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| Interview by Burt Wolf with Carlo Strappa, rhytmic guitaris of RESURRECTURIS. Interview done 10-15-05. |
| RESURRECTURIS HAS BEEN AROUND FOR A LONG TIME. CAN YOU TAKE US BACK TO 1990 & HOW THE BAND GOT TOGETHER & THE HISTORY OF THE BAND UP TO NOW? ANY PREVIOUS BANDS YOU GUYS WERE IN BEFORE? It was the summer of 1990 & I got in touch with a drummer who gave me his demo tape (a project named KARNEFICINA) which was kinda early CARCASS stuff... Actually I was a bit of a personality in my area because I had been doing a fanzine from 1986 to 1990 (LETHAL METAL) & was writing for a couple of Rock music magazines, so this guy, which I din't know, called me & asked me to help him out. All my previous attemps at forming a band had failed because all the msuicians that I contacted were into IRON MAIDEN & JUDAS PRIEST, while I was influenced by CELTIC FROST, NAPALM DEATH, TERRORIZER, DEATH, etc. So everytime it became more frustrating. Anyway, when I heard what KARNEFICINA were doing I immediately realized that despite the guy couldn't actually play profeciantly he could be interested in doing something with me. I reformed my 1986 band & did a rehearsal recording with him... Some weeks after I got contacted by another guy who got in touch because I was the only one in the nearby who had a copy of MUDHONEY's debut single "Touch Me I'm Sick". I dubbed the record for him & it turned out that he had just bought a bass guitar, so he brought it to me for tuning it & since I liked his attitude I showed him some riffs & in a matter of a few months we contacted another guy for the vocals & RESURRECTURIS was born! I was completely disappointed with the guys who were proficient musicians-none of them had goals more ambitious than playing MAIDEN covers in front of their firends-I tried the other way out & took non musicians with me... In a way the strategy worked! The rest of the story is made of 3 demo tapes, gigs, line up changes, 2 albums & the usual stuff... WHY WAS THE NAME RESURRECTURIS CHOSEN AS THE BANDS NAME? I dreamt it! Believe it or not, we were looking for a band name that would fit & it was really difficult because we wanted to keep an equilibrium between our aggression / negativity & an underlying sense of peacefulness & positive feelings that are not much commonly displayed by "Death" bands... I think that calling the band EVIL SHREDDER or shit like that wouldn't have fitted us! So I finally dreamt the cemetary where many of my closest relatives are buried & in the entrance there is written RESURRECTURIS, which in ancient Latin means "For Those About To Revive". Here is a name that contains death & life at the same time, that is positive without denying negativity... It was perfect! |
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| WHO OR WHAT ARE SOME OF THE THINGS THAT HAVE HELPED INFLUENCE YOU IN LIFE & MUSIC? Life in general & people around me. For sure the experiences that I've made through music contributed to shape my personality. As for music, we all listen to so much music that it's hard to tell. For sure the early Death / Grind wave (meaning the demos by DEATH, TERRORIZER, REPULSION, NAPALM DEATH, SIEGE,etc) played a predominant role, but we never quit to expose ourselves to new music & our tastes keep evolving. |
| HOW WOULD YOU BEST DESCRIBE THE STYLE & SOUND OF RESURRECTURIS? This is your job, not mine... YOUR CD "CUCKOO CLOCKS OF HELL" HAS BEEN OUT SINCE 2003. HOW WELL HAS IT BEEN DOING? WHERE DOES THAT NAME COME FROM? The record is out since December 2003. It has recieved very good critics (& also some negative ones). So far we have distributed approximately 1000 copies & MONDONGO CANIBALE from Spain (who reprinted it) did approximately the same. Not really big numbers, but since we have the whole album downloadable for free from our website, I can tell you that even in this very moment somebaody is getting a copy of our album. Actually the album was downloaded thousands of times & in many cases the server went off due to the traffic, so we are really satisfied. Our goal was to be heard by as much people as it was possible...The album title is a homage to the American movie THE LAST HOUSE ON DEAD END STREET. "THE CUCKOO CLOCKS OF HELL" was meant to be the original title of this long forgotten underground gem! CAN YOU EXPLAIN THE CD COVER & THE MEANING BEHIND IT? WHO DID IT? Daniele Cudini is a renamed artist from my home town. We became very good friends since we admire each other's art & we thought so many times to do something together like a book or whatever. When it came the time of