Chad Bowar: Talk about the sound of your new album RAW.
Luca Cerardi: The music should represent us for what we are and I think it totally works. We made some steps ahead from the old discs. We concentrated a lot on music, on the production, sound and all that could permit Raw to be a really solid album. We also would play whatever we got in mind and we like. That's why inside the album you can hear modern songs like Pantera, or hard rock songs or thrash music. They are all genres that we like and we put on it. We always thought that playing what we feel is really important and we tried to do it in the best way possible following all of our influences. The album has been made by all of us, together in every step of his production so it sounds really strong, solid and raw. One of our goals was to play music that you can appreciate from the first to the last song. Many times you hear four songs from an album and then you know all. We want to play something that energizes you in each song, step by step , note by note.
How has the band evolved musically since the last album?
We concentrated very much on music. In the past we preferred to play live, and when we had time, to write music. This time we thought that it was the right time to see if we were skilled enough to write good music. We stopped playing live and focused only on the music. I think we evolved very much. We worked very long days, weeks, months over the songs, confronting ourselves and our view on music. We spent days on our ideas working with all instruments possible to try to improve the music. Raw was a very important step to us and shows we can do it in all aspects of production. I think, finally, we evolved as friends and as band mates. It also helped us to learn many other things that will help us for the next record to improve again.
How did you decide on the album title?
It was really funny. In 2004 we played at Metal Meltdown festival in New Jersey. Once we played, we moved up north in Canada where I have family who live in Montreal. We stayed there for a couple of weeks and we enjoyed it very much. One morning we went out all together and my family brought us somewhere outside Montreal to eat eggs, wurst, onions and maple syrup. Well, it was really weird to us cause it was 11 in the morning and in Italy we make a small breakfast and a sweet breakfast. Once we saw all those things we were really shocked. Do we have to eat those things at this hour? So we started to eat and ate all of those things. My singer drank 3 liters of beer and my family was shocked and they called us "raw bad boys." We liked it and agreed. Once we were home we decided on Raw as the name of the album, cause it represents us as people and musicians.
What inspired the lyrics for this album?
Most of them came from the trip we had in 2004 in the USA and Canada. For us was like a dream came true. For a band like us, who came from the Italian northeast fields, to have a chance to play in a festival in the USA was really an almost impossible thing. We always loved music and we always believed in ourselves and in what we were making. After nine years the chance arrived and we were so happy. Once we arrived in the USA it was like a candy for a baby. We couldn't believe we were there. I decided to put my feet on American soil only as a musician. It was a big challenge. In 2001 I went to Canada and I was at Niagara Falls and I saw the American flag in the other side. My uncle asked me if I wanted to go into the USA and I said no, only as a musician. He laughed at me, but in 2004 finally I entered the USA as a musician. I wrote many lyrics about the adventures we had there. Some lyrics were born in Canada from the experiences we had there. A few lyrics were written together once we were back in Italy. One is an old lyric wrote many years ago when I was studying at University.
How was Jack Frost to work with?
It was really cool. He worked very well and we all worked very well together. What I appreciated from those moments was that everybody was focused on music and we did it all like a team and I think you can hear it. I can only say that it was awesome, a great experience.
