"All About The Album - 15 Questions" - a brand new section at the RockUnited site where any recording artist with an recently released CD is confronted with standard questions (15 of them, duh!). If you'd like to have your material up here, email: urban "at" rockunited.com (simply replace "at" with your standard @ )

DUSTINEYES: "Bullet For My Generation"

DUSTINEYES, regarding "Bullet For My Generation", commented bassist Silvano “P.I.Z.” Ancellotti: "This album is basically a substantial step over in our musical journey, we spent our last 3 years hitting every kind of stage and touring like everywhere learning a lot from it, I can say we grown up and evolved without changing our vision of rock'n'roll. We don't use to sit on a table an plan where our music must go, or wich kind of hype we want to follow, we'r just heading for good songs and what we got is a bunch of anthems for the underdogs in a suit heavier than ever. Well, I see "Bullet For My Generation" as the most intense and sincere portrait of Dustineyes ever.", Here's, DUSTINEYES...

How has the reaction to your latest CD been?

Hi, reaction all over the europe are definitely good. It seems that most of reviews are catching exactly the spirit of the album so I can think we did a good job trying to comunicate what's in our heads.

How long did this CD take to make from start to finish, recording-wise?

Well, it took more than we planned because actually we never stopped with live activity. We started with pre-production around march, april (2010 of course), on june stepped into the studio to record drums and after neverending sessions we ended up with mastering and last mix fixing on the first week of september. This time the recording sessions have been way stronger than the ones we did for the album before. We were all pointing to our best product ever and, as everybody knows, this kind of things are making life less easy.

What kind of 'sound', production wise, did you have in the back of your mind, prior to entering the studio?

We were looking for a big punching wall of sound, loud drums, louder guitars and bass. We used this italian hand made drums called 'Vibe Drums', Evans coated and we recorded it in a stone room. Then our beloved Krank head for guitars (and some Soldano on solos) and Ampeg on bass guitar. And, hey, notice that everything you hear on the album is physically played and turned to 10, not digitally emulated by some plug-in.

What kind of input did the producer have during the process?

The producer, Andrea De Bernardi @ Aerial sound , really hooked up the right mood to let the things work properly. He use to produce everykind of music but it seems he's born to let sound our rock 'n' roll shit louder than everybody else. He gave us suggestions about amps and even about some arrangements, expecially on vocal side. 

And are you pleased with the final outcome? (sound - production wise)

Absolutley, mate!

Did the producer (you) use any (weird) experimental miking and/or recording techniques?

Nope, standard miking on most of things.

How did you go on about capturing your 'live sound' in the studio, or perhaps you didn't

I don't thing we gonna win a "innovation-award" for our music, it's hi-gain rock 'n' roll and overall we are a live band, you know, we write songs rehearsing a lot all togheter, we'r always on tour around Italy and Europe so is a kind of easy step to put all the energy on the album and capture a "live sound" even with all the tricks a proper recording needs to sound strong and powerfull. 

Please inform us about your favourite songs and lyrical highlights and why?

I think everyone in the band have his fave songs, I can tell you about mine. I love songs that makes me hit the gas when I'm driving, so "Get Away" wich is an honest punch in face and the most anthemic song in the album and "Sick Of You" just because its rythmic session really push the song on and I'm almost sure is the best one to let the girlie's ass move. On lyrics, there are some rock clichè of course -hey! We'r are a rock n roll band- we MUST talk of sex and drinking but there is something a bit smarter if you search properly: "Eyes In The Jar" and "Under The Ash" talk about media inflence of our lives, for example. There's space for some obscure an horror themes on "Spinning On My Hell", we all love the B-movie atmosphere so we use to put a kind of tribute to that on each album, it was "Dead Man Boogie" on one before.

Any overall theme of mood that you're trying to capture while writing songs?

We are not for concept or stuff like that, they are so 90's! But every album naturally fits into a kind of precise mood. This one is little bit darker than the other ones, starting from the artwork and passing through each song, of course we'r still screaming our drunken anthems but looking around us, looking on what's happening all around us, we can say we'r getting just a little be more bitter and disillusioned.

Does your vision for coming up with music get affected at all by time?

Well, everyone changes his vision about things year by year, and the perception of music is the same. Not exactly changed maybe, we're just expanding our views, but still on the same idea of music. I mean, I still love to smash my head with Exploited, but sometimes I can drive back home listening Bruce Springsteen without feeling guilty or less rock n roll.

Did the record company interfere with anything on your "sound" and songs?

Not at all, we just choose the running order of the songs togheter, and they really had a good intuition placing "Bet With Life" as track number 5, we wanted to use that one as the last song and that's a shame because it is one of the audience faves now!!!

Are there any 'crazy' behind the scenes anecdotes from these sessions that you can share with us?

Well, we are a gang more than a band so there is lot of craziness around the recordings of this album, I want to keep a secret about a thing called "shitbag" because is little obscene. I can tell you about vocals, at some point for a certain song we wanted a more natural performance from Lele, so we thought was a good idea give him a bit of grappa and wine to give him a loose feeling, but we forgot to take the bottles away. Well in less than one hour Lele was totally fucked up and he wasnt able to sing, talk and stand anymore. So learn that lesson: you can drink easily every kind of shit, but grappa is another story!!!

How would you describe the sound of your new CD to any potential new fan?

Is a big mess!!! Where rock 'n' roll, old school heavy metal and filthy punk keep crashing one to each other, it's the soundtrack you really need for your booze and your bashes.

Who are your influences and heroes? (music-wise)

We absolutley love old school stuff. We are into Misfits, Motorhead, W.A.S.P., Kiss and Ramones. There's something else in rock scene?... uhm..can't remember...

If there's anything you'd like to add, say, please do:

I just want to say thank you to rockunited.com, for the space you're givin us! See ya soon guys!
Sincerely,
Dustineyes

Interview by: Urban "Wally" Wallstrom,
Photos from the band's website www.myspace.com/dustineyes
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