Chatting with Gatto
It is always lovely to meet the one or other artist during festivals. Either by accident because they run into you or the other way round, or because you are scheduled for an interview with them. In this case it is the latter reason. Nanowar Of Steel have just finished their signing session and I sit at The Village, the artists’ backstage area together with their (not) bass player Gatto Panceri 666 for an everything else but deadly serious interview.
Finding Questions
I have to explain him first: Earlier the day, I sat down with my social group in the campsite and collected their questions just to make the interview a little bit funnier, instead of just asking all the questions, which everybody asks. I said during breakfast, what questions do you have for Nanowar Of Steel? So, the first one would be…
How did you come to the song Disco Metal?
“We wanted to make a song. We wanted to make the most true heavy metal song in the world. But we didn’t succeed. We tried to make the most, most true metal, but we failed, and we made Disco Metal.”
So, the next one is… Why are you on one side so super funny and on the other side so super serious? Because all of you are excellent musicians.
“Well, I’m not an excellent musician, but we are only serious. We only do serious stuff. No, no, no, it’s not fun. I don’t know why people laugh at it, but we mean to do serious things and for some reason people laugh. I don’t understand why.”
Serious fun
I could tell you why. Because it’s funny to be serious.
“I’m sorry, it’s not what we meant to be.”
So, the other thing. Your album, your last album…
“It’s a funny TV show.”
Your last album, how did it run?
“So, the last album, what do you mean? The Dislike To false metal? yes. Yes, it’s an album, it’s full of songs and people would better buy it. It’s a good deal, because there are many songs, a lot of nice songs and it doesn’t cost that much.”
AS Roma
You’ve also written a song about a football match. How much does football affect you? On a daily basis?
“A lot because we own a football… We are the owners of a football club, AS Roma. So, we invested all of the money we make in music, we bought this football club. And so, every time this team plays a match, we either lose money or make money. So, it really affects us a lot, really.”
Okay, so you can be lucky that you didn’t buy your national team.
“No, no, no, we bought AS Roma, it was cheaper.”
Cheaper? How much did it cost?
“I cannot tell you, there’s a no-disclosure-agreement.”
Less than five Euros?
“I can tell you it’s more than four beers. More, more than four beers, at least.”
Can I pay in also one bottle of beer?
“No, no, no, you cannot. Germany lost, by the way.”
A Tour without any kills
So, we’re both out. After the release of the album, you toured with Frozen Crown in Europe and then you went to America. How did the tour spin?
“It went very well, because we did not have any accidents on the road.”
You all survived?
“Yes, we survived, which is the most important thing. Second thing, I think we only got one fine through the whole tour. So, that was very good as well. We almost got something stolen, but they didn’t steal it.”
What was nearly stolen?
“Oh, the people tried to enter the bus, but one of us was inside the bus, so they ran away.”
But Thiefs
Seriously?
“Yes, in Barcelona. The day of that tragedy, we were playing with Tragedy as support for a leg of the European tour. And they got most of their things stolen in Barcelona. And our bus, they tried to enter, but one of our crew was inside the bus, just started screaming and the guys left. That’s how they won against Germany today, because they stole it.”
They stole the victory. But okay. One of my friends asked, do you have groupies?
“No, because we respect women as human beings, and we don’t like calling them groupies.”
That’s good. So, you have girlfriends and wives?
“No, we have groupies. No, no, no. The reality is we prefer to pay.”
No Food At All
What’s your favourite food?
“My favourite food is the one I don’t eat.”
What do you not eat?
“Everything. Like, I don’t eat like 90-95% of all the food that is being produced every day. So, 99%, more than 99%. Almost everything I don’t manage to eat.”
So, you even eat Pizza Hawaii?
“No, no, I don’t eat anything. If you compare the whole production of food in the world, I eat a very small fraction of it. So, it’s basically nothing. It’s negligible. It’s one in ten billion of the food that is being produced. It’s basically non-existent.”
More or less, yeah. Because you encounter 8 billion people and you’re just one small person.
“Yeah, so I don’t eat that much.”
So, you drink more?
“No, not even that. I don’t drink. I quit drinking.”
So, you live from pure air?
“Yes, I live from energy. I eat dark energy.”
A True Alien
I think you’re an alien.
“Yeah, I am. You pretend to be Italian, but you’re an alien.”
What’s your planet?
“Uranus, of course. Because, come on. Why not?”
