Anti-Tetanika is a really great band from Italy which have been so kind here and answered a lot of questions from me. It took place in November 2014

Please tell me a little bit history of the group?
-We are a band born in 2004 in a very small village in Piedmont, in the north of Italy. When we were about 15/16 years old we would always want to play fast music as punk, hardcore and something like that but we live in a hostile place: small towns, villlages and situation linked to the past. There were too many close minded peolpe (as nowadays), many religious people and all of them do not want something new or something different. Think different is bad. So when you are young in these small places and you have no options, no alternatives, you can just go away searching something different but we would do something different in the place we were born. After some bad bands with horrible names and after some years finally Anti-Tetanika were founded.

Please tell me a little about every member in the group right now,  age, family, work, interests and something bad about everyone?
-Well, the lead singer and also a founder of the band is Goblin. He is a videogame developer, he is 30 years old and he is a kind and a good person with everybody but normally he does not like to stand out in large group of people, he is a kind of lone wolf. His family is his girlfriend and nobody else. Something bad about him? Too many times he tends to isolate himself.
Nathan is the drummer. He is also a founder of the band and he is 24 years old. He is a painter but also an amateur tattoo artist. He is really shy and introvert. The only bad thing with Nathan is his memory: He always forgets everything! “Hey nathan, next saturday we have a gig!” “Fuck yeah, that’s great!” and after few seconds he can say “When we have to play? This saturday or the next one?”. At the end there is 
Frank. He plays the bass guitar, he is 29 and he prepares cars’ ECU system. We know him for a long time but he arrives in the band in 2007. He is always in when there is something to do with the band and he is always in to spread chaos and happiness but he is too much polemical with everybody! We like him with all his virtues and vices!
The fourth member is unknown because actually we are waiting for a new guitar player, the old one has decided to go away and do something else.

Anti-Tetanika….why does that mean?
-It is the italian name of the vaccine to prevent tetanus but with a - between Anti and Tetanika. One night, after the band was born, we were trying to find a name but we got bad an stupid ideas. We were talking with and old friend and telling him all the names we have found. At the end of the night, after too many beers, he said “I do not understand nothing about this conversation… so is the name of the band… Anti-Tetanika?” we have never ever tell him this name but we like the idea that he has found a name for us so we decide to keep it. It is not a great name but we were happy about the way we have found it.

Your influences comes a lot from old Italian hardcore like Negazione, Wretched, Indigesti I Think, am I right? Favorites from the past?
-Yes you are right, especially for Negazione because we love them and we have also done a remake of one of their best songs on our last album. They’re geniuses for us. We all listen to old school hardcore from the 80s. Italian hardcore like Peggio punx, Wretched, Declino, Crash Box and all the other italian bands of the past. Obviously we love and take inspirations from band of the past not also of the italian scene, for example Bad Brains, Dead Kennedys, DOA, Cyrcle Jerks… there are too many bands all around the world that have had an influence on our life, from the past till the present. We love to listen Anarcho Punk, Crust, Grindcore, Trashcore, some Metal and Rap.

What´s the best thing with playing live? I can imagine with your fast music that it´s wild?
-People who sing your songs. When you begin to play you don’t imagine crowd of people screaming your song, but when you see them it’s fucking amazing!

And where is best to play?
-We love to play around italian Squats and Social Centre, is here when the scene it’s true. There are a lot of people in the scene for the music but not for the attitude, if you play in places like squats, it is more simple to find people who have ideas and attitude similar to yours

How is it to play this sort of music in Italy?
-It is difficult, there are not many places to play (expect squats and social centers of course). Everytime we move, we spent a lot of money. Normally we use to play benefits gigs for arrested people or for some anarchist support organization. We do that because we believe in this causes and no refund is provided when you play during this events, 
except some beer, food and a place to sleep. But it doesn’t matter, we like these kind of situations. Things get difficult when you play in bar, pubs and similar places. Here the people that work in these places normally earn money with gigs but the try to give you nothing, except something to eat. Ok guys, we play benefits for free but when we play in 
different venues a minimum refund to come back home with petrol in the car it’s a must have

