IE: So what’s up Alex?

You and I have been connected through your band and my zine/website since the late 90’s. Hand written letters back in the day turn into emails of today…

Alex: What's up! I used to read In Effect magazine back then and every time I had the chance to put my hands on a new issue it felt great because it was an outlook on the New York hardcore scene and more. At some point I started my first label and distro called Where It Lies Communications, right after Strength Approach and decided to drop you a line the good old fashioned way and get some copies in order to spread the word around. Some way it was exciting to take time and write a letter to someone living so far from Rome who was connected because of the music and the background as well as receiving stuff every once and awhile. I would say that there was more dedication back then because it took a lot of hard work to sort things out from booking a tour to runing a small label and so on and most of the time it paid off well even if nowadays things are a lot easier when it comes to communication and all. On the other hand I see a lot of lack of real dedication these days and people give up too easily on their “hardcore dreams” if you know what I mean.

IE: How old is everyone in the band now?

Alex: Can I keep my age secret? Just kidding…I'm 36 and I'm the oldest in the band. Emiliano (drums) is 33, Rino (guitar) and Alessandro (bass) are 30. We are not really a young band but that's not how we feel and I think it's due to the passion and love for what we do.

IE: After all these years it seems like the band is now getting bigger breaks in regards to touring. Are there families back home in Italy that you all have?

Alex: Not really. Emiliano is the only one who's been engaged for a while but it’s not a big deal when it comes to going on tour. My only concern is leaving my dog Giulia at home but other than that it's all good and we feel good about what we are accomplishing day after day.

IE: Who in the band is OG Strength Approach?

Alex: Just me. I started the band in 1996 and I'm the only original member from the first line up even if I consider Emiliano the other side of Strength Approach because he put a lot of energy and effort in by the time he joined on in 2001.Unfortunately we went through so many lineup changes and it affected the band in so many ways from songwriting to managing every single thing and giving up on some good chances we had but finally in 2008 we got the right people to share things with and everything worked out more easily. Since then I've been able to write the music I wanted to and we did more in the last 5 years than ever.

IE: How has the band been balancing “real life” with regular jobs and other commitments considering the amount of touring the band has been doing more recently?

Alex: It’s not a big deal for me but it takes a lot of responsibilities to do it so often. Regular job? I run a tattoo shop…what else could I do then? It's pretty easy to take days off to go on tour. Beside my business I started a record label called Destroy Your World Inc. to keep supporting the worldwide hardcore family the best way I can but it’s something I can take care of when on the road. Emiliano and Alessandro work with computers but are lucky enough to be able to deal with their time off work and Rino, one of the most hard working hardcore kids I have ever known is working as a bartender right now but he is always ready to give up a job for the love of hardcore music.

IE: You guys just finished up your first trip to Brazil. How was it in regards to crowd response and the whole tour overall?

Alex: We got back home a couple of days ago from our first Brazilian tour and let me tell you it was a great experience. Brazil has one of the best hardcore scenes in the world and we have been one of the few bands to play 10 shows or so in 12 days because usually bands play half of the shows we did and only on the weekends but we are not used to having days off on tour and thanks to our man Rafa at Seven Eight Life Records things worked amazingly. Every single show was a blast and really can't wait to go back for more.

IE: Was this trip everything you expected it would be? I am sure there is a lot of work that goes on before you leave for the tour and your expectations must be high before you leave.

Alex: It was exactly what I was expecting. Good and dedicated crowds, nice bands and a well planned touring schedule made this such an unbelievable experience. I felt just a bit sorry because Emiliano could not make it this time for the first time in 12 years but since we had more tours coming he decided to stay home and Paulo from Still Strong filled in perfectly on drums and everything went smooth.

IE: I have to hand it to SA as you guys are really racking up those airline frequent flyer points. My scorecard shows the band has played Japan, China, Australia, all over Europe obviously, the US and now South America. What countries have you not visited yet that you are really dying to get to play and check out?

Alex: Beside the upcoming tours we are working on…(US and Europe again), a full tour of China (the first time were doing a full South East Asia tour!) I would love to play South Africa, Mexico and the rest of South America as well. We'll see what 2014 will bring us!

IE: Having traveled to all different continents to play hardcore shows what are some of the major differences you see between countries?  What scenes have grabbed your attention?

