GTB screamin´ all facts...

Andrea The Schintu

Der Kommissar

GTB and Liliana



Al Mazzotti on max



GTB and fans




GTB and his vices

1. Hi! How Are you? Are you fine?

Yes, I’m fine. Currently working a lot on many different things…

2. We are still waiting for the DVD C.B. Why does it take so long?

The CB DVD has been taking so long because it’s the hell of a work. There’s too much stuff to be put together and the editing is really complex. It takes a lot of time and money. So far, we have 2 chapters almost finished and one in the works. I’ve been working on it every time I had some cash to spend and time to follow it. Consider that sometimes it took 1 full day just to do 3-4 minutes stuff, this because the older video footage is taken from videotapes that lost their quality through the years, so we had to clean the image, use filters… it’s a crazy job and considering that this DVD is gonna feature at least 4 hours of stuff, try to figure out how long it takes to edit it all… we got into a project that is ways bigger than what we expected.

3. Could you please tell us what it is going to contain?

It’s goin’ to include 5 chapters: the first is our full set at Obscene Extreme 2003 shot by 3 different cameras + soundboard super quality audio. The 2nd is a video-report of our first tour in the States: East Coast 2002, including the infamous ABC NO Rio diatribe. The third is all about our further tour in the States (with Phobia): West Coast 2003, including one date in Mexico. The fourth is a documentary about older CB (Alberto the Crippler’s era: 1988-1998) including interviews with ex members and tons of rare VHS footage. The fifth is a documentary about CB with the current line-up (1998 to now) with interviews and live footage from our many tours and shows in that period. Plus something else, wait and see… Patience!

4. Is there any other term for issuing this DVD?

I hope to get it finished by the end of this year, consider that at this very moment there’s 2 guys working on it… but it takes so much time, it’s hard to give a term.. no clear idea.

5. I know you have been criticised by punk scene for your radical stand. Have you ever been attacked by anyone for this?

CB’s stories of fight and quarrels are matter of gossips all around. It’s not a radical stand, it’s just being ourselves without conforming any scheme or rule. We give expression to what we are, not caring too much about what’s good and what’s boycotted in the so-called scene. If one day there’ll be just 3 people standing in front of us because we damaged our reputation thru what cheating assholes say all around, I honestly don’t give a fuck. Reality is not a fucking message-board. CB is all about freedom of expression and being yourself at any price… we don’t care about being accepted or rejected by punks, grinders or any other side of a scene, we play for venting out all the shit we live through and above all we care about being respected… no fake friends no half terms.

6. Could you explan why is Serbia so fascinating for you? Whats your opinion on the status after the break of Yugoslavia? And you opinion on the war after the break between the nations of former YU?

Serbia is very close to me because it’s my blood, my heart and my mentality. I grew up with kids from Serbia, Bosnia and Macedonia, I learnt the language from them, all my childhood and prints forming my personality are rooted in the Balkans. Even my friendship with Alberto the Crippler (the guy with whom I later founded CB) started there, in ex Jugoslavia.. and also my passion from Grindcore. Attending people from Belgrade I discovered a scene already very attached to the early extreme bands, I got the chance to listen to Napalm Death when “Scum” wasn’t released yet and the A.C. Demo ’88 when it was still a rare tape-trading item. Today I’m 31, the whole first half of my life is deeply rooted in Jugoslavia and in the many experiences there. Before the war started, I didn’t have a solid opinion about the different ethnical groups living in those territories even if my best friends were Serbs. The war destroyed all what I had there, above all many friendships and dear remembrances that still hurt me a lot today. There’s several points I never mentioned to anyone becoz it’s very personal stuff, but there’s some things happened those years that fucked me up to the bone and gave me a prime motive. I saw the most of it from the Croatian side and that’s why I grew up with so much hostility, becoz I will never forgive them for kicking out my best friends and taking their houses, and becoz those years I was strongly anti-nazi and the consolidation of the Croatian state has been organized as a xerox-copy of the nazi regime they had in the 2nd world war under Ante Pavelic: they re-adopted the same emblems, uniforms, flag, hymns, currency, and the list goes on forever and ever. Not to mention catholic fanaticism with the Pope himself meeting war-criminals like Ante Gotovina and proclaiming saint shadows of the past like Cardinal Stepinac, a priest that blessed and supported the keepers of the Jasenovac lager where over 600.000 Serbs were slaughtered in so atrocious ways that even the German Nazis were shocked by so much cruelty... This black past (for which nobody ever paid) was brought back to reality by Franjo Tudjman’s Croatia and through the years (after 1990) I just saw all my childhood’s remembrances getting ruined and abused by that crap. As a son of a Jugoslav, I felt ways closer to Serbs and I kept on growing up with them, understanding how things were actually going. Living in Italy I could see how the media in the West have been lying over and over, my people being always demonized and portrayed as aggressors, criminals and only guilties of this war. But going there and seeing tons of things with my own eyes, I could discern where’s the truth and where’s the bullshit. All what the rest of Europe gets about that war is completely fake and pointed to portray Serbs in a completely distorted way. I have many proofs of evidence to confirm what I’m saying, I could speak for hours about that. Ok, even if I went a bit too far, I hope I answered the main points of your question.

