Periferia Nord

Perifèria Nord: Where Post-Punk Meets Literary Horror. Forget sun-drenched beaches and tourist postcards. The Perifèria Nord project emerges from the gray suburbs of Barcelona and the chill that sets in when Vitamin D fades in winter. The band, whose members are veterans of the punk, Oi!, and hardcore scenes, have traded distorted guitars for introspection and synthesizers. In this interview, Mey and Yoan discuss their fascination with Edgar Allan Poe, the challenges of maintaining DIY ethics in a gentrified city, and why looking deep into one’s own soul is often „harder“ than the fastest street punk.

When and out of what need did Perifèria Nord emerge?
Y: I remember it emerged in 2022. There were two friends talking about making music together in a summer evening and the common point was our love for some post punk sounds and atmospheres

Was it a conscious project, or more of a natural escape from other bands or situations?
Y:This project emerge from the idea of playing with sounds that had no place in other bands. At that time we were also in diferentes projects with more punk rock sounds, it was a fresh ilusion to try playing post punk; long time without play clean guitar sounds for example hehehe

What does the name Perifèria Nord mean to you – is it a specific location, or rather a state of mind?
Y:Probably both meanings coexist (specific geographic location and a true state of mind) We actually live in the Barcelona periferia but also the name tries to reivindicate that post punk can be made from and enjoyed by working class, not just by the fancy scene or the classy art people.

How do you perceive the band yourselves today: as a classic band, a project, or a space for a certain mood and ideas?
Y: Nowaday its a project. We tried to be a classic band but we failed, we just did two gigs and for multilple personal reasons (no time, griefs, diferent ways) the lineup dissolved. Hopefuly our times and conditions improve in the future to keep going on with this and play again.

Your sound moves between post-punk, coldwave, and darker punk territories. What attracts you to this particular sound?
Y: The cold melodies and the space that those genders brings to create great atmospheres. Those sounds open ears and minds to special feelings and deeper sensations

Is music for you more of a way to express emotions, or a tool to describe the world around you?
M: For me is a way to express and understand emotions. Im a very sensitive person and sometimes feelings overflow, music has been a great tool to recognize them and pass through them without gettin hurt. I dont know if I can really describe the world around me with just few words and chords but music always makes magic.

Do you feel that post-punk is resonating again today, or does it have nothing to do with trends as far as you’re concerned?
Y: We think nowaday its a trend. There’s a lot of projects with post punk sounds mixed with other music genders so we think the label is sometimes over-used, but yes there is also a lot of new bands sounding like 80s bands, it’s an amazing time to this genre I think.

Did you grow up more on punk and Oi!, or on darker music like post-punk, goth, or wave?
Y: Definitely on punk and Oi! I’ve been playing in a lot of punk rock and oi! projects, since I come to Barcelona in 2005, Mey was playing punk rock in Mexico and also here in Barcelona in a couple of bands and Alex (synth) comes from the hardcore/ grind scene bands.

How do you see the relationship between Oi!/punk and post-punk – are they two separate worlds, or just different forms of the same attitude?
Y: I think we are in the right moment for mixing this genders thanks to the cold punk/Oi sounds made in france few years ago, we love it!

What do you take from the punk mentality, even though your music sounds colder and more introspective?
M: Attitude and DIY mentality.. everything is proudly home-made composed, recorded and designed; edited in k7s and distributed by diy friends labels.

Do you think post-punk can be just as authentic and „true“ as street punk or Oi!?
M: Maybe, I think it can be true if you dont forget your own roots. I’ve never been into post punk before but I can truly connect with introspective feelings, this gender born from the need of finding everything inside instead of searching outside. Punk tries to shout and break to change the outside, post punk changes the gaze into a deeper emotional and existencial need. There’s nothing more hard and „true“ than taking a look on your darkest feelings.

You decided to base each EP on a specific literary inspiration. Why this approach?
Y: It was the original idea for making the first EP so we wanted to see both as part of the same artwork. The idea was to tell the story with music, making a song for each chapter.

The first EP is based on Poe’s „The Masque of the Red Death.“ What attracted you most to this text?
M: It was the first bassist idea,he proposed this as an interesting story to be told with cold music. This is a story that talks about death, sickness, joy, time, blood, darkness, fear… Poe’s gave us a great atmosphere to musicalize it.

The second EP is inspired by the book „The King in Yellow.“ When did you first encounter it, and what feeling did it leave you with?
M: We did a research for some dark stories and a friend recomended it. The book gave us a nostalgic atmosphere with great landscapes, madness and oniric feelings. It has similar concepts with Poe’s Red Death like the use of a „mask“ and the existence of a mysterious and evil thing.

Is literature mainly a source of atmosphere for you, or a way to talk about things that are hard to describe directly?
M: Literature for me is a good way to construct descriptions and create worlds, i think it can work both ways. For Periferia Nord literature was the structure and also creativity source to expand those stories with sounds. Things that are hard to describe (like emotions or thoughts) sometimes can be captured with words but having the right words with the right music can truly conect with others in a deeper way.

