Thrown Into Exile's Mario Rubio On D.Y.I. Promotions and His Rise To Become One Of Metal's Top Acts to Watch.

I’m sitting here with Mario Rubio, lead guitar player of the metal band Thrown Into Exile. Not only is he an accomplished musician, he is also the industry relations coordinator of Musicians Institute in Hollywood California. His band is currently slated to open up for Slayer on the Mayhem Festival and the band is growing and gaining real momentum. We sat down, had a corona and some nachos and talked about it.

THR: When did the band start performing professionally?

Mario: We started May 2011. We opened up for Asesino, one of Dino Cazares (Fear Factory) side projects. He was kind enough to throw us a bone!

THR: How did you land that gig?

Mario: Through a friend of mine Rob Weeks, we met through Dino, his wife Jen and Joser. At that time he was Head of Security. We kept in touch over the years and he got into booking and about that time we were starting up and he gave us a slot in San Bernardino.

THR: So it’s important that you meet people, in all walks of life, regardless of who they are or what they do, would you agree with that?

Mario: Yea, little did I know he’d be able to help us out. I approach anyone in life with the right and good intentions; I don’t care what they do for a living. I don’t care who they know. I’m not looking to leech off of them. All I want is a friendship out of people.

THR: Obviously, you guys followed up on that first show, how did you do that?

Mario: Well, it didn’t hurt that our first gig was for a national touring act. Our second show, thanks to Josh Barnett was at the house of blues playing a benefit for Japan after what happened last year. We were on the bill with Animals As Leaders, All Shall Perish, and Internal Corrosion.

THR: So what are some of the successful things you’ve done to promote yourselves?

Mario: Just being real with people, and not blowing smoke up their ass! All our gigs are pay to play and thankfully we’ve been able to sell tickets to all of our shows. We do the Pay to play for national touring acts because not only will it be a big show but it gets us in front of a broader audience.

THR: You are putting an investment into the band, where do you get the funds for that?

Mario: Well it comes out of our pockets. When it comes to advertising, Facebook has helped us out a lot and twitter, you know, any social media we can get the word out on. Craig’s list and well sometimes drive out to deliver the tickets if is far. Back in September when we opened up for Sepultura and Death Angel I remember driving all the way to Rancho Cucamonga which is as hour and a half away just to make sure the people have gotten their tickets. And the people respond to that and thankfully were able to meet our quota.

THR: Now you guys have only been together a year and your already getting some recognition, I mean your opening for Slayer.

Mario: We did a battle of the bands for Sumerian Records and they did a battle for the highway. The prize was a slot on this year’s Mayhem fest which includes Slayer, Slipknot, and Anthrax. Motorhead. That is a dream come true for me. I remember when I was thirteen years old my first show was Slayer. It was so awesome and at the same time I’ve never felt so morally wrong as well! I mean I grew up in a catholic household!

My whole life changed; it was bands like Pantera, Slayer, Slipknot, Anthrax, Danzig, Machine Head and Fear factory. These bands changed the way I thought and sparked an interest. These bands made me want to pursue music as a career and as I grew up, I realized that there was a marketing aspect to it because this stuff isn’t going to sell itself. No One is going to advertise you; you have to do it yourself, especially in this day and age. The more self-sufficient you are the more any label will be happy with you. My mentor, Blasko, who plays bass with Ozzy Osborne now and is part owner of mercenary management, was kind enough to give me advice and help me out, helped me get into college, and if it wasn't for him, Dino and his wife Jen, I wouldn't be where I am today. For lea

On the professional side, another guy who helped me out a lot was Allen Steelgrave, who is Director of marketing for ESP guitars. Jose Ferro of ESP. I spent two years at ESP and Of course Jonny Coffin who’s the owner of Coffin Case.

THR: how did you start working for these guys?

Mario: Funny story actually, the way it ended up happening. I was seventeen I’ll never forget. I was at a Blackest of the Black show, with Danzig. I heard his name going around and I went up to him and asked him how to get a sponsorship and so he gave me this long list, and a handful of advice, he handed me his card.

THR: What are you looking for in the long term?

Mario: I’m not going to lie, I want Thrown Into exile to achieve greatness, but to be realistic, are we going to sell a million albums? No. Not with our genre of music and how album sales are going these days. I want to look back and know that I’ve left my mark and will live on into the future.

THR: I don’t think there’s anything wrong with dreaming big as long as you control your expectations. Tell me, what have you done as far as self-promoting?

Mario: Coming from a fans prospective, be realistic and find bands we work well with. We find bands that fit well with what we do. Could we work and target the Devildriver, Lamb of God, and Machine Head crowd? I think yea, we do.

We pretty much stay real with people; let them know who we are and what we’re doing. It’s a number of things, getting on the right bills, make some press by playing with big bands and national touring acts because it looks good on the bands resume. People are like “Holy Shit!” and we get recognition for it. Now we’re opening for Morbid Angel and Dark Funeral so it keeps on escalating.

THR: So what has been tried and failed miserably?

Mario: The stuff that fails miserable are shows that aren’t promoted. I mean, have there have been shows that bombed? Yes. As far as marketing, we haven’t really spent money, I mean the internet is your best free tool. Are there bills that we’ve spent money on thinking they would be big and have totally bombed? Absolutely. But that’s the nature of the business. It comes with the territory. 

THR: What has been the best experience as far as working with someone in this project?

Mario:  As far as on this EP, Mike Spritzer of Devil driver, I can say working with him has made me a better guitar player. We've put countless hours, and when I’m home I’m thinking of what to do next. Its constant preparations and meeting getting everything ready for the release of the EP. We’re going to start getting ready for our video shoot, building up hype. It helps that Mike spritzer working on it.

Honestly, everyone we've worked with has been a pleasure to work with; it’s always a learning experience. Everyone has their own way of doing things and reasons why they do that and you learn off of that. The only reason it would be a bad experience is if you didn’t learn something from it. I mean, everyone has really helped us out a lot and I can’t say there have been any really bad experiences, I mean, every bad experience you learn from