How would you describe your music in three words?
-Worst Italian Hardcore

What does punk mean to you, is it only a word or is it a lifestyle?
-In 2014 a lot of things are changed from the original spirit of 77 but there is something in punk that still continue beating in our heart and it gives us passion. Probably a lot of people in the italian scene does not know the real meaning of punk, they maybe think is only something about music and spikey hair, something about fashion, but there are also a lot of people that believe in punk as a lifestyle. Punk has saved our 
lives but we are aware that the punk lifestyle that we live has some little contradictions caused by the time in which we live it.

How do you see on downloading, mp3 and that stuff?
-It is good for spreading our music but it kills the romantic side of exchanging demos, tapes, lps and discovering bands that you do not know on small undeground music shops

How is it to live in Italy now? Politically?
-Our enconomical situation is one of the worst in Europe actually. Poor people increase in a large percentage every year, we have had 3 technical governments that thaught they can save Italy but the actual crisis still remains strong. Government is now only trying to build a famous tunnel (TAV) to link Turin with Lione in France. They think it can save our economy but now they are spending a lot of money for it and also to made the F-35 Eurofighter, antoher death machine for their wars. Where they find all money? They are doing cuts to public health by closing hospitals and they receive a lot of bribes from private companies. Remember that in Italy a lot of local governments but also the big politicians have had relations and agreements with italian mafia. There are a lot of movement against TAV and F-35 but seems to be difficult to create a large front of people to facing the government with a riot (something like was happenend in Greece for example). Also right movements are becoming strong, with this crisis their slogan 
“immigrants have stolen our money and our work” has had support from many ignorant people.

Is there any good bands from Italy now? Is the punkscene big?? How is it in your hometown?
-The punk scene is very big, from the 80s till now we have had a lot of bands and most of them are still alive. Actually one of our favorite band are Congegno, their lyrics are a punch in the teeth. When we were born in 2004 there were no punk bands in our hometown, 2 years later you can count about 4 or 5 bands that for a really small village it is a kind of record! Actually we are 3, Anti-Tetanika, Decomposizione and Beer Killer (some of the components played in M.A.B. Punk, a late 80s band from our hometown). In the early 80s, near our hometown was born a band called Diserzione and they are still alive!

What do you know about Sweden?
-The Shitlickers, Anti Cimex, Mob47,Warhead, Totalitär, Avskum, Driller Killer, Skitsystem, Wolfbrigade, Disfear, Refused, Raised Fist. Then we know something about swedish black metal, the Gotland Grand National Enduro and probably other many good things

Have you heard any other good bands from Sweden?
-All swedish band are good! You’ve got a lot of cool crust band and we love them!

Your lyrics, who does them and what influences you?

-Lyrics are wrote by our signer. They are about everyday life he lives or about experiences he has learned by other people. Sometimes he writes political lyrics. Our singer wrote them with a sense of nihilims, angry, desperation and certainly not with happiness, except for 1 or 2 songs.

Is there any subject that you never will write anything about?
-About pedophilia. He wants to write something about this argument because we fucking hate people that abuse of childs. It is a difficult argument to wrote about but he would like to sing it in order to remember to people that this is a problem and it must be ended now.

Politic and music, does it goes hand in hand?
.It depends. The genre we play does not mean you have to write songs only with political lyrics but of course it mean to play often in places where political activity is fundamental. It also mean to continue the struggle against the same authority you accuse in your lyrics if you want to be a coherent person.

Best political band/artist?
-Crass, Wretched and Conflict. But also a lot of Crust and anarchopunk bands around the world

Do you think that music(lyrics and so on) can change anyones life, I mean people who listens to music?
-It’s a difficult question… we hope our music has not only reached people who lives our same situations but it has also reached people who wants to open their mind in order to better understand a reality different from the one they live. We certainly know that we have helped a comrade imprisoned here, in Italy, by sending him a t-shirt and our last album. He was happy about this present because he helped him to distress 
himself from prison life.