Alex: I try to take the best from every place we visit and let me tell you that things change quickly year after year wherever you go. One of the most visited countries for us is Germany for sure and in some ways it used to be better years ago but when it comes to Europe I would say that the best things happen in Portugal and Eastern Europe. Kids are really into the music and get into it from the first song to the last. Some places/kids are all about this “poser factor” and show up with the right tees or sneakers but when it comes to having fun and enjoying the show they don't give a single shit because they are too cool for that. I don't want to discriminate this or that scene because there's no point in doing that but I really hope that it's not gonna be a trend for 100% of the people attending a show.

IE: Can you give us one up and coming Italian hardcore band we should all check out …

Alex: Really hard to pick just one. I would give a shout to Jungle Fever if you dig old fashioned hardcore...

IE: Not taking hardcore shows or scenes into account at all…what have been your favorite places to travel to so far with SA?

Alex: I had a great time in Australia because of the people and the beautiful places we visited. It is probably one of the few places where I would move according to my lifestyle but for now Rome is still my home base and there are no big plans to go somewhere else in the future till I enjoy my time with the band.

IE: When you first get to other cities or countries do you generally feel like one of the people in that scene or more of an outsider until the locals warm up to you?

Alex: Besides a few little differences due to different cultures everywhere we go we feel like were home because we share the passion for the same music and lifestyle. You can feel connected to someone living far from you because of the same background and I feel blessed for that because nothing can compare to this feeling.

IE: The country with the best food that you have travelled to is... and why?

Alex: I would say Ethiopia according to my tastes even if we have never played there. As long as I can find some good vegan food it feels great and once again Brazil was a surprise because of good vegan food that you can find everywhere

IE: I mentioned earlier that you and I were exchanging snail mail written letters way back when. How important has social media been to the growth of this band?

Alex: Everything goes so fast and keeps changing these days and it doesn’t make sense to step out of this ever changing media thing if you want to spread the word about your band, label and so on. First it was My Space and websites, now you have Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr and apparently you are nothing if you are not on it. These are the signs of the times but don't let them fool you because at the end of the day the hard work is the only thing which really pays off more than a 1000 or more “likes” on a social media page. I booked our first European tour via snail mail and phone calls back then so I don't see any problem with that but maybe because we are old school people and really cannot blame all the new bands/kids who are not able to book a hometown show without a manager… LOL.

IE: Let’s get on to your latest EP “Roma Hardcore State Of Mind” which you had Mitts from Madball produce. Craig from Sick Of It All is also on it doing some guest vocals as well. Tell us a little about the new EP which is also a picture disc, correct?

Alex: The new EP called "Roma Hardcore State Of Mind" came out as picture disc only on Destroy Your World Inc. and for the first time in the band’s history we decided to work with a “producer”. Someone who was not related to the band in any way and we asked Mitts to back us up on that. At first it felt a little bit strange because sometimes you have to make changes during the recording sessions but at the same time it was great to try something new especially with singing and all but in the end the result was awesome and it’s definitely our best material to date.

IE: Now tell me this story about Craig’s guest vocals on the track “It’s Our Time”. He starts off in English and then busts into some Italian towards the end of his spot. Did you coach him on that or was he good to go already in regards to knowing Italian?

Alex: I was working at my shop when I got a Skype call from Mitts and Craig during the recording sessions of those vocal lines and I got asked if the Italian part Craig came up with was correct and just then I realized he wanted to do it that way. I didn't coach him because he can speak a little bit of Italian and it worked out really well on that song.

IE: Your last record before this EP was “With Or Without You” which came out in 2012 and an interesting track on there was “In The Belly Of The Beast” which you made a video for slamming the Catholic church about abuse by priests towards children. Was the idea to take on that topic something that you were just seeing on the news or do you have a situation where you may know someone that may have been affected by it?

Alex: I came up with the idea about that song because I got interested in this topic more and more since I opened my eyes and started reading about it. Pedophilia is something that makes me really sick no matter what but when it involves priests and nuns it’s even worse. They abuse pretty much everything, from the body to the soul leaving a scar which will not heal that easily because they know how to make their victims feel guilty and the fact is that most of them live the rest of their lives in silence and just a few make that brave step forward to speak out about it. The worst part of this process is that most of the priests and nuns who abused young kids are protected by the church itself for a number of internal rules. Just because the Vatican City is a state/country to itself and I might say it’s the most powerful for many reasons and their policy about sexual crimes and all. Just keep in mind that the man who legitimated this madness was the ex-pope Ratzinger who refused to sign a paper to denounce the priests and nuns who abused the children at the time of the big scandal of the church of Boston. It's a fact and still the people do not want to open their eyes on what the church really stands for these days and are not able to keep the spirituality away from the big business it represents. We wanted to spread the word about that as much as we could and we had a talk with a friend of ours who is a famous director and he was enthusiastic about our idea. We talked for a while and met the author of “Chiesa and Pedofilia” (Church and Pedophilia) and we decided to work together on this project in order to get more and more people into this through the music and the visual aspect (the video came out in different languages and we are working on more). Take your time and visit www.inthebellyofthebeast.com  to find out more and keep spreading the word about it.

IE: What do you think of this new pope? I am guessing living in Rome that you get more news coverage/exposure to these topics.

Alex: The new pope? I think it’s just a good marketing plan if you know what I mean. Ratzinger gave up for unknown reasons but its damn clear that he was involved in too many bad things and someway he was giving a bad picture of the Catholic church and now we have this “smart” pope from South America pretending to be close to the people and so on. Too much talk in my opinion and definitely a good way to get the Catholic church into the business again since they lost so many people in the last 10 years. People are losing interest in it and nobody wants to get baptized. This way the church is losing money/trust but that's the result of the scandals which came out in the last few years but the Catholic church cannot afford to lose so many people and here comes this new pope who is trying to be more human than the ones who came before. The first thing I heard about him was that he's really down with football and people are enthusiastic about it and believe me when I say that it's the easiest way to get people into it.

IE: Getting back to the touring aspect of the band you guys played the US for the first time at the BNB Bowl this year. Not many Euro hardcore bands make it over to NYC. How were you able to get on that bill and how was it visiting NYC?

Alex: To be honest we already did a US East Coast tour in 2008 but the BNB Bowl was something unexpected for many reasons. After the recording of the new EP I emailed Freddy at BNB to see if there was a chance to play there and at first we were supposed to play the after show on Sunday with Madball and Crown of Thornz. That first email made my day because playing NYC with such great bands means a lot but then everything turned into the two day Judge reunion and we took part in something unbelievable for the vibe and the bands playing there. It was like a dream come true after years spent watching at all those old videotapes with shows from the Ritz back in the day. Crazy! 

IE: What about other European hardcore bands visiting the US? We have not seen many come here to play or tour extensively. Do you think the time is close where we start to see the bigger bands from Europe start coming here to tour?

Alex: I learned that hard work always pays off no matter what. No Turning Back are living proof and we are trying to do our best too. I think there are so many European bands around which deserve the attention of the worldwide hardcore community and I'm pretty sure that little by little more and more Euro bands will make it happen in the States.

IE: Airfare sure isn’t cheap and I am taking a wild guess by saying you are not commanding huge guarantees for playing these shows. It is obvious you are doing this for the love of the music but do you guys end up losing money out of your own pockets when it comes down to figuring in the airfare and everything else that is included when traveling like this band has?

Alex: Playing a single show festival in the States would take a lot of money but on the other hand it's worth doing it because we have the chance to play in front of a different crowd and especially in a festival where no other or few European bands already played. It's not about money in the end but at the same time we are lucky because we play regularly in Europe and this helps us to save money to travel the world. Last but not least these are my holidays and I will never complain about money spent traveling around the world because of the band.

IE: You recently started Destroy Your World label/collective. Please tell us why you started it, when you started it and what it’s all about? What bands are on it?

Alex: I came up with the Destroy Your World Inc. idea because I wanted to do this worldwide hardcore band with me singing and friends from here and there playing music when on the road but because of Strength Approach I turned it into my own label along with Dom (SA ex-guitar player). We decided to give it a go because we are trying to help the hardcore scene our own way by supporting this or that band and working with a DIY attitude and with the right attitude. At the moment we have For The Glory (Portugal), Traces Of You (Italy) and Strength Approach on our roster but there are tons of good things coming up. We are working on a European hardcore compilation called "Times Are Changing" featuring the hardest working bands in Europe and we are really proud of this. Expect it to be out before the end of the year on vinyl only because that's the format we chose at Destroy Your World Inc.

IE: It is obvious that you love this music and the lifestyle that surrounds it all. I just want to ask you what hardcore means to you personally and how much do you love it?

Alex: It's really hard to explain because it’s a 24/7 thing that I live. It’s not a 9 to 5 thing but it's the way I approach every single day and something I find inspiration from. I cannot see myself doing anything different from this because it's the way I grew up and the music, the lifestyle changed my person radically and for the better I guess.

IE: That’s about it. Thank you Strength Approach and you Alex for your continued dedication to playing your music. Anything else that we may have missed that you may want to touch on?

Alex: Thank you for showing interest in the band and once again let me tell you it was an honor to be featured on here. Much love and respect to my worldwide hardcore family. Peace!