In the beginning of March 2013 I teamed up with Italian post hardcore punk band SEDITIUS to premiere their new song called “Further/Forever”, off their new album “Misplaced”, which is out now as a free download! Now we’re back to discuss this new outing, the band and its love for touring, as well as their own Rancore Records, a label you should definitely check out!
Hey! Pleasure to have you here. How are you? Everything cool out there? How’s this bloody long winter is treating you, guys?
Hey, the pleasure is ours! We’ve been quite busy during this long winter. We have recorded and released a new EP and made some shows across Europe.
Right now, the spring seems to be late here in Milan and we’re waiting to hit the road again: we have an Italian tour planned for April/May and right now we’re booking another European trip for this August.
Oh yeah, the “Misplaced” is here. You have released it for free, right? How did you decide not to charge us for it?
Yes, that’s right. You can download all our discography for free. We founded this band when we were 17 and since that day we always thought that the best way to reach more people was to let people download our music for free.
For “Misplaced” you can also name your price through bandcamp if you really want to support us, but what we love the most is having fun with people at the shows.
In the last year we drove more than 15 000 kms across Europe and I have to say that we found some guys that already knew the songs even if it was our first time in these cities. Playing in front of boys and girls who are enjoying your set and singing your songs is amazing and maybe it’s the most important thing for us. So, as you can imagine, it wasn’t too hard to decide not to charge our mp3s.
How’s that? Why do DIY and punk bands enjoy such simple things and don’t want to reach for more? [smiles]
I don’t know if “more” is the right word. Maybe these simple things are just different but not less important. It will be nice if I could pay my bills with the money we earn as a band, sure, but money aren’t the reason why we started to play.
I think that D.I.Y. and punk bands don’t want to reach for more because they just have other focuses: travel, meet new people, find new points of view, feel part of something or just yell how they feel.
I can’t speak for everyone but for me, my band is just my band. Not my business.
Alright. Back to “Misplaced”, it must be a great time for you guys, huh? The material is still fresh, you’re full of energy, right? How are you proud of it?
Our previous record “Carne Da Macello” gave us the chance to discover how incredible and thrilling touring is. Otherwise, “Misplaced” is the musical result of these three years spent on the road. There is a lot of work behind this record, we spent endless nights rehearsing and we’ve been testing the songs while on tour.
We’re really proud to have always found solutions that could work for all of us. But as I told you before, right now we are just waiting for the Italian gigs of this spring and the European run we’re booking for this late summer.
Oh yeah… but before we move on to touring, please tell me what was the original idea behind the cover for the EP [laughs].
The picture on the artwork is an April fool paste-up stolen from a ’31 magazine’s. The idea behind it is something near to “clothes don’t make the man” and “don’t judge a book by its cover”. We think that this record has something to say, but we never wanted to look too serious. People always take themselves too seriously, and nowadays is all about the image, how you look like is more important than what you do. In the end, “all that glitters is not gold” is one of the most sincere sentences I ever heard.
True. I love it.
Tell me guys, when, how and why did you found Rancore Records?
It happened around 2008/2009 and in the early days it has been just a webzine. After a year, we decided to quit the zine and to start co-producing some good Italian bands who needed an hand. So in 2010 we started a label with a 100% D.I.Y. attitude and ethic. So far, we have released 13 records from Italian and European bands and I’m proud of all of them!
At the beginning of this year Yuri from ANTARES (best Italian live band ever!!) joined the crew and together we aim to keep on release good records giving an hand to those underground bands we love.
I have to say that through these years Rancore helped me to build a big network of friends all over Europe and I’d like to seize this opportunity to say thanks to all this people who helped me along the way.
Tell me more about your label discography. Do you release EPs and demos, too? What formats do you use?
So far we have released full lengths and EPs or split but no demos. We do really love vinyls and as you can imagine, most of our productions are 12″ (ANTARES, SEDITIUS, CONGEGNO) or 7″ (GONZALES, ANTARES, REVEREND BACKFLASH, KAPPA KAPPA KAPPA and more) and most of them are coloured or screen printed!
We try to keep the digital releases cheap (or free when possible) and in the next months we’ll start to print some very limited music tapes too… we’re lazy Italians but we try to keep ourselves busy [smiles].
