Rock as the voice of society — Interview with Illegal Function Call

How did your artistic career begin? What is Rock, Punk and Italian music for you?

Illegal Function Call: It's life... music in general, Rock in particular. Our (music) is the reason why, we continue to rise every morning with our minds ready to face what will come. The Punk, at the root of our production, was a tornado that swept in a blow, all the superstructures, now standardized, of the “rock script” of the time.

When we started it was natural, therefore, to suffer from such energy “purifying”, having the young presumption of “will come in pocket”, having decided to propose only material totally (or almost) in Italian. We started almost by bet Angelo Lo Sciamano came from the positive experience of substitute (to Voice), in a group Dark-Wave, now ended.. and we found ourselves and founded this Italian rock and punk group

Your new project is called “Maybe Ready”. What is “Perse... Ready” of your artistic and life journey?

Illegal Function Call: We were almost 30 years old and, when we decided to leave, we did not want to go on a simple road. We decided to put ourselves back into play completely, trying to build something that would become a long bridge of connection, between what we were and what we are today... older, more ugly and more fat, hoping to be finally even... wiser!

That's right... for this, at its completion, the project will produce a CD with 15 songs and the "Digital Documentation" of the same; a vinyl disc in a reduced version with 6/8 tracks; a DVD entitled "Album the Story". Documento-film on the realization of the project and fragments of our past; and last but not least, the novel that Lo Sciamano wrote in the two years during which the "cantiere" of our "egocentric- madness" opened. This is... “Maybe Ready”... of our artistic and life journey!

At the Sanremo Festival we have witnessed the presence of many young people coming from the various talent shows, who are baffling for the rest of the world. According to the “Illegal Function Call”, are these talent shows a box of conformism or are they a way to help young artists become stars? What is talent for you?

Illegal Function Call: They are both things, a box that forms and contains Star shaped to the dictates of the “business”. If you carefully analyze the Talent phenomenon from the beginning, you realize that of all that mass of poets, singers, musicians all “serious” (or at least so they define them for convenience), there are two, three, maximum four, who really had something to say that they could say it.

The others, have become ghosts that occasionally shake the chains tied to the ankles make their appearance somewhere, milliarding qualities that do not possess! On the other hand, the real “talent scouts” of the record labels, large or small, have completely disappeared, which each year gave true opportunities for creative growth, where it was really existing.

Because now, the record company no longer needs to invest on a concrete project, but take advantage of what it has served on the silver plate, easy notoriety, from TV! The talent for us is to strongly believe in something and show it, with all your limits and imperfections, succeeding in satisfying shortcomings, with heart, soul, transport. We believe that talent is a gift, or you have it or you don't. And if you have it, it's not enough alone.

You have the technique, you're master, you call it talent. But if you do that, you'll be aware then, you don't have talent. The real talent, must be pampered, cared, cared, in-depth and, in addition, must be sprayed with soul, to give it color, body flavor. Let's give you an example so you understand what we mean. “Yngwie Malmsteen” is a great guitar virtuoso, ergo should be called a great “Talento”.

When you hear it play a song, it takes a few thrills... as soon as you listen to the second, you start to feel a certain I don't know that... at the third, you feel annoyed... at the fourth, you read the CD and promise you never listen to it again... all that happens because its executions are technically perfect but, cold without heart... it can never give you the classic punch in your stomach

In the talent show “The Voice” of Italy we witnessed the victory of an extravagant character: Sister Cristina. With the victory of Sister Cristina, can music join a fideistic attitude (of faith) and at the same time can it transmit messages of hope?

Illegal Function Call: We think that music, as in life, everything is possible, even if there is “truth” at the base. We want to say that if you have something to say this something is “Vero”, not the fruit of a commercial consumer calculation, then you can talk about “message”. And, basically, when this happens, this (the message) is always “hope”. Regardless of physiological attitudes that are not the only path to “talk with the heart” and “say” important things.

In the specific example, the doubt is that it was not all real, but a mere calculation, a well-made construction, with the only purpose of making sense that it had raised a solid castle, with the foundations “superiors”.

You're a Rock band, Post- Punk Calabrian. My question is this: these musical groups, duets and boy bands what have affected the youth people even the adult people what can they teach?

Illegal Function Call: “Well! It depends on the Band, on the subjects in question. If, as we said before, they are real and not built at the table and, consequently, respectful of their audience, some of these who draws teaching from their messages, there will be. Otherwise it will be just “fuff”.

When you write your songs, you write them at a particular moment of your life or think of something that is happening in the world and today's society (e.g. violence on women, on children, war, terrorism, abortion other)?

Illegal Function Call: Our songwriting path is not standardized. The process does not happen. Some are born from the cock in the rehearsal room, with the text that is shaped by itself, supported by the game and the carefreeness of the moment. Others, they had a more complex gestation, from the idea of one or the other that compares and amalgams, can be a riff or a rhythmic “TA DA TAM” or a phrase, a thought. “The” is worked, we are excavated and then, however, we are all satisfied, otherwise the piece, is sold out.

Speaking of Children and War, “Caino & Abele... (no more war..)” was born on the night of the Mu’ammar Gheddafi missile attack on Lampedusa, on April 15, 1986. Italy was still a carrier in the Mediterranean, ready to start numerous instruments of death, its allies, towards the lands beyond the courtyard. The fall of the Berlin Wall (November 11, 1986), was still about to come. The two superpowers played “who spits further away”.

The words came out from the first to the last. The two “Powers” have become “Caino and Abel”, as a metaphor for “all brothers and sisters”. And all the victims, who are fatally there always, as for gambling where there is never a winner, are the weakest. And the weakest, they're always the children! And the children cry by hunger, by fear, for a father who has to go, for a mother who knows how to protect them, for a little brother who dies!

But the final consciousness, the picture overturns, with the refusal, the disobedience declared, the affirmation of one’s desire to live, the challenge of always hunting the nightmare...”- (together they plaster their piece “Caino & Abele... (no more war)- ” I will not shoot/ I will not die/ No, I will not kill you/ Via la gue-err-ah- a uh”.

“When “LOS” read us the text, the musical part has written itself, the melody, the phrasing, the time, the crescendo....it was like witnessing an illusion of David Copperfield on the contrary, instead of disappearing, everything appeared, as if it had always been there.

What is the soundtrack of your artistic and life journey?

Illegal Function Call: For Antonio is the music of “Mhavisnu Orchestra” that has discovered it as a child and has always accompanied him ( Antonio: “The beauty and fortune have been, are and, I hope will be, the most extraordinary things, received as a gift, from life. Being to continue to be, a healthy and courageous person and continue to enjoy this extraordinary and incredible journey). For me, Angelo, the models are so many, but first among all Genesis and Peter Gabriel

What are the models you have inspired to become a grand band?

Illegal Function Call: We believe each one of us, at first he had someone defined in his head. Then the community of the daily, directed us to those who at the moment, looked at the scene with grit and personality. We are talking about the “U2′′ of Bono Vox and The Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr. Soon, fortunately, we found our direction this, saved us, also because we were a bad copy of a very great original”

Who do you want to thank for your artistic journey and what are your future projects?

Illegal Function Call: “We thank all those people who supported us and accompanied us on this extraordinary journey of rock and punk music. We thank our families, our wives and children who are our first fans and then our audience. For future projects we are defining the dates of a small and immediate tour not only in Italy and in Italian clubs, but also abroad with a nice surprise. And then if you want to get deeper, you can follow us on our social pages.

We thank you Mariateresa for this interview and hope to meet you around. A hug.”