Italian streetpunk ska legends Los Fastidios are soon releasing their new album and also play a gig in Croatia, so it was about time for me to talk with Enrico a little for our zine.
1.FIRST THING WE CAN TALK ABOUT, THERE ARE GREAT NEWS FROM LOS FASTIDIOS. THE NEW ALBUM IS FINISHED. WHAT IS IT CALLED AND WHEN IT IS COMING OUT? IS THERE PHYSICAL VERSION OF THE ALBUM(CD) OR ONLY DIGITAL VERSION?
The new album will be out on the 16th of may, titled JOY JOY JOY it will be available on cd digipack, vinyl and in digital version. The album is released by Kob Records in collaboration with the Madrid label Potencial Hardcore and supported by Fire And Flames Music (Germany), Lonsdale in Deutschland (Germany), Coretex (Germany) and True Rebel (Germany).
13 songs including 2 cover songs (“Ellos dicen mierda” of the great Euskadi band La Polla Records and “Joy Joy Joy” a popular english song that was already covered in the 80’s by the english band The Housemartins). On this album there is also an old 2001 Los Fastidios song “Guarda Avanti” recorded today in a new version.
We are really proud about the new album, I really think it is the best work of ever of the band…
2.TELL US SOMETHING ABOUT THE RECORDING PROCESS AND ARE THERE ANY SPECIAL GUESTS AND WHAT ARE THE NEW SONGS ABOUT? CLASSIC LOS FASTIDIOS SOUND OR SOMETHING NEW?
It is recorded where we did our previous 2 albums (Indie Box Studio in Brescia)…. We are really happy and proud of the new songs….we paid really a lot of attention to all the arrangements and I am sure all the Los Fastidios fans will really enjoy the album !!!! The sound is always the same mix of different kinds of street music we like: streetpunk, ska, rocksteady, reggae, oi!, punk rock and a touch of pop and combat rock…
We have some great guests, really good friends on this album, I’m so happy and proud about it… I would have liked to have even more of them, we have a lot of friends musicians all over the world.
On the new Joy Joy Joy album, there are four Italian guests and two international guests. First of all I share a really nice 2tone style ska song together with Elisa (it is not the first time, she recorded a few months ago an ep 7″ with 2 Los Fastidios songs sung by her), really great fun. Besides our regular dear guest De Veggent (ex RedSka) who played his keyboards in three songs (he was also on our two previous albums), another great musician, Giotanni (from Ashpipe band) played his great violin in another song on the album. The Skassapunka friends were backing vocals in a lot of songs of the album. We invited another Italian friend, the rapper Dj Koma Aka Mauràs, who raps a part of a punk song dedicated to the music of the street.
About our international guests, first of all we share a song together with our German punkrocker friends Elf and Dirk of Slime, who need no introductions, the first Los Fastidios song ever in German language…(please don’t kill me for the funny Italian accent…ahahah), a really nice punkrock song dedicated to the bad politicians only able to talk and not to solve the problems of our planet.
More, we have on the album another special international guest…sometimes the dreams come true…my favorite singer ever, the singer of one of the bands who meant a lot to me, he sang a part in another song of the album…I’m talking about Paul Heaton, singer of the legendary The Housemartins and The Beautiful South and now singing in a solo project together with Jacqui Abbott (The Beautiful South)…this is the icing on the cake….Paul sings in a ska/pop song talking about my/our dreams for a world with more justice, respect and peace for everyone. I’m a dreamer and this album means more than a dream to me.
3.OBVIOUSLY THE NEW ALBUM WILL BE RELEASED ON KOBRECORDS, HOW DID YOU START A LABEL AND DO YOU BELIEVE YOU CAN MAKE EVERYTHING DIY BETTER THAN SOME BIG LABEL?
It’s me (Enrico) who started with Kob Records….KOB Records was born officially in 1996. like street music record shop based in Verona (Italy)…The label officially started in 1998. (it was born from the ashes of our old label Skooter Rekords that released the first 7” of Los Fastidios / the split album Los Fastidios / FFD “Hasta la Baldoria” and the second FFD album on vinyl “Ridere di Rabbia”).
