INTERVIEW TO SKULLD! (WITH TEO & PAM)

Hey brutal bangers,

2 months ago I reviewed "Reinventing Darkness" by Skulld and, already after the first listening session, I was really hit by the outstanding music played by these 5 death metal maniacs. In addition, I found also very interesting their lyrics, that deal with occultism and esoterism from a feminist point of view, surely not so common in metal music. So, I thought well to contact directly the band in order to ask them some questions. The final result of this chat is awesome, as you will see soon!

Prepare to read an interview that is very interesting and full of enthusiast answers by Teo and Pam (respectively drummer and singer of Skulld), ranging through various themes regarding the metal culture, the feminism, the squats, the veganism... and lady Ines, the old woman to whom their guitarist Enrico dedicated the Slayer's "Raining Blood"!

Hi guys! Well, how Skulld were born? Did you have already in mind to give to the band a feminist touch since the beginning?

TEO: Skulld was born in a drunk night from an idea of me (junk), Monti and Rappo. We decided to put up a death metal band with raw and punk influences, like in the Swedish style. So we started playing in rehearsal room and looking for other members to complete the team. Since the beginning we wanted to have a female voice, so we moved in that way. When we met Pam, she started playing bass with us, but then she decided she preferred just singing. We were not waiting for something better. Skulld were officially born.

Do you remember your first practice in rehearsal room? How was it?

TEO: The day of the first practice we were just me (junk), Monti and Rappo at the bass. We put up the base of the first 2 songs. It was fun, and we liked what we were writing.

How did you choose the name Skulld? I am asking this also because it's a name recalling more black metal than death metal.

PAM: It was quite hard finding a name for the band, we discussed a lot about it. We wanted something cool but with a strong message, something related to the feminine and to what we wanted to tell as a band, but very metal too :). Finally we found out Skuld, who is one of the three norns of the Norse mythology, who decide the fate of people. We liked the meaning, the sound, everything. To make it ours we changed a little bit of the spelling, adding an "l", to play with the double meaning of Skull too.

What exactly represents the cover artwork of "Reinventing Darkness"?

PAM: For our artwork we wanted something near to our lyrics and athmosphere. We asked Matteo Platti, a friend of Ciufs, a talented artist from Imola, and he drew us this great artwork, where you have a female Shaman surrounded by skulls and other elements. I totally love it and I think he couldn’t express better the soul and the sound of “Reinventing Darkess”.

Why did you decided to title your EP in a way so high-sounding way? "Reinventing Darkness"... what do you mean?

PAM: You can read it in two different ways. If we speak of the music, we’re trying to mix our influences in a new way of playing obscure and dark music. On the other side, the concept is to give to darkness another point of view, where darkness is knowledge. For many years dark arts were banished and punished. Women were burnt and killed because they had (and sometimes even didn’t have) a different view of darkness. That’s the concept that lies in our aesthetic, making darkness a new way of seeing things.

As I said into the review, your music is a Swedish death metal contamined with punk and counting also influences coming from thrash and black metal. Are you agree with me? What are your main influences? At times I hear something close to Grotesque!

TEO: Yes you’re right. We play fast and raw like in the Swedish style. Sure, our influences are from bands like Grotesque, Entombed, Vomitory, Grave, Carnage, but we put inside all the sound we like and we think could sounds good to us. We all come from the punk scene, but of course with our personal influences, and we try to mix everything in our music. So you can easily find punk, crust, death, thrash, black and grind inside our music.

Considering your hardcore punk background, I imagine that often you play in the squats, isn'it? At this point, do you prefer to play in the squats or in more "normal" places?

TEO: Yes, we play mostly in squats, more than clubs. It depends about the situations, but usually we prefer to play and support places like squats. Clubs are just a stage, squats are people that are fighting for freedom, and support causes like veganism, antifascism, antiracism, antisexism, it's part of our lives. That’s where we come from, and we want to spread a message that sometimes in metal is not so obvious.

What is the show of Skulld that you remember with more pleasure?

TEO: We exist since two years, so we have not so many shows behind, but the one I enjoyed the most was our second show. It was an occupation for just one night in Saronno, near Milan. We played with some bands of good friends, and there were so many people with a lot of energy and positive vibes. It was so cool and fun, and a super way to start this adventure with Skulld!

Covid permitting, how many gigs you play every year in average?

TEO: We try to play as much as we can but it's not so easy for us to manage our situaton. We live in different places, Cesena, Forlì, Imola, Milano, and Berlin, and we have also other bands. I play in Contrasto, monti in NoWhiteRag and Guerra, Rappo in Speed Kobra, and Pam in Flowral. So our logistic is not so easy, but we try to do our best to organize and play shows.

After the lockdown, did you restart to play live and/or are you planning new gigs?

TEO: After Covid we are working on new songs. For now we are not playing shows, we are waiting for better moments to play live, and we are mostly focusing on our new songs. [breaking news: after 7 months with no gigs, Skulld came back to play live the 19th September 2020... with their bassplayer Ciufs playing with a broken knee! - Flavio]

How much did the lockdown change you? It changed me a lot!

PAM: Well I think all the period we passed through changed us in many and different ways. I think people understood what really counts in life, and what they truly need. I hope it was an occasion for focusing and make some changes in the way of seeing life.

Did you expect to become "famous" thanks to the "love serenade" that your guitarist Enrico did to lady Ines playing her "Raining Blood"?

TEO: Absolutely not. For Enrico it was just fun and the madness of the quarantine.

What can you tell us about lady Ines? Because of the promotion that you did to her, now is her kiosk very attented by metalheads and punk hehe?

TEO: Since the beginning Ines was always a place to visit for punx and metalheads. She always cooked vegan piadina with seitan, tofu and a lot of other ingredients. Many people from the punk hc scene around all Italy and not only know Ines for her vegan tipical cousine. The best!

PAM: I remember, back in the days more than ten years ago, when findind vegan food was not so easy as it is can be now, that Ines was the place to go when you were playing in the area. She’s an incredible old lady, I really like her. And she is [Enrico] Monti’s neighbour, that’s why he did that video!

The feminism is really almost absent in the metal culture, and still today metal is considered often as a musical genre that is not only "male" but also chauvinistic. So, from this point of view, what your attitude about metal?

TEO: Yes, in metal there is a big macho influence, and we want to bring the message of feminism that in metal is not so considered. With our name and lyrics we want to talk about this point that is not so present in metal.

PAM: I’ve been in the punk hardcore scene for the last twenty years and I think there was great effort bringing the themes of antisexism, feminism and gender decostrunction. I was part of many collectives fighting macho attitude, transphobia, homophobia and creating safe spaces for everyone. It’s something I really would like to bring into metal, cause I do love this kind of music since I was a teenager, and it makes me mad hearing about fascist at shows, machos and disgusting things like this.

Do you know some metal bands that are similar to you, also only regarding the feminist themes?

PAM: At the moment there are two projects in Italy that I like a lot, Marthe and Kariti. I really like the athmospheres and the focus on themes that I like, occultism and esoterism with a female view. There os also a band from the United States called Ragana, that I really enjoy, they are two girls playing a sort of black metal just with guitar and drums. Unfortunately, I don’t know many bands from the metal scene that have a strong focus on this kind of themes, and I’m really sorry for that. That’s why I find it really interesting to bring these themes, so common in the punk hardcore scene, into metal.

Future projects?

TEO: About the future, first of all we hope the situation will be easy to play as soon as possible. We released “Reinventing Darkness” at the end of February and we haven't played live shows yet. We are looking forward to it. In the meanwhile we are working on new stuff in rehearsal, and we'll see what will happen.

FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/skulldbanditaly/

BandCamp: https://skulldband.bandcamp.com/releases