interview with Unforced

 

What´s the name of your band?Unforced

How was the band formed? Carlo formed the band with some friends in 1998

Can you tell about your band? We play mainly thrash-death metal, but everyone of us has particular background and past experiences, so we like to mix them all when we write new songs.

Where are all band members from?/Who does what in the band? 

 We are all from Turin Area, Italy

Carlo: Guitar

Michele: Drums

Lorenzo: Bass

Daniele: Vocals

What was the ambitions of the band when you started? Of course everyone who starts a band has great dreams, we were also much younger, and we were (except from Carlo) different people. Our main aim was to play music we liked, enjoy ourselves while trying to get into some kind of business.. usual things when you start a band. Recently we are more interested in underground\independent scene, since we think it is more "true" and "human"

Could you explain your music to someone that haven't heard you? The name of the band itself, encloses the freeness and the natural evolving of the composing process of the tracks; our musical proposal is a Thrash-Death Metal that is contemned by the various personal influences of every member..
The band is active since 1998, and gave birth to her first demo CD in 2001: immediately after this publication,
the former drummer gave up, and drastically slowed down the activity, that reprised at full throttle only in 2003,
with the actual line-up. After some live-acts we introduce you a new promo CD, "Promo 2005", where you can find 
three songs selected from many we had written so far.
In September 2007, due to many misunderstandings, Patrizio left the band and now we have found a new bass player, Lorenzo.
During 2008 we have recorded a song, entitled Real, for the compilation Nightpieces vol5, by Dracma records. In 2013 We released an EP with 6 tracks entitled "Day to Day", and then played many gigs, some of them with international artists like Master, Sepultura and Dariusz Brzozowski, Dimmu Borgir's and Vesania's Drummer. Unfortunately in 2014 Pino had to leave the band due to work issues so we were stuck for a while. Recently Daniele Joined the Band and we started wit renewed energy! 

Where was your first gig? We played in a small town in turin area, in a kind of city festival

Where was the latest gig? our latest gig was in Turin, supporting Sepultura, in a big venue

Who writes your songs?/ who writes the music who writes lyrics? In the first years Carlo and the old bass player were writing the songs, then Pino was the main music composer and Carlo and Pino together were writing the Lyrics, but every member has always given his contribution. 

Who has the best since of humor in the band? We think Lorenzo! 

What's good/bad with the band?/What genre do you feel you are? Our main strenght is that we are like brothers to each other, and this reflects positively on everything we do, but in particular on live performances, ew are really "together as one" and that's fantastic.

On the dark side we are pretty much slow in releases, but we think it's normal for an amateur combo.

We feel like Thrash-Death Metal, since everyone of us has his particular background we try to mix the various influences in our songwriting, to keep it as much personal as possible

Why did you pick that particular style?/What are your songs about? We liked to play fast, aggressive, but we did not like the typical voice of thrash of 90's so we decided to try with a more "hardcore" vocals, and the outcome was good, at least for our personal taste, hehe! Our songs cover a variety of themes, from social\actual themes to some lyrics derived from sensations given by watching a movie\ reading a book... we feel very free in writing, like the band's name suggests 

Do you write your own material or mainly covers? Mainly we write our own material, but we play some covers we like particulary during concerts

Have you made any albums?/If yes what are they? The latest is "Day to Day", released in 2013, in the past we released some demos\EP's and partecipated to compilations

Do you have any clips on YouTube?  yes, we have a couple of videos on our youtube channel, one is taken live in our reharshall room

How old are you?/What got you started in music? We are between 30 and 40 years old. We started to play music because listening was good, but write your own stuff is much better! For me (Carlo) in particular, playing is the best anti-stress medicine I know

At what age did you start playing? We started playing when we were around 14-15 years old, somenone earlier, someone after

How old were you guys when you first stood on stage? Around 16 years old

What year was the band started? Carlo founded the band back in 1998

Best/worst gig you've played? The best was for sure the opening for Sepultura, we were at our top! The worst we think it was in 2006, in a small venue in Turin, we were told to play as headliner, but we were not told that the healdiner was playing at 2.30 AM with 5-6 peolple still in the club! Complete shit!

What places will you be playing in in the imidate future? We will play 4-5 gigs in our beloved Piedmont (region of Italy.. :p) then we plan to tour outside our neighborhood

Where have you played from then till now? as we said before, we were stuck for a while, so we paused also live activity

Witch band is the best you´ve seen? For some of us the best were Fear Factory in "Archetype" tour, or recently we went together to see Unearth, and they really kick ass!!

