Tomar Control: Peruvian Hardcore Girls Start European Tour Today

Tomar Control, the band that put Peruvian hardcore on the map, is returning to Europe to promote their new album, Frente al miedo, out on Refuse Records. With close to thirty dates in eleven countries, there’s a serious chance for anyone around to attend one of their shows. And you should!

Gabriel Kuhn, who first got to know July Salazar by tracing straight edge artists worldwide, checked in with the Tomar Control singer before their first show at Moor Beer Vaults in London on June 27. This will be also their first time playing in the UK.

July, we did an interview in 2018 for the book X: Straight Edge and Radical Sobriety. What has happened with your band since?

It’s been a while, haha! Well… Dahlia joined us and we spent the second semester of 2018 recording our long-awaited second album Nunca más callar, released on streaming platforms in January 2019 and later put out on vinyl by Amok Records in Germany. The CD came out with Fast Kids Crew (Peru), Entes Anomicos (Germany), Vegan Records (Argentina), Oxenti Records (Brazil), Spark Records (Chile), Monday X Records (Colombia), and En Tu Kara Records (USA). The album has been received and reviewed worldwide very positively!

In 2020, we were ready to tour Mexico, but the pandemic took over and unfortunately changed our plans and lives. However, later that year, Amok Records released our 2015 debut album, Lo que llevamos dentro, on 12-inch vinyl, also well received and sold out in no time.

By March 2022, we finally made it to Mexico, and played eight shows in Mexico City, Tijuana, Tecate, Toluca, Cuernavaca, Guadalajara, San Luis Potosí and Querétaro. Gigs were filled with a lot of passion and love, many girls showed up every night! We shared the evenings with great local bands and crazy crowds! Later that year, Sandra joined us, and we started to write new music, big plans were coming ahead!

2023 was a tough year for our country, authoritarianism and repression became the norm. We took a stand when our new 7-inch EP Incendiaria came out, exploring our most furious and political side. It was released by Positive and Focused Records, Speedowax Records, and Passion Means Struggle, and mixed and mastered by Don Fury, the hardcore legend himself! Don brought our sound to the next level. Finally, in the middle of 2023, we achieved one of our biggest dreams and toured Europe for the very first time!

In 2024, we toured Brazil at last, playing fourteen dates including São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Paraná, Minas Gerais and Santa Catarina. We played at São Paulo Hardcore Fest with iconic Brazilian and South American bands as well, then we were able to appear in 89FM A Rádio Rock, the biggest radio station in São Paulo.

This year, we are coming back to Europe and making our debut in the UK, presenting Frente al miedo, our third full length album. That’s all so far!

That’s a lot! How has the hardcore scene in Peru developed, and in Latin America in general?

The Peruvian hardcore scene is still pretty small, just a few active bands remain over there, but the punk scene is more active. We usually play with punk bands. With regard to the Latin American hardcore scene, from time to time a new band pops up, which is pretty cool, gigs are crowded and take place very often.

When people write about Tomar Control or do interviews with you, they often stress that you are an all-female band. Is this bothersome, or does it allow you to talk about issues you find important?

It doesn’t bother us at all, we think they try to highlight the fact we are women playing hardcore music because many people still believe hardcore is for male only. We hope to see a bunch of girls playing hardcore won’t be strange or odd anymore in the future.

You’re embarking on your second tour of Europe. What will be different to the first one you did, in 2023?

We already got the “know how”, we are doubling down this time, we are playing almost thirty dates, new countries, new cities, and a couple of cities the second time. Furthermore, we are bringing physical copies (LPs & tapes) of our new album. Last time, our 7-inch EP Incendiaria wasn’t ready yet, unfortunately. This is our revenge!

What are your best memories from the first European tour?

It was really awesome driving and playing across Europe in a van. People were kind and caring, a wholesome environment, they danced, sang, had fun with us and shared beautiful words we weren’t expecting. We played eighteen dates including Germany, Netherlands, France, Italy, Switzerland and Spain, featuring an extra date in Colombia on the way back home. We became the first Peruvian female band and the first Peruvian hardcore band to do it. The best days of our lives so far!

Did playing in Europe feel familiar? The venues, the audience, the hardcore culture? Or did you notice differences to playing in Latin America?

Yes and no, it felt familiar because people were really caring and energetic, but there also were things that were new to us. I mean, back in Peru, we are more used to playing at bars or pubs, and shows start really late most of the time, 10 pm on a lucky day, haha. In Europe, shows take place in DIY spaces or community venues, and they start really early! In daylight, haha, by 10 or 11 pm you are already home! But the biggest difference was the treatment we received by venues and bookers, even in an underground scene they treated us with professionalism.

I understand that Jon Active, a legend in distributing anarchist literature, was your driver during the 2023 European tour. Did he do a decent job? Will he be driving again?

Jon, the master! Our dear Jon did an astonishing job. We felt safe under his command, no shortage of laughs! We believe Jon was Peruvian in a past life, haha! He has a brutal sense of humor, his commitment was total, he even drove on his birthday—we bought him a cake, then we hugged him and sang to him somewhere on the road. The last day was really sad, we thought we would never meet each other again. But, look at us, he is driving with us in the UK! That’s life, reuniting is one of the highlights of this new tour.

Anything about this year’s tour that you are particularly looking forward to?

Play our new album and hope people enjoy it as much as we do. Thank you so much for the interview!

Follow the band on Bandcamp, Instagram, and Facebook. Frente al miedo is available through Refuse Records.