In addition to holding the illustrious (or dubious) honour of being one of my personal favourite bands of all time, Italys Raw Power is undoubtedly one of the most enduring and consistent hardcore punk bands to emerge from the world of hardcore punk. They formed in 1981 (with roots going back to the late 70s), have eleven awesome full-lengths comprising their extensive discography (yes, even Too Tough to Burn has its latent charm), have weathered unexpected popularity, sinking obscurity, personal tragedy and gone through more ex-members than dudes sitting on the roof of the 3:45 from Mumbai to New Delhi. Their latest album is called Tired and Furious and in issue #115 (which you can order here), you can read an engaging story penned by Adem Tepedelen investigating the perpetual issue the band has had in being too metal for the punks and too punk for the metal heads. The band has also been mentioned at various points on the blog as well: here, here and here.
It seems that slotting into neat categories hasnt been the only problem thats plagued the Reggio Emilia ragers. Ive always maintained that Raw Power got the short end of the stick when it came to the business side of things and the following interview with vocalist Mauro Codeluppi, which was supposed to be a little chat promoting their upcoming east coast tour, only confirms the ongoing and frustrating reality that the band has dealt with since the mid-80s when the Screams from the Gutter and After Your Brain albums and the Wop Hour EP were selling five figures apiece. Read on and discover whats really behind Tired and Furious jams like Things are Bad, Stabbed in the Back, Enough is Enough and, of course, the title track.
OK, Ive got a story for you. Ive been a huge fan of the band since I was a kid, but had never seen you live. Last year, when you guys toured the American mid-west and were playing Detroit, I happened to be on tour myself. I was a few hours away, so I took a day off from the tour I was on to fly to Detroit where I made the questionable move of wandering around the city all day until the show, all so I could finally see you guys live.
[Seeming either totally nonplussed or scared shitless by my borderline stalking behaviour] Hmm, OK. Hopefully we werent that bad.
Nah, man. It was great and something to scratch off the bucket list. Throughout the 90s you toured the US pretty regularly, then there was a gap and now youre back for a second time in two years
Well, actually since my brother [original guitarist, Giuseppe Codeluppi] died in 2002, weve been back almost every year since 2004.
Oh, OK…Really? But most of those have been just a couple weeks, correct? Have you been looking to do longer tours?
Yeah, yeah, most of them have been two weeks, definitely less than 20 days. Probably the last seven or eight years, most of the tours weve done have been on the west coast, up and down between Seattle and San Diego. Sometimes well get out to Reno, but its mostly up and down like this. Last year, we did the mid-west just because we were going into the studio in Wisconsin to record Tired and Furious and that was the first time we had done that in many years. This year, were pretty much only doing the east coast for a change. But between 2004 up until now weve probably been back every year, not that anybody knows, but we have been.
That was going to be my next question. I didnt know youd visited the states so regularly and I consider myself a big fan.
Its mainly because between the bands that tour with us, the organisers of the shows and us, were all coming from the small-time world of organisation or whatever. Weve done shows with the Pyrate Punx [a coalition of punks from different cities that have set-up a network to put on shows, events and tours]; theyve done two or three tours for us and theyre spreading all over the states and are even in Europe where they have a base in a few cities in Germany and England. Theyre going to be involved in a couple of the shows this year. Theyve been very good for us, but unless youre one of their circle, its difficult to go into or find out about one of their places. So, its difficult for, say, normal people to know about those shows and they tend to have the same group of people going to their shows. Then, the other people who organise shows and tours are very small agencies and seem to have the sort of mentality where they have a year to organise something, but dont actually start doing anything until two weeks before you get there, so most of the shows arent advertised and no one knows until its too late.
Youre doing this years tour with Wartorn again, right?
Yeah, this one should be good. Last year we toured with them and it went very well. [Wartorn vocalist] Eric is really good and theres no messing around with him, so this year should be very good. On paper, its looking like it will be one of the best things well have ever done in years.
Last year, part of the time you were over here was spent recording the new record. Are you doing something similar again?
No, this year the first show is on August the 2nd and the last is on the 16th and there are shows every day. This is just going to be a normal tour.
Theres a song on Mine to Kill I cant remember the title where you sing about touring hazards like shitty cops, crappy clubs, shady promoters and so on. Are you still dealing with all the same stuff from that song these days?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know which song you mean, I cant remember the title either [laughs]. Nothings really changed and things are more or less the same. Its a bit better for us because years ago, until we met up with Wartorn, either we shared a van with another band or started renting vans and doing our own thing, stopping when we wanted to stop, drive when we wanted to drive. Last year was one of the first times we had somebody drive for us and everything was organised properly.
If the situation is still the same after so many years
Why do we do it? [laughs]
Well yeah, but also, how frustrated do you get in doing it? Maybe it’s because youre only doing it a couple weeks a year and youre not doing it enough that its going to piss you off too much? But if that sort of thing was going on eight months a year
Ah, no. I wouldnt do it then. A band like Wartorn does it all year; they tour all year around. Two weeks in a van is all right. Three weeks is stretching it. I couldnt live like that. Its not too frustrating because we already know that this is how it is going to be and nobody makes us do it. Its not a job and its not like if we dont do this, were not going to eat or whatever. To me, its a couple of weeks off work and instead of going away on holiday with the family, I go away and do what I want. Weve gone past the time where we thought something big could ever happen with this band and the whole idea that maybe well hit it this year. If it was going to happen, it would have happened 20 years ago, its not going to happen now. So now, its just time off and having fun for a couple of weeks.
