Hey! Here’s Attila, drummer and singer of Insomnia Isterica from the South of Switzerland. The other band members are Giulio (bass and vocals) and Mirko (guitar and some vocals).
We play since 2006 and we like to drink some beers while staring at the wall.
Ok, what should I ask, hm... Oh, right! What is L’e Tutt Folklor Records DIY? Tell our readers a little about your label, don't miss your chance for advertisement here!)
L’e Tutt Folklor Records is a record label that Giulio and I founded in 2003 to release the tape of our first band Brigata Resistenza. We had no idea of what we were doing and especially how to do such a thing. It just happened. Then Giulio went on releasing cd-r’s of his other bands Huere Fattoni and Clithorrids (including a split cd-r with Mirko’s old band Asfissia) and I used the label name to release two dvd-r’s of my old death metal band Brutal Martyrium. In 2007 we started getting more “serious” and dedicated in conjunction with Insomnia Isterica.
Just take a look at our contacts and on discogs to see what we have released so far. You’ll find especially grindcore stuff but also some hardcore, death metal and noise.
That’s an interesting question. DIY bands usually try to avoid speaking about money and prefer to give the idea that they are going to play every place for no money. Well, that’s not the case, especially if you are not touring and you have to plan a single gig or a weekend with 2-3 gigs.
Playing in Switzerland is very easy because the country size is very small and most of the times we travel by train. Playing abroad is another story: first of all we have to find a friend with a car that can drive us around because we have no car and we don’t drive at all eheheh, secondly we have to try to cover at least the gas expenses. Otherwise, we are usually open to every proposal.
One more little question about live shows. This year you toured with French band Warfuck, congratulations with losing tour virginity, hehe)) Tell us how it was, I'm sure it was rad!)
Oh yeah! We discussed about doing a real proper tour for years and it finally happened with our much beloved French fried friends Warfuck (BG’s). The problem was and still is in part linked to what I told before. No fucking car and no fucking driver license. As soon as Giulio and I will drive, things will probably change.
The tour was awesome! Every single day was great! Spending time with your best friends (not just band mates) and another set of great people like Nico and Mak, is just the best thing you can do with your silly life. I must remember also Simone, our crazy superhero driver.
As you can expect, we drank half a lake of beer and smoked a quarter of a forest of different dry plant parts. The gigs were all very good and we are still amazed by the fact that also during the week there were always people.
Actually, that record is out now! It’s our new full 7” called “Alcoholarchy”. It’s been released by our own label and a bunch of other friends:
Pablo of Balkongponker Vinilers
Jacek of Grindfather Productions
Ondra of Dead Heroes
Hicham of Nuclear Alcoholocaust
Pedro of Hecatombe Records.
Expect just the same lame grindcore stuff eheheh: some blastbeats, some tupa-tupa, some punk and too many vocal styles to even remember.
We are very happy about this new record and I think it’s one of our best ones. I like the lyrics (in Italian as usual but translation is provided in the insert) and the artwork is amazing.
Everybody knows that the band takes a lot of time, but every person has a hobby, somebody collects beer caps, or used panties, etc) what're your hobbies? What do you like to do to kill a spare time?
We invest a lot of time for the band and the label and believe me or not, we also include drinking in this time, therefore it’s really time consuming.
Beside that, we all love watching tons of movies and tv series, listening to a lot of music and reading books and other stuff.
Giulio is the “artist” of the bunch so he also spends time shooting stuff with his camera and editing it. He also draws quite a lot for ourselves and for other bands and labels. He also drinks alone.
Mirko is producing other kinds of music for himself and for other bands. He also loves gardening…
I read books and tons of stuff on the internet about many different themes like science, music, history, politics, etc. Anyway, I realize that a lot of my free time is in one way or another linked to music. I miss my home and my mountains and I think about that too eheh. I also drink alone.
No, we never said that. We’ve always said that for now we prefer the shorter formats because we are not good enough to write 30-40 minutes of grindcore. In addition, I think that this kind of fast and aggressive music is expressed better on short bursts and on LP’s it may get boring after side A.
One of our next releases is actually gonna be on an LP. It’s gonna be a split, but we do not despise the format, absolutely not.
As far as I know, you're not some mommy's boys and you like to hang out. What do you like to drink? Who's the drunkard champion in your band?)
Ah, this is a good question! We actually are mommy’s boys I guess ahahahah, but yes, we hang out quite a lot. We usually drink beer. Lager beer most of the times but we also like other varieties. Red wine is also much appreciated by the bunch. My favorites are Merlot, Syrah, Dole and Cabernet. Giulio usually prefers heavier wines from southern Italy and Spain. Mirko likes them all ahahah!
