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For more info on Merendine Atomiche visit:
www.merendineatomiche.com
I guess
we should ask the obvious and unoriginal question - what is the origin of
the band's name?
Well the name born in 1996, after one year we started the band. One of our
old bass players came into my house and told me "Merendine Atomiche".
At first time I didn't like it but when he explained the meaning, I
accepted. The meaning is "impossible is nothing" but the real translation
is different. "Merendine" has no english word to explain but a "merendina"
is that kind of cake that the young use to eat during the
break of the lessons at school. Something sweet and who remind us when we
were young. "Atomiche" is "Atomic" so we would put a sweet word with a
strong one, so the meaning was born: also the small and sweet things
(persons) can, with strength, to rise and catch their dreams always with
honesty and respecting everybody. Plus it was an italian name and we would
keep our roots in someway. In that period Sepultura ruled the world and
their album Roots gave us the idea to keep our name in
Italian. It was not the usual strong English name but an original name,
little weird but really clear so we were happy of it.
Tell us a bit about yourself and each of the band
members.
 Well, the first thing I can say is we are friends. We and I know ourselves
since a long time and I think the force we have is due to this, a strong
friendship and a target that we all wanna get. About me I don't know what
to say. I just wrote down new lyrics that talk about us and I said that I
was probably in the early days a little "sergent", a little rude, cause I
had really clear in my mind what I wanna do for my band. Sometimes I was
too much and now I'm totally different. University, life, changed me very
much but, anyway, those years helped us to find the right guys and the
right people to follow a dream. I'm really a determined person but at the
same time I know life is once and I suggest to all that they gotta live
it. I mean I'm always searching for the balance. It's not easy! I like
music and outside metal I love blues and jazz. I love so much to read and
study. I got a degree in History and I'm getting a masters in New
Technologies and I'm married with a wonderful person who always supported
me in these years. Ok stop about me.
 The guys
are all awesome. The first I wanna talk about is Zanda, the singer.
I knew him in 1992 when we started to go to high school together. He was
immediately my best friend. We are really different but, at the same time,
from that moment, we stay always together. He is a really good guy, the
big good guy. He is a really good friend, he has a really unbelievable
voice and he is so funny. He loves all and all loves him. He has
thousand of friends and, if you need something, you can always count on
him. He now works in a bar. It's his dream to own a beer pub and I hope
some day he can accomplish it. Now I just hope his new love story will go
in the right way. He deserves it!
 Then we got
David, I met him in 1998 when we were searching for a new
guitarist. He is also a wonderful guy. I remember when we spoke for hours
in the nights in the first months he was with us. He had long hair and the
energy of a bull. Now he lost his hair but is still a bull! He is a good
guy but when he loses control he is really dangerous! I got a lot of
stories about him! But if you need something, count on him, 100% and if
you want a fast solo player and a real guitar lover, that's David!
 Dario,
on the bass, I met many years ago when he played with other bands. In 1999
we needed a new bass player and we called him. He was so young and funny
with those bad glasses. Now he lost his glasses but he's still funny as
the first days. He is a really great story teller and he makes a really
big noise everywhere he goes. You can't stay without Dario cause it's like
drink a coffee without sugar...it's good but with sugar...is better.
 And then
we got Sigers on rhythm guitar. I met him in 1998 when we needed a
guitarist for a show and he played with us. Then he had his history until
2001 when my sister left the band and we needed another "good hand" on the
rhythm guitar. Sigers was the best and we got it. He is another really
cool, calm and intelligent guy and a guitar and music lover. He has a
really good hand and a lot of great ideas. He is really kind and also with
him, if you need something, you can count on him.
I think together we are a team.
Each one of us does something for the band and we can do all with closed
eyes. Obviously, each one of us are not perfect but we learned in years to
talk with each other and say what are the problems, so talking about them
we resolve everything.
Way back in 2001 we received and reviewed your debut
mini-cd - The Holy Metal. We were surprised by the
band's thrash influences, as not many newer bands had been going in that
direction for some years. What influenced Merendine Atomiche to play
in that style, as opposed to the more typical power metal or death metal
vein?
Well, we simply always tried to play what we like. In those years, we were
really thrash fans and we always thought one day thrash would come back.
Anyway, we always want to play what we like, what we feel. We never sit
and say "we gotta do that for the market". No, absolutely. We never said
anything. We gotta sit and play what we got inside. The Holy
Metal was the first mini cd album and it was fast thrash
metal because in that period we were like the music you heard, young, bad
and angry guys. For us thrash was the "music" and "f--- all the rest". We
never watched what was going outside. We always tried to follow the
meaning of the name of the band. Keep doing what we like with honesty and
believing. Walk Across Fire was a change cause Sigers joined
the band and the sound changed. I think that was thrash metal but more
heavy and less fast but we were again thrashers. Now that me and Zanda hit
29, Raw is something different. It is not thrash metal
but probably metal hard rock with thrash influences. If my destiny is to
play music I gotta play what I like, don't ya? I don't wanna play what I
don't like and I don't wanna smile when I'm angry, don't you? It was
always our philosophy. Do what you are able to do in the best way, what
you feel, what comes from your heart. If you're forced to do
something, you'll never be able to throw out the right energy.
