Before Fleshgod Apocalypse’s show in London a couple of weeks ago, I got the chance to catchup with the lovely chap who is Tomasso Riccardi. After a warm welcome and a brief catchup chat we discussed, amongst other things, the band’s plans for 2017 and Italian cuisine. Read on for the full transcription…
What’s the band been up to since we last spoke?
Lot’s of touring! Haha! Touring touring touring. After that little run, we had a European tour with Ensiferum then summer festivals and then an Italian tour and then a US tour with Epica! Keeping very busy!
This is our first full European headliner tour and it’s been going quite well so far. The venue’s kind of small so we can’t do the full-production but we’ll be doing our best!
King had just come out when we last spoke. Since that time, how do you feel it’s been received?
A lot of people have been liking it and the fans have been singing along a lot. Yesterday we played a sold out show in Paris and everyone was singing the choruses. I was like “Oh ok. I don’t need to do as much!”
How have the rest of the shows been?
They’ve been great. It’s a really good package and all the bands complement each other really well. We’ve passed the halfway mark now and I honestly cannot complain. It’s been that good!
What are the band’s plans for the rest of 2017?
We’ll be doing a bit more touring but we’ll be slowing down a bit. We’ve got a few other ideas and may potentially do another video for the album. We’ll be heading to some places that we’ve not played in a while and hopefully we’ll finally be getting to South America.
So yeah, it’s going to be a year of touring and promotion and we’ll see if something else will happen. It’ll be a little less than last year as by the end of this tour we’ll have played 140 shows in the past 12 months. If you add in travel days and the days off then we’ll have been out around 200 days!
February and March will be the time when we have some time off but we’re working on some other appearances here and there. We might start working on some new music but it’s obviously only been a year since the last album. We’ll see though!
You’ve also been announced for Heavy Scotland. Are you looking forward to that?
I am indeed! It’s our first time playing there. I’d not heard of it prior to our announcement.
It’s the first year it’s running actually.
Ah, so that explains it! What kind of style is it?
It’s based in the Corn Exchange in Edinburgh. Quite a big venue.
Oh, I love those kind of indoor festivals. It’s still kind of intimate but at the same time it’s still going to be quite busy. Kind of like Neurotic Deathfest. There’s a big stage and big crowd there but everyone’s closer to you and not miles away!
Now, let’s talk about cooking. You guys have your own wine and pasta…
I’d say I’m the one that does the most cooking in the band. I really like cooking and for me it’s a form of art. Of course, we are Italians and it’s really, really important as a heritage. For me though, if I have some spare money and I want to enjoy myself then I’ll go somewhere and try some interesting food.
I’ve sadly lost some of the options as I became a vegetarian about 2 years ago. However, because we’re close to the Mediterranean, the climate there allows for you to grow a lot of the vegetables that are staples to the cuisine and the fresh ingredients really add to the food. A lot of the classic italian dishes are vegetarian as well so I’m not that limited in my choices! I sometime use the pasta we have in the cooking as well.
What made you guys decide to do the signature pasta?
It was done to sort of show a ‘Made In Italy’ thing. It’s handmade in the village close to where we live and it’s not the kind of thing you can just find in the supermarket. We were really stoked to have this as it’s both exporting something that we like and also bringing something interesting and unique to the merch.
Describe yourself and the band in 3 words.
[Thinks for a bit]
Damn. This is hard!
[Thinks for a bit]
For myself…
[Thinks for a bit]
Energetic, Romantic and absolutely not perfect.
[Thinks for a bit]
I’d probably say the same for the band actually. Mainly because you need a lot of heart to do this technical and challenging thing. There’s still a lot of humanity to what we do and if it was perfect then we wouldn’t sound as we do now.
All photos by Katie Frost.
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