The Venezuelan collective weed420’s hectic form of sound collage reads like a hyperreal articulation of the crew’s native environment. Over the course of a grip of releases, weed420 has put forth a musical position that combines a locally focused, drop-driven brand of sonic mania with an open approach to composition. This is contemporary experimental music, pop-minded in its own way but, beyond anything else, totally bonkers. We wanted to learn more about the crew’s background and influences, so we sent over some questions. Read their answers and listen to the group’s great recent record, armor de encava, which is overwhelming in the best possible way, below.

How did your crew come together in the first place?

Alvaro: Some of us had known each other for years on Facebook, Gabo and glitch started releasing hexd remixes of Venezuelan trap songs in 2021 and made some kind of saga with them, releasing two mixes. glitch and I met each other in March 2023 and we started talking about making music together for the final release of the trilogy, it was supposed to be just the three of us at first but then we started inviting people on Facebook and Discord to collab with us, that's how Sami and Swan started making music with us.

Swan: There were also other members that just worked with us on RVRT 3 but we've mostly stayed the same since then; if I'm correct Juan and Alvaro studied the same major in uni and Alvaro invited Juan to the group and he started working with us on malandreo conceptual.

Gato: I technically joined weed this February; Juan, glitch and Alvaro hang out with me quite a bit and I've been doing music with them since march of last year. I did some stuff that they sampled on ADE and then Alvaro just asked me if I wanted to join the group—I did and now we're doing a lot of stuff together.

What’s up with the name? 

glitch: Gabo and I were in a Telegram group chat where someone sent a gif of a walking weed plant and we found it kinda funny, so we named the group chat weed420, that's literally the origin of the name.

Juan: We like to use “yerbamala” as an alias for the credits in our projects, but the a.k.a. I really love is alejanía, it's the name of a project Alvaro and I talked about when we started talking about making music in early 2022. I had just moved to Valencia for uni and my mood was really bad so talking about these projects was really cool for me at that time. We would love to make stuff under that name since it was planned as more of an indietronica sound. Some of the ideas we had for alejania were redone for ADE.

Alvaro: I sometimes think weed420 is like, the worst group name of all time, but I kinda like the fact that it started as a joke and it’s now developed into something we're somehow known for. “El chiste más largo de la historia” (the longest running joke in history) was thought about not only as us referencing everything going on in the album and the whole Venezuela situation, but originally it was also thought as a description for us, like a joke that's been going on for too long and now we don't know if it's a joke still.

How does Venezuelan sound system and DJ culture influence the music you make?

Alvaro: I mean, our whole sound is inspired by that culture; since RVRT 3 we started experimenting with changa and other electronic genres we hear on the streets, clubs, or buses. It’s been present our whole life here and it's molded our way of making music since day one.

Juan: We always try to show all those sounds in our music in our own way, since they're like the soundtrack of our daily life; the salsa elements are more related to the more “encavero” side of things, that's the warm sound you almost always find here, and mixing all of those influences into one track was kinda difficult at first, but we just kept going 'til we were happy with the result. I think the song that exemplifies this mix the most is “camisa ovejita blanca” since it's the only song on ADE that grabs more changa influence.

Do you fuck with noise music? 

glitch: Absolutely, part of our sound was inspired by that way of taking things to an extreme that you cannot really comprehend what's going on; the live versions we're practicing are really noisy and we'd like to keep it that way.

Alvaro: Personally, I really fuck with power noise; Maria & The Mirrors is one of the craziest projects I've heard and it has inspired me greatly when I make music, I kinda always have Vision Quest in mind whenever I’m making more club-oriented stuff because I've kinda always tried to do something at that level of insanity, but I think nobody will ever be even close to that.

Swan: Also, we find the more noise elements in our stuff to be somewhat soothing; Venezuelans usually live between a lot of chaos sonically, it's like everything is always going on around you and you can't do anything but live between that noise; I think that's where the noise in our music comes from: it’s habitual for us.