Kob Records first release was the second album of the Italian punk rock band Derozer “Alla Nostra Età” (KOB001) followed by the second Los Fastidios album “Contiamo su di Voi!” (KOB002) and the first album of the italian punk rock Melt “Sempre più distanti” (KOB003). Since those first 3 issues, we have arrived today to the catalogue number KOB139, the new album of Skassapunka “Adelante”. The shop and label were created by Enrico who wanted to be able to get also in Verona some punkrock/ska/oi! stuff, seeing that in that time it was really difficult to find good street music in the local music stores… Kob Records since the beginning started to work on the live promoting and organizing a lot of gigs in the Verona area at the end of the 90’s, the shop immediately became a really important meeting point (reference point) for the punkrock/skinhead scene of those years… Unfortunately the shop ran until 2011. (it was closed in December that year) and since that moment the shop continued to work only by mailorder/online shop http://www.kobrecords.org with me and Elisa (she entered officially in the Kob crew at the beginning of 2012.)
In the beginning of the 90’s Verona was a little bit boring town…for many people punk rock was finished….I knew it was not true…in few years we showed to the people punk rock was still alive… It was great to see, at the end of 90’s, that a big scene was growing up around the shop and the label…we had really great times…in few years punk rock was back in town and not only in town… In 1999. we released the legendary cd sampler “Tre Venezie, Skins and Punx United” including more than 20 bands coming only from our region…it was the best answer to all of those who were saying few years before punkrock was died.
Kob Records gave a good imput to the scene…on the heels of our label other independent labels were born in Italy in the following years… Also the mass media started paying attention to the independent music world and those years scene had a great growth thanx also to the great job of the independent labels…
Since the beginning Kob Records was opened for the collaborations with other international labels, we worked for many years together with Mad Butcher Records (D), Jimmy Jazz Records (PL), Insurgence Records (Can) creating a really important labels network in the early 2000s….
In last few years we have a really good collaborations with Fire and Flames Records (D), Casual Records (F), East Beat Records (Rus)… And new international collaborations will start officially soon….We think collaborations between independent labels are really important to spread out and to distribute in a better way the independent sounds of the street.
The name KOB is the acronim of Kontro Ogni Barriera (Against All Barriers)…I took the Kob name from the legendary KOB Berlin squat … I went at the Kob squat in Kreuzberg in the beginning of the 90’s…I love this district….that time I saw there a great Oi Polloi gig… I really enjoyed that venue and I decided some years later to call my shop and label with the same name… a little tribute for a district we really love.
4.MANY YEARS HAVE PASSED SINCE LOS FASTIDIOS STARTED. DO YOU STILL FEEL THE SAME DRIVE AND SAME ENERGY YOU HAD WHEN YOU STARTED? IS THIS LINEUP OF THE BAND BEST EVER?
The years run by, but the spirit still grows, year after year…nothing changes, it’s passion, more than passion, it’s like a fire inside of you that never stops, a fire taking the fuel from the energy and the enthusiasm of the people following the band everywhere with a great passion… Sincerely I think that they were, are and will be forever the real strength of the band, my strength and strength of all the musicians who have played and play now in the band. It’s a continued transmission and return of energy from the band to the people and viceversa…
In the last few years I must say thanx to my girlfriend Elisa, always by my side, who gives me a lot of energy and enthusiasm each day for my/our music project, together with her I share every moment of my life, including the job (she is the co-owner of our label and agency Kob Records). She helped me a lot to address the difficulties with the smile and to be positive in face of every event.
I’m really lucky because I can tour the world with our music and everywhere I tour around the world, I meet the same eyes, I feel the same hearts around the globe…I can listen from everywhere the voices of my sisters and brothers spreading out the values, the fights for the human and for animal rights. My people are my inspiration, my energy… I feel myself part of a big international Family, a big crew, people with the same style, the same positive attitude, against the system that kills the truth.
5.WHAT OTHER RELEASES BY KOBRECORDS SHOULD WE LISTEN? ANY NEW HOT RELEASES SOON BESIDES YOUR NEW ALBUM? CAN YOU SAY, WHAT IS THE RELEASE OF KOBRECORDS THAT YOU SOMEHOW LOVE THE MOST, OR HOW SHOULD I PUT IT, THAT YOU ARE MOST PROUD OF?
Kob Records published more than 140 releases in 21 years till this day….every one of them was really important and good for the label…we produce only what we like…. In the last years we produced less stuff, not easy today to sell a lot of records and we must pay a lot of attention to where we invest our money, anyway we are really proud of all the new releases and bands working with us….from Skassapunka, to Paolino Paperino Band, to Le Iene….we are also booking gigs for all our bands…. We are coming out with the new album of Le Iene (ska punk from Ferrara, Italy) and at the end of the year we will release the new album of Skassapunka (ska punk from Milano, Italy). I really suggest to follow these bands…great musicians, great attitude.
6.CAN YOU LIVE FROM MUSIC? WHAT LOS FASTIDIOS DO IN PRIVATE LIFE?
