EMQ’s with Total Recall
Hi everyone! Welcome to another EMQs interview, this time with Italian Hardcore/ Metalcore band, Total Recall. Huge thanks to them for taking part.
What is your name, what do you play, and can you tell us a little bit about the history of the band?
We are Total Recall. Andrea “Ronda” Rondanini (Vocals), Stefano “Stef” Anderloni (Guitars), Daniele “Danny” Calleri (Drums), Luca “Pigo” De Simone (Bass), Stefano “Bleed” Bigoni (Guitars).
Total Recall was born in 2019. The founding members Luca (Pigo) (K-Aagain, Samaritan, Embrace Destruction), Stef (K-Again, Traces of You, Die Trying) and Danny (Embrace Destruction) were already veterans in the Hardcore / Metalcore scene and decided to start to write music together after their common friend and brother Massy passed away after a long fight with his disease. Massy toured with Pigo and Stef for more than 20 years and he wanted the 2 old friends to come back together in a band as they played in different bands for many years.
Stef and Pigo recruited the drummer Danny who played in Embrace Destruction (the last band of Pigo and Massy) and decided to form a band with members who played or toured with Massy. After Pigo decided not be a singer anymore and to take Massy’s bass guitar to keep his legacy alive, with Stef at guitars and Danny at the drums, the line-up started to write music without following any particular influence, with the only purpose to write songs that could reflect the style of music they played with Massy throughout the last 20 plus years. After a few months Andy was added as singer. Andy toured with Massy when he was in Rise Above Dead and his friendship with him went back some 15 plus years, and Stefano (Bleed) as guitarist who also was in Rise Above Dead.
How did you come up with your band name?
After the completion of the line up the band was struggling to find a name that was somehow related to Massy’s memory. One night during the song-writing of a song in the studio we took a break and we had a drink with Massy’s sister. We were just going through some memories and she said that the first ever movie she saw was Total Recall and she saw it with her brother who loved it. We found this story fascinating and the sound of the name was really appealing, on top of that we all love 80’s movies and “The Governator” movies in particular.
What Country/Region are you from and what is the Metal/Rock scene like there?
We are now all based in Milano, IT after some of us relocated back from Holland and UK. The Heavy Hardcore / Metalcore scene is really struggling to even call itself a scene to be honest. There isn’t a specific scene really. The bands are trying to play their way outside of the city and actually outside of the country. Including ourselves.
What is your latest release? (Album, EP, Single, Video)
We released our first Full Length Always Together (https://open.spotify.com/album/3ueIOuLueAszSENTqjJE8s ) in July 2021 via the Australian 1054 Records. The album is the follow up to our first Digital EP Wooden Scars (January 2020) and it was preceded by 3 singles videoclip. Poison Flow (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xumKtnl3Wc), Seas of Illusion (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZ_6VWUOpkQ) and Never Again (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3E23BPuxZ-c).
Who have been your greatest influences?
Music is a crucial part of our life since we were kids so we had several bands who really influenced us throughout the years and most of all the ages. Even now that we are in our late 40’s we still have bands that we consider as influential. This is also a watershed to distinguish what we consider true from the millions of good albums that are only another product on the digital shelf. Also we do not live in the past, we are always on the lookout for new music and new bands even though we are loyal to the great bands of the past.
What first got you into music?
(Luca – Bass Guitar) I started to listen to music when I was just a kid, some tunes were transmitting me emotions and I was fascinated by it. The more I grew up the more I checked videoclips and live concert videos, and I noticed that those emotions could be transmitted by the music not only through a vinyl or a cassette but also live. That’s when I decided to try to play an instrument and the rest is history.
If you could collaborate with a current band or musician who would it be?
Once again… there would be soooo many bands we would love to collaborate with. If we do not mention the big ones (we all come from Metal and Hardcore plus subgenres so you can imagine which bands we are talking about) there would be lots of smaller or underrated bands we would love to collaborate with, but we are not going to mention names as it could be somehow misunderstood as preference for a particular band or genre. We can spoil however that our next release will contain more than one feature.
If you could play any festival in the world, which would you choose and why?
We would choose a festival that for us was an absolute milestone, the Ozzfest. We think it was one of the greatest festivals ever made, always with great line ups and fantastic stages and atmosphere.
What’s the weirdest gift you have ever received from a fan?
We are on the map for 3 years only as TR, 2 of which were heavily influenced by the pandemic. This gave us really little room for touring (we are catching up in late 2022 and 2023) and to create a fanbase in general. As single members we would have more than one story to tell but here we are talking about Total Recall as a unit, so we will stick to that.
If you had one message for your fans, what would it be?
