GREEDY MISTRESS is a controversial melodic hardcore / garage punk rock band from Milan, Italy, who have just released their new album called “It Was Fine” (Slaughterhouse Records) and still refuse to call themselves a punk rock band. Therefore they came up with the funny non-existent genre name called “sexploitation rock”. Let’s see what they’re made of.
Hello! How are you, mateys?
Hi there. I’m waiting for the human extinction, in the meanwhile everything is quite ok.
Can someone tell me what does Sexploitation Rock mean? [smiles]
We hate the rock’n’roll definition, we are not a punk rock band, we’re not into hardcore scene and we’re too melodic to be defined heavy metal. So we have defined our genre sexploitation rock that means nothing at all, but could recap all our influences in underground rock and sexploitation movies (and exploitation movies in general).
How did you come up with the name GREEDY MISTRESS?
The band name is strictly connected with exploitation movies influences. Keep in mind, also, that our lyrics are often related to sex which is, for us, a symbolic representation of everything related to fear, perversion, anguish, frustration in our society.
I’m really embarrassed to admit this, but I haven’t heard about you before. Have you been hiding? [smiles]
That’s good or bad for you, depending you dig our sound or not.
I don’t think we’re hiding, we’ve played with bands like ACCUSED, CRIPPLE BASTARDS, YACOPSAE, BULEMICS, ANGELIC UPSTARTS, RAW POWER, … We took a tour across the Midwest and played in many places in Europe.
Yeah, I dig you guys a lot, but I must admit there’s this at least controversial matter in your work. Jeff Proctor of Maximum RocknRoll commented: “If you’ve been longing to hear your favorite Fest bands sing pro-rape anthems, then this is for you. Maybe it’s supposed to be tongue in cheek, but there’s hardly anything funny about rape. This is garbage.” How would you comment on this? Is it just a misunderstandment of your your art? A lack of humour? Or something else?
Everytime we release something new we have politically correct people ready to spit their sentences. That’s good, everyone can say whatever they want about our music and our message, we’re ok with that. Maybe they think talking about how much we suffer or how beautiful World could be can solve any kind of problem. We really like to piss off those kind of guys, they think they’re so smart. I just think they are so boring. Obviously we’re not a pro-rape sexist band and hopefully there are open-minded people that understand our sarcastic message. There is something else behind our lyrics…
What’s that?
Sex, to GREEDY MISTRESS imagery, is a symbolic representation of society. We use that to talk about the most obscure aspects of human behaviour. Since we always choose to write lyrics with a b-movie/exploitation-inspired narration, we exaggerate the violent part of it. Some people misunderstand this. If you’re not smart enough too understand that it is just fiction, well… we are proud those guys are pissed off by our lyrics and graphics.
You’re from Milan. What local rock’n’roll, punk rock and hardcore acts are you tight with? I interviewed EMBRACE DESTRUCTION last year. Do you know each other?
Nope. There are tons of bands we like to play with but I don’t think there’s any of them we have a strict relation. This doesn’t mean we don’t have friends in the underground scene, it’s just we don’t want to be trapped in any kind of scene. If you’d asked this like 4 years ago, I would have answered EASYGIRLS. Now I say no one…
I couldn’t believe it when I first read your statement that “Italian punk rock scene sucks (…) there’s no fun, no continuity, no commitment (…) too many bands and no quality.” Is it that bad? I’ve met so many great packs and labels, like CURSE THIS OCEAN, Destroy Your World Inc., STRENGTH APPROACH, JUNGLE FEVER, BLOOD RED WATER, WAITING FOR BETTER DAYS, THE HARDEST SEASON, THE SMASHROOMS, Epidemic Records, StrikeDown Records, etc. etc.
I still believe this. Of course there are tons of good bands, I work as an audio engineer and producer and I listen everyday to great music. But if I think about a SCENE, well… it really sucks. I can do a never ending list of great bands, but the list of shitty ones is always longer. Booking promotions and local promoters are destroying everything with silly shows, useless bands are doing anything just to play with big names without recording new music or doing tours. I don’t know, I don’t like the way things are going… I’m happy about how the crowd reacts to our shows and I’m happy to share shows with great people, but I’m also glad we’re not part of any scene.
Ok. Let’s get to the point. You contacted me for a reason, huh? “It Was Fine” have just been released via Swamp / Slaughterhouse Records. Are you proud of it?
Of course we are! First time ever we have a proper promotion (that’s something we lacked of). Our video “Glory Hole” got lots of views during the first month, we have done a release show with LOTS of people and we are receiving a nice feedback. Anyway, the most important thing is that we’re 100% happy with how it has gone for the band. There’s nothing we would like to change, to me that’s the most important goal. Because what we do with Greedy Mistress, first of all, is for ourselves.
