Merendine
Atomiche
We find Merendine Atomiche
at their best, having just released "Raw" that is definitely their best
album to date! So, if you're interested in finding out how a well played
blend of hard rock with thrash and hardcore really sounds, then Merendine
Atomiche are here to please your needs...
1. CONGRATULATIONS ON “RAW”! ARE YOU CONTENT
WITH THE FINAL RESULT OR ARE THERE THINGS YOU’D LIKE TO CHANGE?
We’re totally satisfied with what we did on
“Raw”. It was really different from “Walk across fire”. Once we heard the
old disc we knew immediately what we should do for “Raw”. We worked very
hard on every step of its production, from the beginning till now. We lost
time and we spent energy and now we are really satisfied. We didn’t play
live for a long time and we concentrated only on the music and its production.
Actually we have nothing that we would change. The only thing is to try
to improve on the next one.
2. LIKE I WROTE IN MY REVIEW I THINK THAT MANY
FAMOUS BANDS OUT THERE WILL ENVY YOUR RELEASE AND WOULD WISH TO HAVE RELEASED
IT THEMSELVES. I THINK IT’S YOUR BEST WORK TO DATE. HAVE YOU RECEIVED ANY
PRAISING COMMENTS FROM OTHER BANDS?
I think you’re right when you said it’s our
best work. We were really into all of its aspects and we worked very hard.
Now it seems normal but it wasn’t in the past. We get experience during
the years and from the mistakes we made. Sometimes very big, but all was
worth it, cause they made us ready to produce “Raw”. So I think you’re
totally right when you say it’s the best disc we ever produced. Now the
problem is making a better one than this! I think we can do it, but in
some way it ‘s scaring us!
About other bands we didn’t have any feedback.
We know only what the media and fans think. They liked very much “Raw”
and this is really a cool thing cause it means we spent almost two years
for something. About other bands I really don’t know and I don’t know if
they envy what we did. They shouldn’t . Envy is a bad thing.
3. LET’S SUPPOSE THAT YOU WERE ASKED TO WRITE
A REVIEW FOR “RAW” WHAT WOULD YOU SAY, TRYING TO BE AS OBJECTIVE AS POSSIBLE?
I can say only that a person who loves thrash
metal, but also is a hard rock fan and also likes hardcore can really enjoy
this album. I think it’s good from the first song till the last one. It
is really heterogeneus but it is a good mix that drives you through the
album. You can hear heavy songs, melodic ones, ballad, hard rock and hardcore.
And this mix really works well. It’s the mix and the feeling that really
rock. Outside this I can say we spent a really big time working over “Raw”
and I think the production is really cool. It sounds so heavy and the recording
is great. Also we worked with Jack Frost and Luigi Stefanini as producers
so we got absolutely quality over this album. I don’t say this cause it’s
my album but cause it is the truth. It is not the same as with the other
ones we made in the past. “Walk across fire” had many problems and “The
Holy Metal” was a good beginning but a beginning. “Raw” is different ,
and it is a result of all these eleven years of playing music, making records
where we try to make the best. It’s a good team work.
4. GIVE US REASONS, WHY A FAN SHOULD SELECT YOUR
RELEASE INSTEAD OF ANOTHER THRASH METAL BAND. WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU HAVE
TO OFFER TO THE SCENE?
I don’t wanna say that someone must choose
us and leave other bands aside. It is not good. I think if a person likes
thrash metal can hear everything. For sure we have a strong album and really
solid. The sound is big. It really sounds big and I think it’s really an
enjoyable album cause each song has something different with many other
things inside. It is complete and I don’t know, I like it and I hope you
like it too.
5. THE ALBUM HAS GREAT SONGS, BUT IT ALSO HAS
A VERY GOOD PRODUCTION, RESPONSIBLE FOR WHICH IS JACK FROST. HOW DID YOU
GET IN TOUCH WITH HIM AND DECIDED TO COLLABORATE?
Yes, this is true. This was one of our main
targets once we heard “Walk across fire”. We spent time to work over the
sound. We wanted a studio that could give us a strong sound, really heavy.
