Interview with… GESCHLECHT

I was pleased to have the chance to catch up with the guys from the italian death metal band GESCHLECHT, whose work I had the privilege to meet  recently.
The musicians Amedeo Finati (vocals), Amedeo Casale (guitar), Edoardo Volpato (bass) & Fabio Speroni (drums) formed the band in 2016, sharing stages over the years with many of the big names among the Italian  msuic artists such as Cripple Bastards, Genus Ordinis Dei and Deathless Legacy.
Produced by Richard Meiz (Lacuna Coil, Genus Ordinis Dei) at Eclipse Records, the forthcoming successor to the band’s eponymous EP shows their great ambition and artistic vision.
GESCHLECHT created an interesting album with original impact without being afraid to combine industrial metal sounds with heavier death metal elements.
“New Load Continue” will be released on November 29th by Time To Kill Records, and you, of course, will be updated right in time.

Now, here’s our conversation.

The Void: Why did you choose the name GESCHLECHT, what’s the story behind it?
All: Geschlecht is a german word that have multiple meanings like gender, sex, lineage etc. we liked its ambiguity because we wanted to be a little defiant but at the same time it represents the idea that music can have multiple meanings too depending on who’s listening.

The Void: Tell me more about GESCHLECHT .
Lord Geschlecht: Amedeo F. (Vocals) and I are friends since middle school and we started to play instruments – I think we were like 15 or 16 – we used to jam in a garage with a friend in our hometown ( Ame F. was playing the bass). At first it was just for fun, but then it became pretty serious , Ame F was relentlessly looking for other band members, contacting school mates, or friends from other schools while I kept on writing new songs. We met Edo (bass) on the train to reach our schools and he told us that he was the bass player in a punk band, but since Ame F was the bassist we didn’t need one, so although we were really good friends we didn’t ask him to join our band. We were introduced to Fabio by a guy from my school who called me and Ame F. to play a couple of song to celebrate the last day before christmas holidays break. We were meant to play “Heroes” by David Bowie and “Metalingus” by Alter Bridge (since I’m a huge Alter Bridge fan), but we managed to play only metalingus because the singer screwed up “Heroes” by talking in the mic for like 10 minutes while we were playing the first verse of the song over and over waiting for him to sing, it was a disaster. I couldn’t take it for a minute longer so I stopped playing and yelled “Fuck this and fuck YOU. We’re playing Metalingus”, then Fabio started to play the drum intro and we performed the song. Even though the guy sang really bad, we had too much fun playing together so we asked Fabio to join the band and he accepted. At this point we needed the vocalist, but we really couldn’t find one, it took almost a whole year to find one, then one day during rehearsal Ame F. started to growl for fun and Fabio looked at him and said something like “You have the voice of a demon. From now on you are the vocalist.”. Since we wanted Ame F. to focus on the vocals, we immediately called Edo and asked him if he was interested into joining the band, he was pretty reluctant at the beginning but in the end he decided to be our bass player. We even had a rhythm guitarist for a couple of years but after she left we decided that we didn’t wanted to look for another member and we preferred to be four.

The Void : How can you best describe the music you create?
Lord Geschlecht: I don’t know really, I mainly focus on writing concept albums because I like to create a tale driven by music and I want the music to be kind of influenced by that tale in the way the songs flow, it’s like to read a book with his own soundtrack. Writing songs is always a journey for me and I hope the listener will enjoy it.

The Void: Do you have any influences in the process of creation?
Lord Geschlecht: It depends on the story I’m creating for the album, I don’t like to write random songs and the put the story on them but I don’t write the songs in order, it depends also on which part of the story I feel inspired for.

The Void :  How does it feel to work with Richard Meiz?
Lord Geschlecht: He’s a great professional, really down to earth and honest, he’s always pushing you to do your best and to think outside the box.
WM Fabio: I think that working with Richard was one of the most meaningful and helpful experience for what concerns my musical background and skills. He’s been my teacher since 2017 but also a dear friend, for he has been giving to me a lot of precious tips.
Il Primitivo: He’s my sugar daddy ❤️

The Void: What do you want to express with your debut album? What’s the message?
Geschlecht: Don’t run from reality. I feel like a lot of people these days hide from their life, and the concequences of their decision. They try to find their safe place into virtual things and it sometimes they become addicted to it. But what if those tools decided that you are the tool?

The Void : When was your first contact with music? What was the first band you ever heard?
Il primitivo: I’ve started listening to metal when I was about 10 y/o, starting from Korn, Deicide, from whom I’ve learned to use death voice, Lamb of God to Rammstein.
Seck: I’ve been into music for all of my life, I remember that when I was a little kid my parents used to listen to Italians singers all the time, so that’s how I was introduced to music in general. When I began to explore by myself I found my first music passion: rap. After a while I discovered metal with Slipknot, Behemoth (I’m really into black metal) and a lot of other artist from any kind of genre, from classic to punk.
WMFabio: To be honest I don’t remember my very first contact with music because I was too young, but I perfectly remember when I had my first contact with metal music. I was about 10 years old when my brother in law made me listen to the bands “System of a down” and “Slipknot”. One day he had dined with me and my family and he gave me my first metal album: “Toxicity”.