That's why we always played music from heart and never from mind.
 Despite
being around since the mid-90s, Merendine Atomiche will be a new band to
many metal fans. You've just released Raw, an album
that represents your thrashy side but also has many other styles as well.
How would you describe your new record to those that have never heard of
you?
You're right. It's a long time we are around but it was and it is really
hard to be known for all the things I wrote above and for many others.
Now, with Raw, we can show our music and I think this album
is the best one to be the first for many new metal fans. It is really
complete and we worked on it very much, almost 18 months. It's not
the typical thrash album. It's a real mix of a heavy metal but for heavy
metal I would say Pantera style, not so fast, but heavy and powerfull but
in a couple of songs. In others, you can find the thrash metal from the
classic, and in others, great melodic parts or hard rock songs. We
simply played what we like, what we felt in those moments. Plus, we would
play music that from the first song till the end can bring the people
through our notes and keep moving and keep interested...I think it's a
really good album also for the production. We spent time to decide
where to record it and then we had Jack Frost on the co-production with
Luigi Stefanini of the New Sin studio and we tried to do all in the best
way possible. I think for the guys who listen to us for the first time
this is the best album and I hope they like it and they can feel what we
felt.
Did you
meet Jack Frost when you played at the March Metal
Meltdown in New Jersey back in 2004?
Yes we met him in 2004 at Metal Meltdown Festival. When I went back home I
thought about him to play a solo on Raw. He proposed to do some more,
like co-produce the album and we were happy to accept. In August 2005, he
came here and made a great job with Luigi Stefanini. I think it was a good
team job and all together we worked for one target: Raw. I think I
learned a lot in that recording session and will keep one of the best experience
ever.
Do you
feel that the band's sound has evolved since The Holy Metal?
If so, what has brought that about?
Absolutely. We are no more what we were in The Holy Metal.
Those time were really fast and thrash and now it's more heavy and hard
rock. I mean, we left the speed to move on to the heavy. We keep the
melodic parts and added hard rock [rather] than death parts. I think it's
a matter of age and experiences lived. We were young in 2000 and now in
2006 after six years it's different. Between The Holy Metal
and Raw we got Walk Across Fire that is really
a mid one between these two discs. Plus, we got Sigers on guitar and he
came from hard rock experiences so his hand brings more heavy and Pantera
style or hard rock than my sister did in The Holy Metal
where we were all thrash, speed metal addicted. We are completely
different persons, with the same spirit, with the same ideas but a little
bit changed, as I think is really normal in human growing.
Does the title of the album describe the sound of
the music on the cd or is there some other meaning behind Raw?
Yeah, it describes the music, really "Raw", heavy, dirty but at the same
time, fun and melodic. "Raw" was the perfect word to explain the album and
the cover we used with cows and microphones, so I think it was the best
word possible for this album. It also explains how we are and our
roots because we grew up in the north east Italian fields. Each one
of us has part of our family with a farm so "raw" was perfect for all
things.
Are each
of the band members fluent in English? Is it difficult writing
lyrics in English and do you first come up with the ideas in Italian?
Not all the guys speak fluent English. They all know a "survival
English"
but to speak fluent, they need to do it everyday and most of the guys have
not the chance to do it but I think if we move in some English countries,
as we did in the past, in a few they can speak faster. For me it's
difficult to write in English first of all because I know words and I
studied English but it's not the same English people talk on the road. This is
the problem. Also now that I wanna go deep with my lyrics I found some
problem because I don't know how you say many things, you use phrases that
together for you they have a meaning but if you take each word they have
no meaning. I gotta know that, so it's hard. Fortunately, I got my friend
Munsey from Skateboard Marketing who weekly updates me in some English way
to talk, (American, not English that is complete different) and I do the
same with Italian words to him! (is so funny) About how I wrote.... no, I
go down directly in English. I didn't think in Italian cause Italian is
completey different and the way we talk is different than English. Italian
needs ten words to do a phrase . You need two for the same meaning, so I
learned to think in English. I use to speak English once or more a week
with my friend in New York, I read English books and web sites and
magazines to understand how you talk, the way, the slang that really
counts. I do all of this all day. I force myself to think in English and
I usually speak alone to try to keep my pronunciation good because when you
talk it's important how to say things. So it's not easy but I like it and I
always like to learn so day by day I hope to improve.
