Here’s my interview with Simone from TONGUES, a newborn 4-piece hardcore punk band based in Milan, Italy, featuring members of a few ex-bands from the area. They founded this pack in late 2012 and just released their debut 7” EP called “Raw Nerves“. It’s a serious dose of raw energetic hardcore punk / powerviolence getting out a lot of anger.
Damn tasty fresh blood. Play it!
Hey newborn! :) Please introduce TONGUES to IDIOTEQ readers.
Hey there! We are TONGUES and we play something you usually name as punk/hardcore.
All the members come from un-cool ex bands of Milan area. We started rehearsing together some months ago and here we are.
Tell me more about those bands. Shoot me some names and tell me more about the reasons behind the founding of TONGUES?
Sure! I used to play in a band called A FADED GLORY, we were something like fast and kinda melodic hardcore. Pietro was the frontman in STOP TALKING, wich has more old school influences, and in WE’RE RIGHT! That unfortunately existed for just a short period. Alessandro played bass in BREAKING APART, a more modern sounding hardcore band and the only one of us to have an actual active band is Luca that play drums in a sludge/post-metal band RISE ABOVE DEAD.
We know each other from a long time so we decided to mix our playing style and influences in a new band to create something you already heard before (yes, everything has already been played, that’s life) with more personal influences.
Is RISE ABOVE DEAD the only one still runnin’? Uf not, then how on Earth do you find so much time for all these projects? ;)
By the way other bands, I’ve seen GREEDY MISTRESS and SEDITIUS on one of your flyers :) These are quite familiar names, aren’t they? Haha :) I’ll be the official ambassador of Milan melodic hardcore scene if I continue doing interviews with you guys with such frequency ;)
Tell me about your fellow-bands you hang out with. Who’s in “the family”?
Of course RISE ABOVE DEAD is the only one active of those bands!
As about the “family” I just don’t like to use this word as I feel like so many person abuse of it in the scene, but we have great friends (that means much more to me) and we know cool people in other bands.
You already named guys in GREEDY MISTRESS and SEDITIUS and I continue with HOLY, LA CRISI, SCENA, JULIE ANT, THY SOLACE and these are just to mention a few from our hometown Milan. If I have to continue with bands/friends from outside that would be like a neverending story.
Alright, so let’s better skip it, haha! ;)
OK, you’ve just released your debut EP called “Raw Nerves”. Shoot us some details on the writing and recording process. Also, feel free to draw us a picture of the idea behind this release and the title. Is there a concept to it?
As for the writing process I have to say that this time (the first with this band) I personally felt like never before because everyone got involved in writing or proposing some new shit and this is not so obvious in bands. We focus on sound of every instrument and on vocal style too, trying not to make it sound too harsh or highly pitched like modern acts usually do.
Everything was recorded, mixed and mastered by Carlo at Toxic Basement Studio, it was the first time with him in his studio and we are very grateful for his job!As for the title “Raw Nerves” there’s no real concept behind it but just the intention to find out an image and an esclamation that could match with edgy and pissed off lyrics we have. We want that kind of insane desperate feeling to be easy recognizable from the title (and the cover too).
Oh yeah, the “in your face” cover :) Who’s done it?
All our graphics (including logo) are made by Ivana Smudja who is such a great artist/illustrator. We deeply fell in love with her works and we tried to ask something. No need to say that for us and for that kind of emotion we wanted to mark on this record, like I told you before, it works perfectly.
Are you guys lookin’ for a label now?
Exactly! The only physical format we are interested to put out is a vynil release, one side or 7″, even a cassette edition would be cool too. We’re not just looking for a label for its big name or anything else but just for someone who likes us as a band and as persons which can help us out releasing some copies, also in co-production. The actual fact is that having a band means spending a lot of money, so if someone want to give you an help it would be great. Then you can call it label or the good samaritan, sometimes its almost the same!
What about the DIY approach? Aren’t you tempted to do it all by yourselves?
Sure, all of us trust in every aspect of a DIY approach but having a label doesn’t mean you’re too mainstream or that you want to have a name behind your band. Just think about how many DIY labels are there outside, wich is simply people spending their money in record printing, trades and distro stuff with other labels. So with the term “label” I mean this kind of approach! You know, I’m not sure if guys in Columbia could be interested… At least ’till we won’t turn into a boyband (that will happen about our third or fourth record).
Haha :D Let me know if you do!
Alright, so what gigs do you have lined up for the coming months? I saw the SICKOIDS June 11th poster, I bet you can’t wait for this gig. Who else is on the bill?
Yes, that one will be a great show! Also some other sick bands will play such as CORPSE, LAMANTIDE and KOMPLOTT wich is another newborn band with members of HOLY and HORROR VACUI.
Then we will play another show in Milan area on 27th of June with THE MONGOLOIDS and WRONG ANSWER, 2 great bands that will be on tour in that period. SLÖA KNIVAR from Sweden and another cool newborn band from Milan called COUNCIL OF RATS will take part on that show too. Seems like there’s a lot of really great new coming bands right now in this area, I’m really excited about this!
Who’s putting out shows in Milano?
We do! Me and Alessandro are involved into the collective of a place called SGA located in Arese, a small town in the north-west area just outside Milan. SGA has always been an important stage for punk/hardcore scene here, we hope to keep his great history going even if it’s really hard from a while on for many reasons.
Of course there are some other cool places like squats or clubs and really great guys that put much effort in making shows. As collective I want to mention guys in Knife Shows, who’s putting SICKOIDS show as well as other great bands, and buddies in Progetto Cervo wich make shows in the northen area. If I have to list here bookings and promoters who collaborate with them it would be such a long annoying list. I will express my point of view with “promoter is the new black”.
Great! How else do you support your local punk scene?
First of all I want to say clearly that there can’t be any sort of challenge to be the best supporter of the scene and anyway it doesn’t make you cooler than no one. I mean, all of us love to go to shows, we also buy direct from local bands their music and merch, as I said before we make shows too giving anyone the opportunity to play but then there’s also normal life wich includes all the things you have to do and the ones you want to do sometimes. Anyway I think the worst people are the ones that ask for a free entry at the door. Maybe handling some already empty bottles of wine that cost more than the entrance. Pathetic.
;) Ok, what else would you like us to know about TONGUES and its plans for the coming months?
Hopefully we’re going to play as much as we can, even if we come from several different experiences we’re now a “baby-band” again so let’s do like we are starting from zero. We’ll continue to find a way to release “Raw Nerves” then we are already working on new songs that sound really great (of course, just my opinion) and we hope to record ’em as soon as we can.
Thanks so much for your time. Any last words? :)
More new bands, less priests!
Cheers from Warsaw!
Thanks to you Karol and to the entire stuff of Idioteq for the great job. Cheers!
TONGUES Bandcamp
TONGUES Facebook
TONGUES BigCartel
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