FORGOTTEN TOMB are coming to Minsk this Sunday and that’s the day for darker clouds to gather over the city, bringing desperation and delight, sorrow and rapture — this crazy mix of emotions always surrounding the band’s live shows and the albums released. Ferdinando «Herr Morbid» Marchisio did this interview lately, granting evanescent entrance into the tortured lonely realm of his mind. So you’re welcome.
In your interview you once said: «I love and I’m proud of all the albums I’ve done, I listen to them once in a while, but I’m always focused on the future». So… does that mean you already think about the follower to We Owe You Nothing?
I do but there’s nothing certain going on at the moment. I’m always throwin’ around ideas in my head and I have some riffs recorded on my hard disk but I don’t exactly know what will happen. We were talkin’ about doing an EP this year but we’ll see what happens. There are a bunch of things to be taken care of this year and I’m not particularly fond of the current state of the music environment to say the least, so it depends if I can get past my whole disgust for the whole thing and drop something new. It pretty much depends on my state of mind, which changes pretty fast from a day to the other.
We’ll come up with something new eventually but I don’t know when or how it will sound. It depends on motivation which depends on a number of other factors too, so I don’t know if it will be 2019 or 2020. Plus, the other guys are super-busy with other bands and shit.
How do you usually choose songs for the concert setlist, what are the main criteria? I mean, the band’s playing for 20 years already and there’s much material to choose from. Are there any songs you never play live – and why?
It’s difficult of course, cause we can’t play for more than 75 mins or so at best and we don’t even want to play longer that that cause it gets boring with extreme music. Our songs are lenghty so you’ve got 7-8 songs maximum per setlist to choose from. Old-school fans want the older material and more open-minded fans want the newer stuff so it’s always a bit of a problem, especially cause we want to have fun too onstage and we have personal favourites and we like to change setlists when possible. We always tried to play at least a song from each album but it’s getting harder lately cause we have something like 9 or 10 albums.
At the moment we are trying out some songs that we never played before and stuff like that. I think we’ll start switching these songs with the ones we played for quite some time now and see how people react. It’s still a mix of old and new stuff but just different songs from the ones we usually play. There’s only a small number of songs we won’t play live for a number of reasons, sometimes for strictly technical reasons, sometimes because they don’t fit in a live situation and other times cause people don’t seem to care about certain songs in our catalogue so it would be pointless.
You were supposed to come to Minsk with NOCTURNAL DEPRESSION, but its mastermind became too much depressed to continue playing. I know you’ve always had strong connections with this band, do you know anything about the inner situation there?
Not really, I know he had some personal issues and decided to quit playing live for a while but we don’t hear from each other too often to be honest. He also had recurring problems with the line-up of the band. FT’s rhythm section helped him out on a few live shows in the past but now the guys are busy both with FT and their other side-projects. I guess he will start playing live again at some point eventually but I don’t know anything else about it.
Did the crash you survived while working on We Owe You Nothing influence the album? Lyrics of «Second Chances» («Broken bones, broken dreams, broken hopes…»), the overall feeling and atmosphere? How did this closeness to death influence you personally, did it change your attitude towards life?
That car crash was the last of a series of accidents I went through over the years and it was the worst one for sure. It was pretty much a miracle that I was still alive — albeit heavily injured — but due to a number of circumstances going on in my private life at the time and to some sort of post-traumatic depression I went through a year where I was unable to appreciate being alive and instead I was almost bummed that I didn’t die in the crash, which is fucked up in itself but my whole life became a total mess at that time.
Lyrics for the album were completed during the recovery months so they mirror this disrupted state of mind. I don’t want to go into personal stuff but 2017 was a completely miserable year. Still I managed to complete the We Owe You Nothing album somehow and deal with a number of issues as well as survive through the whole ordeal.
Was it the most awful experience you ever had?
I don’t know if it was the most awful experience I ever had cause I’ve been through a number of completely fucked up experiences in my life to the point that it became almost ridiculous, so I think a huge chunk of my sanity is gone for good by now. These days I try to stay out of trouble and keep some sanity but it’s a one day at a time process. I’m a very strong person but now I also try to keep myself away from potentially disruptive situations as much as possible. I try to enjoy the small things in life as far as possible even if most of the time I must face mostly disappointments, failures and getting old and sick, but whatever.
I learned the hard way that things can always get worse so let’s say I try not to complain too much even if things suck most of the time and even if I’m absolutely not satisfied with how things are going these days. I just soldier on against all odds, it’s hysterical.
FORGOTTEN TOMB took part in GG Allin tribute. Can you explain your song choice? And did this artist influence FT in any way?
