Interview with First Brawl

Chat with the band First Brawl from Modena, who recently released their new album

Active since 2014, First Brawl play uncompromising hardcore and last year released their fourth work entitled ‘Rise From Hate’ after 2014’s Demo, 2016’s ‘Full Of Nothing‘ and 2018’s ‘Turning Point’. Loyal to the CD and to Indelirium Records who released this amazing new work of 13 tracks!

Radio Punk: Hi guys and welcome to our ‘zine. Are you comfortable? Let’s get going! Tell us how and when you decided to form First Brawl? You already had past experience in bands, would you like to tell us about it?

First Brawl: Hi guys, thank you so much for the space you’re giving us! So, the story of First Brawl was born in 2014 from the ashes of Strange Fear, old glory of Modenese Hardcore, in which Guido (vocals) and Riccardo (guitar) played. Nico (drums), former Truth Start in Lies, and the legendary Vittorio (sabre!) of the great Daily Grind from Calabria closed the first line up.

With this line-up the first 2-piece demo was recorded in 2014; in the winter of the same year, we recorded the first full-length “Full of Nothing” which, however, would only see the light of day in 2016 with the entry of Ado (ex Kernel Zero) on guitar and Manfro (ex 7BloodyHopes) behind the skins. In 2017, after an intense live promotion of the record, we arrive at the end of the year in the studio; in March 2018 we released the EP “Turning Point” which gave us the opportunity to perform even more, especially abroad. We arrived in 2019 with the entry of Jolla (ex-Jesus ain’t in Poland) on bass and the writing of what became “Rise from hate” began. After the release of the album, Bear joined on bass and we are now at the present time.

Radio Punk: How about this new work, ‘Rise From Hate’? Tell us about the artwork, an incredibly solemn design let me tell you. As imperious as your sound. And tell us a bit about the themes you deal with in the album and in which period this work was conceived.

First Brawl: We are very pleased that you liked the cover because we are also very happy with the result. We relied on the expert hands of Mirko Gastow, whom we had appreciated with the works of Strength Approach and Lastbreath, among others. The idea was to have a kind of mythological creature, imposing and pissed off! The period we were going through was full of covid, so to speak, which helped in focusing what we wanted to transpose into images. Which also relates to the themes of the lyrics, which relate to the context of the times we were going through; for example, in the period leading up to the pieces there were episodes such as George Floyd’s assassination, the imprisonment in the house due to the pandemic; but also personal experiences, such as the loss of a friend or the continuous realisation of how much people suck in the everyday life of all of us.

Radio Punk: …Guido is a huge supporter of our distro (and our project), yet he’s a big fan of vinyl, whereas you’ve only made CDs so far. A wise and almost dogmatic choice, or will there also be room for a nice vinyl in the future? Getting back to the physical release issue, what is it like working with Indelirium Records? A label we hold in high esteem for the amount of massive HC it has released!

First Brawl: Look, actually the choice of cd for our releases was a mix of coincidences: for example, we all come from our experiences in the first decade of the 2000s, when the standard for a band was ‘having cd’s’; if you combine that with the fact that Indelirium has always offered us that format and that the cost of pressing vinyl is challenging, the answer is soon given.

We would like to reissue ‘Full of nothing’ and ‘Turning point’ on one vinyl, with a new graphic design and probably some goodies. The relationship with Indelirium has always been very good, Emiliano is a fan of ours as well as a long-time friend, so it is very easy to work with him.

Moreover, he is an institution of hardcore in Italy, so it’s a real pleasure for us!

Radio Punk: Your violent, angry hardcore sounds like something out of the slums of New York. What is Modena like instead? In other words, tell us a bit about the scene in and around Modena, what clubs, social spaces, collectives, labels, bands are there now and what was it like in the past? Has it ever had a golden age?

First Brawl: Modena, in spite of its proverbial stench under the nose (which is not lacking in a good slice of the population), has always had a good buzz, in ‘its underground’; with ups and downs, as in all scenes, but there has never been a lack of people organising events with the few means available, nor of bands. For example, at La Scintilla, in the 1990s, bands such as Offspring, Propagandhi, Pennywise played; even in the province, see the late lamented Fassbinder in Sassuolo, saw names such as Negazione, Neurosis… to give you an idea. Now the places to enjoy a good concert at popular prices are Libera Officina, La Scintilla, Stella Nera, Centrale66 and the legendary Tenda (a lot of love for this place). There is also the Undernoise Modena Crew, which organises beautiful evenings in collaboration with the aforementioned places. As far as a fictitious ‘Golden Age’ is concerned, we have to say that in reality Modena has churned out great names in every historical period, starting with the Paolino Paperino Band, passing through the Upside, the Lomas; there has been Strange Fear, Jesus ain’t in Poland, At the soundawn; bands like NoWhiteRag and Infamia hold high the flag, and still today we happen to play with bands from Modena, looking at their faces and saying ‘and who the fuck are these?