We found New Sin studio cause it is really close to our home and the guy,
Luigi Stefanini, is a really talented one. He has a good studio and he
is a very good producer and he is great at mixing and mastering. We wanted
that, we wanted a big sound and a great person and we got it. Once we booked
the studio we also found something more. We wanted other guests after Jeff
Waters and Anders Lundemark and we got in touch with Jack Frost. We met
him the first time at Metal Meltdown Festival in New Jersey in 2004. After
that show, once we were back in Italy, we thought to call him to ask if
he was interested in being on our next record. He said ok and he said also
he would be the producer. We thought it was good. His experience for sure
could give us something more and it actually did! Once he was here we worked
very hard all together. It was really a team work and the goal we achieved
with “Raw” you can hear… I appreciate the great collaboration between him
and Luigi Stefanini. They worked all for “Raw” and we were really happy.
It has been one of the greatest experiences ever.
6. GENERALLY WHAT KIND OF FEEDBACK HAVE YOU RECEIVED
FROM THE FANS AND PRESS TILL NOW?
Really good! Media appreciate “Raw” very much!
We got many reviews and 98% are really enthusiastic. Not only in Europe
but above all in USA and Canada. Actually the disc is already out in many
of the European countries and in North America is going to be released
on August 21st so we’re waiting for the fans’ response there. We got some
interviews in the USA and we’re really happy. The fans we met told us it’s
the best album we ever made and I’m really happy about this. I want absolutely
to try to go on tour as soon as possible to find out what fans really think
about it. Till now we’re very happy. Most of the people like “Raw”.
7. WHAT’S THE BEST AND WHAT’S THE WORST PART OF
YOUR MUSIC?
I don’t know. We play what we like so I don’t
think we have a worst part. I think we’re growing as people and as friends
first and this is the most important thing. It united us and it is so important.
This is the best thing in our music, our relation, our unity and our work.
We do everything together. I can say the really cool thing is that all
we play comes from our hearts and we like it very much and I still don’t
know what can be the worst part. Maybe someone else can say it, the media
or the fans. I don’t know.
8. ARE THERE ANY ELEMENTS YOU’D LIKE TO EXPERIMENT
WITH OR ADD IN YOUR MUSIC? IF YES, WHAT WOULD THEY BE?
Well, on “Raw” we tried to play some percussion
in some intros, we played many acoustic guitars and we mixed the three
genres thrash, hard rock and hardcore. I would really try to use on the
next records a banjo, a harmonica and some country riffs and make a ballad
with a “southern style”. I like it very much. I don’t know if we are going
to do it, but I would like to try. The harmonica above all!
9. WHICH ONE OF YOUR SONGS DO YOU THINK WILL IMMEDIATELY
WIN THE ATTENTION OF THE METALHEADS? IN SHORT, WHICH IS YOUR STRONGEST
SONG, ACCORDING TO YOU?
Well, I think “In the cage” or “Roads and
beers”. They are really great songs. The first one is really heavy and
Pantera styled with a beautiful chorus. “Roads and beers” is a song you
have to listen to in your car driving on the coast louder. The chorus is
really catchy and the whole song is the mixture I was talking about before.
It is strong but also speedy and has a rock sound! It is great! We all
have a different choice on that matter, so as for me I like the two I said
above and “We didn’t know” that is really a solid hard rock song.
10. TELL US A FEW THINGS ABOUT THE TOPICS THIS
ALBUM DEALS WITH. WHAT ARE YOUR SOURCES OF INSPIRATION?
Probably nowadays we don’t follow so much
particular bands but we try to listen to the music we like. We can hear
heavy metal, tharsh, hard rock but also country, blues, rock. We want to
know as much as possible on music and what we listen to whatever we like.
Some years ago I would only say some thrash bay area bands but the time
flies and when you get older you open your mind, you want to taste, you
want to experiment. Same goes with music. I talk about me but I know it’s
the same with the other guys. Actually we all like hard rock very much.
We don’t have any ispirations from particular bands but from genres. We
like very much the old school thrash but also the hard rock and hardcore.
These are the different veins that are driving us since 2004 and on.
11. YOU BELONG TO THE ROSTER OF A COLOSSAL LABEL
OF THE ‘80S, MAUSOLEUM RECORDS. HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT IT AND WHAT DO YOU
THINK THEY CAN OFFER TO YOU? ARE YOU SATISFIED WITH THEIR PROMOTION SO
FAR? HAVE THEY GOT A GOOD DISTRIBUTION NETWORK WORLDWIDE?
Well I’m happy to be a part of Mausoleum Records.