The Void: When and how did you decide you wanted to actually create music?
WM Fabio: The first time I shared my passion for music with someone was when I was 12. In that period I used to play with my school mates and we had created a group, even if it was only a little cover band of ACDC (and honestly we were really bad). Four years later, when I was 16, I met Amedeo F and Amedeo C. who helped me to grow my passion to create music.
Lord Geschlecht: I decided I wanted to create music the first time I picked up a guitar and it’s still the main reason why I play, I don’t care about being the fastest virtuoso in the world I just want to write songs with my band.

The Void:  What is your most extreme experience from touring / concerts?
Il primitivo : One night in Milan, during our concert, the sound technician did not plug in my spare mic because he was at the bar, I got upset and I jumped over his mixer. Then the security came to kick me out, so I’ve climbed over the stage. All of it while I was singing.
Seck: In Milan. Some guys started a fucking gun fight near the local where we were giggin’. Unexpected.
WM Fabio: I think that the most extreme experience I had on stage happened during one of our last shows. We were in Vigolzone, a small town near Piacenza. While we were playing the last song I remember everyone came up on stage with us and began to jump and mosh. It was a really strong experience, I could swear that I saw people literally landing on my drum set.

The Void: What are your favorite bands (musicians) and styles in music?
Il primitivo: Frank Sinatra, Korn, Pantera, Lamb of God, Deicide and my one and only Rammstein.
WM Fabio: I listen to a lot of music genres so I can’t really pick one but I think that the bands I listen the most are punk/ska bands like NOFX, sum 41, social distortion or dethcore bands like whitechapel, emmure, attila but I like a lot of other artists
Lord Geschlecht: That’s a tough one. I don’t have a favorite style or genre, but if I had to list my top 10 of favorite artists from every genre I would say on the top Alter Bridge (Mark Tremonti is my favorite guitarist), Periphery, Killswitch Engage, Megadeth, Weather Report, King Crimson, Dizzie Gillespie , Salmo (an italian rapper), Nevermore and Belphegor.

The Void: What do you think about the Italian music scene, especially the groove metal/industrial metal/death metal one? Which bands you could  recommend to us?
WM Fabio: Nowadays the Italian music scene is full of good artists and musicians. The only thing I could say is that unfortunately most of them have very few occasions to demonstrate their skills and make everyone know their music. This happens very often in the case of metal music. I think it’s quite sad to say but this kind of music is very misunderstood and underrated, especially when we talk about the Italian scene. Anyway the band I would feel to recommend are: Genus Ordinis Dei, Nymind, Krashah. There would be a great number of other really good bands but these are the most noteworthy in my opinion.

The Void: Are you familiar of the Bulgarian music scene? Have you ever listened to Bulgarian bands/musicians?
WM Fabio: Unfortunately I don’t know any band from Bulgaria. I didn’t have any occasion to know more about this country’s music scene but I hope to learn something about it someday.
Il primitivo: I don’t know any Bulgarian artist, but I’d like to. I do Slav squat in every concert (I’m serious) .

The Void: What do you think about depression?
WM Fabio: I think this is a very difficult matter to discuss. The first thing I would feel to say is that music can help in those hard situations. I know some artists who have told me their stories, their personal experiences. Some of their fans contacted them to say how their music, had helped them to face problems and depression too, savin their lives. So I think I can say music really helps, in these cases too.
Seck: Depression is an horrible spiral, there are a lot of things about this disease to say but after all only one is really important: “You are not alone”. If you really feel depressed remember this, go out and find someone who loves you, someone to love, or, a specialist who can help you. Stay with your friends and your family because this is the only way to go out from that shit.

The Void: What inspires you, what moves you and you’d like to see & feel more in life?
WM Fabio: What makes me go on through this path is my passion. I have always had this feeling for music and particularly for my music instrument. I’ve always thought that playing is a really powerful and beautiful way to express myself and, generally speaking, to express everyone’s personality. I really hope that what I love to do can be appreciated by other people, and that music can inspire other future artists.
Lord Geschlecht: Music itself is my reason to keep going, it’s powerful, I don’t know how to say it properly. It makes me feel free to be who I am, it has the power to unite millions of people, it helps to remember. It helps to forget. I don’t know what is it but that feeling is what motivated me for years.

The Void: Do you have any cause you strictly stand for? Tell me more about it.
All: We don’t follow any cause, we’re just a bunch guys making music for people.

The Void: Feel free to share some final words.
All: We would like to say thanks to everybody who’s supporting us. Thanks for your time. Love music and go listen to our debut album “New Load Continue” which will be out on November 29th via Time to Kill! Thank you all!

Follow the band on FACEBOOK .