I’ve been wanting to formally interview Luis Ramirez for a while. Luis is one of my favorite artists in hardcore, although I’m a bit biased, since he did some of my favorite designs for YHR: the “US cover” variant of Contempt’s One Justice, Plagued By God’s Promo 2025, and Desde Afuera: Una Compilación de hardcore Latino. If you’ve been in the hardcore scene in any capacity for the last few years, you’ve likely seen his designs on many, many shirts and flyers. In fact, the day of this writing, a flyer that he created dropped for a one-night-only return of Violation(!) and Fell To Low(!!) for Ventura County Hardcore. Insane. But in addition to his artwork, he also co-runs New Lords Booking in Tijuana, MX, which is putting on some very dope shows in the near future. So, after years of knowing him, I wanted to pick his brain on all things hardcore. Let’s get to it!

TZ: Alright, let’s kick it off. I’m lucky enough to know you already, but for those who don’t: tell me about yourself. What do you do in the hardcore scene (outside of making artwork for me whenever I have a whim)?

LxR: Yo! First of all thank you for having me, this is my first zine interview and I couldn’t be happier to be interviewed by a good friend. My name’s Luis, aka LxR. Show goer, co-booker in New Lords Booking (shout out to my partners Zeki and Daniel) Designer for many, way too many bands. Based out of Tijuana, Mexico.

TZ: What got you into hardcore in the first place? What was the first hardcore album you ever bought?

LxR: What got me into hardcore is an interesting story, I got into it without fully knowing what it was at 5-7 years old. I was a spoiled ass kid so my parents got me almost every console, they got me an used N64 with Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2, played hours of that fuckin’ game and- in the first stage- Rage Against the Machine – Guerilla Radio played and I was immediately hooked and wanted to know more, this is like 2002 or 2005 so Wikipedia was running wild on the internet by then, I searched RATM up and got soaked in their music and values, coincidentally, I knew about Inside Out at a very young age. Also discovered Straight Edge around 13-14 through CM Punk, very of the times for my generation of young adults now. Claimed when I was 15, and still here. The rest of my years being a kid and a teenager I got into the dreaded scene kid/mallcore era but very surface level, my frontal lobe was underdeveloped, but at 16 I discovered Sophie’s Floorboard, I remember like it was yesterday seeing the Foundation – Turncoat announcement as the final record for the band, along with the Twin Killing comp by Floorpunch. Safe to say I checked that out and all that scene kid bullshit I was bumping, threw it straight in the trash. As far of first hc record I bought, I was a very weird kid so I didn’t get into collecting or buying music til I was 16, my every first CD was an Avenged Sevenfold record but my FIRST HARDCORE record was probably a cancelled band from San Diego I won’t even mention. Sorry, wish I knew better! haha

TZ: Who are some of your biggest artistic/stylistic influences?

LxR: Kyle Niland from Scheme Records, Adrian aka Funeralmarchx, Nick Birtles, Josh Henderson from Anvil Chandelier and Stinging Rain Creative Group, xCIGx aka Carter Statement of Pride, Federico Inchausti from xDISTANTEx and En El Desierto Fanzine, Lennon Scarab/Snapcom, old japanese sneaker ads, NYHC 90s flyers and vintage 80s-90s advertisements!

TZ: What are your favorite fonts to work with?

LxR: Oh dude, Aachen is my favorite font to use on flyers along with impact and machine. I love big and bold fonts for flyers, College font is also a no brainer to use and one of my favorites. I was a big fan of the Syracuse 315 font (you know the one) that you can see in a bunch of flyers in that area, til I used it too much and burned that font out and barely use it anymore, Syracuse can keep it, they’re the masters of that font.
 
TZ: What are some of your favorite shows you’ve booked with New Lords so far?