You sing only in Italian, any thoughts of singing in english? The Italian language seems to be a very good hardcorelanguage because even if you sings about something not so important you sound angry?
-Our 1st song ever is in english language, it is called “Where the sun is burning”. A lot of languages sounds good for hardcore because they seem angry but we have decided to sing in italian because we want that people from our country could understand every single word of our lyrics. It could be a limit if you want to play around Europe but it is important for us to play understandable songs in our country because here is were we live our lives. Consider that in Italy the percentage of people who understand, talk and read correctly in english is very low

Can you imagine yourself do a tribute song to a football team, animal rights or something political? Or have you done that already maybe??
-We have done a lot of songs about politics and also one for animal rights but we have never recorded this one. About football… it is difficult, it is not our favorite sport but there was a team that wants a hymn played by us, maybe in the future it could happen

Please tell me a funny thing which have happened during your career and under some gig?
-During a gig, a guy without t-shirt has decided to show off his penis during the gig. We were a bit confused, we laugh a lot but also we remain a little bit shocked. We do not know we could have this effect on people ahahah

How does your audience look like? Which people do you miss on your concerts?
-We have a lot of friends who skates so in our gigs there are always skaters but also a lot of punk kids, anarchists, squatters and so on. There are also many “normal” people, but we do not know how normal they are since they come to our gigs. Which people we miss? Well we definitely miss those guys who say they are looking for an alternative to life and entertainment imposed by institutions. We're certainly not the only alternative, but we see these people who always complain but they do not show up on the few occasions where we can stay together. It is weird

Please rank your five favoriterecords, five favoriteconcerts and five most important things in life?
-Dead Kennedys - Fresh fruit for rotting vegetables
Negazione - Tutti Pazzi
Wretched - In nome del loro potere tutto è stato fatto
Discharge - Hear Nothing, See Nothing, Say Nothing
Crass - The Feeding of the 5000

Our second gig with other friends’ bands
Second time we play with Raw Power
Last played gig: 1 hour without voice becasue the mixer was broken. Our singer has done stage diving all the time while our fans are screaming all the lyrics
The time we play at El Paso Squat, an historical italian squat of the 80s. There were not many people but we feel a great atmosphereLast but not least, the gig we play for a skate contest done by our skaters’ friends AcriminalG Brigade

5 important things in life are very difficult to find because there are too many important things in life
Freedom
Peace
Respect
Love
Solidarity

Is it boring with interviews? Which is the most stupid question you ever have got??
-Oh no, not boring at all. We have not done a lot of interviews because few people interviewed us. But obviously there was at least one stupid question “Do you like to play hardcore?”. Damn man, it is obvious! If we do not like it we do not play it!

Please ask the question you never get but you want to have, ? Ask it and answer it?
-“Why in some occasion you played in your underwear?”
“We do not know precisely how it could have happened. We do not use drugs and on those occasions we were not too drunk. We just decided to play in underwear and although we are not beautiful half-naked, people have appreciated. No one has thrown up when have seen us in underwear.”

Futureplans for the band?
-Find the new guitarist and then we are ready to go again! It would be nice to do a small European tour, let's see if we can do it

For yourself?
-All of us currently have problems to solve. Some have problems with the work, some have financial problems and some problem with health, now we want to put a little order in our lives outside of the band

Wisdomword?
-We believe that an opportunity should be given to all the people

Something to add?
-Our bass player just bought a contrabass, we like to do another band to play rockabilly or rock 'n' roll and see what turns up. it is a fun genre to play and it fascinates us. But Anti-Tetanika will continue to live and play as fast as they can! We would like to thank you for the opportunity you gave us with this interview and the review of the album. 
We also want to compliment you for Skrutt Magazine, it´s really well done. 
Thanks again!