7. Can you imagine that you lived in Serbia?

If I would have lived there CB would no longer exist, even if – as I told, CB is somehow born there... My closest friends living there say that we – Serbs in so called diaspora are so extreme and motivated in the struggle becoz we haven’t been there in the hardest times, like 1993-94.. most of those who were there to face the crisis and the hundreds of problems caused by the war and by Milosevic’s bad government – today are kinda resigned becoz they have been bent by so much misery and isolation. I fully understand that. But I’ve always been very close to them and I’m not feeling guilty for supporting their cause from outside… it’s my fate to be here, not a choice for escaping something.

8. Isnt Serbian Nacionalism crazy? (from our point of view)

To me what’s really crazy is stealing a land where people lived quietly. The way you look at nationalism is probably ways far from what I refer to. The main thing I care about is freedom and respect for ancient cultures, history. Serbs have been living in areas like Kosovo and Krajina for centuries, always staying there as a solid majority. Can you imagine your country being invaded by other people changing name and flag some years later and above all kicking you out of your home simply because you belong to another ethnical group?? In 1995, when the Serb forces had been crashed due to foreign interventions in Bosnia and Slavonia, Tudjman’s government organized a military operation called “Oluja” (Storm) and invaded the defenceless Republic of Srpska Krajina. They massacred tons of civilians (there weren’t almost any Serbian military units left there) and caused the exodus of over 300.000 ethnical Serbs that had always lived there. They all moved to Serbia and Kosovo (where they’ve later been massacred due to further ethnical cleansing, here applied by Albanian terrorists). Krajina from one day to another was proclaimed as part of the Croatian state and on the tower of its capital Knin, they put up their flag which as I told, it’s just a revisitation of the Ustasha’s one (nazi). So, to answer your question, I just stand on the side of those who’ve been fighting for their people’s freedom – you should meet in person some refugees from Krajina or Dalmacia to understand that this is not stuff like skinheads doing the right hand salute, it’s just poor people that got EVERYTHING stolen and destroyed. Rather than standing for nationalism I stand for spreading a hidden truth and supporting those who fought for freedom.

9. Lets talk about music. Obscene is currently issuing your last CD. Whose idea was it to reissue it together with the bonuses?

This was a common idea of me and Curby. We did this re-issue mainly because Necropolis Records has completely disappeared leaving our work to oblivion. They didn’t pay us any royalties and never gave us any info on what was going on after the CD got released. So we chose to break the contract and work with labels of friends, like Obscene, Peculio and others. The basic aim of this OBP re-issue is to get it widely distributed in Asia (there’s an Asian pressing coming soon) because I love those countries and I want CB to be heard there, it’s very open-minded kids we feel 100% close to. Anyway, the extra part of the CD rocks, it’s the best Obscene live recording around. And the whole packaging/artwork has been changed with unreleased photos from the grannie snuff footage. The graphic artist did a killer job.