Radio Punk: Often when dealing with your specific strand of hardcore (especially abroad it has to be said) there is a shortage of bands with a clear social and political and anti-fascist message, and it often results in ridiculous machismo. You guys are great both because you hit the ground running in social spaces and because you have never left room for ambiguity. What do you think? Do you want to say something to those bands and people who don’t know whose side they are on and who think that at concerts you have to show how much you have worked out in the gym during the week?

First Brawl: To begin with, even if we wanted to be ‘macho’ we couldn’t because we like to drink and eat. Joking aside, we are very pleased that you emphasised this aspect because we care a lot about ‘our’ perspective, which definitely starts from an antifascist and antagonist point of view, without any possibility of misunderstanding which side we are on. In the same way we like to share the stage with bands that have the same point of view and we also pay attention to the venues where we perform. 

As for the gym, well… if in addition to the container there is also the content, then that’s fine.

Radio Punk: Your influences are clear, what are your most frequent listeners? Like, I don’t know, meet up to drink beer you put on? And what are the listens that from the outside we would never say? I don’t know, like jazz, reggae, pop, or maybe you’re hardcore Den Harrow fans?

First Brawl: wow! a world opens up here! We are four elements with four different backgrounds, though with points of contact, of course.
Like all bands, we listen to a bit of everything in the van on tour, but we always end up with a bit of 90s dance as well as neomelodico or BelloFigo. Apart from these notes of folklore… Manfro has a purely metal background, from Thrash to Grind; Guido prefers ’77 punk; Bear comes from Nu Metal and melodic hardcore; Ado is more about early 2000s metalcore. That said, we all listen to a good number of different genres, from Godfathers hard rock to 90s grunge/alternative, to name but two.

Radio Punk: A lot of bands that come through here have no desire whatsoever to make music a job. What dreams do you as a band have? Do you have the desire to go on long world tours and record 

First Brawl: We use to call ourselves a bunch of musicians but try to act as professional as possible.
We manage to fit our private life (work, family, kids, etc.) into our live activity; if it were up to us, it would be cool to be on the road playing all the time, but we’re content to kick ass whenever we get the chance! As for promotion abroad, we are trying to organise a mini-tour in autumn/winter… we’ll see! 

Radio Punk: Now that we’re on the record, as if it were “Sunday In”, can you tell us a bit about who the members of First Brawl are outside of music? What other hobbies, passions do you have? What jobs do you do? Do you go to support Sassuolo or Modena at the stadium? Do you race Ferraris at night in Maranello? Tell us everything, our readers are very curious!

First Brawl: Always and only MODENA!
Guido is saving up to buy a Lamborghini, just to answer the question about Ferrari, Manfro on the other hand has lived with the Rossa for 27 years, having lived next door to the Fiorano track. Apart from anything else, Guido is a factory worker but only to be able to buy a large amount of vinyl, Ado works for a bank and keeps the guitars and amps trade alive nationwide (which he also uses with his other projects… Fracture and Fury Dept); Manfro works in the ceramic industry, is a father and spends a lot of money on drum cymbals; Bear is enjoying a sabbatical year, lucky him!for a major label or do you prefer to keep it as a hobby and go on tour from time to time when you can? In the near future will you take ‘Rise From Hate’ out of Italy?

Radio Punk: Guys, it’s been a real pleasure. We thank you very much and ask you: what were the most beautiful and most hallucinating scenarios and situations you came across while playing around? Watch out, we will do a book with these grotesque stories sooner or later, play it well! Thanks again and see you next time!

First Brawl: mark this place on the map: Aleksinac, Serbia. In 2017 our gig was suspended twice by the police for excessive decibels: the second time, unfortunately, they turned out to be quite convincing…but from there it was delirium in a few square metres with any person passing by. Fantastic! But the most hallucinatory live show was on New Year’s Eve 2018 in Hannover: a very small place, bordering on claustrophobia, people who were very well taken in and in the middle of them a completely drunk giant who either hurled himself directly at us (concert suspended because he threw the drums) or pushed people around creating the ‘wave’ effect by himself! From mid-concert onwards, given the situation, Ado played by shielding his bass drum, while Manfro, between songs, made the ‘throat slit’ sign to the giant. At the stroke of midnight, a naked man in a shopping trolley walked down a slope with a rocket shoved…well, you get the idea. Then we keep the rest of the night to ourselves so you don’t get in trouble with the digos (police) when you publish the interview.

Thanks to you, it was a pleasure to remember some scenes.

See you around soon and long live Radio Punk!

Credit photo Marco Ze Schender

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