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Interview with Marko Cipäktli the drummer of Cabrakaän

December 15, 2023

What got you into music, and if you had not gotten into music what would you be doing today?

I grew up in a very musical household, so we always had music playing. My dad loved it. My mom put me in piano lessons which started my first real appreciation for music before I got into drumming. My favourite album is probably Metallica’s Master of Puppets, and it was something that first influenced me to get into drumming and metal, and I still listen to it to this day. I grew up listening to 90s thrash metal and it directly influenced the way I think about drumming in all of my projects. My sister was also in a band when we were growing up. I was introduced to the local music scene at a very young age and got to explore the instrument I loved shortly after that. The rest is history.

If I weren’t in the music industry, I’d be involved in it one way or another. Sound is something I’m very passionate about - in my day job, I do sound design and audio engineering. Music and sound are where I’m in my element and I can’t imagine doing anything else.

What do you like to do when you are not playing music and how does that influence your creativity?

When not playing music, I love finding inspiration by listening to different musical genres, watching movies with great scores, and going for runs. Nowadays, I also enjoy the company of my wife, who’s also a fan of these things. I’m also a big history nerd. I love to read about my country’s history and geopolitics, and that definitely inspires me when writing music. In fact, a lot of our upcoming album draws on themes from the written history of Mexico.

How long has your band been around?

Where are you based out of and how did that influence your music?

Cabrakaän has been around since 2011. The band was originally formed in Mexico City, but we now call Canada our home. The band was formed by Pat Cuikani (the vocalist) and I. She came to my recording studio for a different project and we found a lot of overlapping musical interests. Even though I wanted to form a death metal band at the time, she had a background and formal training in opera. From there, we created a style of music that fit both our interests. It was her idea to incorporate pre-hispanic themes in our music, and it was an idea that ended up defining who we are as a band, which has been incredibly rewarding. We’ve released two studio albums since then: Songs from Anahuac (2014) and Cem Anahuac My Home (2019) and another on the way very soon, Aztlán (November 17th, 2023).

To put it simply, we like to write songs about Mexico. The history, our culture, our mythologies and legend, our prehispanic history, and how we became Mexicans over many years of cultural fusion (after the Spanish Conquest). On our upcoming album Aztlán, we have a diverse mix of themes related to the Spanish conquest and mythological concepts like Mictlán, an Aztec concept of the underworld.  Our lyrics are always rooted in our history, whether it’s based on mythology, identity, or historical events.

How did you come up with the name of your band and what does it mean to you?

Our band name, “Cabrakaän”, is an adaptation from the Mayan god, Cabrakan (alternatively spelled Caprakan). The name Caprakan originated from a book called “Popol Vuh”, which could be considered the Mayan equivalent of the bible: it’s their creation story where they describe and depict all of the Mayan gods. Cabrakan was the god of earthquakes and mountains. Of course, when you think of earthquakes and mountains, there’s an easy connection to make with the idea of powerful music and metal, just as the Norse gods we read about in Viking history.

Cabrakan was known for being very powerful. According to myth, his power brought out his arrogance and vanity. We wanted to leave this part behind and carry the name forward to symbolize power and strength because it represents exactly what we want to do with our music. As well, the name has a lot of power in terms of phonetics. The original name we chose was “Kaprakan” - we changed it because “Cabrakaän” is more easily pronounced in the Spanish Language.

For me, it represents how we reclaim our power and culture through our music.

Tell me about your most memorable shows.

The most memorable show we’ve performed as a band has to be the one we played at Metalocalypstick Fest in British Columbia, Canada. It was our first time outside Mexico, and we had absolutely no idea what to expect from a Canadian audience. As it turns out, the audience was so enthusiastic with us, they loved our sound. The energy from this show gave us a ton of motivation to continue moving forward with our project, and it was even the beginning of our decision to move from Mexico to Canada. We talk about it a bit more in our documentary (on YouTube)

What is your favorite venue to play at, and do you have any places you want to play that you have not already?

I’d love to play at any of the big festivals in Europe, especially Wacken, Hellfest or Summer Breeze. In Mexico, I’d love to play at the Teatro Metropolitan - it’s one of my biggest goals as a musician. Septicflesh played a live show with a full orchestra there, and it had an incredible atmosphere.

If you could play any show with any lineup, who would be on the ticket?

If it were up to me, I would probably put together a show that includes: Metallica, Nightwish, Amon Amarth, Kalmah, Fleshgod Apocalypse, Rammstein, and Wintersun. It’s totally subjective and I’m sure everyone would have a different opinion, but each of these bands is meaningful to me, puts on a great show (visually, musically, or both combined), and has a ton of great live energy. It would be a great honour to perform with a lineup like this.

What is some advice that you would give to someone who is just getting into playing in a band and some advice that you would give to your younger self?