We chose songs that are not commonly covered and with very offensive lyrics, cause that’s our style of doing things. GG influenced a lot of bands and we’re very much into the old-school punk/hardcore stuff in general. In the past we covered BLACK FLAG, THE STOOGES, early NIRVANA and BUZZOV*EN among others, so you get the idea. GG was a true rebel and his anarchist way of offending everybody suits me very well. I do appreciate that he completely went over the edge and did things that nobody would ever do, but even if he was crazy he had a talent as a songwriter. Even his outlaw country stuff was great.
I miss those kind of unsafe, dangerous bands and artists, these days is all about being friendly, morally acceptable and shit, they took all the fun out of the metal and punk scene and when some band does something out of the ordinary is usually staged/faked. That GG Allin 7″ was my idea in the first place and I actually co-produced it with my label Southern Apocalypse Rec.
When did you realize you’re not a happy and joyful kid like everyone else? I mean, did this depressive state of mind and negativity you’re known for come from your childhood or the teenage years? Where there any turning point for that?
I pretty much had a normal childhood but always had weird ideas and tastes, always been into the dark side of things and always been a bit of a loner so I took interest in Metal and horror movies/macabre stuff very early on, around 7 years old or such. I also always had a melancholic side that exploded into my teenage years for a variety of reasons, including obvious hormonal factors, but growing up through the grunge generation/gen-X it didn’t feel particularly strange at that time.
Of course there are experiences and particular moments in your teenage years that define your self-destructive behaviors, boozing and shit, but it’s just how life goes, it’s part of growing up. Some people I knew back then went into drugs and stuff and never really recovered, I started playing in bands instead and it pretty much gave a purpose to my life. So when things were going really bad, I was writing music and focusing on going somewhere with that, which revealed successful to a certain extent.
I felt very early in my life that I didn’t belong to any particular group of people or to society in itself and I wasn’t interested in what my peers were doing, so I went my own way and pretty much kept only a bunch of misfits friends with me. Later on many things happened in my life and I evolved though different experiences, mostly negative ones, but it would take a whole book to go through it. Sometimes I think my worst times were my best too, it’s weird. I’d certainly change a few things if I could go back, but who doesn’t?
In your old intie you said: “I’m only completely indifferent to life, people, love and every kind of human feeling, except for Hate I guess”. Did you seriously never had people you could love or care for?
It must be a very old one cause I don’t remember that or I was in a particularly negative mood. As everybody else I go through phases in life so at some point I might be in a completely pessimistic mood while other times I’m more relaxed so to speak, it depends. In general I have long phases where I’m kinda anesthetized or feeling numb so I don’t really get depressed or anything, I’m just kinda stable or going through the motions. I don’t consider myself to be a depressed person at all, I’m functional most of the time and I don’t get upset unless I have realistic reasons to be so. I don’t believe in people being depressed for the sake of it, if you are then probably the chemicals in your brain are fucked up so get a treatment and quit complaining.
I never took meds in my life, they’re shit and I don’t need that. Sometimes you just need to get your head out of your ass and face the fact that life is miserable and nobody gives a shit about you. Of course you learn it the hard way so there are times in life where things are fucking horrible. I guess when you’re young it’s tough, then after a while it becomes a habit so the times you’re affected by it last shorter. At least that’s my experience with it. Spending most of the time by myself and avoiding any emotional involvement helps considerably in preserving my mental health these days. As they say, «hell is other people», so I try to stay away from potentially harmful people. Despite the occasional boredom, I love being alone. If I really need company I walk to the bar or call an old friend for a drink.
What do you think about the suicide wave we observe these days on the major music scene? I mean, these mature successful guys like Chris Cornell, Chester Bennington, Keith Flint… We cannot definitely know what’s going on inside one’s mind, but there’s kind of a tendency, and do you have any ideas of why it might take place?
As you said, it’s impossible to tell what’s going on in someone else’s mind so I really don’t know. Most of them had a history with meds though and that stuff fries your brain cells after a while, so that might be part of the picture. Musicians in general have a different perception of emotions so they’re more easily subject to depression and substance abuse. It kinda goes hand in hand in a way. Also, that level of popularity is really stressful. What I know is that money might not buy happiness, but with the amount of money these guys have I’d find a way to be pretty fucking happy every day of my life.
Do you like modern melancholic shoegaze / instrumental post-metal / post-black music trend popular nowadays?
Absolutely not, especially post-black which is stuff for millenials I guess. I can’t relate with that stuff obviously cause I grew up in the ’90s with the real deal. I’m quite a old-school kind of guy when it comes to metal. You either deliver the fucking riff or you get out of my way.
Do you have a guilty pleasure of any kind?
Hah, I don’t really know what would fit in that category, but I guess watching horrible movies and playing retrogames might be something like that? Or listening to generally despised albums that I actually like such as CELTIC FROST’s Cold Lake or AC/DC’s Fly On The Wall.
And… finally… just some words to the people coming to see you in Minsk… for the first time ever.
We’ll see ya soon, don’t miss out cause I don’t know when we’re coming back. We might play a song we never played live.
(Russian version of the interview is here.)
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