10. When will you produce a new material?

We are slowly working on a new album that will be hopefully recorded in 2006. Besides, we found some unreleased tracks rmade in 1999 that will probably go on a split 9” with Rupture on Haunted Hotel, NYC. And soon we’ll have “Your lies in check” re-issued + some other split releases out, even if with nothing new on.

11. I think that this lineup is the strongest, I mean musically. Don’t you think that your new material sound too smooth?

Well, CB has been always changing through the years. The newer stuff is just more technical and tight… as you told – this line-up is solid, we’ve been playing a lot, so our abilities developed/improved and our musical taste too. The next recordings will be anyway rawer and more aggressive than “desperately insensitive”.. consider that “d.i.” was put together quite in a hurry mainly to have an album with the new line-up around, the next one will be backed by tons of practice and won’t be so digital and clean. Plus, it’s gonna be all sung in Italian like “Misantropo a senso unico”, so you know how’s the feel, ways more direct.

12. Do you still play drums?

Unfortunately NOT. It’s a huge frustration but I work too much and I got zero time left (just for CB of course). But who knows, maybe someday I’ll get back doing something.

13. Could you introduce the band members, hobbies, projects, activities…

Al Mazzotti is the drummer. He works as a violin-maker and he’s graduated in one of the best schools in Europe for this kinda job. So if you need a violin, he’s the best. Hobbies? He has a boat-house on the river Po and he often goes there to party and get stoned. Our bass-player Schintu the Wretched is employed in the office of a huge metalmechanic company and he works a lot, often traveling abroad for his job. He fluently speaks English, Spanish, German and even some French. In his free time I guess his main priorities are his girlfriend, playing in CB and in his other band Entropia… watching movies, collecting records (he’s a huge music fanatic). Der Kommissar is the guitarist. He’s soon goin to be graduated at University for ancient literature. He’s a sportsman (football and kung-fu) + he’s very active in the left-wing Social Center “CSA Dordoni” in Cremona, where we book tons of great shows (we did Nasum, Extreme Noise Terror, Fear Of God, Regurgitate, Phobia, Gride, Yacopsae, Aborted and many more)… Giulio the Bastard is the voice since 1988!!! I make a living selling records (not just the distro-work, this includes other stuff as well), I am a band driver (above all for bands from Torino) and I have other additional businesses. My biggest life-passions are hot girls, cinema (I’m a maniac for movie collectionism), music and at least but not last history of the Balkans. That’s it!!

14. The strong part of C.B. are concerts. Where was your most crazy concert and where was the worst one?

I don’t agree. At least according to me… the thing I enjoy more of us is the records. Crazy concerts? Too many bro, can’t tell which was the top of them all. Well actually the one in Bratislava was something I’ll always remember, no windows, the club completely packed, hot as hell, pogo stagediving inferno and zero oxigene!! I was about to die! The worst one… so many bad experiences, fights, quarrels… dunno, it makes me sad to think about that.

15. Do you remember the concert in Slovakia in Bratislava together with Entropia/Cocroach? There were some problems later!

Problems later?? I don’t remember. Well, as I told it was a totally extreme show with zero oxigene, the room completely packed with infernal humidity.. we played around 20 mins becoz we were close to die. I don’t remember any troubles, all people there were friendly and very supportive. I remind good food but kinda… the organizator didn’t want to give us any beers because he was sXe?? But who cares, honestly I never had any bad experiences in Czech or Slovakia, I love the fanatics there, fuck any gossips around.

16. When can we see you in your second home, Czech?

We are hopefully playing at next year’s Obscene Extreme festival. We had also got some offers to play in Prague but it was connected to some punks that threw shit on me for the same old stories, so we refused. Respect or death as always.

17. Tell me about your plan in the future…

As I told already, we are working on a new album, going on with the dvd editing and we’re putting together some more releases like the “Your lies in check” re-issue, split with Rupture, 3 Way CD with Skruigners and Woptime + some more. I’m also collaborating with Patareni in my rare spare time… so you see what kinda Serbian nationalism when I sing in a Croatian band, hahaha. Well, that’s all. Our official site: www.cripple-bastards.com
Additional questions, infos, hate-mails, merch: serbian_league@libero.it

Giulio The Bastard - september 2005