But why? Why is it Uranus? I thought you would be from Jupiter.
“No, we have a song about Uranus. So, that’s why we have this song about Uranus. Because it’s the planet where I come from.”
And which ones are the others from?
“The others, they don’t come from any planet. They were generated on Earth.”
Oh, so they’re AI?
“No, they were generated by resuscitating some dead corpses in a graveyard. So, they are second-hand human beings.”
Il cane è nel Dallubio
Okay, that explains a lot. But before you go on stage, and without doing interviews, do you have a ritual?
“Yes. We scream one sentence. ‘Il cane è nel Dallubio.’ Which means, the dog is in the Danube river. It’s our secret passphrase. When we go on stage, we scream, the dog is in the Danube, the dog is in the Danube, and then we’re ready to go on stage.
The Danube is the river in Austria, we call it ‘Donau’.
“Donau, yeah. Not only Austria, Serbia, Hungary, Croatia, Romania.”
Do you have a connection to this river?
“Yes, I have a deep connection to the Danube river because the river is deep. It’s very deep. I’m very connected to the city of Belgrade in Serbia. So, I like the Danube river, that part that goes through Belgrade in Serbia.”
So, you’re not connected to Vienna?
“No, to Serbia, of course. Why? Because I love Serbia. It’s very long and complicated, but I’m a big Serbian fan.”
We still have enough time for the whole story…
“I’m a big fan of Serbia, Serbian language, Serbian culture, and music. So, I go to Serbia like twice a year.”
Football again
Why did you create this football song?
“The Passchendaele, whatever. About Italy against Brazil. Why not?”
But why? Because your other guy said he doesn’t like football.
“No, we don’t like football, but we said why not? Yeah, let’s do it. You don’t need to have a reason for everything. Some processes happening in the Danube still don’t have a clear cause. They are causal.”
Okay. Some of your songs have German lyrics.
“ Because I speak German.”
Cologne and Carnivale
Why do you speak German?
“Because I lived in Germany. I studied and I worked in Germany. I studied in Heidelberg and then I worked at the Astrophysical Institute of Potsdam for two years.”
You know, Heidelberg is one of the most northern Italian cities?
“No, that’s Cologne. It’s even worse. Cologne is the northernmost city.”
I think Cologne is more Turkish now.
“Yeah, whatever. But Cologne is my favourite city in Germany because I like the carnival and the carnival songs. I know all of the carnival songs.”
Then you should also go to Villingen-Schwenningen in the back forest. It’s a completely different carnival.
“Yeah, I should, I like carnival in general.”
To be serious or not to be
Are there colleagues or some press people who think you’re not serious?
“Yes, we are serious.”
I know you’re serious. So, they think wrong. Are there some which still think you’re not serious?
“No, no. Some of them do, but they’re wrong. There’s a lot of people who have wrong thoughts. Bad people, bad people. Maybe not bad people, bad thoughts. People may change their mind. They can be good, but the thoughts come and go.”
So, it’s just you who thinks you’re not an excellent musician?
“No, I’m not. I disagree.”
A Musician?
Are you a musician at all?
“No. I’m a theoretical physicist, Computer programmer and AI developer.”
The others, can they play instruments?
“Yes, they can play instruments.”
Incredible. Which instruments do they play?
“They play the harmonic, and one of them plays dead bodies, shakes them with his legs. And he is very good at playing dead bodies.”
How does a dead body sound when you play it?
“You will hear on stage. I cannot do spoilers.”
Favourite Bands To Tour With
No spoilers of course. Is there any band you would like to go on tour with?
“Yes. Nanowar Of Steel. Or Steel Of Nanowar and as third, Of Steel Nanowar.”
Okay, we’re finished. Thank you. That was good fun.
“I knew you wouldn’t take it. You are serious.”
I am very serious.
“Extremely serious all the time.”
I’ve rarely had more fun in less time than during this interview. Even Lisa from Napalm Records said afterwards, “This is a band you have to understand and get into, but you have the right kind of humour for it.” I hope you enjoy what I have written down, and that you have as much fun reading it as I had. Thank you for your attention.
Read our review of the album Dislike Of False Metal here.
Read our concert report of their gig in Frankfurt, April2023, here.
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Please buy merch and physical music or downloads from the bands’ official sources and don’t stream music for free because it steals your artists’ income.
Photos by Friend.X aka Mr. Deep at Rockharz Festival 2024