We do not really want to use the term fans, but more people who like and support what we do. We think that regardless the level of notoriety you will reach with your band you always have to remember that you write music to have someone to be able to listen to it. When your form of art is appreciated, and you receive support and feedback from complete strangers who were somehow touched by a song or a lyric you wrote it’s the biggest accomplishment that you can aspire to.
Sometimes this is taken for granted… well… it should not. Ever.
Our message for them would be to maintain their authenticity and to keep supporting hard working bands who prefer the old school way of playing shows for real instead of showing off on the social media. We prefer to hire a tour manager than a make-up artist.
If you could bring one rock star back from the dead, who would it be?
There would be sooo many. Too many went too soon. About talents who left too soon for sure it would be great to take back Cliff Burton and Dimebag Darrel among others.
What do you enjoy the most about being a musician? And what do you hate?
The best thing of being a musician is to have the opportunity to go on tour. With TR we are just started but some of us toured for about 25 years. The best thing of touring is to have the occasion to experience other cultures and habits, it makes you a stronger and a better person. The worst we would not mention, if you like this music you need to love to tour. So yes… we do not hate anything about being musicians.
If you could change one thing about the music industry, what would it be?
We would enforce the infrastructure. At the moment the industry is more focused on the image then on the product. They focus on numbers (views, streams and so on) not on actual substance.
Back in the days you were earning your fans one at the time trying to go on stage as much as you could and everywhere you could, you could book non-mainstream full tours and so on. This was also a good way to distinguish true bands from figurines, only if you had something more than others you were able to succeed. But this was possible cause there where way more venues doing live music, music magazines, radios and even underground TV channels and actually people were used to go to shows, not to pay tickets to see a live streaming concert from home.
Back in the days Guitar Hero was a videogame you know……
Name one of your all-time favourite albums?
That’s really too difficult to answer. We listen to so much music for so many years that is impossible to pick an all-time favourite album. There are so many albums that we think were absolute milestones in heavy music history and we hope there will be even more in the future.
What’s best? Vinyl, Cassettes, CDs or Downloads?
Vinyl. Also quality wise.
What’s the best gig that you have played to date?
As we previously said we are active for 3 years only, of which 2 of them were passed in and out of lockdowns, this gave us really little room to have memorable performances. If we review the shows we played from late 2021 till now the best performance was in France during the Perseverance and Alliance Tour in May 2022.
If you weren’t a musician, what else would you be doing?
Some of us would enjoy more the pub for sure, some would watch Horror or 80’s movies way more probably starting a podcast or whatever, some would play Basketball and try to become a coach, some would ride a bike, all of us would enjoy to spend as much time as possible with families and friends. Simple stuff.
Which five people would you invite to a dinner party?
Ourselves. As long as it is a BBQ.
What’s next for the band?
We are completing the live effort to support the release of our first Full Length Always Together (https://open.spotify.com/artist/4CEQfQQ6l9oOaEJpuaa3co) out pretty much everywhere via the Australian 1054 Records. After a series of club shows in Italy and a package Tour in France we will do a short tour in UK this early November (3-4-5) with No Second Chance and we will embark in small European Run in Italy, Switzerland,Germany, Holland and Belgium in early December (2-3-7-8-9-10). In the meanwhile since a couple of months we are recording some pre-productions.
The new songs are more dark and heavy than the previous ones but at the same time they keep the same attitude. It’s a natural evolution of the 5 of us now working together for 3 years. These new songs are reflecting our common influences in a more natural way. According to what our feelings will be about the pre-prods we will decide if we will hit the studio for a Full Length or for an EP, but for sure in early 2023 we will release new music.
What Social Media/Website links do you use to get your music out to people?
If you want just to hang out and quickly see where to browse feel free to go to our Linktree page (https://linktr.ee/totalrecallhc). You can always use our official web page as a hub as well (https://www.totalrecallhc.com). You can find us on Facebook here (https://www.facebook.com/TotalRecallHardcore/) as well as for Instagram over here (https://www.instagram.com/total_recallhc/). If you want to check out our merch feel free to visit our Bandcamp page here (https://totalrecallhc1.bandcamp.com/) and don’t forget to go check out our video content on TOTAL RECALL TV here (www.youtube.com/channel/UCgVL02wd44dzTDKQdAzDGzA?view_as=subscriber). If you want to listen to all our releases feel free to visit us on Spotify here (https://open.spotify.com/artist/4CEQfQQ6l9oOaEJpuaa3co/)
Jaffa Cakes! Are they a cake or a biscuit?
They are depressed cookies. Because they wanted to become cakes, but they did not make it.
Thank you for your time. Is there anything else that you would like to add?
Thank you so much for the opportunity it was a pleasure to chat with you and remember: When the seagulls follow the fishing boat, it is because they think the sardines will be thrown overboard.
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