Grappa (distilled at home of course) and whiskey are also two favorites of ours.
We are all heavy drinkers, which of course is not always positive or something to be proud of. In general I’m always a couple of steps ahead with the drinking schedule when we are on common ground. That’s just because I’m bigger and more thirsty I guess eheheh.
Yes, Switzerland doesn’t have many grind bands unfortunately. In our region we are the first and only grindcore band. Embalming Theatre are active since 1999 and are very much recognized all over and we also shared a split 7” some years ago. Another Swiss grind band that made a split 7” with us is Exenteration from Bern. Other active bands are Tuer, Incrust and Mumakil. Other bands which were active in the past years are PxNxGx, Daigoro and Gokurtrussell (actually more powerviolence. It was our other band). Of course Fear Of God still are a great inspiration and source of motivation for all of us, even if they were active for just a short time 25 years ago.
Squats are usually open to host grind gigs and there are also people who organize shows even without having a band of their own.
Switzerland has always had a lot of death metal bands but they are playing in their own league and crossovers are not very common.
Giulio is the criminal responsible for all that uneasiness. Check his blog out here!
Attila, I know you tried to play a lot of styles, you played punk, doom, etc.. It is a mark of open-mind talent, if you ask me. Is grindcore some sort of continuance for you?
Yes, I and the other played in many different bands and have had experience with other genres. Talent is probably something for other people (full of alcohol not of talent! cit. of an old t-shirt of ours) but I can agree on the fact that we don’t lack passion and will to experiment and cross over.
Right now I’m playing with Mulo Muto (https://mulomuto.bandcamp.com), an experimental industrial noise band based in Zurich and I have a solo noise project called MeVdA (https://soundcloud.com/mevda). Mirko is producing drum’n’bass and Giulio is working on some new crusty project.
I think it’s just the result of all our different ways of playing and listening to music that drives us to experience other ways of generating sounds. I’m very fascinated with noise and that’s something that without grindcore I wouldn’t have appreciated the same way. It’s a circular thing: you grow up listening to hard rock, punk and the classical metal bands and then you just want more; more aggression, faster rhythms, more extreme vocals and so on. Then you arrive at the further most extreme form of music or noise and you start coming back and you appreciate other forms of music even like classical music and electronic music. It’s an amazing journey.
Could grindcore be called an anti-stress cure? And if it's "yes" - why?
Oh yeah, for sure. When Giulio and I started Insomnia Isterica, we were living a very tense period made of uneasiness, misanthropy, rage, heavy drinking, etc. We were just trying to find a way to express all this negativity and maybe generate something positive out of it. We are not famous at all, we are still playing a genre that nobody cares about, we are still writing “negative” lyrics but our friendship is bigger and tighter than even, we have found a lot of new friends all around and we are definitely happy while doing it. That may sound stupid or silly, but I don’t care. I’m happy to have this in my life, to play in this band with my mates and be able to put all my rage into something positive instead of taking anti-depressant pills approved by the government or go around and smash stuff just because I feel misunderstood and sad.
If you’ve seen pics of me you know that I’m a fatty bastard. I’ve grown up in a valley with cheese, meat and wine and I know the difference between industrial food and “real” food. In addition, I’m an agronomist so I definitely know about the whole food and forage making processes.
To be honest I don’t care that much; it’s cynic and irresponsible but I don’t trust humanity so I don’t care if we are all gonna die someday.
Of course, a part of me is quite sensitive to this theme, so I can also give you a more thoughtful answer. This kind of fast food restaurants are all part of a bad way of conducting business which is called capitalism, we all know that. Anyway, since life sucks and it doesn’t make sense to go out and break their windows with bricks, you can either decide to eat in there or stay home and cook something healthier (which is also not always the case). The result of both these solutions isn’t gonna change the fact that McDonald’s and the others will still be there the day after. We all always hear activists that call for boycotts against this or that brand. People are stupid and lazy. We are not gonna change the world, we are not gonna change the rules. We can just say fuck off to everything and everybody and start living a responsible life outside of the common rules of society and probably we are going to fuck that too.
In Switzerland the quality of the products served in these “restaurants” is actually pretty good so I wouldn’t bother eating there, but I will definitely never eat that shit in other countries like in the US.
Many thanks Alex for your support! I enjoyed answering your questions while drinking mint tea (no alcohol this time) and smoking too many sigarettes.
Cheers and take care!
(Attila & co.)
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