choosing the album artwork I couldn't think of anything that would fit the musical atmosphere of our work better than this nun portrait by Daniele. WHAT IS SOME OF THE LYRICAL CONTENT IN YOUR SONGS? WHY ARE SOME OF YOUR SONGS DONE IN ENGLISH & SOME IN ITALIAN? It's just because sometimes we feel we can better express what we have to say by using Italian rather than English. It's a pity for foreigners since some of our best texts are in Italian. Currently 90% of our production is in English. THIS ALBUM WAS SELF RELEASED. HAVE YOU HAD ANY NEW LABELS INTERESTED IN RESURRECTURIS? IF SO, WHICH LABELS? "THE CUCKOO CLOCKS OF HELL" has been re-released by Madrid based label MONDONGO CANIBALE RECORDS, which is run by HAEMORRHAGE & GREENFLY members. It's a very small label & this was their second releases. Now they are on the way of doing many more records, which should also improve their ability to distribute copies of our album as well. I'm very happy of the collaboration with MONDONGO CANIBALE, because they do really like our music & they see things from a musician's point of view which is excellent. There is a possibility that also our next album gets released by them! |
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| CAN YOU TELL US A LITTLE BIT ABOUT YOUR PAST RELEASES & THEIR AVAILABILITY? All the demos are sold out. They were even reprinted in a special double cassette box (along with our debut album & some outakes & covers) & we still have some copies of this "NOCTURNAL CORPSES (FOREVER)" double cassette. We have some picture LP copies of our "NOCTURNAL" album, but no CD copies. And also some copies of our split 7" with German band GRIEF OF GOD. By the way "TCCOH" is still available from us & MONDONGO as well as many underground distributors. Besides from time to time I find some of our older stuff on ebay. I don't think our releases are really easy to find. Very bad distribution has accompanied us all the way through... |
| DO YOU HAVE ANY NEWER MATERIAL AVAILABLE OR IN THE WORKS? As I told you a new album should be recorded at the beginning of 2006. It will be a concept album & will feature the best RESURRECTURIS material ever! DOES RESURRECTURIS PLAY OUT A LOT? WHO ARE SOME OF THE BANDS YOU'VE PLAYED WITH? WHERE ARE SOME OF THE PLACES YOU'VE PLAYED? Lately we haven't played a lot of shows. It's really difficult because we all have day jobs & lots of ties. But next week we are leaving for 1 month long European tour with VITAL REMAINS & FORLORN LEGACY. We'll play in Germany, Poland, Croatia, Slovakia, Bosnia, Serbia, Switzerland, France,Latvia, Lithuania & Greece. Up to now the biggest band we've played with was DISMEMBER & as far as countries go, we have done Italy, Belgium, Holland, Portugal & Slovenia. RESURRECTURIS WAS IN A TERRIBLE CAR CRASH DURING THE SUCIDAL MISSION TOUR. TELL US A LITTLE BIT ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED? Possibly the worst moment in the band's entire story. We were on the way back after this tour, we were all tired & we couldn't wait to reach home & eat a decent meal. Only 100 miles still to go. One damn wheel of the van exploded & we over turned twice. We were lucky since it was Sunday morning & there was not much traffic. I was unharmed & some of the guys reported only minor injuries (broken fingers, some wounds), nothingas severe as it could have been. The equipment was badly damaged. We lost the opportunity to tour East Europe. We had to leave in two weeks! WHAT LED TO THE TEMPORARY BREAK UP OF THE BAND IN 2002? After the car crash, Gianluca, the bassist who had been with me since the beginning quit the band. He just had enough. That was a blow for me since he was the one who was helping me out with running the band, etc. Some months after I had to move to another town for my job & it became really difficult to dedicate time to RESU for me as well. Besides there were arguments & fights over the musical direction we were to follow. We recorded a demo that remained unreleased & we did the album, but never completed the mix since the line up collapsed once more & I got really fed up with the whole situation. One year later I decided that I couldn't stay with out RESU & contacted the old guys & a new bassist. We reformed, completed the mix of the album & self released it & here we are again! |
