Robex Lundgren virkblogg.

What´s the name of your band? ONICECTOMY - It's not an existing word, we invented it to translate the italian word "onicectomia" which is the name of the surgery done to remove the ingrown toenail.

How was the band formed? Me and Valerio, co-founder member, were friends and we had played a primitive form of death metal for some years together with other friends. When they will not be able to continue, we felt the need to start officially with a band. So we started to search for a bass player and a vocalist to complete the line up.

Can you tell about your band? ONICECTOMY is a 4 pieces BRUTAL DEATH METAL band coming from Bari, so thern Italy.

Where are all band members from?/Who does what in the band?

All the members live near the city of Bari, in its metropolitan area, except the singer who live in the metropolitan area of the city of Brindisi, about 100 km away.
So let me introduce the band (line up since 2013)
ME (GIOVANNI SCARNERA) - drums
ANGELO SERGIO - guitar
STEFANO STUFANO - bass
ETTORE PIRO - vocals

What was the ambitions of the band when you started? Just to have fun. We had reharsal almost everyday: reharsal room was like a 2nd home for us. and when someone called yus to propose a gig , we felt like we have reached the top of a mountain. Reharsal was always full of friends and our aim was that to compose music they could appreciate.
Could you explain your music to someone that haven't heard you? It's difficult with words, but I'll try. It's BRUTAL DEATH Sound, so mostly inspired by american death metal in 90's. Fast riffs, blast beat, abrupt slowdowns, guttural vocals.

Where was your first gig? Target club in Bari - our hometown in 2008 with another local band.

Where was the latest gig? Xtreme Metal Assault fest - Malta

Who writes your songs?/Who writes the music who writes lyrics? Music is usually written by Angelo and Stefano and lyrics by Ettore or me.

Who has the best since of humor in the band? It depends from the situations and personal feelings in that moment, but basically we alle have a good sense of humor, uhm, black humor to be precise ahahaha

Why did you pick that particular style?/What are your songs about? Cause since we were teens it's been the most attractive genre we have ever listened to, and cause it makes us know a loto of good people, good places, nice situation and have fun.

Do you write your own material or mainly covers? We write our own material, but sometimes in some show we play just a cover from some cool band just to make a gift to our audience.

Have you made any albums?/If yes what are they? We have made a self-produced 6 tracks EP in 2008 called MANIACAL EPIDEMY; Then in 2011 we released our first full-lenght for the Russian Label COYOTE RECORDS,  called DROWNING FOR SALVATION, and actually we are working on the last couple of song for our 2nd album who will be released on the first months of 2015.

Do you have any clips on YouTube?

Yeah sure, we have an official YouTube channel full of songs and clips from our livew shows.
Here's the link:
http://www.youtube.com/user/OnicectomyOFFICIAL

How old are you?/What got you started in music? I'm actually 25 and started with music when i was 15, cause my best friends at that time already played some intruments and I wanted to follow them and try to put up a band. You know, when you are young, you think girls see you so cool if you play in a band :D :D 

How old were you guys when you first stood on stage? My first live appearence was at 17 at a school show with my first project. Then as ONICECTOMY our first show was in 2008 so we were between 19-and 21 years old.

What year was the band started? ONICECTOMY is officially born in March 2008

Best/worst gig you've played? Our Best show in my opinion were the last one we had @ XMA in Malta and Gotheburg DeathFest on October 2013. The worst are for sure our first shows, cause we haven't already checked the differences between our reharsal room and a stage.

What places will you be playing in in the imidate future? In the imidiate future the only place we'll be at is our Reharsal room: we are closing the tracklist for the second album, then have to do pre-production and then enter the recording studio. For next year we have already booked some good shows, as Nice To Eat You death fest.

Witch band is the best you´ve seen? Personally Cannibal Corpse: they are first music love of my life.

What has been the best/most promising gig so far? The 2 I said before, XMA in Malta and Gothenburg Deathfest

How big crowds do you usually play for? It depends on the situations we have played as well with more then 300 people in front of us and just 5 people enjoying the pit. For us is the same: If you are enjoying the show it doesn't matter how many people we have in front of us.

