Interviewee: Bruno
Year: 2009
Website: slowtorch.com
MySpace: myspace.com/slowtorch
Label: None... yet...
Featured on: Loucifer Speaks Exclusive... So far!
Slowtorch never fail to impress me. Their brand of no-nonsense rock has been pummelling my MP3 playing since last year and I never seem to tire of it. So, in an attempt to convert everyone else on the planet into being Slowtorch fans, I set up an interview with Bruno...
Lou: Hi guys, thanks for agreeing to this interview! How's things with you today?
Bruno: Hi Lou, thanks for giving us an opportunity to let people know a little bit about SLOWTORCH... we're excited!
Lou: How long has the band been together and who is in the band?
Bruno: We started out in 2004 as Godmachine and played a fair few gigs in our area.
You can actually download our demo Generator for free from the Discography section of our website at www.slowtorch.com.
The line-up then was different - we had a different singer and bass player and Felix, the guy who recorded our new EP "From Radiation They Came" played drums. In 2005 we got things sorted line-up wise and changed our name to SLOWTORCH, mainly to avoid problems with all the other bands called Godmachine popping up all of a sudden.
SLOWTORCH are Peter on vocals, Karl aka Skan on bass, Andrea on drums and myself, Bruno, on guitars.
Lou: Can you describe the music of Slowtorch in 5 words?
Bruno: Zero-compromise, gritty, dirty, in-your-face rock'n'roll. Does that count as five words?
Lou: Where does the name Slowtorch come from?
Bruno: We were just playing around with words and it kind of came up.
Lou: Which bands do you feel most inspired by?
Bruno: Mainly the bands we currently like best - Black Label Society, Black Sabbath, Clutch, Down, just to name a few.
Lou: What's the best thing about being in the band?
Bruno: Nothing beats the fun of being on the road together...the amount of bullshit you can come up with wile travelling is quite amazing...and of course it's fantastic getting a good response from the audience and reviewers when you've put your life's blood into the music you believe in.
Lou: I've been listening to "From Radiation They Came" quite a bit recently, so I wanted to ask a few questions about it. What is your favourite track from the EP and why?
Bruno: I think each has their own favourite, but the one we'd all agree on is Piledriver, I think - it's simple yet effective and it's great fun to play with that sort of doomy riff in the middle.
Lou: Who designed the cover? It's awesome!
Bruno: Thanks! I came up with the car and the landscape, Peter put the girl in, my girlfriend Tanya helped me with the layout and Skan, our bass player, had an arts guy called David Tomasi do the final touches. It's quite different from what we used for our album "Adding Fuel To Fire", but we liked it and decided to stick with it.
Lou: What, or who, was the inspiration for "Hellboozer"?
Bruno: Well, music-wise we just toyed with a couple of ideas that were different from what we usually do but kind of fitted in, and lyrics-wise it's all about having a couple of beers, raising hell and - playing pool!
Lou: Which song, from the EP, gets the best reaction at gigs?
Bruno: That would definitely be Hillbilly.
Lou: Is there anything about the EP that you'd like to change?
Bruno: If we'd had the money we would have added a couple of songs and maybe spent more time on the recording process itself - it would have been good to have a label backing us and providing distribution...otherwise we're absolutely happy with it, it's definitely the best expression there is of SLOWTORCH so far.
Lou: Which Slowtorch song overall is your favourite (from any album or EP)?
Bruno: That's a tricky one. Peter's favourite is Piledriver, Skan's is Sixwheeler from "Adding Fuel To Fire", Andrea's is Hangman 11, and I'd go for Hillbilly.
Lou: What sort of subjects do you like to write about?
Bruno: Anything from boozing to sci-fi to cars and chicks and backwoods hillbilly shit. According to Peter it's a lot to do with brainstorming, free associations and things that might not always be entirely comprehensible unless you have a very good sense of humour.
Lou: Do you have any plans to make any Slowtorch videos? Or are there already some available?
Bruno: There's only a couple of rather crappy amateur live videos on youtube. We have a couple of ideas, but we honestly haven't had the time to do anything proper yet - there were plans for a video for Hillbilly, tho.
Lou: If Slowtorch could rewrite the soundtrack for any movie, which one would it be and why?
Bruno: Any shitty road movie with weird actors, tough guys and bikes in it. Maybe "Harley Davidson And The Marlboro Man" or "From Dusk Til Dawn".
Lou: What is the Metal / Rock scene like in Italy at the moment?
Bruno: There's loads of bands out there, and we're not short of good ones in all sorts of genres, like death and gothic metal for example, but personally we feel it's not very well organised...too many bands, too few places that put on good shows.
Lou: Are there any other Italian bands that you could recommend to the readers of Loucifer Speaks?
Bruno: Definitely our friends from Graveworm (black/gothic/death), Delirium X Tremens (brutal death metal) and Soulpit (Swedish style death)! Sadly enough, we don't know of any bands like ours in this country.
Lou: Which bands would you like to tour with in the future?
Bruno: Bands like Orange Goblin, Grand Magus or Clutch or Down would be dead cool. And of course, every metalhead's dream would be to play a show with Metallica...
Lou: Do you have any tour dates coming up?
Bruno: We'll be playing a show with Volbeat on 2 April and a couple of smaller shows in the area for now. We're planning on going back to Germany later this year as well and there's talk of heading further north, too, but nothing's confirmed yet.
Lou: Do you have any plans to play a few shows in the UK?
Bruno: We'd love to, and we're working on that. The thing is that just getting to the UK involves a truckload of money... but we'll keep you up to date!
Lou: Where can the readers get hold of your CDs and any other merchandise?
Bruno: Our album "Adding Fuel To Fire" is available on CDBaby and iTunes, and "From Radiation They Came" will be available from the same places starting with March 2009. If you get a chance to come to our shows buy them there and we'll have one or two or ten drinks together and sign the stuff if you want... So far, our merch is available at our shows or through our website.
Lou: Thanks for your time!
Bruno: Thanks Lou, and cheers to the readers of LOUCIFERSPEAKS. COM - we'll see you!