1. Can you give us an update on what has been going on with the musical project since the recording of the new album?
The album was recorded back in May 2019 and was originally supposed to be released at the end of last year with 2 different labels, however I felt that the new musical direction of the project would have been better suited to I,Voidhanger. The label and I agreed to change a few things with regards to both the mastering and the graphics to make sure we would emphasize the avant-garde nature of this particular album. I have also been working on the new material for album number three, and I should be able to hit the recording studio by summer. Other than that, I have been working with a few local musicians in London to bring the project live with the release of the new album.
2. In April you have a new album coming out, musically how does it differ from your previous release?
I still very much like the first album, and I am proud of what was achieved there. It has memorable tracks, a good flow and some quirks, however I think that I had been perhaps a bit timid with innovation, and although the album presents very interesting ideas, to a distracted ear it might sound slightly derivative and a bit too homogenously death-grind.
Same thing is valid for the lyrics: much of the inspiration for the first album came from “one-dimensional man” by Marcuse, however I did not make it obvious and in hindsight that was something that I wanted to rectify, as I think it adds value when an extreme metal band has got something more to say than just talk about blood and demons.
The new album is a lot more experimental: it has a lot of layers yet it somehow manages to maintain a good flow.
Production is also different, as this time I focused more on mixing low and hi-fi to achieve a rougher type of sound, however maintaining a good punch.
3. The music on the new album also has some black and sludge metal elements while still being heavily rooted in grindcore and death metal, what was the decision behind going into a slightly different musical direction with the new release?
I started composing material for “Panopticism” before the first album got released, so was unaware and uninterested about the feedback, and just followed my instinct and eagerness to try and merge and combine different styles of extreme music whilst at the same time maintaining a recognizable death-grind root. I ended up including a lot of elements from other extreme subgenres such as sludge, harsh noise, drone, black metal, and that was also facilitated by the fact that I had the chance to involve other musicians in the new album: Ays Kura from Die Kur plays the theremin in one song, and Davide Destro from drone and noise projects such as LaColpa and Macabro Dio collaborated on another track. I was also interested in expanding on the concept of reference music, as attempted already with another project I had made some noise with (Rising Bear Flottilla), and included a number of samples and outtakes from both decontextualized and “metal specific” sources to use as foundation for new compositions.
4. The lyrics on the new album are also inspired by the writings of Michael Foucalt, can you tell is a little bit more about your interest in his work?
As mentioned, the first album was also inspired by the writings of another eminent social theorist such as Marcuse, however I felt that I did not make it clear enough. When I started reading “Madness and Civilization” I realized that both the subject matter and overall flow of the writing would have made a good base to explore the theme of the imposed isolation of the outcasts in our society. I knew that this album would have been musically different from most things released before, so I was particularly keen to explore the connection – and difference - between the inability of belonging seen as sentient choice of dissent versus the way diversity was used to justify labeling a vast spectrum of our civilization as madmen. The connection with the concept of Panopticism came after when I started reading “discipline and punish”, and found an obvious correlation between madness and social exclusion, especially in a day and age where surveillance technology is made available for all to misuse.
5. What is the meaning and inspiration behind the name 'Feed Them Death'?
Feed Them Death has a lot of meanings for me: literally, for the fact that it refers to the act of feeding and eating, it links this project back to my old band Antropofagus which I founded back in ‘96. I like the “them” element of the name, as it creates a barrier of sort between the feeder and those being fed. As with the inspiration, believe it or not it comes from Bad Religion lyrics: they have been for years one of my favorite bands, and I particularly like the idea of “borrowing” from an unconventional source for a death-grind project, as opposed to the usual death metal vocabulary.
6. Can you tell us a little bit more about the artwork that is presented on the new album?
When I started talking about the overall concept with Guglielmo Rossi and Bandiera, who ended up being in charge for creating the artwork, they loved the idea and so we started brainstorming. I knew I wanted something different from the usual death metal art covers or grindcore collage of sort, both thematically but also from a colour palette point of view. So they proposed that we took a different angle and created this obsessive and kaleidoscopic grid of intersecting gazes, many overexposed and blurry, to convey the uneasiness of being constantly observed and under scrutiny. I think it gels well with the wider musical purpose of the release, which was and is creating something new by borrowing from different and seemingly unrelated sources. There are a lot of incredible visual elements on all touch points of the A5 digipack CD edition, as we really wanted to focus on creating something worth owning.
7. With this musical project you record everything by yourself but also have experience working with other musicians, how would you compare the two?