Me and Elisa, we are 100% into the music, music is our life, Kob Records today is a label, an online shop and an international booking agency…and of course at the same time we are also really involved with our band Los Fastidios, seeing I’m the singer and Elisa the official tourmanager. We give everything we can to this project, we are really busy, we have a lot of work, We’re also going to need other people working for us, but it is not possible now because of financial limits….so we prefer to continue only us two for now, it is not easy, but we survive, but above all, we are really satisfied because we are doing a really good job. For us this satisfaction is more important than anything else.
About the other guys in the band, Ciacio the bassplayer is working together with his father, they are truck drivers…. Mario, the guitar player , he is studying music and he is a music teacher….Bacchetta, the drummer, finished the music school last year and he is working in some music projects.
7.OBVIOUSLY YOU TOUR A LOT. ARE TOURS AND GIGS THE ONLY WAY TO PROMOTE YOUR MUSIC PLAYING LIVE IN THESE MODERN INTERNET TIMES WHEN EVERYONE CAN PIRATE AND DOWNLOAD MUSIC ANYWHERE? ARE YOU ANGRY AT PEOPLE WHO DON´T BUY YOUR MUSIC, WHAT IS YOUR OPINION OF PIRACY?
I really think bands must play, tours and gigs are the best way to promote your music, and to spread out messages/subcultures. The concerts are really important also for talking with the people, I love to talk with the people before and after the concerts, I think it is the better way to know the different countries, the people, the local social tendencies. About the pirate dowload I think that the real people, the real fans, they support the bands, maybe they download the music but at the same time they support the band by buying the official band merchandise and go to gigs. Sincerely I’m always happy if people download my music, The most important for me is that the music arrives to the people and internet is a good way to spread out the sound and the noise…
8.RIGHT WING FASCISM IS ON THE RISE IN EU. HOW ARE THINGS IN ITALY? HOW IS LIFE IN GENERAL THERE?
The situation in Italy, like in most parts of Europe, is really crazy. Fascist movement is really growing up using the migrant crisis (for me it is not a crisis at all) to spread out their fucking racist messages. New racist laws for our migrant brothers and sisters are causing a lot of problems to all the good associations working together with the migrants. Too many restrictions and oppression, for people who need help, for people who run away from really hard and difficult situations… We fight against this racist situation, we know another world is possible and we fight for it…We really hope something will change….I wanna be optimist and positive….something will change….I am a dreamer and I still have a dream in my heart !!!
9.I SAW YOU LOVE FOOTBALL. WHAT CLUB DO YOU SUPPORT? ARE THERE MANY FASCISTS AND RIGHT WING BONEHEADS IN ITALIAN TIFOSI SCENE? IS THERE VIOLENCE DURING/AFTER THE MATCHES?
Los Fastidios is a band really involved in football. We support and we have good connections with a lot of antiracist terraces everywhere in the world. Many times in Europe we have played for some “football firms”. We have also played in some really important antiracist football tournaments. I support a little team in my hometown Verona, the third team of the town, Virtus Verona, a little football team playing in the 3th division. A little football team but with a great antifascist/antiracist heart. The team is really involved also in the social causes, its president and coach are one same person (one person) for 37 years now. His name is Gigi Fresco. He is hosting today around 200 refugees….it’s not only football….a little team, with a great internationalist heart. The supporters group is called Rude Firm and there is a big project of the Firm together with refugees brothers and sisters, to involve them in the terraces life.. With the band we have 2 songs written for this team: “Reds in the Blue” (the team colours) and “El Presidente” dedicated to our president/coach and a third new song is featured on the new Joy Joy Joy album, the song is titled Rude Firm. In every concert of Los Fastidios you can see the Virtus Verona scarf hung from the drums. nfortunately in Italy the fascists are really into the football scene too and a lot of terraces are in hands of the fascist groups…. some terraces look today more like fascist political parties than ultras terraces…
10.THAT WOULD BE ALL FOR THE FIRST TIME. YOU ARE COMING TO ZAGREB, CROATIA TO PLAY A SHOW THERE, WHAT ARE YOUR PREVIOUS EXPERIENCES PLAYING IN CROATIA AND WHAT DO YOU EXPECT FROM ZAGREB SHOW?
We are so happy and proud to come back to Zagreb….we played there two times many years ago and it was amazing….We have a lot of friends and fans in Croatia and we are expecting a lot from this upcoming event… I’m sure it will be a great party and a great new experience.
KRAYKULLA-WEBZINE 