DATE OF INTERVIEW:

DRIPBACK

13th August 2011

LUCA GDRAX; LEE4

METAL DISCOVERY: Your music’s described as hardcore metal in the press blurb but you can hear thrash, grind, groove, black, doom…a bit of death in there as well. Do you try and make it diverse or does it just evolve in that way?

LUCA: We like all kinds of music, so…

(Luca Gdrax on the sound bites in Dripback's songs)

"...we’re lucky that we’ve got a load of fucking mates that are up for recording us these sound bites because taking shit from films is like, yeah, cool but I’d rather take it from actual nutters we know!"

Luca Gdrax and Lee4 in the press area at Bloodstock, UK, 13th August 2011

Interview & Photography by Mark Holmes

Photograph copyright © 2011 Mark Holmes - www.metal-discovery.com

RELATED LINKS

Dripback Official Website:

DRIPBACK DISCOGRAPHY

Inhaling the Ashes (2011)

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Thanks to Camila Di Civita for arranging the interview

Dripback Official Facebook:

LEE4: We’re just playing riffs that we wanna listen to, man, and we’re playing riffs that we like…just whatever. We take influences from everything. We like hardcore, we love Agnostic Front and Discharge…

LUCA: We love Dissection, Slayer…

LEE4: Entombed…

LUCA: We like all kinds of bands.

LEE4: It’s just the riffs we love, you know.

LUCA: But we don’t like Hammerfall or Blind Guardian!

LEE4: We’re not trying to do anything new.

MD: But it’s very fresh sounding.

LUCA: Really? That’s good that it sounds fresh.

MD: Oh, definitely, yeah.

LUCA: Because, for us, we’re like, “ahhh, let’s write a fucking Slayer style riff…let’s write a fucking Deicide style riff”.

MD: But it still sounds fresh. And your performance as well – seeing guys absolutely fucking into it as much as you were.

LUCA: We love it. We just love fucking hanging out with each other and having a laugh. There’s no fronts, man, what you see is what you get.

MD: So your EP’s eighteen minutes long but you obviously play some new stuff to make up a setlist at gigs…

LUCA: Yeah, there’s four or five new songs as well.

MD: Yeah, I heard the new stuff earlier and think it sounds great.

LEE4: We played a new song today which we wrote a few weeks ago. We’ve never rehearsed it as a full band.

MD: Seriously?

LEE4: That was the first time we’d ever done it as a full band.

MD: So that was your rehearsal of the track there and then on the Sophie stage.

LUCA: A few lucky people…well, if they’re lucky, I don’t know, maybe unlucky…because the first band that were meant to play cancelled and we had quite a long time to set up. So they gave us one minute and, in that one minute, we played a few of the riffs just to refresh our memories.

LEE4: But that was the first time we’d played it as a full band.

MD: Wow, everything sounded tight, though.

LUCA: Thanks, man.

MD: It said on your Twitter or Facebook the other day that you’ve got some “awesome news” coming up soon…I presume that’s the Lock Up tour in December?

LEE4: Yeah, we’ve got the Lock Up tour.

MD: Is that in this country?

LUCA: Yeah, a UK tour.

LEE4: It’s with Lock Up and The Rotted. We’re good friends with both those bands.

LUCA: We’re really, really happy that Nick Barker is one of our good bros and managed to help us get on that tour.

MD: That’ll be really cool. How long’s the tour? Many dates?

LUCA: They’ve got three booked and I think they’re working on more but I don’t know. Anything’s gonna be good with Lock Up.

MD: So you know if it’ll be the Lock Up lineup as it is on the new record?

LUCA: Yeah, Anton from Criminal, Shane from Napalm Death, Nick from anyone who’s ever been any good, and Tomas from At The Gates.

LEE4: We’re probably gonna be playing a few one-off shows in November; we’re gonna do a couple of free gigs.

MD: My final question, for people who haven’t heard Dripback before, what words do you want to say that will make them go check you out?

LUCA: If you like fast, hardcore thrash and death metal, give us a try, man, you know. Go to our MySpace, listen to it, and if you like it we’d really appreciate it if you get into us and come and see us.

MD: And the live show, what can people expect from the live show?

LUCA: The live show…you can expect a load of old gits, sweaty, covered in tattoos, pulling faces and drinking beer in-between playing riffs!

[laughs]

MD: With a bit of cuntage along the way.

LUCA: Yeah, a few “come on you cunts” thrown in there.

MD: And as I left the Sophie tent after your set you were looping “fucking Dripback”…

LUCA: “Fucking Dripback”, yeah.

MD: That was quite effective that. I could still hear it a hundred yards away and thought it was in me head but, no, it was still coming from the tent!

[laughs]

LUCA: Yeah, we’re lucky that we’ve got a load of fucking mates that are up for recording us these sound bites because taking shit from films is like, yeah, cool but I’d rather take it from actual nutters we know! You know what I mean?

[laughs]

MD: Yeah, yeah, definitely! Well, cheers for your time.

LEE4: That was amazing, yeah, thank you very much.

LUCA: Thank you so much, man, really fucking appreciate it.