I don’t dislike working with other musicians, but I admit that I prefer doing things on my own, at least for the most part. I enjoy and value the chemistry between two or three likeminded individuals at work on the same project, and that’s the reason I will always want to involve other friends and musicians to participate to a Feed Them Death release - but for this particular project I felt I knew exactly where it was coming from, where it is and where it’s heading to. It is a vision difficult to translate and I don’t want to make it rigid by stating too much as Feed Them Death, being my main creative outlet, is like me and like all things transient in a constant state of flux.
8. The new album is coming out on 'I, Voidhanger Records', how would you compare working with this label to your previous label 'Exalted Woe Records'?
First off, I have always been a huge fan of I,Voidhanger: they have released for years on consistently stunning releases, and have a very unique and identifiable vision which somehow permeates albums they have put out and came from very different regions of extreme music, and that to me is sign of a great label with a strong identity. So I am immensely proud of working with them now: I love that they are very interested in everything their artists do, they take a great deal of pride in everything they do and are always happy to contribute with ideas.
As with my first album, it was co-released by Grimmdistribution and Exalted Woe, and the fact that now I am working with only one label is already a big change in itself. I enjoyed working with the other two labels on the release of the first album and I am glad they saw some potential in me and gave the project a chance to be heard, however as I saw “Panopticism” shaping up they way it did (so a lot more experimental than the previous release on all levels), I knew that I needed a different type of direction and alliance for the new phase of the project.
9. On a worldwide level how has the reaction been to your music by fans of underground metal?
The first album received generally very enthusiastic responses by the metal community worldwide. As said, I am well aware that it was a good album - fast yet somehow groovy, and it has been well received and praised by fans of first Brutal Truth, Terrorizer and the likes. “Panopticism” is a very different type of album, and perhaps less aimed specifically at one prototype of listener: there is a lot more going on in this record compared to the first album, yet despite it being heterogeneous, it also shows where its coming from by being indisputably grindcore on most parts. I was aware that it’s a different listening experience and not something quite as straightforward as before, so I am happy to see that the feedback received so far has been very good.
10. What is going on with some of the other bands or musical projects these days that you are a part of?
Feed Them Death is my main project and something that is increasingly absorbing a great deal of time and energies. As with the other projects, Rising Bear Flottilla was something I kind of feel I evoked with other people when the stars aligned, and I am unable to commit as to whether and when there might be a second phase with that. Bune, my sludge / doom project with Christian Montagna (editor of Sons of Flies Websize) was born to be completely free and in symbiosis with what we felt was and is the real nature of our creative spirits: we write music when we feel like it and we record music when we can and want, so again its free flow and would not make this project justice if I committed to a new release within a certain timeframe. Recently, I joined forces with other musicians in the London metal scene (members from various bands like Binge Drinker and Crom-Dubh) and will be vocalist in a gore-grind project called Nganga – we should start playing a few gigs and have some recordings done soon.
11. Where do you see yourself heading into as a musician in the future?
On to the big unknown, which is about the same place as I see myself heading to as a human being, and I say this implying even a positive connotation of sort: I don’t want to know precisely where I am heading to, as that would prevent me from exploring other roads and possibilities and therefore I wont want to try and define my trajectory as musician. At the moment, I am attracted by minimalistic noise of sort, so who knows that that might be one of the possible roads I will want to take in the future.
12. What are some of the bands or musical styles that have had an influence on your music and also what are you listening to nowadays?
I have very eclectic music tastes, as generally have a strong distaste for a very vast spectrum of what could be traditionally defined as metal music, however I like to listen to a lot of other genres like Hardcore Punk, Electronic music, Doom, Drone, Noise etc. Of course I have a special relationship with Grindcore, but I am also picky and tend to dismiss quickly something that is too derivative and not enough inventive or daring: mid to late Brutal Truth and late Discordance Axis are great examples of bands I could listen to everyday.
13. What are some of your non musical interests?
Reading was and will always be an important thing in my life, mostly poetry and non-fiction as I find I have gradually rejected “entertainment” writing such as fiction. With all other “arts” I tend to have more of an on-and-off relationship: for example, I like visual arts, be it paintings or cinema or theatre, but am extremely picky and often abruptly and actively uninterested for long periods of time.
14. Before we wrap up this interview, do you have any final words or thoughts?
The subtitle of the new album is “Belong / Be Lost” as I wanted to make the point that in our society those who don’t fit in are lost, but also that if you force yourself to belong then you lose your individuality. I think its important to make a distinction between isolation by design, so imposed by someone or something else, and isolation by choice so as a way to pursuing free thinking. My music is aimed at those who don’t belong and won’t conform.
Thanks for your time and for asking me interesting questions.
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