Q: How has the tour been so far?
A: It has been very good, but it has also been a tough tour. When you play in a packed club every night, you are always fully focused on stage and want to give your best every night. Overall, we are all a bit tired, but very happy and satisfied.
D: We have played twice in Cologne and twice in Hamburg so far. In Hamburg, we also watched St. Pauli's home game. In Berlin, this is now our third time playing two nights in a row at a club.
Q: You just said that it's exhausting to be on stage every day, but it looks so relaxed and full of energy for the audience. How do you manage that?
D: By the middle of the tour, we were all quite tired, and some of us even got sick. But when you go on stage and see that the club is full and people are having fun together, all of that falls away from you.
T: We are glad it looks so relaxed. But when we get off stage, we are really exhausted.
Q: Do you have a special relationship with Berlin?
D: Sometimes, when we play here, we introduce ourselves on stage as TALCO from Berlin. I still remember our first gig here in Berlin at the Punkitalia Festival in 2005. Nobody knew us at that time. When we think about the best concert of the band, we always remember that performance.
Since that concert, things have only been looking up for us. Since that concert, our popularity in Germany has been steadily increasing. Berlin is clearly a center for us. Our record label is from Berlin. Our management is from Berlin. We have many fans in Berlin, and we feel very comfortable here. Berlin is like a second home for us.
Q: You are playing two concerts in a row in Berlin, and you have already played two concerts in a row in Cologne and Hamburg. How do you feel about playing twice in the same club?
D: It’s a bit strange. We never expected both concerts to be well attended, but it works. It’s strange to play two nights in a row in the same club and still reach a lot of people. It’s a great experience for us.
T: When you play in a different club every night, you can play the same set every night. But when you play two days in the same club, you have to change your setlist as well.
D: We can’t offer people the exact same thing every day.
T: It wouldn’t be fair either, because there are some people who come on both days, and those people would rightly be disappointed.
Q: How is your current album “La Cretina Comedia” being received?
D: “La Cretina Comedia” has been out for a year. For this album, we had the biggest and best promotion so far. The distribution is also very good. This has increased our visibility. It’s another big step for us. In 2011, when “La Cretina Comedia” was released, we played at many festivals, including with bands like “Bullet for my Valentine” or “Rise Against.” We started playing with established bands in the mainstream in 2011. That was strange for us, but the reactions to our performances were all positive.
These performances were only possible for us because of the good work of Destiny and, of course, because of the album “La Cretina Comedia,” which was well received everywhere.
Q: What are your expectations for the new government in Italy?
D: I don’t know exactly. We have 18 years of Berlusconi behind us, and before that, the Christian Democrats were in power for 40 years. We have had corruption for a very long time. The government does not deal with the people it should be there for.
The Italian people are tired.
We estimate that in the next elections, parties from the right will win.
Q: Do you think the left parties have a chance?
D: No. We don’t have a large left party that can provide a counterweight to the right parties. The democratic left is growing, but mostly from members of other parties. The democratic left is mostly made up of old communists and Christian Democrats. We have no idea how to bring all the leftist movements together to form a counterweight to the right parties.
Take homosexuality as an example. The communists have no problem with a marriage of same-sex couples. The Christian Democrats will never be able to accept a marriage of same-sex couples due to their Christian beliefs and the influence of the Vatican.
Q: Can the radical right expect to gain votes?
D: No, only the liberal right. They can be classified similarly to the CDU with Merkel here in Germany.
It is not my wish for them to come to power, but I am personally so tired of 18 years of Berlusconi that even that party seems acceptable to me. It can hardly get worse.
Q: How significant is Berlusconi's influence still?
D: The government is subject to parliament, and many representatives of Berlusconi's party sit there. So there is still a lot of influence, and it will not decrease.
Before Berlusconi entered politics, he built a large media empire, which still exists. Berlusconi and his people influence people through the media, by presenting a certain way of thinking and viewing the world. His media and he himself convey a certain societal mindset, which is terrible when, for example, women are only allowed to appear in bikinis on television shows.
Berlusconi's way of thinking and influencing people is, in my opinion, a modern form of fascism.
There are many things that remind one of fascism. The arrogance, the ignoring of other ideas, and he influences culture. He also influences the education sector; even children in kindergarten and school are shaped in the way Berlusconi desires. He influences people through education. Thus, he creates a certain mentality that corresponds to his ideas, and people react as he wants. They all move in one direction.
Q: Let’s talk about Venice, your hometown. Is gentrification in Venice continuing as it has in recent years, or are there changes?
D: Nothing has changed in that regard. But Venice is a really strange city; everything can only be reached on foot or by boat.
It’s odd that displacement continues unabated, even though Venice is a university city.
The normal residential houses and apartments in Venice are very small because there is simply no space, and the apartments cost incredibly much, even the smallest ones that are hardly larger than 15 square meters.
T: Venice is the tourist city in Italy.
Q: What do you think about the many tourists who visit Venice every year?
T: Venice as a city is beautiful. The city is not the problem.
