english interviews:blackgod, winter dust

 RSR.- short story of the band.
RYAN: Rob and I have been playing in bands together for a little over ten years now, initially under the name Black Widows, which later changed names to Black Cross. The core lineup of Black Widows / Black Cross was always Rob on vocals, me on guitar, and my brother Evan on bass. Evan eventually switched to second guitar and Nick Thieneman (also in Young Widows with Evan) joined Black Cross on bass. Black Cross remained inactive for a few years due to Coliseum and Young Widows busy touring schedules, but Rob and I still wanted to play music together. Eventually Rob and I decided to start a new band called Black God, we asked Nick to play bass, and Ben Sears to join on drums. It is a bit of a continuation of the Black Cross lineage, but also an entirely new band.RSR.- what could you tell me about the gig of the bandRYAN: I'm not sure about your meaning with this question, but... We play shows around Louisville and probably won't be touring much, if at all. I love playing music with these guys and the shows are always fun.RSR.- what about the stuff you release, let me know how do you recorded, where and how is the reactions of the people?  and also how do you deal to distribute it?RYAN: We have released one 7" on No Idea Records, we recorded it in Louisville at our friend Trip's studio. People seem to dig the record. No Idea distributes it worldwide.RSR.- If you have to make a choice ...vinyl or cd? why?RYAN: I prefer vinyl and rarely buy CDs these days, but I still buy CDs occasionally. I listen to my iPod and iTunes far more than my LPs, simply because of the convenience of having it in the van on tour, etc.

RSR.- How is your city ....i mean about scene, venues and bands? do you want to show us some new band from your area?RYAN: Louisville is always great for music. There are a lot of great bands from here that I really dig: Young Widows, Xerxes, Prideswallower, Pusher, Brain Trust, ZCFOS, and probably a lot more I’m forgetting about right now.RSR.- What about drugs.... what do you think about drugs onto the hardcore scene..... ? are you against them or whatñs your position about them?RYAN: Personally, I don’t take drugs. I care much less about how it relates to any “scene” than I do about people not wasting their lives away.  RSR.- how do you see the spanish scene? or european? is there some band that surprise you?RYAN: I have only been to Spain two days while Coliseum was on tour with Rise Against, the audiences were amazing and some of the most enthusiastic people I have ever experienced at shows. All of Europe has been incredible to us through all the Coliseum tours and hopefully Black God will be able to make it over there some time as well. Honestly, I don’t know many bands from Spain – sorry!RSR.- do you think the world is more safe after the killing of Osama Bin Laden?RYAN: No, it is not. Killing one person does not kill an idea or solve any problems. A political assassination is not “justice” in my mind.RSR.- how do you feel the islam problems and all this things are you interested?RYAN: I am not a fan of any organized religion. I see problems with fundamental Islamic extremists, but I also see problems with extremists from any perspective.RSR.-in the band how is the process of a song?RYAN: We wanted Black God to be simple and fun, with no stress. So we don’t over-think our songs, we generally write one song per practice and crank out whatever pops into our heads. Our rule is that no song can be over two minutes long, so it makes us keep everything short and simple. I usually come up with a riff and we just blast a song together from there.RSR.- what is the main content of your lyrics?
RYAN: Rob writes the lyrics and they are a mix of the personal and political as seen by him.RSR- last wordsRYAN: Thanks for the interview, hopefully we’ll make it to spain

Winter Dust..... italian act.....a interview for love

RSR.-Please introduce yourself.... and then, short story of the band.....

We are Winter Dust, playing togheter since 2003. We are all called Marco except for the guitarist who is called Fabio. We started as a dark punk band, inspired by the Offspring, Misfits and AFI, then increased hardcore and screamo influences introducing the piano in our line up. Now piano has a very important role and we try to play a strongly melodic post-hardcore. We recorded two full lenghts and two extended plays.RSR.- Tell us something about your recordingst please let me know why i must buy it..or just download..?

You should download it because it's for free, of course! :D We just try to introduce classic elements such as piano in emotional and hardcore structures (and sometimes the opposite). This choice may be outstanding and shock those who listen to us. RSR.- Is this your first experience on record studio? how was the experience?

This is our first recording in a true studio, the others were auto-productions recorded at home, with no competence at all. It was hard and long, but funny: it makes the band increase its abilities and self-confidence.RSR.- Do you have relation with some label? what would you ask a label to release your stuffs

We had a distribution deal with Wynona Digital, but we've never had contacts to be rostered into a label. We think things have changed now, we just try to release our stuff, let people know about our music and play live everytime it's possible. If a label would help us to do this and believe in us it would be ok, but having our record in a shop is just an optional for us, right now.RSR.- how is right now the italian scene..... i mean is it easy to book a gig on your area? does people show up when there is an unknown band playing?

The alternative italian scene is now growing after a bad period, and lots of band are creating a new movement following d.i.y. ethics; fine before you came, verme, gazebo penguins, raein, la quiete put their records online for free, print vinyls, book dates everywhere, support each other and underground bands, write lyrics treating everyday topics abolishing distance from the band and the audience. This is totally independent from majors and media, but social networks give a good visibility to this scene, and people like it. Still, there are also bands following traditional careers, selling records, making professional photos and videos, trying to look like rockstars and asking lot of money for a gig, but it looks quite ridiculous since their music is often a copy of something coming from America.RSR.- what do you know about spanish scene?

Basically nothing :D, there is lack of information about german, spanish and french scene (except for french screamo).RSR.- In last times a lot of bands are uploading their music to internet in order people could download and enjoy...... what´s your position about this free downloadings? do you see any problem for the labels and bands?

I guess i already answered to this question before; anyway we always buy a record we like. Most people download an album, appreciate and thank the band buying vinyls, or merch, or paying for a gig. This is how it should be nowadays and some famous bands understood it. We put our works online because we like people to listen to it, we don't care about people paying to listen to us. They will decide to pay for a booklet, or for a concert, but we don't feel like preventing them to purchase our music.RSR.- What´s for you do it yourself ethics? do you think you are into the diy scene?

We surely are, otherwise we would be in no scene at all :D; Anyway, we all study or work, we are quite old to still dream about being rockstars, we don't even care, if we ever did. D.i.y. is being proud of creating a record, an artwork, promoting it with no help from anyone. We always feel tired after a night spent mixing, or after packing our instruments into the van, but we also feel happy and satisfied with our work.RSR.- how would you define your sound?

our songs are just the sad/emo side of five idiots loving soccer, beer and low humourRSR.- And about your lirics..... what are the mainly topics you used to talk about?

when i was an emo kid i used to talk about girls leaving me, blood, philosophy, sorrow and those things you can find on cheap books. now i try to be less pathetic and more "down to earth"; anyway i can't write about happy topics; usually, i talk about happy subjects when I go out for a beer with my friends, why should I put them into a post-hardcore song with sad grand-piano parts? It would sound creepy.RSR.- next plans

Recording a full lenght of about 10 songs and conquering the world like greg graffin.RSR.- last words

enjoy existence, love winter dust!