psychology) that I have... wishing I have this blood for musick, literature and art... ;-> .... maybe I’m just doing
useless things... or I am just so schizophrenic…
Odessa: Full time mom of my adorable son Reason, run a band studio, cooks; teach music, and all that jazz…
Tweety: I stay at home most of the time watching vic sotto & having second thoughts on applying for a job again, im a bum! I also play guitar in Catalepsis.
7. What are the future plans of Choke Cocoi? Any tours or records happening soon?
Odessa: Are we going to record our songs, ever? I am this close to giving up on that idea. Hmmnnn… There’s been a talk about making a full length but I think we’re being too ambitious. We barely find time to practice. We’ll see.
Tweety: We’ll start recording next month (April 2006)
8. Anything to add or say to the readers? What would be the most important single message you would want to convey, if there was one single message that you could convey to a next generation of punks?
Sheryl: Let’s break all the barriers and start the
fire for euphoria!!! hehehe
Odessa: Every single word a certain “older” punk/hc person is telling you or if you just read something profoundly compelling, before you arrogantly spill those words out of your mouth, please try to reflect first on what you really think about that subject. We got our own minds, use it. We are in a punk scene coz we refuse to be brainwashed by others. Embrace your judgment and stand by it. To the “older” punks/hc, I’d like to say: speak your mind but don’t brainwash those kids to dress/think/act/speak like you do. Don’t take advantage of their already messed up puberty stage of life. Half of their life, they’re gonna be as fucked up as we are. They deserve a childhood.
Thanks a lot!
Tweety: to the next generation of punks / kids, just be yourself and practice what you preach, don’t let your friends put you down just because you’re not drinking, smoking or you just don’t like the idea of having vices or just because you’re not cool. Fight off the peer pressure so that you’ll develop your individuality, remember what your momma told you, coz sometimes it’s true. I hope shows here are earlier so that kids/teens will be able to attend (without making alibis to their parents), for sure parents will allow them to watch if they’re home before 10pm.
Thanks to the readers and hope you’ve learned something from us.
ALL: To dha and monina, more power to your zine and thanks a lot for the interview..
* sorry coz our bassist wasn’t able to answer in this interview
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