Touring the states and Canada is notoriously difficult compared to a lot of Europe. Is touring and playing shows in Europe any different for you guys?
No, more or less its the same thing. The problem with Raw Power is that a lot of people will call us when they need a band with a name who will play for pretty cheap. Because weve been around for a long time, when someone does a festival with all these old timers they think about us because they can get us for a little money. That happens a lot in Europe and Italy and I guess that happens in the states as well. We keep going back to the states though, because I love it there. I like it more than Europe and Italy. Although, if you look at the money situation, itd make more sense to stay in Italy because we dont have to fly anywhere; we can drive four or five, eight hours at the most and make more money than going to the states or Europe. Its the opposite here; there are hundreds of American bands that come to Europe because they get paid lots of money and they get treated a lot better. If you put it all together, the labels weve worked with have never invested any money because they didnt have any money, and we couldnt tour extensively because we didnt have the money. Its a combination of lots of things and weve never had the chance to put them all together properly. Were just lucky people keep calling us back anyway.
Despite everything youve just told me, have you noticed an increase in interest in the band with 1) the internet and 2) people looking back and discovering the old-school and original bands?
Yes. With Facebook and the internet in general, weve been quite lucky. The 90s was probably the worst time for this kind of music. With the coming of the internet and in the last few years, bands like us have picked up and have almost been reborn. We still have all the old people – people who are like my age – who knew us already anyway, and theyre bringing their kids and their kids will bring their friends. Some other people find us on Facebook, see our videos on YouTube and get to know us that way. Technology has definitely been in our favour. We would have probably carried on playing shows here in Italy and the odd show here and there in Europe because they know us, but other opportunities have come up through the internet and changed things quite a lot. But thats been in general; Ive seen a lot of bands going down, down, down in popularity, then all of a sudden theyre back and selling out big shows. It if wasnt for people being made aware they were still around, no one would know about it.
I know Fuck Off and Die Records has reissued the early demos and You are the Victim. Ive heard a rumour they might be reissuing all of your albums. Is that the case?
All of them? I dont know. Theyve done the early stuff and they started working on Screams from the Gutter, again and then theyll be doing After Your Brain, which they just re-mastered and it sounds good. Very good! The original sounds like shit compared to it. Theres stuff on the new version that you couldnt even hear on the original; its like theyve brought back parts of the songs that have never been heard. For the other ones, I dont know what theyre going to do, but theyre not going to work on the more recent stuff.
Thats funny theyre doing Screams from the Gutter and After Your Brain because its always been super-easy to find those two albums. On the flipside, Ive never even seen Fight or Resuscitate anywhere.
Its the same thing in Europe. There are people who are still stuck to the first two albums and dont realise thats not all weve done. They still think we have two or three albums, not 14 or 15 or whatever we have. Maybe we have too many and thats the problem? [laughs]
One of the things Ive always found most frustrating about being a Raw Power fan is watching all this awesome music and potential languish because youve never had a decent team working behind the scenes for you. Do you ever think about what might have been?
At the beginning, or maybe from about 1984-86, probably the main people to blame for not having done much were ourselves. If theres someone to blame personally, its probably me out of everyone. In the first couple of years, we had a chance to move towards bigger things and for one reason or another, we didnt. We had a label in New York asking us to sign up with them for a couple of years and we didnt. That was because in 1984-85, I was doing everything for the band. Because I was the only one who could speak English, I was the tour manager, the driver, the translator and singing as well. But because we were there to have a good time anyway, everyone was always going off to party here, there and all over the place [laughs], and I was always the one to stay back and look after the interests of the band while everyone else pissed around. After a bit, if youre not the official tour manager, you just get fed up being the band babysitter. So, a couple times we had meetings set up with a label in New York and no one wanted to go, so I didnt go either and that was it, they signed someone else. That happened twice; youre really lucky if it happens once and if it happens twice in the same place two years running, you cant blame anyone else. I know that part of the problem was also that we were living quite well in Italy. It wasnt like we have no money, our life is shit, this is our big chance and we have to do this. Our lives here were quite good and it wasnt a live or die situation. Why should we stay in America for so long and eat burgers all day when, instead, I can be at home with my mom cooking pasta for me [laughs]. In the end, we put all these things together, we didnt go to those meetings and here we still are now. After that, it was like, oh well, lets carry on and just have fun. Unless a miracle happens, this is how it is.
So Raw Power is the ultimate lifelong hobby?
Oh yeah, definitely. It was always like that anyway. In the beginning, it was a hobby; we were all young and if anything happened wed figure out what to do at the time. In the last ten or so years, its had to be. When you look at how much we make, we have to look at it like a hobby-plus-holiday. If were lucky, we get to go to new places we havent been and its still cheaper than paying to go somewhere on purpose. Ultimately, were actually saving money.
Have you been to all the places youre playing on this tour?
We have been to all of the cities, but some we havent been to in a long time and I dont think weve been to any of the actual clubs. In 30 years weve done all the main cities, but there are places I cant wait to get back to. For the first time in many years, were going to Austin and I cant wait because its very lovely there. New York is another place we havent been in a long time. In the past, weve done well in these cities, but I dont know whats going to happen now.
Well, thats about it. Thanks for taking the time to do this and good luck with the tour.
Well, thank you for calling. One day, I hope we play somewhere nearer to you so you dont have to fly to see us again. We need more people like you.
Well, maybe, but I dont know if the world does.
[Laughter]