Is it always the same songs live? No, usually we try to vary slightly the setlist if we manage

What has been the best/most promising gig so far? As said before, the one supporting Sepultura

Have you had any bigger tours from start to now? No, not yet, we are planning to do one if we manage

How big crowds do you usually play for? usually we can estimate around 100 people

What are the plans for the next year? Next year we will play many gigs and then we think to finish the new album

Where do you usually play? we have our own studio where we play, compose and record our stuff

Is it easier to get your inspiration from older bands or from bands more modern? Carlo is more traditional, and gets his inspiration mainly from older bands, but there are also many modern bands that had very good ideas that could be developed

What are your sources of inspiration? Mainly Sepultura, Hypocrisy, Pantera, but also Slayer, Death, Unearth and aggressive music in general

What's the first step when making a new song? Wo writes the first idea (riffs, beats or other) takes it to reharshalls and then we work on it together

How do you feel about the downloading of music instead of buying albums? we all buy the albums that we liked to listen, even if we got a digital copy before.. if the music is good we buy the cd, it must be supported, although also in mainstream the income for the artist in sellig CD's is really low. Go to gigs, feel live music is a great way to support artists we think!

What would be your dreams for the band? 10 years Louder than Hell! We dream of be able to live by our music, but we know how difficult it is

Besides your own music, what genres and bands do you listen to? within the band we think almost every kind of music is appreciated, depending on who, but as a band we listen from classical, to blues until black metal. If the music makes you feel something and gives you good vibrations, the genre does not matter. Of course we have a preference for Death and Thrash metal :)

What would be your greatest fears for the future? to not be able to keep playing any further for somewhat reason

When you are on stage, what do you fear most then? Technical failures, to not be able to hear anything and so play an awful concert.. stuff like that

Have you been part of any other projects? Every of us had experiences in other bands before, and some of us are in more than one band at the moment

What do you work with outside of the band and the music? Carlo is engineer in an automotive factory, like Michele, Lorenzo is professional photographer and Daniele works for a printing firma  

What would you do if there was no music? we think we would be dead!

How important are your fans? Fans are the blood of a band they give you motivation and keep you willing to fight against difficulties, they are fundamental

How often do you rehearse? once\twice a week usually, but we are all capable to reharse at home alone, so when we gather we have precise schedule and we almost know what to do, so we can enoy it

Name 2 of your own songs you like at the moment?

First time you cry

Needles

What do you feel is the best live band you've seen? Unearth

Do you have any webpages? we are on Facebook, www,facebook.com\unforced  and also on reverbnation and youtube

Any pearls of wisdom for all other bands out there? keep it LOUD!!   

How do you view the musicindurty of today?  it cares only to maximize profits, without care to investigate uderground in search of true talents. They have their schemes, but since it is an industry, if people buy they sell, that's their business, good or bad.

What advice would you like to give other bands? work hard, play first to enjoy yourselves and be satisfied of every little improvement you see

What are the biggest obstacles for a band? in italy first the lack of a true music culture, that makes people curious to discover new music and not to listen only cover bands, then as always.. mooooneyyy.

What is best/worst with playing the clubs? best is bands are closer to fans, you can have a beer together after a gig; worst is you don't find always the right conditions to play at your best  

Tell us about upcomming gigs and why we should be at them? New singer, renewed energy, from January 2016 we will make people bang their head and mosh as much as they want!

How would you describe your sound in one sentence Groovy Impact :) sounds good hehehe :)

What was one of the most quarrelsome times for you in the band? around 2007, before Lorenzo joined the band

Whats your Pre-show ritual? glass of wine, cheers and go!

Do you have anything to add? thanks for the interview, it was a pleasure, and congratulation for your work.... and stay tuned, 2016 will be a really active year for Unforced.

thanks to Robex Lundgren (official)

Gli Unforced, cercano un chitarrista età compresa tra i 25 e i 45 anni, per chi fosse interessato i brani sono eseguiti con chitarre a 7 corde(accordatura in SI).
Le caratteristiche sono entusiasmo, voglia di mettersi in gioco e di suonare prevalentemente pezzi propri.
Le influenze sono gruppi come Sepultura, Machine Head, Fear Factory, Hypocrisy, Lamb of god. Dovrà aver voglia di partecipare attivamente alla stesura dei pezzi.

https://www.youtube.com/user/unforcedmetalband
https://www.facebook.com/unforced
http://unforced.jimdo.com/

Per maggiori info tel 333/6732000 oppure
m.cesario@libero.it

metal.unforced@gmail.com