Where do you usually play? If you mean as shows, Every year we have gigs in Italy. 

What are your goals with your music? The most important is to have fun in what we are doing. All other things come after that. Of course if we get the chance to join a big show or sign a deal for a serious label, that would be a big goal for us.

When did you decide to go all in for the music? We all have work/studying project so if you mean "spending all your time and money" for the music I think it will never happen. We are able to dedicate all our spare time to the music, cause we like it, it's our passion and we have fun doing it, but I don't think it will never be our first activity in life.

Is it easier to get your inspiration from older bands or from bands more modern? Our personal background is full of older bands, we wouldn't be here talking if we haven't take inspiration from older bands. But we also support new acts, so if there are some new elements in their music that can attract our attention, we try to mix them with our music and see if there are some good results.

What are your sources of inspiration? If you want the name of the bands that give us the wish to write new music after we have listened to them, I can mention for sure Suffocation, Dying fetus, Cannibal corpse, Sinister and most of the 90's death metal scene. 

What's the first step when making a new song? Usually Angelo (guitar) or Stefano (bass) have some ideas on new riff so they write it on guitar pro or record it. Then they send it to the others and when we rehearse we try to put drum patterns on it and adjust it as well..The last thing is setting vocals on it. Then we listen to it for a long time and we revise all the details.

How do you feel about the downloading of music instead of buying albums? Buying cd directly from the band or from their label is the ONLY way to keep underground alive. So if you say "I support underground" you MUST buy the cd. By the way in my opinion, since the scene if full of new band and the money is always less, I think it's not a crime downloading the album first, have a listen to it and decide if that band "deserve" to be supported.
I think the bast way is going to the show, listen to the band live, and if you like it, buy their cd or merch. 

What would be your dreams for the band? Continuing with Onicectomy activity in the future. We have no wishes about being professional musicians, and live our music as our work. We just want to continue having fun together, visiting new place and knowing always new cool people. 

Besides your own music, what genres and bands do you listen to? I'm not a great listener. Except everything concerning metal i listen to hard rock, rock'n'roll, and even 90's eurodance music - it's my secret passion - It depends on my mood and if I'm in the car, on what radio is transmitting (If you are in Italy 95% of the times it's shit).

What would be your greatest fears for the future? I have no great fears concerning music for my future. Onicectomy it's like a 2nd family for me and I think that when there will not be no more conditions, by my side,  to continue with this project it will be interrupted.We have been so many troubles during our short carreer so we are used to resolve difficult situations.

When you are on stage, what do you fear most then? That I have a sudden and  appalling lapse of memory and can't remember some patterns or that sound is not equalized in a good way and i can't hear guitar and bass from my monitor. I think that's the most importat fear for every drummer.

Have you been part of any other projects? I have played with other band in the past years, but nothing have grown up as serious project so I'm still continuing only with Onicectomy.

What do you work with outside of the band and the music? I'm studying to become a Vet, and then I'm also a dog trainer and basketball referee.

What would you do if there was no music? I think I would have spent my time and my money on other passions, at the moment I don't know which would them be. Otherwise I could have had more money in my pocket.

How important are your fans? I don't like to call them "fans" cause I think BIg bands have fans, and we are not a big band. For me they're friends who appreciate our music and they're most important for us. Until there will be a single crazy person banging its head under stage, we'll continue playing.

What's the funniest/most memorable thing a fan has done for you? During a show, we had stage invaded by a lot of people dancing and drinking with us. The best gift we have reached from a friend it's for sure our new logo, re-styled from our Friend Luis. I still remember the inbox i received from him :"Hey guys, i like so much your music but thought you deserved a better logo graphics. So I did this one for you. Feel free to use it."
This is a practical example of how to support the underground.

How often do you rehearse? We rehearse every friday. Distances between our hometown make not possible to play together more then once a week.

Where do you rehearse? We have a own rehearsal room near Bari.