We are working very well with them and I’m satisfied until now with what
they are doing. I hope our collaboration will keep going on in the future
cause all things are going well. I feel good because it’s the first label
who were interested 100% in us and above all in our music. We worked for
a long time on the deal but finally it was the best choice cause they wanted
us in their roster and it was the same for us. The promotion is going on
and they are doing a good job. About distribution , well yes. I mean, for
us it’s the first time we hit the stores with our music so being there,
in the bigger metal countries helped us a lot. Obviously we would be wherever
possible to sell our CDs but at the same time we’re not Metallica and the
distribution they have is really good for what we are, so I can say that
we’re happy about everything they did til now.
12. YOUR LYRICS ARE IN ENGLISH, HOWEVER, YOUR
MONIKER IS IN ITALIAN AND IT MEANS ATOMIC BREAKFAST IF I AM NOT MISTAKEN.
WHY DIDN’T YOU FIND A NAME IN ENGLISH? DON’T YOU THINK THIS DIFFICULT BAND
NAME MIGHT BE AN OBSTACLE FOR THE FANS TO REMEMBER YOU?
Well it doesn’t mean atomic breakfast, but
atomic cakes or croissants. Merendine are the little cakes you eat when
you go to school when you’re young and on the break you eat those merendine
with chocolate or stuff like that. It is really hard to translate it in
English. I think there isn’t a real translation.
We didn’t choose an English name cause it
was so easy, so normal, so “old”. I mean we are from Italy and at that
time we chose the name following the Sepultura style that were really huge
at that time. They had that Brazilian name and they sang in English. We
thought it was right. We should keep our roots somewhere so we chose an
Italian name. Many times, also, if you choose an Enligh name, it’s really
easy to find in the world another band that have the same name or you can
be confused with other similar named bands. Example: Pro pain, painmusem,
pain salvation... I mean who has an Italian name? Nobody, so it’s better
for many reasons. Finally we didn’t know that time we’d advance so much
so...
About the difficlut thing you said… Well I
don’t think it’s difficult. Once you know it, you can remember it. Nothing
is impossible, so we won’t change it. It is a part of us and if we are
here with this name, we must keep going on. We love it, it is part of us.
It keeps an ironic part, a funny part, but it also keeps our roots, keeps
the real meaning of our music. If my name is Luca, I don’t change it to
make your life easier. You gotta learn it. Maybe you can pronounce it strangely,
wrong, smiling, but you call me with my name, don’t ya?
13. THE COPY YOU SENT ME DIDN’T HAVE THE COVER
ARTWORK. SO COULD YOU DESCRIBE IT FOR ME AND COULD YOU POINT OUT ITS CONNECTION
WITH THE LYRICS?
As you can see we got cows in the artwork
cause they explain very well the meaning of the music. It is “Raw”. For
us the music we play is “Raw” and we use to call heavy music and heavy
riffs the farmer tools. We grew up in the fields, among cows and chickens
so when we play a hardcore riff we use to say “oh this rocks like a shovel”
or “it is hard like a tractor machine” so we leave all the metal stereotypes
and we’re back to our roots following the strenght of the music... You
know once you get older you are more romantic and less angry...hahaha!
14. HAVE YOU GOT ANY PLANS FOR LIVE SHOWS? WHAT
WILL YOU DO IN ORDER TO SUPPORT THIS RELEASE?
About live shows we will play in Italy as
much as possible for the next months. We re planning a European tour in
the autumn but I’m waiting for it to be confirmed. We are very excited
to hit the road but not being confirmed yet I don’t wanna say anything
more than this. We would support as much as we can “Raw” on tour but I
don’t know if it can work. Probably on the next record we will play more
live shows. Now we are concentrating on putting “Raw” wherever possible,
using the promotion we get. Mausoleum is doing a good job but at the same
time we work also on the promotion and in the USA we hired a press company
and a radio promotion company to spread our name as much as possible. Together
we’re buying pages, space and samplers’ space where we put our music. I
think it will help people to know us and to create a base for the next
time to hit the road and meet the fans. I mean, it’s really hard. Sometimes
too hard. So now we focus everything on the promotion, on spreading our
music and trying to be wherever possible and seeing how sales go. Then
we hope to get on tour and once we’re back we should start working hard
on our next album.
