Hello Alexander! To tell you the truth there is fucking cold at the moment, outside it's freezing... and by the way I live in Modena, ones of the most polluted cities of Italy if not of the whole Europe... so sorry I shred apart your view of the “sunny Italy”, ahah. Living here it's a shit, but probably that is what has pushed us to play Grindcore, as well of other kinds of fucked-up music and activities.
It's only natural to get some feedback from the listeners about your music. What can you remember from good/bad feedback? (Disregard all these neighbors that suffer from constant Terror Firmer jams))
Playing old school Grindcore in Italy surely isn't for those who are seeking a wide audience, so it's natural to have negative feedbacks from people who don't understand what you're doing and hear only noise. But despite that, it's cool that we had since the beginning also loyal followers who are dedicated to this music/attitude... so I don't complain at all.
You managed to release a lot of splits in 6 years, (and by the way I have four of them in my collection, hehe) and even made a compilation of all these songs on tapes. Where's the LP? Time to strike all grind freaks in the worlds with your full-lenght!))
It's a while that we're thinking about releasing a full LP, but for many reasons we haven't done it.
I think that making split eps with bands of friends is very funny , even if nowdays is a commercial suicide.
But still, grind isn't supposed to sell thousands of copies... right?
Apart from that, you must keep in mind that all of us have other projects and jobs, so it's hard to rehearse constantly and make the amount of songs requested for a full length... and if we must make a full length, I don't to make a “half” work... with filler songs and re-recordings of old songs... It must be a real effort for us, that would take us a lot of time I guess.
Despite that, I think that we will start of working on it after another release that is been planned before... we will announce it after the release of the split with Archagathus.
Your band's name makes me wonder, who is the fan of Lloyd Kaufman in your band? That's why you named your band after one of the most crazy movies of Troma?
We are more or less all fans of TROMA movies and Lloyd Kaufman, but the reason why we have chosen to name our band this way is that at the end of our first rehearsal, when we still didn't have a clue about the name of this new project, we watched the “Terror Firmer” movie. We all enjoyed it very much, and thinked that it would have sounded good... so here it is, finally revealed the reason why we are called TERROR FIRMER. I must also add that I have written some lyrics inspired by TROMA movies... for example “Toxic Mutation”, which has been inspired by “Class Of Nuke'Em High”.
I could swear that guys like you play in more than one band, hehe! As I remember, one of your member perform in local band Repulsione. Tell us a little more about it.
Sure: Matteo plays in REPULSIONE (powerviolence/grindcore), Jolla plays in JESUS AIN'T IN POLAND (old Nasum-style grindcore), Borz used to play in a local band called RIDE NOW WORK LATER (thrashcore) and I play in CANCER SPREADING (stenchcore), BLACK TEMPLE BELOW (raw doom/sludge) and GRAVESITE (old school death metal).
We keep ourselves busy as you can see...
How's the situation with live gigs? How often do you perform on stage? What was the farthest place where you performed? Do you hang out with a beer after the gig?
Nowdays we don't play live very often for 2 reasons: one is the fact I was saying before that we all have other bands and projects and so we have to keep managing all together... the other is there isnt' a grindcore scene in Italy. There are some good bands that we collaborate with and a few dedicated people that share mutual support with us, but really can't talk about “a scene”. About touring it's the same, since now the farest places we have played are Czech Republic during the tour with SPOSA IN ALTO MARE and Germany during the tour with REPULSIONE... but about touring/fests we have some news for 2015, stay tuned and see!
Recently I was cheered up by the news about your split with Canadian lumberjacks Archagathus. How's the progress of making it? Is there any chance we would get maple syrup alongside with this split?)
That split came from the fact that we like ARCHAGATHUS since they were formed and Dan liked TERROR FIRMER. Beside that, they are very cool guys and I hope to meet again soon.... About progress of the split, we are waiting for ARCHAGATHUS songs to send the record on press!! Hope those fuckers will not delay more ahaha... apart from jokes, it should really be out in a few months. And yes, coloured copies will feature marble syrup inside the pressing of the vinyl, ahah.
While I'm getting some beer from the kitchen, tell us about how you formed Terror Firmer.