Do you consider Weed420 to be an experimental music crew? 

Juan: Somewhat, yeah. Not as experimental as some of the projects we've been taking inspiration from but enough to not have exposure in Venezuela, which to be fair isn't a lot, media outlets here don't care about leftfield projects nowadays, probably never have.

Sami: I don't think we're that boundary-pushing compared to some of the great exponents and expert-favorites, but at the end, the word "experiment" is about trying to demonstrate something: I think we do. There's been talk about "transethnic" music in Western terms since the 20th century, but I feel this type of music, it's about taking everything into account. It's about roots that we come from, but also where the world is heading, even if we don't know where that is. So we're trying to demonstrate there's such a place. 

How does a “typical” Weed420 track come together? 

Alvaro: We usually just come up with a general idea for a track and then each one of us searches for samples, then we just compose the track on my PC, then I do the post-production part.

Juan: He (Alvaro) masters our projects in a single file, like he throws the audios for each track in the playlist and he does a lot of stuff in the project file, like adding effects—that's an insane way of putting things together but it's worked for us and the way our songs transition into each other.

Gato: Yeah, lately we've been doing things together at my place; we stay doing shit until really late and it's been refreshing for the way we organize our ideas. 

You seemingly are very popular on the website Rate Your Music. What is your relationship with that platform? 

Juan: Alvaro showed me the page in, like, 2022? It's been an amazing way of discovering music and taking influence for our songs; I’ve used it a lot since then, seeing our stuff being rated so well in there is still kind of insane for us; we've used it to promote our music since there isn't a lot of promotion in Venezuela for this kind of project.

Alvaro: Yeah, I've been using it since quarantine and I've discovered a lot of my favorite stuff there, like The Sawtooth Grin or even Jane Remover when she just dropped Teen Week. When I want to listen to something really specific I just go there and discover some insane stuff. I found the Yva Las Vegass album there and even though she's a Venezuelan artist, I don't think I would've found that any other way, and that's one of the craziest projects I've ever heard.

Sami: I got my voting privileges revoked for a year after I voted the "suicide" descriptor on Pet Sounds, thinking Brian was singing "I wanna die" on “You Still Believe In Me.” Good website, never use it half-asleep at 3:00 a.m.

What Weed420 release should a new listener start with, and why?

Sami: I always say "release order" while talking about listening to new artists. This is not the case. Amor de encava has everything we want to say, for now. 

Swan: Yeah, and I feel the projects we have for now are really different from each other; I wouldn't care if they listen to any other project rather than the album.

What’s the underground music scene in Venezuela like right now?

Juan: Other than some trap artists and the same old guys, it's kinda desertic alvaro: there are some really good projects, tho; I really like Brigitte Olivares stuff and last year I saw somewhat better exposure for, specifically, underground rock bands in some events; but other than that there isn't a lot of talk about music here, sadly. 

Glitch: I'm happy we're receiving some attention now, especially because here you need to have some type of connection to receive some reception, so the fact that everything's happened this organic just took us off guard—it feels like an anomaly of sorts.

Any new music that has been inspiring you lately?

Alvaro: I've been hearing a lot of uk hip hop lately: london actress and fakemink's music is something I just love a lot; stuff that's really inspired in early 2010's aesthetic. Also Peaches debut and Turboviolencia by VVV. 

Sami: I've been listening to a lot of singer-songwriter stuff, not just folk. I've been writing since 12 and searching for the form these ideas translate accurately. I don't feel sure now, but when I do, I'll share them. 

Juan: Same with the UK hip hop stuff but with jim legxacy, I discovered his music like two years ago and this year i'm really into what he's been dropping; I've listened to Ismael Rivera's Esto Fue Lo Que Trajo El Barco as well. 

glitch: A lot of Surf Gang lately, the new Harto Falion album is just incredible; a little bit of Glassjaw too.