| DO YOU HAVE ANY INTERESTING BAND STORIES YOU COULD SHARE? Plenty of those crazy & stupid things that happen when5-6 guys go around Europe. When a band is touring life is really hard, you're having fun, but you also have a lot of shit to take, so your wildest side tends to emerge. I think it is a matter of adaptation to the environment. I think it was 1992, we were in our very early stage & we booked a show in a place in the country around our home town. By the way, a lot of fellow Metalheads showed up but the ticket price was like 15, which was really a lot, so we told those people not to pay, since we had another show that was free entrance the next week. Anyway some other people got in. |
| I could easily see that they were not into anything even remotely resembling Metal. When we started our set it must have come as a cultural shock for them. You know like when a primitive tribe is exposed to 21st century explorers. I think the most avantgarde among them were into THE DOORS! We did a short set that was more comedy than music. After the show we were hanging around & these sick fucks were staring at us with a mixture of hate & disbelief. I entered another room & there was a disco with disc jockey & everything & there was people with needles in their arms doing heroin & sniffing cocaine. It was like being in a movie. We packed our stuff quickly, got paid half what we had agreed in advance & went away. While we were loading our stuff a guy who couldn't stand on his feet hit a tree while trying some manoeuvre with his car. He passed out after some curses. The place was closed not later than two weeks later by the police. WHAT DO YOU FEEL IS THE BEST & WORST THING ABOUT BEING IN A BAND? The best are some shiny moments when you are on stage & everything simply clicks perfectly! Also when you recieve the first copy of a new release that you've worked so much on... The worst moments are when there are fights between band members & whne you part ways with long time friends. WHO DO YOU FEEL ARE SOME OF THE BETTER BANDS, LABELS, ZINES, ETC... IN ITALY? The best label must be SCARLET although they don't seem to be interested in our band. A very good Death Metal band is INFERNAL POETRY, Janos has a side project that is named PRIORITY & they are good as well (in the vein of late DEATH). CRIPPLE BASTARDS are killer Grindcore, but I don't think they need any promotion & the same goes with NECRODEATH. A good Hardcore band is STRAIGHT OPPOSITION, while my favorite Punk Rock 'N' Roll band is CUT. Anyway for me the best Italian bands of all time were: NEGAZIONE for Hardcore, BULLDOZER for Thrash Metal & early DEATH SS for dark Heavy Metal. ARE YOU INTO ANY OTHER STYLES OF MUSIC BESIDES WHAT YOU PLAY? WHO ARE SOME OF THE BANDS YOUR CURRENTLY INTO NOW? I'm really enthusiastic about THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN, CONVERGE, FANTOMAS, THE LOCUST, etc & the old shit that I've been listening the whole of my life. Apart from extreme sounds I like DIAMANDA GALAS (well, she is extreme!!), RADIOHEAD, PJ HARVEY, NICK DRAKE & countless more. I am a real music freak! WHAT WAS THE FIRST ALBUM YOU EVER BOUGHT? WHAT WAS THE FIRST CONCERT YOU EVER SAW? First album was THE ROCKETS (remember them??) "Plasteroid" & first concert was THE ROCKETS (again!) in 1980. I was 9 years old & got crazy about these guys with silver skin & space outfits. One year later I discovered KISS - "UNMASKED" & from then on it was heavier & faster sounds all the time. |
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| WHAT DO THE MEMBERS OF THE BAND DO WHEN NOT DOING ANY WORK IN THE BAND? JOBS, HOBBIES,ETC...? I'm the marketing manager of a medium sized company that produces industrial goods, in my scarce spare time my hobbies are traveling, going to concerts, trekking, a bit of sport. Janos has a pub & pizza restaurant, when he doesn't work he plays golf& chases girls. Omar is an architect & likes to spend time with his friends & Manuel is doing voluntary civil service & likes booze a lot. |
| WHAT CAN WE EXPECT TO SEE NEXT FROM RESURRECTURIS? We will record our 3rd album at the beginning of 2006. It will be our best album! I have spent the last year writing & rewriting all the songs & I'm pretty confident that it will be a killer release. Just wait & see! WHAT WERE YOU DOING BEFORE THIS INTERVIEW? WHAT WILL YOU BE DOING NOW THAT IT'S DONE? I was sleeping- it's Sunday morning-after this is completed I will eat my breakfast... THANX A LOT FOR DOING THIS INTERVIEW! FEEL FREE TO ADD ANYTHING ELSE YOU'D LIKE TO CLOSE OUT. I think we've already said a lot...Burt, thanks a lot for your killer questions & for your support! To all the American fans of extreme music my advice is to go to our website & download our music. CIAO. |
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| info@RESURRECTURIS.com www.RESURRECTURIS.com ALL PHOTS & GRAPHICS COURTESY OF RESURRECTURIS INTERVIEWS MAIN PAGE |