interview with Mass Turbo
Have any of you played in other bands? Yes, we all did. The singer Giorgio had a couple other bands where he played guitar, bass and sang; Andrea has always played bass guitar in some black and death metal bands, he often played with Carmelo, the guitarist. Nicola, the drummer, has also played guitar and bass in many different bands.
How is it that you started playing music? I think we all started playing because music is the thing we love the most, the best thing we have in common.
What are your names? / Who plays what? / How old are you? Giorgio, the singer, and Nicola, the drummer, are 23 years old; Andrea, the bass player, is 24, just like Carmelo, the guitarist.
Have you had other previous members? No, it's always been just the four of us.
Did you make music even when you were young? Yes, we did. Giorgio had a punk rock band called Skarred (he still does, but they aren't playing very often). Nicola and Carmelo played in a very peculiar band called Sexydelik Jump in the Violet (some sort of funky, rock, metal, punk band). Carmelo also played with Andrea in a black metal band called Nosgoth.
Where are you from? We're from Modica, in south-east Sicily.
What year did the band form? Mass Turbo were founded during the summer of 2011.
What's your style of genre? We play a kind of thrashcore, mixed with death metal and hardcore punk (Italian style, of course!)
What inspires you? I think our main inspirations are the nights we spend together drinking, smoking, joking about each other's moms, but we aren't inspired just by stupid things: the music we love and, generally, the lives we live are important sources of inspiration for our work.
What made you decide to make this music? I don't know, maybe the love we share for it.
What are your songs about? We often sing about getting wasted, but we also sing about more serious stuff, like struggling in life, suffering, anxiety, depression, fighting against conformity and things like that. We don't care about politics.
Who does the composing and writes the lyrics? Generally, Carmelo, Andrea and Nicola work on the instrumental part, while Giorgio works on the lyrics.
Have you done any covers live? Yes, we did. We covered lots of bands that influenced us, such as Stormtroopers of Death, The Exploited, Impact, Skruigners, Venom, Spite Extreme Wing, and Sepultura.
What language do you sing in? We sing in English and Italian.
Do you always play the same songs live, or do you vary? We try to vary as much as we can, especially with covers.
Do you have a regular place you play live often? We love playing at the Voodoo (formerly, Voodoo Doll Rock Club), an amazing rock club in Noto, Sicily. Go check it out on Facebook!
What was your first gig like? Literally, a massacre. We played 7 songs in 13 minutes in a small town called Ispica (near our hometown), and people went completely nuts.
What was your latest gig? We played on December, 29th at the Voodoo, along with two other bands, called To The Core and Punk Norris. It was amazing, one of our best concerts so far.
What have been your biggest obstacles? The main obstacles has always been distance: Giorgio has been studying in Pisa for 4 years, while Carmelo still studies in Bologna. Playing together has been very difficult because of this, but we've always tried to work on our songs and this has kept us very close as a band.
What are your web sites? You can check out our Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/Mass-Turbo-179977095426507/?ref=hl), where you can find all the information you need.
What are your plans for the future? To play more often and to record an EP.