To someone just getting into playing a band: be open to collaborating with your fellow musicians. I’d advise someone to connect rather than look for the best musical fit. It’s important to establish a meaningful connection with fellow musicians because it creates a bond and helps you to establish unified goals, a support system, and inspiration. Even if it’s just for fun. It’s very important to have connections with people, and to me, that’s what makes music beautiful.

If you could go back in time and give yourselves advice, what would it be?

As a band, I think that I would tell us to push harder and believe in our music more in our early stages. When we started, I didn’t know if people would like it. I’d tell us to start writing music in Spanish earlier, too. I’ve seen now that people have taken our music really well, even though it’s in a language not everyone speaks.

Of your songs which one means the most to you and why?

Fuego means the most to me. It was the very first song I wrote intentionally for Cabrakaän. I wrote it in 2011, but we didn’t record and release it until very recently. It has a lot of meaning because I wrote it at a very different point in my life. It’s called Fuego because I was thinking about the fire within us as Mexicans, the one that we’re born with that makes us keep going. It represents how our culture and people have stood the test of time, despite everything we went through, colonialism and everything else. It’s a symbol of persistence and resistance.

Which songs are your favorite to play and which get requested the most?

My favourite songs to play are Burning Flame, Obsidiana, Calm in my Storm, and one from our newest album called Luces y Sombras (though we haven’t played it live yet, and you won’t be able to hear it until our album comes out!).

In Mexico, our song La Leyenda de las Volcanes is easily the most requested song. It’s based on a legend many Mexicans are already familiar with, and has a nice energy to it.

What is the creative process for the band, and what inspires you to write your music?

In our band’s writing process, music almost always comes before the lyrics do. We usually have an idea of what we want to evoke in the music - moods, instruments, themes, styles, and so on. The music is always inspired by something related to Mexican history. When we incorporate lyrics later, that’s when it really comes to life. We believe that writing the music first with a theme in mind, it will help us tell the story through both lyrics and the music itself.

I (Marko) usually start by composing a rough draft of a song. Pat is exceptionally talented when it comes to writing meaningful lyrics and making them work within a song. Alex always contributes great ideas when it comes to guitar solos and riffs, and David lends his folk and classical guitar skills to the folkloric elements. Since we’re living in different countries, songwriting tends to happen in stages.

We also try to reimagine a traditional Mexican song with each album we release. For our first album, Songs from Anahuac, we recorded La Llorona (The Weeping Woman), which is a very famous song that every Mexican will recognize. The popularized version is in Spanish even though it has a pre-Hispanic history to it, so Pat adapted some verses to include Zapoteco. Zapoteco is one of the languages spoken by Mexica people, who resided in central Mexico pre-colonization. It’s one of Mexico’s most famous legends about a ghostly woman who weeps for her children in the streets.

In our second album, Cem Anahuac My Home, we recorded our version of La Bruja (The Witch), which is also a famous song and based on a folk tale that we learned about in childhood. The most popular recorded version is in “son jarocho” style, which uses traditional instruments including a jarocha harp. Our version adapted it to use the same folk melodies, but instead using metal instruments.

Our country, culture, history, and life experiences all serve as our inspiration. In my opinion, our music is just our way of representing who we are and where we’re from, and it shows in our sound. When writing music, we incorporate pieces of prehispanic and post-colonial history and weave them with the contemporary metal and symphonic styles that we love to perform and listen to.

What kinds of messages do you like to get across in your music?

In our music, we want to tell the story of our culture and to spread awareness of who we are and where we come from. We want people to feel represented in our music.

It’s important for us to tell the story of Mexico and its history, mythology, colonial legacy, and who we are in present times. The cultural fusion that’s happened over centuries and millennia.  We want to show the world that Mexican metal also exists, and folk metal also exists in this part of the world.

Do you ever have disagreements in your band, and how do you get past them?

We try our best to have an open line of communication. As the band’s founder, I work with my bandmates to make sure everyone has a voice. It’s never been a big deal, and I don’t think we’ve ever had any serious disagreements. Musically, I believe that each member imprints a part of themselves in a song by contributing something unique, so it’s important to be open to new ideas.

What are your plans for the future, and do you have anything that you want to spotlight that is coming up?

Right now, we’re gearing up for the release of our third album, Aztlán. We recently released our documentary, Journey to Aztlán, and our first two singles from the album. Aztlán is our most ambitious project to date. It represents our perseverance to continue onward with our music despite many challenges and setbacks, and it gave us the opportunity to create something important and beautiful and to share a piece of our culture with the world. On this album, you’ll find that our new sound includes folkloric elements, enchanting orchestral arrangements, operatic vocals, and heavy sounds. We hope you love it.

You can find us on the following platforms:

SPOTIFY:

Our album is available for pre-order on the Bandcamp link we listed above, and we’ll be keeping fans updated on all our social media platforms.

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