Summon: How did the band get started?
Paolo: The band started in 2014 we had the idea to combine our two passions: metal music and brass instruments. The idea came to our head while we were recordings some songs and riffs to promote our brass section: Francesco wrote a song and immediately we said we must find a metal drummer and do a band like this!
Summon: What kind of music do you play?
Paolo: We play Heavy Brass Metal or Brasscore, whatever you call it. It’s basically extreme metal music played just with trumpet, trombone and drums. It sounds like a weird idea but it really works!
Summon: How has the band response been?
Paolo: The response is very good. In the beginning we thought we’ll just play in metal clubs or some heavy music festival but after 4 years i must say we were wrong. We played in every kind of club or festival, from metal to jazz, folk, buskers, and more.
Summon: Where did the band name come from?
Paolo: The name of the band is in Italian (we came from Italy) and literally means Heavy Brass. It’s like heavy metal but with a specific kind of metal: Brass! Brass is also the material of which our instruments are made so it fits perfect.
Summon: Introduce the band members
Francesco Bucci: Trombone player and composer of OP
Paolo Raineri: Trumpet player
Beppe Mondini: Drummer
Summon: Who writes the music? Lyrics?
Paolo: We have no lyrics in our song, it’s just instrumental. In the last album we have a voice in one song: is Travis Ryan from Cattle Decapitation and the lyrics are taken from the Apocalypse Book of the Bible.
Summon: And where do the lyric ideas come from?
Paolo: I can just answer for the song with Travis. Our last album is about the Apocalypse, so we had the idea to took some phrases (of course the most apocalyptic) from this book. The song is called “The Fifth Trumpet” ‘cause when the fifth trumpet start to play then a lot of trouble happen to the human being.
Summon: How many albums/CD’s have you released?
Paolo: We released one EP and 2 Albums.
Ottone Pesante EP (2015)
Brassphemy Set in Stone (2016)
Apocalips (2018)
We also released a book of scores called “Blasphemy Set in Score” that include all trumpet and trombone scores of the 3 releases.
Summon: Tell me about some the songs on the latest CD?
Paolo: Last album is an evolution of our previous releases. It’s faster, it sounds heavier and there are a lot of different kind of metal in it. From grind to black, doom, hardcore…of course played in our way.
Summon: Do you have any side projects?
Paolo: We have some side projects. In the last 2 years we are concentrated on 99% on this band so there is not so much time for others band. Personally I played a lot with David Kollar in the bands KoMaRa (with Pat Mastelotto of King Crimson), The Blessed Beat and I collaborated with him many times. I also collaborate with Nic Cester (the singer of Jet) for his latest solo album and tour and many more…
Summon: Who are some of your musical influences?
Francesco: Influences come from everywhere, but mostly from these great bands and their albums from the 90’s: Anathema, Opeth, Meshuggah, Katatonia, Sepultura, Carcass, Dark Tranquillity, In Flames…
Summon: Which current bands?
Francesco: Wiegedood, Rolo Tomassi, Sumac, Ex-Eye, Colin Stetson, Liturgy, Gridlink, Soldat Hans, Joey Molinaro…
Summon: What is the band like when you play live?
Paolo: Our live is very strong and dynamic. We are just three on stage but we make a lot of noise.
Summon: What was the best band you played with?
Paolo: We played with a lot of bands but I must mention Moe from Norway and of course Napalm Death and Cattle Decapitation.
Summon: Have you guys ever played in another country?
Paolo: We play more abroad than in our country. We did quite a lot of European tour and we played our Brass Metal in all Europe: from Sweden to Croatia, from Poland to France and every country in between.
Summon: How big of crowd shows up at shows usually?
Paolo: It really depend on the venue, the promoter and if it’s the first time we play in town our in the country. We are quite a small band so we don’t have crowd of 1000 people but we are growing up fast.
Summon: How is the crowd response when you play?
Paolo: It depends if the people in the audience know us or not. Sometimes in happened that people was there ‘cause they thought we play kind of jazz and after 30 seconds they run away. Usually people react very well, they are suspicious in the beginning but then they start the mosh pit.
Summon: What is the scene like over in your country?
Paolo: The scene in Italy is full of great bands especially in heavy music. There are quite a lot of clubs and it’s nice to tour around. There are really a lot, a lot of bands touring so sometimes it’s not easy to get the right attentions and promotions for your show. Another strange thing is that young generations are less and less interested in live concerts so it’s kind of usual to have in the audience people that are 30 or more years old. It happen more or less in the whole Europe, not just in Italy. We saw that in Slovenia, Croatia, Czech and Slovakia it’s a little bit different: also young guys go to concerts, great!!
Summon: What made you want to be in this band?
Paolo: The idea behind this band is pure genius for me so I must be in this band. It allows me to push more and more my physical and technical borders and to experiment with heavy sound, I love it!
Summon: And if you weren’t in this band what would you being doing now?
Paolo: I don’t know, probably playing with some bands around or teaching more, really can’t think about it.
Summon: What does the future hold for the band??
Paolo: The band just started the Apocalips tour last November so we’ll be on the road for a while. We’ll travel a lot, play in many great clubs and festival, meet people, make OP bigger and more well known. We’ll not be bored. We are already thinking about our next release and slowly we’ll make it real. In the immediate future we’ll be on tour in Slovakia in February. Here the dates:
18/02 RADIO FM (interview)
19/02 Cultura Klub, Bratislava
20/02 12 Monkeys, Zilina
21/02 Diavolo Zahrada, Banska Bystrica
22/02 Wave Club, Presov
23/02 TBA
Contact them at:
https://www.facebook.com/ottonepesante/