TERROR FIRMER was born by a chatting between me and Matteo (bass) at a gig in 2008 or so, when we both agreeded that we should have made a band which suited our tastes in extreme music of the late '80s/early '90s: like a sick crossover between the old school grindcore of Repulsion, '80s ultrafast thrashcore of the likes of Cryptic Slaughter and extreme HC of bands like Siege and Larm. Add some more filthness in the vein of Unholy Grave and Agathocles, and so you'll have an idea of our background. After the idea was set, we asked to Jolla (guitar) and Borz (drums), which of course added their own touch and background to the whole thing, and the band started rehearsing. Couple of months later, when our common friend Simone (ex DOGFIGHT, an italian crust/grind band from the '90s) came to know about this band, he instantly wanted to join the project despite the long distance between us (we are from Modena and Bologna, and he's from Latina... near Rome!) since he was/is a real maniac of this kind of music since a lot of time... he joined as a vocalist too so we could have a dual vocal approach in the Extreme Noise Terror/Disrupt way, so TERROR FIRMER line-up was complete. In those years we've made splits with HUMUS, MINKIONS and EATING MACHINE + some partecipations in a couple of grindcore compilations... and played many gigs with the likes of Agathocles, Dropdead, Larm, Massgrave, Malignant Tumor, Cyness, SSS, Agents Of Abhorrence to name a few... But in 2011 Simone is forced to stay on hold and temporalily leave the band for problems with the law, so since then we went on as a 4 piece.
In the next years we've made splits with SOCIAL CHAOS, INSOMNIA ISTERICA, AGATHOCLES + the compilation tape you've mentioned and many more gigs, + european minitours (one with SPOSA IN ALTO MARE and the other with REPULSIONE)
Here's the complete TERROR FIRMER story, it's boring but you asked for it.
What about TV? Do you watch all these junk that's being shown on it? How strong could TV be in terms of brainwashing (in 10-point scale, for example)?
I don't watch TV except for some good movies (which is getting more and more rare to see in the fucking italian television these times) and stuff like South Park sometimes... but it's very unlikely I turn on the TV these days. Fuck off to all brain-washing media, we have a song called “Alienation Of A Generation” that talks more or less about this.
Boring but still important question. What do Terror Firmer plan to do in the future? Something sinister, I suppose?)
Like I told you, after the split with ARCHAGATHUS we will record for anothe release that have still to be confirmed... and then finally we will start working on our first LP.
Beside that, we have just recorded a new song for a compilation LP that gathers all Grindcore/Powerviolence/Fastcore Italian bands... you will hear of it soon, gonna be a blast!
What do you think about modern underground scene/labels/bands?
I think underground scene lost this friendly atmosphere, it's not a huge unity as it's supposed to be. Or am I mistaken?
Yes, I think you got the point. Especially in these last years, it seems it's almost all about shitty social networks “popularity”, downloading, internet sales, trends that come and go... but again, I'm also glad that there are still bands/labels and people which keep it the old way... we're doing all this for THEM, fuck off to everything else.
Do your parents and close friends know about your activity in a band? And how do they react to this? I hope nobody's got thrown outta your own houses because of noisy violent music)
My parents and family doesn't know or care about what I do as a “musician”, apart maybe from getting annoyed by the constant noise out of the speakers of my stereo.... and 90% of my friends are into extreme music as well, so they fully understand what I'm doing and often they share this kind of attitude.
Oh yeah, one more thing, for all these years of activity you were always releasing your music on analog format, only tapes an vinyls. If you ask me, that's awesome, but still it would be interesting to hear what you're thinking about CDs.
I think that vinyls and tapes are the best format for grindcore relases (well, all releases in general).... but personally speaking, I don't have anything against CDs. If there's people willing to release our stuff in such a format, they're welcome. That's why our split with Archagathus will very likely by pressed also in CD format.
Thank you so much for this interview, guys! I'm really looking forward to your new split!
Me too! Be patient a little more, you wouldn't be disappointed if you expect nothing more than a discharge of raw and filthy, mincing grindcore.
Thanks for the interview Alexander... hope to see you soon somewhere, keep on grinding!
Gabri & TxFx
For more info:
Terror Firmer fb
Terror Firmer fb
