NANOWAR OF STEEL opened up for TRAGEDY on their tour a month ago. It was their first time in the UK and give then reception they received, it’s safe to say they will be back. Once she had enquired about gluten free options on the pirate ship in Sober, Rock Out Stand Out’s Lotty Whittingham spoke to Mr Baffo, Potowotominimak and Mohammed Abdul about the tour so far, non-metal heads learning the choreography to Disco Metal and what genres they would like to mesh. Here’s what happened.
First of all, how has the tour been going so far?
Mr Baffo: Very good, we’re enjoying being with Tragedy. It’s a cool partnership and the venues are quite full of people. It’s also our first tour in England, not the first time in England as we played Bloodstock last summer. This is our first tour ever of the UK and it’s going great
How have you found the crowds here compared to Germany, Italy and other places across Europe?
Mr Baffo: Of course, I mean it’s our first time here. I don’t want to say people are sceptical but they still need to get to know us as we have never been here. People enjoy our shows, they watch us for the first time. They first understand the mood then they let go.
Potowotominimak: At first they are not sure they like the show but then they headbanging and dancing.
Mr Baffo: But that’s normal, it happened many years ago during our tours around Europe.
Potowotominimak: Numbers are less than what we saw in Germany but in terms of attitudes, it’s kind of the same. Many of these people came to see Tragedy.
I was talking to Gatto [Panceri 666] earlier this year and he said about having a sense of humour to enjoy Tragedy.
Mr Baffo: Sense of humour?
Potowotominimak: We are a pretty serious band and we cover serious topics.
Which crowds across the UK have you gotten the best reactions from?
Mr Baffo: Maybe London because there were so many Italians.
Mohammed Abdul: You know when someone says “ahhh we’re here and we feel at home, thank you” Is because we were at home because they were all Italians.
Mr Baffo: The best concert we had was in London as everyone was singing along to all our songs. They knew the songs in advance.
Which songs have you found gone live best with the crowds?
Mr Baffo: Il Cacciatore Della Notte goes down very well in Italy as it is in Italian but here we teach people how to say that all over the world. We didn’t expect to work so well but it does.
Mohammed Abdul: Norwegian Reggaeton as well.
Mr Baffo: Valhallejua
Potowotominimak: Yesterday, we were at Teddy Rocks Festival and there was a large amount of people who didn’t know us but when we started playing Disco Metal or Norwegian Reggaeton, people started dancing. There were non-metal women who enjoyed it instantly and learnt the choreography; they danced it better than we did. It was change from seeing Pennywise, the zombies and a Mummy. After that song, came Norwegian Reggaeton and it went brilliantly. Those are songs that work very well, even with those who haven’t heard us before.
Speaking of Norwegian Rigattoni, those who can’t see; we are on a boat looking out at the water. Would this be a great place to reenact it?
Mohammed Abdul: Yes I think so, also the weather is perfect. It’s a bit cloudy and bit cold so perfect for summer songs.
Gatto mentioned the Wall Of Love 2.0. How has that been going down?
Mr Baffo: In Italy, there was the Wall Of Love 2.0 because we have already made the normal Wall Of Love so many times there. Here, it’s our first time in the UK so it’s the original Wall Of Love.
Some fans had some questions for you. What other music genres are you planning to combine, like you did with Disco Metal?
Mr Baffo: We don’t know yet and even if we knew the answer, we couldn’t tell you.
Potowotominimak: Personally, I would like to write a Bollywood song. That would be fine but’s not so easy. You have to get the right mood and the right context.
Have you had bands get privately upset with your parodies of their sound like people have with Weird Al?
Mohammed Abdul: I don’t think we have. Well we haven’t heard news of that anyway. It will be great to collaborate with Weird Al.
Potowotominimak: I can safely say Sabaton are not upset at all.
Given that Joakim is trying not to laugh in the video, that is very safe to say.
Mohammed Abdul: They are such cool guys.
Have you been attempted to release a more extreme metal style track?
Potowotominimak: We used that as part of a song. It was in Italian and Francesco Paoli from Fleshgod Apocalypse was in this song. The song wasn’t completely black metal; it was half black metal and half power metal. It’s a mixture of things. It’s on our album Italian Folk Metal.
I named Dislike To False Metal alongside Negatory Effect’s Never Trust A Tuesday as joint album of the month in March. How do you feel about that?
Mohammed Abdul: To be honest, I don’t know the band but I will add them to my list of bands to listen to.
Mr Baffo: What sort of music do they write?
I would say heavy metal meshed with dance music.
Mr Baffo: Ahhh so we are both releasing disco metal stuff.
In a way yes, theirs maybe more angry disco metal. Both your albums are so catchy. One last thing, do you have a message for Nanowar Of Steel fans?
Potowotominimak: Reproduce, make love.
Mr Baffo: Drink responsibly, don’t drink and drive.
Mohammed Abdul: If we come back in nine months, we expect to see double the amount of fans.
Thank you all for speaking to Rock Out Stand Out today.