What’s new comparing it and your previous discography?
Conceptually the album starts where “A Compulsive Need Of You” (our previous full length) ended. But “It Was Fine” is more focused on the darker side of sex habits and human feelings. It’s about death as a sudden change of something in somebody’s life. I don’t think it is a depressing album, every story we included has more a b-movie-like atmosphere. Speaking about music, I think the sounds are heavier and production is more powerful, we worked more on arrangements and we tried something different like a 7 minute song, an acoustic guitar intermezzo and a bass solo. We kept alive our melody/anger dualism and we incorporated some new ideas.
You stated that your influences have been taken from the late 60’s and early 70’s rock and heavy metal bands. What about modern artists? What fresh blood do you find interesting?
That’s not completely right. Our main influences come from late 70’s punk-rock to 80’s hardcore mixed with 60’s and 70’s rock and metal music.
Personally, except for some extreme metal acts, I don’t find anything really interesting in new music. If you listen carefully to new bands, there’s nothing really innovative. I’m not a 50 years old nostalgic music listener, but my music collection counts lots of vinyls, cds and cassettes from 60ies, 70ies, 80ies and 90ies and very few stuff from 00 till today. Anyway this is a quick list of newcomers, strictly related to Italian underground: NIDO DI VESPE, LABRADORS, YOUTH OF SIFILIDE, MASTURBACION CRISTIANA, PORNA & THE KOKOTS.
What about your movie-mania. Are you still heavily inspired by b-class movies?
Italian b-movies are still the first influence for our lyrics. As I always say, if you don’t consider our music part, we’re more influenced by movies for lyrics, artworks and everything related to GREEDY MISTRESS’ imagery. For our previous works we have been strongly influenced by erotic/sexploitation movies, “It Was Fine” instead has been more influenced by 70ies Italian crime movies, giallo and thriller and even spaghetti western (for example with revenge subject)
It wasn’t a prearranged decision, it’s been just a natural evolution.
Your previous album (2010’s “A compulsive Need Of You” took your on tour to the States. How do you remember that adventure?
We remember it as our biggest musical experience and one of the best experiences of our life. We had great times playing our music and meeting people that are still in our hearts. We’ve been in places we would have never visited otherwise and everything went flawlessly.
To be honest we just wanted to spend a couple of weeks together, we didn’t expect that much as a band. But we didn’t just enjoyed the tour, the band had also some really great shows. It’s has been a good chance to promote the band and a great personal experience. We left a piece of our hearts in that tour. I’ll never thank enough our friend Bill to have arranged that great thing.
What places caught most of your attention and why?
The best place we’ve played at is in Kenosha, Wisconsin. It’s in the middle of nowhere but, man, that place is awesome. I can’t describe it, it was totally insane. Our best show ever. If you search on youtube, you can find a video of a GG Allin cover we played that day. Another place we loved was Cincinnati. We played a show there but we stayed for two days since we had a day-off. We had some great parties with Dusty and Troy and their friends. Our song “Dis-troy Dat-troy” is dedicated to that.
What was so cool about that junkie?
First of all, Troy is not a junkie. He’s an alcohol-fueled party man.
He treated us like part of his family, we enjoyed partying with him. We love genuine guys and that is what he is. And, man, he is really crazy. We still laugh when we think about those days. Everybody loves him. We love him too!
Haha! I meant GG Alin! :D
Well, I’ve never met GG Allin. I don’t know what is so cool, we dig some of his music. We are not a GG Allin-fueled punk band, it’s just a part of our musical influences. Nothing more, nothing else.
Alright.. what are your touring plans in support of this new outing? I can see lots of local dates on the flyer. Any plans for a bigger trek to foreign lands?
We are Italian, right?! So the first goal ever is to tour in our country and that’s what we’re doing. This doesn’t mean we’re not planning other things abroad.
What do you think of the new pope? [smiles]
I don’t talk about religion or politics in interviews [smiles].
Thanks so much for your time. Anything else you’d like to say or explain about the band?
Thanks for your time! Have fun with music and please stop to be trapped in any kind of scene. That’s stupid and worthless.
If you want to stay in touch with us, connect to our official website or facebook.
GREEDY MISTRESS official website
GREEDY MISTRESS Facebook
GREEDY MISTRESS Bandcamp
GREEDY MISTRESS MySpace
GREEDY MISTRESS Reverbnation
GREEDY MISTRESS YouTube