What are your publishing plans for this year?
If ANTARES don’t find a better label (we’re still a small crew of friends and they deserve something more), we’re going to release their next album. I’m listening to the rough mix just now and man, it’s great. Wild as hell.
We’ve also planned a free download Italian underground compilation and next GORDO album with a screen printed wood case. They are a fat duo born from the ashes of the great LONG DONG SILVER and they’re just bass guitar and drums. Fat and slow sound for your pleasure.
Nice one. Don’t you get sad when it’s time to let go a band and let it reach for more with a bigger label?
How can you be sad for such a good thing? All our bands are good friends of ours and as a friend I wish them all the best!
Nuclear Blast is going to reprint ANTARES’ “Big Trouble In Appletown” and I’m really happy about that. Only an asshole wouldn’t be happy about new chances for his friends [smiles].
How do you distribute these outings? What are your favourite channels?
You get our digital stuff via our bandcamp profile. For cds and vinyls we prefer the DIY record distros you can find at the shows. It’s kinda old-fashioned, but I love to look through these distros and find some of our releases without knowing how they got there.
We also ship sometimes, but we still don’t have an online store and you have to drop us an email.
Any plans to change that?
Yes, we want to go online with a shop this year.
How else do you support your bands? Do you organize shows?
Yes, we book shows between Milan and Bologna, we help bands who want to come to tour our country.
This is also a chance to see friends you’ve met in the previous tours and spend some time with them. We had bands coming from all over Europe: DJEVARA from the UK, NOT from Czech Republic, THE ASHTONES from France, REVEREND BACKFLASH from Austria and way more. It’s a real underground network and they do the same with us.
Oh yeah, let’s move on to the thing I love and I bet you do the same [smiles]. I can tell that by your answers so far [laughs].
Tell me more about your 2012 voyages and the treks you’ve done.
It’s been an amazing year, we toured ten different countries and I’ve good memories of them all! We almost had always 500/600 km to drive everyday and our routes are some of the craziest you can find. We all have a full time job so every time we have a holiday we jump in the van and play every night in a different venue.
The problem is that we’re never on time when we book our tours and this means that we can’t find good itineraries: we get just what we find, no matter how many kilometres are.
For example, we had four days of holidays last halloween and in those four days we had four gigs, driving 3500kms through four different countries .. or in September, we had no van and we made 7 gigs and 4200km in a week with a six passenger car with our full back line. Last gig was in Marseilles, France and the day before we played in Dartford, England. 820kms.
But don’t misunderstand me: bad itineraries do not mean bad places. We loved all the places where we’ve been, we just need to learn how to manage our tours [smiles].
Would you consider outsourcing it to a booking agency?
Yes, it will be nice to find one, but in the meanwhile we book shows ourselves.
What countries did you like the most? Any special places that really impressed you?
There’s no place that impressed us more than others. We have great memories of epic nights in every country we’ve been. We have good crew of friends in Teplitz, Cz and Wien, A. Our shows in these cities are always full!
The night in Marseille, Fr, has been one of the craziest ever and it was love at the first sight with that city. We played in the basement of a private club with a locked door. People needed to knock at the door and be identified to get in while downstair people were getting crazy with one of the wildest crowd ever!
In general, Eastern Europe kicks ass: our buddies from BIHAR, H, were amazing too and, for what I can remember, the party in Kosice, Sk went totally out of control.
Did you have some time to do some sightseeing? Apart from the gigs, was it possible to learn more about cities and local attractions?
Usually we felt asleep at 5 o’ clock in the morning and woke up at 8am to load the van.. But sometimes it happened to have some free time. I love being on tour with my band because it’s a different way of travelling: first of all you’re always on the loose with some locals who know the place better than you. Then you get in touch with some places/people that otherwise you wouldn’t have ever met as a tourist.
Don’t you regret it? I mean, wouldn’t it be better to book it with more free days in between the gigs?
Oh yeah, sure dude, it would be great. But unfortunately we all have a full time job and bills to pay and, as a lot of bands like us, we can go on tour just when we accumulate holidays. So, as you can imagine, we try to have as less day off as possible.
True. Ok, so what cool bands have you met on the road?
ANTARES is an amazing rock n roll band from Italy. We met in 2009 and we’ve shared a lot of good times in the same van. FUCKED UP and ADOLESCENTS are the best big bands we have ever played with CANCER BATS are great guys too.
DJEVARA is a great DIY collective from London and they organise a great benefit festival called Malcfest. ATTRITO and CONGEGNO are two great italian hardcore bands from Trento, if you love NEGAZIONE you should listen to these two bands. NOT! is a band from Teplitz, Cz. They play a good hc-grind and book shows in amazing underground club in their town.
If you love rock n roll stuff, you should listen to GONZALES: they made a 7″ split with the BLOODLIGHTS (ex GLUECIFER) and toured with THE SEWERGROOVES from Stockholm. REVEREND BACKFLASH from Wien are a great rock n roll band too. ASHTONES from Lille, Fr is a piece of history of punk in France.
We met a lot of cool bands, but it’s impossible to write about them all!
You mentioned your Italian tour, to take place later this month. Give us some details on this trek.
We’re still booking some of the last gigs (we’re Italian and we’re always late [laughs]), but I can tell you that we’re going to play almost every weekend. We’ll be playing everywhere from Milan till Naples. It’s going to be fun… we always focused more on European shows but this time we’re going to spend some time in around our country.
How would you compare touring nationally with conquering the unknown lands?
I prefer foreign countries. Italy is a weird place and people is always too quiet. I love gigs in small cities, maybe in a small club which looks always packed and with people having fun in front of the stage.
If you’re looking for wild crowd in this country you have to go to the southern half. There you’ll find people who wants just to enjoy your music… most of the time, here in the north is all about judging how you look like and which brand of guitar are you playing. Not always, but most of the time.
Ok, before I let you go… please tell me what are some of the most important aspects of this band’s existence?
We started as a punk rock band when we were at high school and we grew up together. I’ve spent countless nights lost somewhere sleeping with these guys and I think that through these years and these dirty trips allover Europe, these guys have become something more than friends: they’re my family. I think that this strong friendship is the most important aspect behind this band. I can barely imagine my life without SEDITIUS but I can not imagine my life without these fellas.
Another important aspect is our focus on artistic independence. We come from different backgrounds and everyone loves different kind of music. The most evident example is Matteo: he is a jazz guitarist first of all and he’s been around for quite a while with Franco Cerri. At the beginning it was a bit hard because everyone wanted to play their own stuff. Little by little we discovered how better was to mix all this influences and backgrounds together. We’re really open minded about that.
A lot of people can’t find other bands to compare to us. And this make us really proud. You may not like our sound and of course we’re not the next big thing, but our stuff is genuinely sincere. By reflex, people who follow us is generally open minded and far from cliches. We heard a lot of times critics like “you’re not-enough-something” or “your too-something-else” but we never cared. We just keep on walking our way.
These two aspects, I mean this strong friendship and our artistic authenticity, mixed with our addiction to touring, are what SEDITIUS are all about.
„Keep on moving is what makes the difference between being “alive” and being “dead””.
What do you do to stay in the game, keep moving and do not freeze? What do you have to do to stay alive?
In general, in front of a crossroads, I try not to take the lazy choice.
I also try to get the fuck out from here every time I can, visit new places, meet new people, to read as much as I can and enrich my knowledge in general. I think both aspects, the physical and the mental one, are essential to me. But t’s something i’m still learning right now.
Ok, so where will SEDITIUS be in one year? What will have happened and what will have be accomplished in one year time?
I don’t really know. I really wish to tour more, meet new people and see new places. We probably release a new EP in late 2013.
In the end, these last twelve months have been amazing, I can’t complain about anything. I’d like to have another year like this one.
I sincerely wish you the best luck in continuing this path!
Thanks so much for your time! Any final thoughts?
Thanks for your time, your patience and the opportunity to get this itw.
If anyone has some time to waste, here’s our last EP album “Misplaced”.
Hope to meet you on the road!
Thanks again, Ciao!
SEDITIUS official website
SEDITIUS Facebook
SEDITIUS Bandcamp
SEDITIUS Vimeo
Rancore Records official website
Rancore Records Bandcamp
Rancore Records Facebook
Rancore Records Twitter
