Thanks to Matt Massa of the Italian melodic hardcore band Mellowtoy for being kind enough to give us some of his free time for an overseas interview
- Obviously, being from the United States I\’m not very familiar with your previous works. How does Lies stack up against the older releases?
It’s a very different record from the previous ones, more mature, we worked a lot on every detail. It even sound so different cause we wanted to give the songs an unique sound, so aggressive and melodic at the same time. Our producer (Marco Coti Zelati from Lacuna Coil) really helped us a lot to find a different way to write and perform without losing our identity.
- Are you surprised with the amount of attention that Lies is bringing garnering?
We are simply so happy and grateful for all the cool feedback we’re getting from all around the world. We were immediately stoked and sure that this album could hit people in a good way. And this is what is happening.
- Having two vocalists can be a blessing and a curse, which is it for Mellowtoy?
We always performed with two vocalist. During the first half of Mellowtoy’s history we had another vocalist that was more focused on a rapcore style.
8 years ago it was my time and we worked to mix my screams and growls with the great melodies of Emiliano in a perfect way.
I think it’s not a curse, we interact a lot especially on the last album, when we sing some parts at the same time with our different “weapons” and it sounds brilliant.
Then, we have a lot of fun on stage because we say a lot of bullshits hahaha!
- How were you able to convince Christian Machado and Paolo Colavolpe to do guest vocals on Chain Reaction?
Christian and the guys of Ill Nino are great friends, we toured a lot of times together.
We thought we had the perfect song for a guest vocal like Chris, so I decided to write him an e-mail and he was immediately super happy to do it. We felt so honored and surprised.
With Paolo it was a little bit different. We asked him to be on our record during a very drunk night hahaha. He came to our studio the very last day of recordings, he closed himself into a room alone for 10 seconds to put together his ideas and then he recorded his parts and did an amazing job.
- The music industry and media like to categorize bands into a genre based corner. If you had to categorize yourselves, what genre would you put yourself in?
I think we play simply some good Rock/Metal or Alternative Metal or Italian Stallion Metal hahaha!
- Who would you say are your biggest American influence is and why?
Definitely Pantera and Slipknot, my two fav metal bands of all times.
- Where does Mellowtoy go from here?
We simply hope to bring our music everywhere we can. Especially in the States, it’s a kind of dream for us.
- After releasing four albums and knowing what you now, what\’s one thing that you would go back and change if you could from the beginning
Well I don’t have regrets and I think the rest of the band agree with me. Everything happens for a reason, we learnt a lot from our mistakes and mistakes make people grow up. Without fighting against some bad moments that this band faced in the past, we probably would not be here doing our things now!
- For those who do not know, can you specifically describe what a Mellowtoy is?!!!!
Hahahah is simply a sexual toy!
- If Mellowtoy was a sexual position what would it be…….. and why?
Mmmm good question. I would say “doggy style”, because our music kicks deep in the ass!
-Cooper
