A real team effort today, with all of Break Me Down throwing their answers into the ring…
Simple things first – where are you guys from?
Irene: Hi, we are Break Me Down and we are from Milan, Italy.
How did you meet?
Laerte: After my old band broke up, I decided to take a break from music, but a couple of years later I realized I missed the stage. So, with my old drummer and bass player (LoChef), we formed a new band. We started looking for a new singer and while we were auditioning, we decided to grab a beer and we went in a rock pub where Faith, our first singer, was performing that night.
After the show, I asked her if she could be interested in our project, and she said “Let’s try!”
Since we also needed a second guitar player, Morris, her guitarist at the time, ed the band.
After a few months we lost our drummer because he wanted to play other genres, but we eventually found our 5th element: Fabio.
Then, after a crazy year all around to play our songs, Faith decided to leave us. However, just as it happened the first time, we went to a Christmas jam session and we met Irene: during that night we played some songs with her and it was love at the first sight!
The line up is Irene Franco (voice), Laerte Ungaro and Morris Steel (guitars), Giuseppe “LoChef ” Greco (bass guitar), Fabio Benedan (drums).
How long have you been playing as a band?
LoChef: We are very young as band: we started to play together about 2 years ago! But in our short career together we did a lot of cool things!
Before you get sick of being asked… where does the band name come from?
Morris: Don’t worry! In my opinion finding the right name for a band is the hardest thing, because it has to represent the genre, the thoughts, the group style, all in one word or a few.
Some journalists wrote that our guitars sound just like Alter Bridge’s, and there is also the fact that “Break Me Down” is the title of one of their songs, but that wasn’t intentional. It’s true that we find inspiration in their style but we chose this name for a different reason. We were thinking about the meaning of our songs and what message we wanted to send, so Laerte suggested that the name had to be a provocation: never surrender to the difficulties of life, as in “You can try to break me down but I’m still here!”
What are your influences?
Fabio: There are many bands who influenced us like Alter Bridge, Nothing More, Korn, Tool, Pantera… and many others!
But : you have to study the past, the classics like Led Zeppelin, Queen, Van Halen, Iron Maiden and Metallica, because if you know very well the history, you can find your own style.
Describe your music. What makes you unique?
Irene: We try to find our path as musicians but it’s not easy. We don’t think to be unique but we do something interesting that combines metal and hard rock music with pop melodies.
Do you have any particular lyrical themes?
Laerte: We write about life. Everything that is around us: life stories, feelings, emotions. Some songs of our new record are inspired by movies and even YouTube videos! OCD, for example, talks about love from the point of view of a guy that has obsessive-compulsive disorder. We think about love in a “classic” way, but we never think that for this guy love means also not washing his hands after touching her skin.
What’s your live show like? How many shows have you played?
LoChef: When we are on stage, we feel at home. We let go of our emotions and try to do the most powerful show possible. We started to play live in May 2018 as opening act for Crazy Town in Milan. In a little more than a year we did about 23 shows.
What’s the wildest thing you’ve seen or done at a live show?
Fabio: Once, our guitarist Morris came down from the stage while playing and he continued to play the rest of the songs in the middle of the crowd. I think he was a little bit drunk ;)
What kit do you use / guitars do you play / etc.?
Morris: Lae and I use PRS Guitars and Mesa Boogie Amps. LoChef uses Framus Warwick and Gallien Krueger, while Fabio is in love with Pearl Drums. Irene uses a Sennheiser Mic and Shure in-ear.
What, if anything, are you plugging/promoting at the moment?
LoChef: We released the album on October 17th! We had a preview of the record on October 11th with a special show where we played the entire record. It was awesome!
We think you’ll heard a lot of energy and anger: we have different backgrounds and we put ourselves, our experiences in this record and we are very proud of it!
What are your plans for the rest of 2019?
Irene: Until the end of 2019 we will promote the album with radio interview and some gigs to test our show. For the next year we are working on a tour but not only in our country, because we want to try to go outside Italy and see what happens with a different audience. We did some gigs in Switzerland but this time we want to go farther away. You’ll see! Check our social media to be updated!
If you were second on a three-band bill, which band would you love to be ing and which band would you choose to open for you? A chance to plug someone you’ve toured with, or a mate’s band we’ve not heard of before!
Fabio: The underground scene is full of interesting band, it’s a hard choice because we have many mate’s band. If we have to mention two bands, I think Distorted Visions and Atwood.
We would like to everyone! We did pretty well with Lacuna Coil, Crazy Town and Vinnie Moore. If there was a possibility, I think we could be good also alongside Alter Bridge, Shinedown and Godsmack.
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