At what
point did the band decide that the lyrics were going to be in English
instead of Italian?
It was after we made the first demo tape in 1998. We produced the cassette
with four songs wrote in Italian. It was so weird and difficult because
English seems to be always in time and Italian has many long words so was
too difficult. Better to write but not to put in the music. When you think that you wanna advance in music you got no chance if you talk in
Italian, so we
decided to move to English. At that point none of us knew any words in
English so I use to ask friends who studied it but was a pain in the
ass...so I decided to study English alone. Once we decided to go back to
our own music in 2000 I was able to write something
and from that time all is in English and I'm still studying.
Classic
80s heavy metal was known for having hooks, memorable guitar riffs and
catchy choruses? Is this something that you feel is important in
your songwriting?
Yes. I think in this last album we thought to work better in the
songwriting and have some chorus who can stay in our mind, cause we got
a lot of music that we like and remember for the great chorus. More we
moved on the idea that life is one and we need to smile and not only to
cry so a good chorus or a great energetic riff is better than an heavy and
crying one like we did in "In The Cage" or on the energetic riff
like we did in "Roads and Beers" and "We Didn't Know". I think we want to
keep going on in this idea. All of this didn't exist in the past for us.
We would just play fast and scream cause we were always angry. Now we can
be really pissed off but we can also be happy. It's always about age. Yes,
it's really important now for us to play
heavy but also use great riffs and with great choruses. Trying to mix
it all
together is a good challenge that we hope to win. I think with Raw
we
did.
In America, the typical fan that goes to traditional
metal shows now seems to be a mid-30 year old male. We don't see too
many teenage fans following this genre anymore. Is the metal scene
underground in Italy or is it considered mainstream? What ages of
fans are coming to your shows?
Well, if we talk about the country, Italy, metal is underground. We have a
particular culture here from the second World War and all that was
rock or simply "the music of the devil" was thrown out the window and
for years nobody knows what was...in these last decades the things
changed and fortunately we all are able to listen to all the music we have
but it's still an underground music and there are many stereotypes on metalheads.
Here, what rule is Italian pop rock that we call "rockettino" (like small rock very bad) with
two words and one riff for all the songs. Metal is really known and the
hardcore is going very well but anyway between hardcore and classic heavy
metal there is a break in the middle. It seems that people who listen to one
genre in metal can't listen to the other. I mean, I like hard rock, heavy
metal, hardcore, thrash. It seems young people are divided also in music
so it's all strange and anyway metal still is an underground music.
About ages of the fans who come to see our shows. We get like 14 to 40 but the normal age I
think is between 20 to 30
What were your impressions of that festival and the
USA in general. Was it worth it monetarily to come to the states?
Well I was so happy when I played in the USA because it was a dream come
true and a challenge won for ourselves. About the festival, it was strange
because we never saw in
Italy a big festival with those bands play in a club. Usually when they
are many bands the only possibility to see all on stage is in the summer.
You can see at least five bands in a club in Italy but not more, so it was
strange for us to see this big venue with all these bands but at least it was
funny and great. I mean the people were all good and they were really kind
to us so we were really happy. In general, we stayed there for a
few days in New York and few days in Boston. The thing I said to all when
I was back in Italy was that you seem really friendly, more than what we are.
I don't know if I was lucky those days but it seems that all people we talked
tto were funny and kind to us. In Boston we sat in the hotel where we slept
before going back to Italy and in three minutes all people there started to
talk with us like we were friends and it was really strange for us. In
Italy it's not like this. Anyway it's my
home and I like it (like rock n roll). And one thing, you got the best
corn in the world! I mean, for our experience, it was good, but they were
seven days so I don't think it was too much to understand! In the movies and
on TV, USA seems really different but I understood that on TV we saw the "USA"
and there, we met the real people!.
It's very
expensive to tour within one country much less the world as a whole.
How do you plan to do it?
Well, I really don't know! I mean, I think we will do what we always did in the
past. Work hard at home and save money for the future plans. We got the
new album to record and then this time we would like to tour the USA. So we
understand we need money, a lot of money that we don't have now, but all
targets we had in the past were [hit] so I'm positive on it and we are
putting down the new plan for 2007 to come to the USA. Now we hope Raw can be appreciated there so to create a
good base for the days we will come there to play and meet you friends
again. Obviously, better find a big label who can support this, but
this big label is not sure. The sure things are our dreams and our life
and money to spend, so it's better to be focused on this.
As we
close up here, is there anything you'd like to add?
Well, just thank you for this opportunity to talk. I would thank also
Munsey Ricci from Skateboard Marketing for [being] a great friend and
Chipster Inc to help us to do all this awesome promotion that we hope
permits Raw to be spread as much as possible and all fans
who supported us and will support in the future. They are all for us.
Thanks a lot.
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