Interview:	BULLDOZER
Title:	Driven by obstinacy

Once known primarily in clueless circles of weekend metallers as a ‚nightmare’, particular in the German Metal press, only very few bands probably ever can look back on a so hard and stony career, as it should be granted for Bulldozer over all the years.

These Italians went with their highly defiant Black Speed ​​Metal stylistics at a time at the start, as the vast majority of today's pseudo wild, hard music aficionados was not even planned. Now they return with the new studio album „Unexpected Fate“.

Once established in the early 80s, the Milanese thoroughbred rebels begun as forerunners immediately on providing their very raw, inky and speedy Thrash Metal with a good amount of nonconformity.

Bulldozer can be still feel as proud veterans of the Italian and European Speed and Thrash Metal scene.

In addition, the band outside their home is still not very popular.

Bass player und vocalist Alberto Contini aka AC Wild answers the questions.

Especially in Germany the least of listeners seem to be interested in the Milanese bunch.

What do you think are the reasons for this situation?

„We have had several problems in Germany. When our 3rd album “IX” had been released we got a 0 rating in Metal Hammer, probably because the reviewer did not understand the irony of the lyrics and thought they were direct. I don’t think it’s due to the fact that we are Italian. I think we were misunderstood. We had also a big “Misunderstanding” with a german promoter, recently. No problem. Basically we never looked for popularity and we have never had a professional approach. We played always what we like and not what people like, in this way we have had some good reactions in some Countries but never had real success. That’s our way. The way we want.“

What do you think about the global (Thrash) Metal music scene nowadays, in the comparison to the scene in the middle of the 80s?

„Nowadays there are 3 bands for each listener. I think that 90 % of listeners are also players and every player plays in 2,3,4,5 different bands. That’s the actual “scene” looking at MySpace. I do not complaint about that, everybody has the right to be a Micro V.I.P. or just a person loving music and playing. In the middle of 80s we were few bands loving our music and we were concentrated in our band only.“

Which are your favourite Metal acts until today?

„Me, my wife and my sons like Slayer best. We think that “Reign In Blood” is the best album ever. I’m a good friend of Dave Lombardo, the drummer.“

Do you have in your home-country still a dedicated fanbase?

„In Italy we have many fans. The websites dedicated to Bulldozer are made by fans. The fans made a lot of promotion and asked us to return. Of course they are not many thousands but they really like what we do. We decided to avoid doing an official website because we don’t want to “celebrate” ourself. If the fans really like us they create their fan site and support the band. We prefer to have a small but fair and real support rather than create a “fake success”.“

What led to the decision, to reanimate Bulldozer?

„Mainly 2 things. Once I watched (in 2007) an artwork made by a famous terrorist organization and I saw it was the same concept of our “IX” front cover, then I watched the “IX” cover and I realized that there was a prediction in it. I meditated a lot about that, so I decided to propose new messages creating a new album. The second reason is the request of several fans. Of course we have few fans also in Germany.“

With which expectation(s) did you start writing the new music?


„My aim is to propose new messages and new ideas, regardless the fact that these ideas might not be understood, totally or partially. I’m not expecting success. Almost all songs had been composed by Andy before 1990. These songs had not been recorded at that time since we decided to retire in 1990. When I proposed Andy to reform the band we decided to keep our traditional music style, without modern influence and we started from our old traditional music ideas; something of course had been modified, but not much. Our main fan from Latina, near Rome, who never met us in the past, had been very happy when he listened to the new songs: he said we are still 100 % Bulldozer. This is the goal that makes us satisfied.“

Where did you get the main idea for the new material?

„The music is typical Andy style, old 80s style, he’s a big fan of old early Motörhead and Slayer. The lyrics are inside me, like always. My ideas, as a writer, come from my personal experience and my brain. I never got inspiration from books or movies. For example, our song “The Exorcism” in our first album refers to a personal experience: in the 70s I happened to see a real exorcism, which was different from the movie, but scary, because it was real.“


When the best ideas usually came into their mind?


„Regarding music Andy re-listened to all his old demos and tapes. He made a selection in few days then we met for discussion. Regarding the lyrics and the messages it’s difficult to say. Obviously I did not focused all the ideas in the same time. Suddenly a new idea or intuition came to my mind. I also happened to have strange kind of visions but very rarely.“

The new Bulldozer album „Unexpected Fate“ - what's your own objective view on this?

„Honestly it’s my favourite album of Bulldozer. The main message of it is very important for me. I don’t think it’s a masterpiece since we are not professionals, but we really gave our best. Moreover our guest, J. Batten, Billy Sheehan, K. Loureiro who are great musicians really penetrated the project even though they usually play softer music. I really like this album and I’m very satisfied. I have the feeling that some people will really like it while many Metal fans will ignore it.“

Which differences to the previous Bulldozer releases are awaiting the listeners?