15. MUSIC IS MAINLY EMOTIONS AND THOUGHTS. SO
WHAT KIND OF THOUGHTS AND EMOTIONS DO YOU THINK YOUR MUSIC CREATES TO YOUR
LISTENERS?
I don’t know.For me and the music I listen
to it depends on what you’re living at those moments. I remember how Annihilator
were the soundtrack of “Walk across fire” when we were in Sweden to record
that album. It is not the music but the moments you’re living that make
that music important to you. Yeah, you can also read the lyrics and so
then you choose the music you know when you got good or bad moments. So
it depends.
About my lyrics I always try to give a positive
message to my generation and to the young ones. I hope it gets through
and that the young guys can fight for what they think is right and above
all they can do it honestly. I always thought that we are stronger than
what we think but many times ignorance deletes what we have. But if we
work, if we believe in ourselves, if we want to improve, if we want to
feel better, we definitely can. And we must believe this. We can always
make our life better. This is the message I wanna pass through my lyrics.
I don’t know if they come through but I hope so. On this last album I also
wrote something funny talking about us and talking about fun. I think life
is also short and time really flies but often human beings are too stupid
to understand it and focus only on the bad things. We want to feel bad,
we just need it. It seems impossible to be free or happy. We must find
something wrong, but keep in mind that it doesn’t work this way guys. Life
is too short to be preoccupied with all these things. We’re too small,
a little point in an ocean. Live your life the best way you can, be honest
and respect the others.
16. WHAT WAS THE WEIRDEST OR FUNNIEST QUESTION
YOU’VE BEEN ASKED?
Well I don’t remeber any. They are almost
and more or less the same. Probably I remember the most intelligent question
that I was asked from an American magazine a couple of weeks ago when he
asked me how we can handle the normal life and the music. This was a really
intelligent question cause it’s really not easy making everything in the
best way. Sometimes life and music fight between them and you gotta be
very smart and intelligent on your choices cause your life and you family
are absolutely the best things you have, but on the other hands you got
music that is your dream, the thing you’re fiighting for 11 years now,
so it’s never easy mixing those two in life.
17. WHAT’S GOING ON IN THE ITALIAN METAL SCENE?
YOU HAVE A LOT OF PROMISING BANDS, BUT WHAT I’VE COME TO REALIZE IS THAT,
LIKE IN GREECE, FEW ITALIAN METAL BANDS GET THE CHANCE TO BECOME FAMOUS
ON A WORLDWIDE BASIS. WHY DO YOU THINK THIS HAPPENS?
I wanna answer like I did when I talked with
Metal Maniacs USA on a same question. I feel (and probably other good bands
in Italy) like an army of five guys who for 11 years now have been trying
to enter in the big castle called “Italian heavy metal system”. We are
sieging the castle, but sometimes we feel tired cause we see that other
armies enter it, either deserving it or not, so why not us? I think in
11 years we showed we can do good things. We made records, we played around
the world, all of our discs were appreciated, we worked with metal stars,
we are advancing outside, the things are getting better so why we cannot
enter the castle? We all know why. So when you ‘re tired you move away
and try to see if somewhere else they wanna know you and they wanna listen
to your stuff and this is what we did and are still doing.
I don’t know how things work in Greece but
in Italy the castle is old and narrow minded. They don’t wanna see beyond
what they like and what they want and this is in all sectors of our life.
That’s why the big minds, the big doctors leave Italy and go to America,
Scandinavia or far away. Here there is no place for them and this is a
serious Italian problem. It’s very sad cause I love my country and the
good people we have. And these good people must stand the bad ones in Italy
and the stereotypes that people from abroad use against us. It’s really
hard for the good people and for the good bands cause you’re always the
“second”. Unfortunately Italians like very much what comes from abroad
and they are “Italians” only when the national football team plays, and
after that they’re back again at hating each other. So we’re “second” here
and “second” abroad. It’s sad for all the people who are great and work
honestly in Italy, people who try to improve this territory everyday fighting
against the classic rubber wall.
18. WHAT TITLE WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE GIVEN TO MERENDINE
ATOMICHE? A TITLE THAT WOULD SUM UP THE WHOLE BAND ESSENCE AND YOUR GOALS…
19. THANK YOU! LEAVE A MESSAGE TO OUR READERS…
I wanna thank you for the chance you gave
me to talk about our new album and projects. I hope you like “Raw” and
you can support our band. We thank you all!
Christine Parastatidou
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