Interview with Impact!

If you talk about Punk in Ferrara, you talk about Impact, from the arcades across the street from the former Standa supermarket to the first Youth Centre in Via Ortigara, here their history started in the early 80’s, music, rage and hunger for fun taking on the role of musicians, because this was punk at the time. If you want to learn more about them, read their history in the book “IMPACT-REALTA’ MUTABILI”, which should be still available.

RP: Why did you decide to come back to the Punk-Hard-Core scene?
I: Rather than coming back, it’s going on. We still need to express a point of view on what happens on this planet and as long as we feel consistent in doing it, we’ll do it. That’s all.

RP: How long hadn’t you been on stage?
I: Not long. In 2006 we played during the presentation tour of the book “T.V.O.R.”, published by our friends  Love-Hate. Then, though sporadically, we played until June 2013, when Janz decided that his experience with Impact was finally over. Diego and I (Gigo) would have gone on but without Janz we couldn’t. When we met Renzo  – Death On/Off guitarist – we decided to play again with Impact’s name and repertoire. We think that people are fundamental.

RP: What’s the lineup now? Why?
I: Meeting Renzo was precious for this new season. Diego pointed out that with him it would make sense to play again as Impact. We proposed him a test, he accepted and it all was perfect, funny and spontaneous.
So the lineup now is: Diego (bass guitar/voice), Renzino (guitar/voice) and Gigo (drums).

RP: Your tour starts from Greece: is there a particular reason?
I: In our circle, things often happen thanks to lucky coincidences rather than predetermined choices. The proposal to play in Greece in late January came thanks to our friends Raw Power who put us in touch with some promoters in Athens and Salonicco who were interested in our concerts. Feeling close to the fight of the Grecian people against the eurocratic system, we decided to start from there, because it adds a particular symbolic value to our tour which starts in Greece and ends in Northern Europe. It makes sense, doesn’t it?

RP: Where else will you play in Italy and abroad?
I: We have several proposals and we’re going to put them together. Some dates are already confirmed. Athens on January 27th and Salonicco on 28th . Then Bari, Rome, Palermo, Castelfidardo, Brescia, Cantù, Modena, and Belgium and Netherlands. All this from late January to May, then we’ll stop to focus on something different.

RP: Will you play in Ferrara?
I: Who knows… Nothing confirmed for the moment. We’ll see… except for ARCI, almost everything’s possible.

RP:  Will you play your old repertoire or is there something new?
I: For the moment we prefer playing just our historical repertoire. Everything starts from there, for us. We still feel our old songs up to date. Though sticking to Impact’s nature, Renzo gave something personal to our songs. Thanks to him, we have one foot in our deepest roots and the other looking forward. It’s his great talent and we feel very lucky to have met him. The period is productive and inspiring, so it is possible for us to start working on something new. We’ll see.

RP: In the 80’s you were a benchmark for the Italian Punk Hard-core scene and now the old bands are coming back. What do you think about it?
I: This question should be asked to the promoters or to the audience. Apparently, what these bands have to say is still up to date. Or it’s just a mutual curiosity. We’ll know it later on.

RP: Which ones among the emerging bands do you find interesting?
I: No comment from me…

RP: In the 80’s Punk Hardcore was protest and squats against everyone and everything. How do you consider it now?
I: This topic should be studied in depth. Let’s try: what we lived in the 80’s was an exciting, tragicomic collective experience but it isn’t true that hardcore punk was against everyone and everything. As it often happens to those who keep a critical point of view regardless of ideological dogmas, we were obnoxious to (almost) everyone. We were a living manifesto of the worst contradictions of society, so that our presence in the streets and in political demonstrations looked like a provocation. In 1982, in Florence, a band was called N.A.R. For them it was the acronym for Nessun Armamento Rifiuta (No Armament Refused), but the hint to Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari (Armed Revolutionary Nuclei) was clear. It’s easy to imagine the reactions to such hazard at the time. However, all the armed organizations which were giving their last tragic attacks were rotten products of the same System which – thanks also to their actions in the previous decade – would flatten Western societies under the financial regime we can clearly see now. For a punk band, to be called NAR and to play in the centre of Florence meant to tell public opinion that we would go on lifting the carpet under which the garbage was being hidden. Another band was called Loggia P2! An adolescent band in 1982! This was the HC experience in Italy.
If all that remains today of that experience is the most superficial aspect, it is due to our generation. Many bands were seduced by the mirage of success; others got lost in strange and improbable research (as in our case) with no shadow of the subversive nature of our culture; others went to the other side of the barricade. To play today claiming that radicalism that characterized our lives, is a way to redeem ourselves from some mistakes and, at the same time, to give inspiration to those who follow old models without understanding them clearly. It may sound pretentious, I know.

RP: Free space. What would you like to say to our readers?
I: I (Diego) would like to thank all the people who helped and are helping us, who contact us both from Italy and abroad. We find this interest amazing and we’ll do our best to repay it. After the tour, we’ll take a break from May to September. Thinking about a new record, given the fun we’re having during rehearsals. There  are many new bands and someone will think, “ok, respect, but… when will these old guys get out of the way?” … It’s understandable. But the good thing with hardcore is breaking down internal walls and building barricades against a corroding, corrupting and intoxicating world. We were born and we’re going to die here, I hope.
Thanks for your esteem and for sharing what we’re the least into, interviews. Ahah.

Our links:
https://impacthcpunk.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/impact.hcpunk/
https://www.youtube.com/user/IMPACThc80
http://impacthcpunk.wixsite.com/impact

Interview by Stefano Massarenti
Translation by E.C.