So,
first up, how are you feeling today?
Hi
Pierre, doing fine, thanx!
A few years back I think the line-up has gone through
a major switch? Giulio is the only original member right?
How do you feel about the current line-up?
Cripple
Bastards experienced line-up problems since day one back
in 1988 with constant changes leaving singer Giulio as
the only original member; ten years later in 1998 (when
I joined CB) we entered a complete renewal phase with
drummer Al Mazzotti joining us in 1999 followed by guitarist
Der Kommissar in 2000.
This is definitely the most stable and hard working Cripple
Bastards line-up ever and I feel absolutely enthusiastic
about it , there's a really good alchemy going on basically
'cause all of us have been friends for a long time.
Is the band a time-consuming thing for you? I assume you
all have jobs, etc... Is rehearsing, touring tough to
organise, etc?
It
definitely eats up most of our time 'cause being a completely
self-managed band means we spend a lot of energies on
it: writing songs, rehearsing, recording, setting up and
playing shows, touring, doing the merchandise thing, you
know… it's always really hectic here! You'd also
add that we leave in 3 different cities so everything
gets more complicated, but we all like it the way it is
so fuck it!
Yes, we all have a work or study besides the band, except
for Giulio who dedicates himself full time to Cripple
Bastards and has his own distribution/mailorder called
E.U. '91 Serbian League (www.eu91serbianleague.com)…
you see he's on this Serbian trip right now, enjoy!
I
see you're describing the band as hategrind or grind/hatecore,
on your website... I had never seen the band described
like this... Only grindcore/hardcore or the like... Does
the label hategrind mean something to you?
Hategrind
/ Hatecore / Hatepunk etc. are all recurring labels we
used from time to time mainly to distinguish ourselves
from "socially aware" and "gore" grind
bands 'cause we do not fit in those "families"…
actually we do not fit in any family, we're not punk nor
metal, we play grind with hatred induced lyrics, we are
Cripple Bastards.
Recently
you've played with Fear of God for their reunion gig...
So, what was this like? Care to describe how this went
on? How was Fear of God? How do you feel about them returning
after all these years?
Everything
happened when Erich (FOG's singer) spread the voice that
Fear Of God were rehearsing and keen on starting to play
shows again; since me and Giulio have been Fear Of God
lunatics for ever we offered them to play a reunion show
together with us in Italy and everything came together
pretty smoothly, the concert was memorable with more than
a couple of hundreds people showing up and a very good
atmosphere.
I always liked Fear of God a lot for the sense of grief
and anxiety of their output (lyrics, graphics, statements
and overall sound) than for the music itself and they
were no disappointment, they created a really twisted
atmosphere, I haven't been feeling that vibe at a grind
show for a long time… maybe it was just because I
had temperature (39°C) ah, ah!
Anyway, the Fear of God reunion is old news already as
they called it a day again in December 2003 (check www.fearofgod.ch
for more info) and I think this time is going to be forever…
I felt fine when I heard they came back 'cause I've always
been a big fan of them, but probably they choose the worst
moment to reunite, people do not care about old bands,
they care about new ones only! I think all this reunion
thing has been a really big disappointment for them.
You have a few new Split releases coming up... Care to
give some details about them? Are these gonna be studio
recordings?
After
the release of the new album we started to get things
sorted out for some split releases that were scheduled
for a long time: we're having a split 7" w/EYEHATEGOD
out soon on Southern Lord Recordings, U.S.A.; it is going
to be something really different from everything we've
done before and probably it's going to be a one timer
in our career, it is the first time all the 4 of us actively
contributed in writing the song and there are two very
special guests featured: John Wiese & Eric Wood of
Bastard Noise fame, so get ready to be terrified by this
pairing! EYEHATEGOD are featured with an unreleased studio
track and the graphic job will be done by known artist
Stephen O'Malley (Burzum, Zyklon, SUNN O))) and a zillion
others) so it's gonna be a truly grim fuckin' release!
Later this year we'll have a new recording session where
we'll track down the songs for a split 7" w/DENAK
(this split has been in the works for 5 years!) and for
a split 5" w/YACOPSAE, both bands slay and are good
friends of us so it's a pleasure to split with them, we
have other things scheduled but it's really too early
to talk about them.
Can you talk about "Desperately Insensitive"?
The sound production is really crisp, was this tougher
to record than usual? How's been the reaction to it?
We're
really happy about how "Desperately Insensitive"
came out and we all agree that this is the best Cripple
Bastards release so far; it is getting very good reviews
almost everywhere, we received many encouraging comments
from reviewers, long time supporters and new comers and
this meant a lot to us.
It hasn't been tougher than usual, really, we just invested
more and spent more time to record the album this time
around and we finally found a studio and a sound engineer
that fit to our sound; working on a full length album
at Nadir Studio with Tommy Talamanca behind the desk has
been a positive experience since we were trying to walk
in a new direction and I think we succeeded… didn't
we?
How
did you happen to get signed on DeathVomit/Necropolis
for this album? I was a little surprised by this. Do you
think working again with this label in the future?
After
the record was done we started to spread advance CDs and
Deathvomit/Necropolis was stoked on it and offered us
to sign a record deal, it was the best offer we got and
considering we're good friends with Matt Harvey (Exhumed's
guitarist and Necropolis Records employee at the time
we got the deal) we signed straight away.
For the release of "Desperately Insensitive"
we were mainly looking for a label with a good and vast
distribution that could keep the record constantly in
print and distribute it
everywhere, send many promos around and help us out with
touring and promotion but after the album was released…
it was a fucking ghost town man! No promotion, no advertising,
no mails, no phone calls - no nothing, just a bunch of
free copies and there you go… think that we did a
3 weeks tour on the U.S. West Coast w/PHOBIA (who are
on Deathvomit/Necropolis as well and have our same problems)
and all the tour support they gave us was 40 free CDs,
go figure! We're trying to sell the rights of the CD to
another label, luckily we signed a 1 and only record deal
with them so we won't work with them in the future…
I do not even know if they exist anymore, we haven't been
hearing from them for months (and they still owe us 100%
of our royalties of course!).
This
"Your Lies in Check" CD is getting re-mastered
& re-released... Is the sound really gonna be an improvement?
I thought it was great already! Do you think the band
could ever do a cd like "Your Lies in Check"
again? Something that would contain an amazing number
like 70 (very angry) tracks? Or maybe it's not the kind
of the things you're aiming for anymore?
We
decided to re-release Cripple Bastards' first full length
album "Your lies in check" because the request
has always been pretty high while it was out of print;
we choose to re-master it 'cause the original sound was
a little bit flat, the work we've done is more an overall
re-mastering than a track by track one so the record got
more power as a whole still keeping its trademark sound,
everybody involved in that process and all those who listened
to it gave a positive feedback so I'm sure the result
won't disappoint.
I don't think we'll ever do a kind of "Your lies
in check part 2" thing, that album was a collection
sort of thing of the very better Cripple Bastards songs
written between 1988 and 1995, re-arranged and re-played
in one studio session by that line up, like an epitaph
to the first stable incarnation of the band; that stuff
wasn't written to be on a single full length album but
it came from demos and 7" so its variety of styles
and delivery lies behind its origin.
In the future we're going to focus more on recording full
length albums than a myriad of compilation tracks, singles,
split 7" etc. as we did in the past.
The
band is known for always providing tons and tons of lyrics
and comments alongside the records... It seems to be one
of the most important things for the band. What inspires
you for writing so much lyrics? (By the way, the "Desperately
Insensitive" lyrics sheet is so thick, the sides
have already started to get ripped - when putting it back
in the CD case! Ha ha).
I'm
not really the right member to talk about our lyrics/commentaries
because all of them are written by our singer Giulio,
luckily enough they're pretty self explanatory and straight
to point so everybody can figure them out. Anyway Cripple
Bastards lyrics are as important as the music itself,
it's the listen/read feeling we want to transmit through
our records and concerts - I would say they're complementary,
both of them survive because of the link lying between,
if taken separately they would loose a lot of their impact.
It
seems like Cripple Bastards is often misunderstood by
the more PC scene and that the more anti-pc scene thinks
you talk too much! Do you feel like you belong to a "scene"
or do you just do your own thing and without caring about
the rest?
This
is a good question… to tell you the truth I have
to admit we feel very comfortable with this "controversial"
halo surrounding us; as a matter of fact Cripple Bastards
isn't a PC neither an anti-PC band, we don't have a flag
to raise… as you said we just "do our own thing
without caring about the rest". We've always been
a misfit, while musically you can label us easier, when
it comes to the overall aspect of the band we're something
of our own, I mean we talk about the life we live, about
things that actually happens to us so our approach is
very genuine, personal and selfish and when you do not
fit to a preconceived scheme you're often misunderstood
(not only if you play grind but also, and most importantly
as a matter of fact, in daily life).
To conclude, we do not have to look good/better to anyone,
we do not need to fit in any scene, we don't want to be
accepted or rejected at any cost … if someone don't
like our music and attitude, he / she / it isn't forced
to buy our records and isn't obliged to book or come to
our shows, as easy as that, thus shouldn't feel the need
to blindly criticize.
With
such a prolific Cripple Bastards discography, how do you
feel about record-collecting? Do you know people who collect
all of Cripple Bastards stuff? Anyone in the band actually
have all of the stuff Cripple Bastards ever put out?
I
collect records, it has been my passion to collect records
since when I was 13 years old and I think I will keep
on collecting them forever even if I have to admit I'm
drastically less fanatical now if compared to when I was
a teen metal head, ah ah! I still really enjoy to collect
60's/70's rock & prog, 80's / 90's hardcore, punk
and heavy/thrash/death/black metal, grindcore… mainly
the stuff I grew up listening to, but I like to listen
to all kinds of music from movie soundtracks to blues
to rock to almost everything! I think record collecting
is a personal passion as many others so I do not see it
as a very big issue, I mean people talking about it too
much, worshipping it or denigrating it, are pretty lame.
What I most like about collecting wax is looking for the
records, finding and buying them, trading them, keep in
touch with other people all over the world sharing the
same passion/interest, that's what really keeps me involved,
interested and excited about it (and the music itself
obviously!).
I know a lot of people collecting Cripple Bastards material
and I've been trading our stuff for years, many people
from South America to Japan to Eastern Europe is into
it and it's always good to keep in touch with these freaks
as most of the times we really have a lot in common so
even if our primal link is about trading Cripples' records
we end up becoming good friends.
Both me and Giulio owe all the official Cripple Bastards
demo, vinyl, CD and video output + tons of bootleg material…
maybe we miss some dozens of tape, CD-R and VHS compilations
because the people putting them together never asked if
they could use our material and never eventually sent
a single copy in… life L!
You seem to sometimes take inspiration from some of the
grittiest Italian genre movies... You have a song named
"Il Grande Silenzio" (my absolute fave italian
western!) and using sound bytes from "Milano Odia...",
and also using the Cannibal Holocaust catch phrase "I
wonder who the real cannibals are?", etc... What
can you say about these great italian movies? What are
some other of your favorites? Do you think good italian
genre cinema can ever re-emerge? Personally my fave decades
were the 60's for all the great westerns + Bava films
and the 70's for all the Giallo & Poliziotto films...
Hey,
you forgot to mention that the intro and the central break
of the first song on our new album ("Fear in the
squats of the dead") is taken from Fulci's "ZOMBI
2" soundtrack! We're very influenced by the Italian
directors of those two decades, not only we're voracious
consumers of those flicks but we also admire the attitude
of those people because, at some extent, it mirrors our
attitude as a band: the obstinate determination to keep
your own style even when your contemporaries move somewhere
else, the constant search for an individual, unique and
easily recognizable trade mark and the will to push everything
to its extreme are just some of the common guidelines
we share with those old conational.
I do not know if Italian cinema will shine again as it
did back in those days… surely we're living in a
different historical period, Italy seems like a completely
different country if compared to the one it used be back
then, the morbidity and crudeness of those movies are
a direct consequence of their times: the Church is less
intrusive and easier to shut down, censorship is almost
no more, the years of terrorism are long gone… those
directors were real pioneers fighting and trying to tear
down all those barriers that are easier to overcome now
. Moreover, everybody's got a home TV set and nobody goes
to the cinema anymore so those who want to start a career
in the cinema look at the contemporary Hollywood more
than how they look at 1960's Rome… all these words
just to say modern Italian cinema sucks and I do not think
the situation will get better soon, ah ah!
I won't start listing you all my preferences about 60's/70's
Italian cinema 'cause otherwise I would write for hours
and hours, I would say my all times favourites are Argento's
"Profondo Rosso" when it comes to Giallo, Corbucci's
"Il Grande Silenzio" concerning the Westerns
and Lenzi's "Milano Odia…" is my favourite
Crime Movie but there are hundreds of great films like
Fulci's "Zombi 2" & "The NY ripper",
Deodato's "Cannibal Holocaust", Massacesi's
"Buio Omega" and many other known and lesser
known gems - they're all out there and the renewed interest
for that kind of cinema, the coming of the DVD format
and the potentially unlimited internet research basin
make it easier to find them now than ever before, so secure
yourself these masterpieces and enjoy!
Can you say something about your country Italy? Can you
name some good italian bands that deserve more attention
than they get?
Ah,
we've got the best food in the world, that's for sure!
There are loads of beautiful and unique cities and historical
places of interest, like in many other European countries
by the way, marvellous natural landscapes… pretty
cool, eh? I'm OK living here, I'm used to it, ups and
downs you know, I just live here and I'm fine with it
but I've got to admit I miss it when I'm abroad!
Talking about music, I've gotta tell you I'm not very
much into local underground bands lately, death metal
and grindcore are pretty much dead here as well as hardcore,
nothing really interesting, no personality. I stopped
buying Italian records years ago 'cause I don't like any
new band (maybe I'm getting older, ah!), they all copy
American bands so you'd better get the originals or buy
their records only if you want to support the underground
for the sake of doing it.
Oh well, I was forgetting I like Paul Chain a lot, he
released like a couple zillion records so far and he's
still freaking out… he's the one that has been copied
abroad and nobody gives a shit about him, If I really
have to suggest you someone worth listening from Italy,
well this is Paul Chain!
Ok, that's all... Any last comments?
Thank
you Pierre for this interview and for your constant help
and interest in Cripple Bastards, cheers to all the people
who supported us during the years, we have a new homepage
up and running, à www.cripple-bastards.com,
check it out and keep in touch!
CRIPPLE
BASTARDS / www.cripple-bastards.com
C/o Giulio Baldizzone
Via Manzoni, 24
14100 Asti
Italy