Name 2 of your own songs you like at the moment? The last one we finished composing a couple of weeks ago, We haven't still decided its title so I can't reveal it cause it contains all the elements we were supposed to mix in our music.
And the other one is from DROWNING FOR SALVATION and it's VIRGIN WOMAN CANNIBALISTIC RITUAL cause when we play it live people always get mad into the pit and it's our "wall of death" song.

What do you feel is the best live band you've seen? If we are talking about professionalism and ability of being on the stage making people crazy even they only were a 3 pieces band, I can certainly say HATE ETERNAL.
Under a sentimental point of view I think the best show i've seen was my first Cannibal Corpse show, cause I said before, they're my first musical love, and first love could be never forgotten XD

What drives a band that isn't all that famous and renowned to try to make a living on their music and to keep playing? For us the only way to go on is getting fun from every situation we are involved in. The aim to visit new places, have fun with new people, meet new musician and have some beer together is the only thing that drive us. We don't want to live with our music, so I can't tell you what makes a band try to live on their music. Maybe music it's the only passion they have in their life so it's fair if they wanted to use it to build up some money.

Do you have any webpages?
yeah sure, we have social network pages. 
www.facebook.com/onicectomybrutal
www.reverbnation.com/onicectomy
www.onicectomymech.bigcartel.com - if you want to support us and buy our merch: we have new cool tees, take a look if you want to be the coolest for this summer.

Any pearls of wisdom for all other bands out there? Live, play and act just following your attitude and you will get more chance to get respect from the people.

Describe your show, visually and musically Visually we don't use any scenography or special effects, just our logo banner behind the drums: You can just see 4 guys having fun on the stage, doing their best on their instruments, banging their head; Musically I can describe our show as a straight punch in the face, some riffs are so groovy and our aim is to create the right atmosphere for circle pits, wall of death, blood and violence under the stage.

How do you view the musicindurty of today? Talking about underground music industry, in my opinion it's an hard and dark period for it. People does not support anymore in the right way, digital devices have substituted cd, so it's hard for the labels to sell their productions, often they can't recover the costs and they have no incentives to spend their money on new bands.

What are the biggest obstacles for a band? Maybe it's getting the chance to play good live shows, in cool venue, receiving what they deserve, I'm talking mainly about what happen in Italy. Venue owners are not interested into organizing metal gigs, and if they do it, at last they can't/want to pay the bands cause expenses are greater then benefits. I think an importat role in this situation is represented by metalheads, who likes so much filling their mouth with the word "SUPPORT" but then prefer see live shows on YouTube sitting their ass on a comfortable sofa or spend a lot of money for big festivals, - spending almost all the time having beers, taking photos to post on their FB page and complaining on hot temperature, beer and food that cost to much and so on...

What is best/worst with playing the clubs? I prefer playing in small clubs cause there's a more familiar atmosphere and no barriers between musician and audience. The worst is then usually the sound is very bad and no one can understand what you're playing, but that's not a big problem if you can deal it with groovy and powerful sound.

Tell us about upcomming gigs and why we should be at them? We have no gigs scheduled for next months until 2015 cause we are busy with finishing the songwriting, pre production and recording of the new album. By the way you should come to our next show first of all to have a beer all together, then you can get the chance to listen to our new songs, if you want to break some bones or need to vent anger against someone our pit is the right place, and our music the best soundtrack for it.

How would you describe your sound in one sentence Get away from railway, high speed train is passing by!!! 

What was one of the most quarrelsome times for you in the band? Sometimes there are misunderstandings, due to musical reasons or cause someone it's not giving his best or cannot accept criticism or advices. Fortunately we have been able to solve any situations and we are still doing everything together. Then tons of beers is the best way to forget every problem.

Whats your Pre-show ritual? WE have a warm up into the backstage expecially for me on the drums, setting all the cymbals on the stands, everybody take his personal setlist copy, tuning guitar and bass. Then revise all the show details, taking beers and bottles of water to bring on the stage.

Would you like to add anything else? Thank you so much for giving me the chance to have some words with you and with all the friends that will read this intervew on your blog. If I've been able to intrigue your attention, you're welcome on our official pages..Feel free to visit and contact us. Thanks to everyone for the precious support.