D: Venice is an island, and the residents behave like islanders, and they are always a bit strange.
T: It’s always like that. Where many tourists go, the people and the communities benefit, but the cost of living for the residents also rises, and not in the same proportion as wages increase.
D: Northeastern Italy, which includes Venice, has not been hit as hard by the economic crisis as, for example, the south of Italy. That is a big problem when one area of a country is richer than another area. In Northern Italy, there is the “Lega Nord,” which is a right-wing party that advocates for the separation of Northern Italy so that they do not have to support the poor south.
The mafia has its roots in Southern Italy because the south is poor. In poor areas with high unemployment and little hope, it is easy to instill the mafia's ideas in people. It is the breeding ground for the mafia and terrorism. Overall, however, the mentality is similar throughout Italy.
T: Politics and the mafia are closely intertwined.
Q: Is it a kind of “lifestyle”?
T + D: Yes, absolutely.
Q: What do you think about the Arab revolution?
D: That is a difficult question because it is hard to assess the situation there correctly. I am happy when the population there rises up against people like Assad or Gaddafi. But the question is, where do the people want to go?
For example, let’s take Egypt or Syria. There are many students who have taken to the streets or used Twitter to communicate their opinions and the situation they are in. That is an important point. It is the first time that religion does not have the upper hand on the streets. That is very important. I think it is very bad when religion and government are intertwined. I cannot understand deep faith, but religion and power can lead to fundamentalism, and that is bad. I do not only see this in the Muslim faith. Any kind of fundamentalist understanding of religion is to be condemned.
T: The people who have ousted the governments need a leader who represents their interests for real change to happen. There must be free and fair elections above all.
D: Democratic thinking, the attitude towards democratic thinking must be given a chance.
Q: Do you think there will be a country where the people who initiated the revolution will actually feel like winners?
D: I don’t know. It’s a very difficult question because we Europeans have a different culture than the people in Syria, Libya, or Egypt. It is important that we respect these cultural differences. If the people there want less influence from religion, that is fine, but it should never be enforced by a government.
I am not against religion itself. I am against the institutions of religion.
In Catholicism, anyone who does not believe in God is a bad person. That is nonsense. Everyone should be able to live as they wish, and if they want to believe in God, they can do so, but for themselves. To restrict or condemn other people who do not want to live that way, I reject.
In the Islamic faith, it is much more complicated than in the Christian faith. There are so many different currents. Everyone interprets the faith differently and sees their interpretation as the correct one. This leads to radical, fundamentalist groups that restrict the freedom of those who think differently.
Q: Why won't a revolution modeled after the Arab example work in the EU?
D: I don’t know if such a revolution will not work for us in general. However, I think that the crisis will lead us to something. Hopefully, it will not lead to radicalism. Crises promote such things. Fascism and totalitarian government ideas gain traction in times of crisis. Someone like Hitler made fascism popular and brought it into the center of society at that time, allowing him to come to power. That must be prevented at all costs.
There are many people who are afraid, but this fear is deliberately stoked. They are afraid of foreigners because they think they will lose their jobs, their prosperity.
The left parties have no answers to the crisis. This exacerbates the problem that right-wing ideologies become more popular. That is very dangerous.
We see it on the internet or on television; many people around the world are disappointed with capitalism. Capitalism is built on injustice. Capitalism only works when some people are rich and many people are poor. By now, we are almost all poor.
Q: What do you think about Italy's handling of refugees from Africa?
D: We have had a right-wing government for years, which also takes on fascist, nationalistic traits in these matters.
The left parties are for a controlled intake of refugees. In my eyes, that is not a good idea either, as it starts to categorize people.
I think people should not be divided into races. There are no races; we are all citizens of a single world. Although this is not conveyed to us, it is true. It is by no means the case that Italians are better than Africans. Anyone who says such a thing is a stupid fascist.
If an Italian thinks he is better than an African, that is just as bad as if an African thinks he is better than an Italian. There are no races, and thus all people are equal.
But unfortunately, fewer and fewer people in Italy think this way. This has to do with propaganda and the increase in African refugees.
In Italy, it is often said that Africans are taking jobs away from Italians, but the jobs that Africans have, no Italian wants to do.
I believe that refugees are the force that keeps our economy running and secures our prosperity.
Q: What is your relationship with Banda Bassotti?
D: We are friends. About 5-6 years ago, we played together a few times. Banda Bassotti is one of the few bands that understand and can relate to our views. Banda Bassotti shares similar views to us.
Q: I think you are the modern Banda Bassotti.
D: Yes, that’s true. Many people say that. I think it’s also because we are politically aligned. Musically, however, we are quite different. Banda Bassotti plays a mix of punk and ska. The themes we sing about are quite similar, that is true.
Hardly had the last sentences been spoken, we were almost thrown out of the backstage area because the changeover break had already begun, leaving only a few minutes for TALCO to prepare.
You can read about how the concert and the gig on Friday went at ramtatta.de here:
