T.H.U.M.B.
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Stoner Rock? Heavy Rock? Hard Rock?
Doesn't really matter... All that counts to them is to play as loud as
possible their music! Cheers...
1.DAY ZERO. HOW DID YOU COME UP WITH
THE BAND IDEA? TODAY, WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO MENTION FOR ALL THIS TIME?
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The band started as a little idea,
four friends in a garage trying to play some Pearl Jam, REM and Kyuss cover.
Evolving the initial ideas we began to write some original songs and to
play live shows, becoming stronger and heavier every time we are on stage.
2.WHAT DOES T.H.U.M.B. MEAN? HOW DID
YOU SELECT THIS NAME?
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Originally THUMB, the Kyuss songs,
was the first cover that we were able to play good enough. Then we found
out that a band with this name was born before us so we added the points;
in our first demo CD there was a first meaning for this word: The Hidden
Unknown Meaning Behind... but you can give the meaning that you want!
3.WHICH ARE YOUR MAIN INFLUENCES? YOU
CLAIM THAT YOU PLAY STONER ROCK WITH PUNK ELEMENTS. HOW CAN YOU
COMBINE THESE DIFFERENT GENRES? I MEAN PUNK IS FAST AND STONER IS
DOOMISH.
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Our influences are so many... we can
start with the seventies classics as Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin and Black
Sabbath, but we have to add some grunge and some stoner, as Nirvana, Pearl
Jam, Kyuss and Queens Of The Stone Age. To all these bands you have to
add the sixties psychedelic scene, the progressive rock, some punk and
the actual stoner scene! Our songs usually born really strong and sometimes
fast and simple as a punk song, but then the different influences of the
band members lead to another definitive aspect, with and heavy rhythm section,
psychedelic guitars and melodic vocal lines.
4.AREN'T YOU AFRAID THAT SOME PEOPLE
WILL THINK THAT YOU ARE ONE MORE BLACK SABBATH REPLICA? MOST STONER
ROCK BANDS COPY - PASTE SABBATH RIFFS.
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This is not a problem. As we explain
before, our songs are really various. And we think that if you play a music
like stoner rock, even if a certain originality it's important, some sounds
are always a great thing to listen, expecially if you add to them your
own ideas.
5.WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO SAY TO ALL THOSE
WHO SAY THAT STONER AND DRUGS GO TOGETHER?
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Well... we don't know. Usually we don't
take drugs, but sometimes we drink too much! Our psychedelic jams are usually
play in a "normal" state, is the music that take our minds and drive them
away. Then, if someone smoke some stuff at our shows, is just his own choice...
we live in a free world (we hope!).
6.HOW MANY DEMO'S HAVE YOU RELEASED?
WHICH ARE THE DIFFERENCIES AND SIMILARITIES AMONG THEM? ARE YOU
SATISFIED BY YOUR PROGRESS AS MUSICIANS?
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We have recorded 3 demos. The first
one, "NEWZ FROM THE TOPAZ", was recorded live in our garage; the second
one, "ALIVE", was recorded in different live shows. These two demos haven't
a great recording, but there are some good songs. The third one, GARAGED,
was recording in a studio with a pair of friend and has the best recording.
We are quite satisfied by our progress in our demos; our last demo isn't
so spontaneus as we want, probably because it was the first time that we
were in a recording studio and we have lost too much time and we have made
some mistakes: this will help us in the next recordings.
7.WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF YOU WEREN'T
ABLE TO COMPOSE MUSIC?
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We can compose some music that we really
like, but we can't live of music! We do many other things, someone has
got a full time work, someone studies. Sometimes is difficult to put all
the things together, but at the end we are able to do everything.
8.WHICH IS YOUR MOST BELOVED
BOOK, WHICH YOU'D WANT TO BE MADE A MOVIE?
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We read different things: from the
most philosophic things to most stupid things! Personally I love H.P. Lovecraft
and books like Charles Drexter Ward or At The Mountain Of Madness; about
the movies... is the same thing: the great classics are always very interesting,
and the most stupid and comical movies are really great!
9.WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO SAY ABOUT THE
POLITICAL SITUATION DEVELOPED AFTER THE TERRORIST ATTACK?
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The terrorist attack have shocked us
all, but politically we haven't a specific idea, we are very instinctive
and we live in our own anarchy.
10.WHICH EMOTIONS MAKE YOU COMPOSE
MUSIC? WHAT WOULD A T.H.U.M.B. DRAWING SHOW?
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The composition of a song it's really
a special moment: is moment in which you are creating something and the
best songs born in a kaleidoscope of emotions. You write the songs in your
room or during a jam session, than everybody gives his ideas and then you
play it on stage: the best moment. A T.H.U.M.B. show is something really
heavy, because we use too many watts! We try to float through different
emotions, starting with fast and furious songs and leading to some relaxed
and psychedelic moment, with a lot of improvvisation. Usually we play also
some covers: Kyuss (of cours!), QOTSA, Motorhead and sometimes... Beatles
(rearranged in a heavier style)!
11.WHAT DOES HEAVY METAL MEAN TO YOU?
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Heavy Metal it's a good music, but
when we hear " Heavy Metal" we think to something connected with Iron Maiden
or Judas Priest; is all great music, but we prefer something from the seventies
as Led Zep or the Sabbath, and we call it hard rock.
12.WHICH DO YOU THINK IS THE GREATEST
AND WHICH THE WORST THING IN THE WORLD?
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For 3/4 of the band the best things
are the GIRLS! The worst thing in the world is the stupidity of too much
people, that leads to wars, abuses, pollution and many other destructive
things.
13.YOU ARE GIVEN ONE WISH. WHAT WOULD
YOU CHANGE OR DO?
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We would change all the things connected
with the world "Mainstrem"! It's really boring to listen the same music
in each radio and on TV and it's really boring see all the teenagers wearing
the same things ang going to the same discoteques. We would have different
choices, we would be able to choose!
14.WHICH IS THE MOST IRRITATING QUESTIONS
SOMEONE HAS DONE TO YOU AND WHICH QUESTION WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE
ASKED AND NO ONE EVER DID? ANSWER IT AS WELL.
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The aren't irritating questions, every
question needs an answers and usually we are able to give it. No... just
a moment... it's really irritating when the owners of the clubs in which
we play ask if it's possible to turn down the volume of our amplifiers!
Really orrible! The question the we would like to be asked is: "Can you
turn up the volumes and play it louder?" -"YESSSSSSS!"
15.EPILOGUE...THANK YOU!
Christine Parastatidou