„The quality of music is better than before since we dedicated a lot of time to it, moreover there’s the contribute of our great guests and the producer A. Leonardi. The style is 100 % traditional Bulldozer. We used our old instruments, we recorded drums without using time corrections or samples, no grid, no click, keeping the human imperfection. The recording equipment and the experience of the producer made the sound better than before but it’s traditional Bulldozer sound. I think our real fans will like it.“

The front cover of the album accuses the ailing state of the world…

Who or what has influenced you mainly for the writing of the lyrics for „Unexpected Fate“?


„I confirm that all the content of my lyrics come from my personal experience and my brain. The main idea of Unexpected Fate is a particular and personal vision of a Fate which regards the whole human kind: this idea is illustrated in the cover and the lyrics of this title song. The most of the people knows about the many conflicts taking place in this world; some people get worried, some people don’t care, some other people take advantage of them, selling news, selling weapons. I believe one day the Unexpected Fate will enter the scene … I don’t know what will happen then, but I have the feeling that many people will be really worried and scared in that time, and honestly I’m worried, too.“

What is behind the new lyrics?

„Before I talked about the title track. The album propose a main message regarding the Unexpected Fate, and it’s referred to the future. The other songs regards the present and the past: The last 3 songs regards the prediction illustrated in the “IX” cover, a serious and real evil plan to destroy the earth which took his main root in a distortion of an important religion. In “The Counter Crusade” I talked about the origin of this distortion, while, in the song “In The Name” I talked about the partial realization of this evil plan, then I added some personal comments. The songs “Bastards” and “Buried Alive By Trash” are referred to some politicians and their way to face the pollution and waste problems. “Micro V.I.P.” is dedicated to Facebook and MySpace users. (I have no profile in these web-sites). “Aces Of Blasphemy” and “Salvation For Sale” might be the two sides of the same medal, while “Use Your Brain” is a personal message to Bulldozer listeners. Everything comes from my brain and my heart.“

What do you think about nowadays genre-bands which do mostly anything (even change the style of music) just to become and stay popular?

„This is exactly the opposite of our way to do music. Popularity is like a drug. Some people do everything to become popular: recently some people becomes slave of Facebook or MySpace and spend hours to collect fan-friends. The inventors of these new websites are a kind of new masters of puppets. Probably they are very rich. I prefer spending my free time writing, listening to music, walking in the wild.“

What is your opinion - why so rare bands play really good Thrash Metal nowadays ?

„I think that the greatest enemy of music is the computer. Many musicians use computer to obtain perfect rhythm, perfect sound, perfect productions. When they play music live many bands get lost. This problem regards many different kind of Rock and Metal bands including thrash. Moreover I personally like the human imperfect music like “Reign In Blood” and I miss the Slayer essence in their last albums because their producer wants perfect and powerful sound like other US successful bands. When I see bands live I generally like the ”old school” Thrash bands who started playing without the help of the“grid”, the samples , trigger and the many functions of the computer. Of course a musician looking for success does not mind using these tricks to obtain the “perfect production” to reach his goal: he likes to be seen good and doesn’t care if his music is a kind of “fiction”. He loves his success and not his music.“

What drives you most within your creative heart to create such Metal music?

„We all really love the music we play. We know that we won’t get any profit from Bulldozer but we give our best because we love what we do. Fortunately we are not so successful, so we do not receive any pressure from record company to produce stuff suitable for the market. I cannot see any other driving force except our real passion for this music.“

Mind you TV, Radio and Newspapers at all - with all its cruel and silly ,News'?

„I try to be informed about the situation in our planet. I like serious documentaries, serious news, while I hate news presenting crimes as “attracting shows” (the most of them), I hate gossip, too. At the same time I like to be informed about movements or new ideas about people fighting for the protection of our planet. I also try to use my brain as much as I can selecting what I deem interesting and avoiding what I deem bullshit. I think that maybe 90-95 % of TV-Radio-Newspaper is junk for people but there are few channels and documentaries that I respect.“

Any live gigs for Bulldozer scheduled in 2009? Plans for a tour?

„For 2009 we planned only one show in Germany at the end of November supporting Unicef. A small, but fair festival. We are not professionals, so, in the future we’ll make few selected shows. We’ll play for our real fans trying to make a good performance: if they’ll like our music and our ideas we’ll be glad! We did not plan any professional tour. Thank you very much for your interest in our music. All the best!“

© Markus Eck, 05.06.2009

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