Do you write lyrics more as stories, or as fragments of feelings, images, and states of mind?
Y: In the first EP we tried to keep the timeline of the story, in the second one we add bit of our own emotions playing with some book quotes.

Your lyrics feel very existential. Are they a reflection of personal feelings, or a conscious work of fiction?
M: It became unconsciously personal feelings. When we worked on the lyrics we unconsciously choose words that could resonate with our own reality. Even though songs are about fiction stories I can feel reflection in many phrases, specially on the second album.

Does dark music and dark lyrics help you cope with reality, or do you use them to deconstruct it even further?
Y: For me is a way to escape from reality, I can go to another place without moving from where I am. Post-punl can also change the way I perceive reality, it’s not the same feeling with others genres.

Do you think darkness in music can be cathartic or liberating?
M: Yes, we think it helps liberating deep and dark human emotions that need a space to exist. Singing and writting about them is always cathartic in a good way. Sadness, loneliness, melancholy, alienation and even death thoughts needs refuge ; sometimes we can only find this in music, many songs and entire albums are a big hug to my soul.

Barcelona is often seen as a city of sun, beaches, and tourism. How is dark music like yours born in such an environment?
M: It has been always a dark music scene here, sun goes away every winter for a few months and leave us without vitamin D

Do you feel like part of the Barcelona or Catalan scene, or do you prefer to stand aside on the periphery?
Y: We planned the project for a band that would play few times, we are not into making gigs every weekend so we are still in the periferia of the scene.

Does Barcelona have a specific sound or mood for you that translates into Perifèria Nord?
M: We are outsiders so probably its more about nostalgia and shitty winters. I struggle with cold seasons, less sun light and how the enviroment turns to grey.

The band’s name evokes the „periphery“ – is the periphery a geographical, social, or mental matter for you?
M: For me it represents social and mental ways of life, of course geography influence in how you grow up and the opportunities you get but even when you are IN the big cities there are social borders for race, class and gender.

How do you see the DIY / underground scene in Barcelona today – is it alive, fragmented, or exhausted?
Y: Fragmented in very little pieces that are exhausted, the almost inexistent venues make hard to organice events; lot of great diy squat places has been closed due represive policies, so the diy is alive but not with te same vitality than few years ago

Does the local reality – housing, work, city pressure, gentrification, tourism – reflect in your music?
Y: Barcelona has the biggest tourist masification in Europe, housing is suffocating locals. Stress and anxiety truly reflects in making dark music.

Do you think life in a big city like Barcelona shapes a different kind of punk than elsewhere?
Y: I dont think so, because there is people from a lot of places with many influencies, in other places of the state maybe have a specific sound in the scene ( like punk in basque country or oi! bands on Madrid)

What is the relationship today between the punk/Oi! scene and the darker post-punk scene in the city – do they overlap, or does each go its own way?
Y: They go their own way but maybe can share spaces few times, somes bands are in the middle of the 2 scenes and keep the connection .

Does local identity in the underground still hold weight today, or is the scene becoming global and nameless?
Y: Sometimes I feel the local underground is being gentrificated too and scene becoming global as you say; but in the other hand, there is a few bands releasing music in catalan language and it’s cool to keep your roots present!

How does a Perifèria Nord song usually come together – does it start with the music, the lyrics, or a mood?
M: It started with music always, Yoan created the instrumental songs and then we worked out lyrics, trying to get along with the sounds and creating the album structure. Usually it was during that composition process when we got in the mood by reading the stories.

Is the atmosphere or the message more important to you?
Y: Both are important for us, one alone would have no sense, I specially hate void music without message.

Do you see the second EP as a step forward, or rather as a different point of view?
Y: Step forward being part of the same artwork with the first one. We have the idea in a close future of relase both eps in 1 vinyl, but the cost of manufacture today is crazy for a diy band like us.

Do you see Perifèria Nord as a long-term project, or are you reacting to a momentary need to create?
Y: Maybe a midpoint, not such long-term but we still have things to say

Do you already have another literary inspiration in mind, or would you like to move in a different direction?
Y: We are thinking in release an LP with personal lyrics but it would require time togheter to compose and write, nowadays is complicated due our shitty works schedules but we’ll try

What should the listener take away from your music?
M: Our music is home-made. Feeling music, being sensitive is a privilege that can take you to other realities; also paying attention on the details can make the diference in enjoying this albums, every word and every sound has an intention.

What is currently inspiring you the most outside of music and literature?
M: Im currently inspired in my own dreams, archetyps and esoteric stuff.

What record or band has truly struck you recently?
Y: Nürnberg is our biggest influence and they release very interesting songs every year. We’re listening High Vis a lot lately and also the album Fragance by Lobby , I’m obsessed with it!

Anything you’d like to say to the people in the scene who move between punk, Oi!, and darker music?
M: Even though we move between darkness and agressive feelings we should try to embrace more empathy and care. Over the last few years I quit drinking alcohol and started to feel uncomfortable at many spaces, it seems like I also quit punk and Oi because of the social pressure to get self destructed or people showing no respect if you are not in the violent/destructive mood. Just dont trouble at gigs, let people enjoy music and stfu.