LxR: My all time most significant show that holds a lot of value and meaning to me was our Anklebiter/Broken Vow show in 2024, August 21st at Moustache Bar. That show felt like family coming over, I didn’t want the show to end, I didn’t want to uber AB and BV back to the border cuz it meant not seeing them again in a long ass time. I miss them, we all do. The reception for both bands was amazing, better than we were expecting. Along with that show, I’d say our benefit shows are pretty significant. We throw a benefit gig every December for cats and dogs, last time we brought Torena back and somehow, it was way more violent than their first time here. And of course, Contention in TJ, Feb 22nd with Dogmatic, Abstain, Attention Monger and No Grata. Easily, our most violent, savage, ignorant show to this day. Contention are my brothers, always and forever, we built a relationship of trust since they’re my first clients when I started designing. I do a funny bit when a band posts a show near us, I repost the flyer in my stories and type “yo, wanna play TJ?” and they actually replied with a date they had in mind to come by. The bit worked, that was the only time it has.

TZ: Have you faced any struggles getting bands down to Tijuana?

LxR: Not til now. This Lastima and Fainting Dreams gig we booked was our first real struggle with one of the bands getting shook for money on their way in by car. We always tell bands to cross on foot so we can pick em up or uber them to the venue, it was a miscommunication on both our sides but they were happy to be here and the show was good, at the end of the day they were grateful for the show and our hospitality and we were relieved that they made their way back safely. Fuck the police and border patrol.
But yeah, TJ is safe for bands, we take care of them, if you wanna play TJ all you need is your valid passport, that’s pretty much it.

TZ: What are some of your favorite merch designs you’ve done? (Outside of the Sabrina Carpenter Artillery from Heaven design, of course.)

LxR: Funny you mention that tee, as much as the internet loved it, I don’t feel too hot about it, not trying to be a cool guy but that shirt was just made on a whim cus I was listening to her new song Manchild and saw that pic and went “hmm, there’s something here” I didn’t even ask Contention I just sent it to Cosmo and said they could keep it.
Now, for my favorite designs, very tricky and hard to answer but, definitely the Contention RPG hoodie (sorry for all the Contention dickriding), Domain Magneto tee ripping the Gomorrah Season Ends design. The entire Remembering Never merch spread I did for the band, WithPaperWings Silent Hill rip, an unreleased Point of Contact shirt and hoodie, Worst Enemy Sick of It All rip. Just to name a few.

TZ: What are some Mexican/Latin American bands (active or inactive) that folks should check out?

LxR: Check out xRITUALx, xMARISCALx, xDISTANTEx, Stryker from Argentina. Worst Enemy (when those fuckers release the demo), Truth Be Told, Uno a Uno, Wise Up, Damnatio, No Grata, Uprising AD, Nuestra Sangre, Red Awakening, More Than Words, Grito both Colombia and Hermosillo bands, Senda de Honor, Nueva Realidad, Ultima Victima, Divine Injustice, Deliria, Parasitosis, Fractura, Attention Monger, Violencia, Bonebreaker, Days of Struggle, Absolve Me. 

TZ: Top 5 hardcore releases of all time. Go.

LxR:
Fury – Paramount
Foundation – Turncoat
Madball – Set it Off
Hatebreed – Satisfaction is the Death of Desire
Judge – Bringin’ It Down

(Honorable mention: Breakdown – 87 demo)

TZ: The last question is yours: who do you wanna shout out?

LxR: Shout out to all my friends, inside and outside of the hc scene. Shout out to Abstain, Willmore Records, Quarantine Productions, Worst Enemy, Yetzer Hara Records, the Metalcore Council, Broken Vow, Torena, Anklebiter, Contention, Red Awakening, The Classic Tattoo, Identity Shock, Designated Moshers Unit, From Within Records, No Grata, Falso Arte, VCHC Shows, Cam VCHC, Mark VCHC, Isaac X Hernandez, Claudia Classic aka Claudball, Jason Hill my best friend, Zeki the best drummer out of Tijuana, Daniel Worst Enemy,  Writheinfear, Wings So Fragile, Fuerza Booking, Inspiracion 9 vegan restaurant, Tacos Varios la Sexta, Bo Leuders, Jamie Orque and the scenes from San Diego, Ventura, Long Beach, El Paso, Florida as a whole, Springfield, Philly, CDMX and last but not least TJHC.

Fuck yous: ICE.

Free Palestine.

You can find Luis’ artwork on Instagram @luisxramirez & follow New Lords Booking @newlordsbooking