1. At first classic questions, tell us something about band history, members and how you know each other...
Roll Call has formed in 2006 from two past bands of the local oi! and street-punk scene, called "Adunata" and "4Moors". The first line-up was: Daniele: voice and guitars, Tonino: bass and vocals, Nick: guitars and vocals, Gianni: drums. At the end of 2010 we took a new drummer, Mauro, a friend of us well known in local hardcore scene.
2. When and why come decission to start a band and why the name Roll Call?
After our old bands had call it a day, we felt it was the time to starting again, but with a new different project, with more experience and a wiser vision. The name of the band takes inspiration from a Dropkick Murphy´s intro, and it means “Adunata” in English language. By the way, it gives us the idea of unity and ralling people, like in a gig.
3. Did your members played in any bands before or do they have any side projets now?
As told before, we played in other bands before Roll Call. Nick was the singer-guitar man in the "Adunata" oi! band. Daniele was in "Adunata" too, as drummer, and in "4Moors", as guitarist.
Tonino played the drums in "4Moors". Mauro, the actual drummer, has actually a side project with the thug hardcore band "Forgive me Father", that we salute and support. Cheers lads!
4. You have out CD called Sotto il suo Cielo...can you derscribe the sound and lyrics for people who don´t know your band?
The sound of “Sotto il suo cielo” takes inspiration mainly from street punk and oi! musical influences, but has also hard rock elements in the song writing.
We usually like to spend the "right time" in song writing, from rhythm melody lines to the guitars and voice and choruses.
We always try to go far from doing one song similar to another one, it's not quiet simple and off course we can fail, but, expect in guitar riffs, we like to play different things and not the same chords together. But sometimes, of course, is cool to play at unisono!
At the end of the day, the only rule is to play the music we love.
We always keep our roots in street punk, and at the same time we put together other kind of sounds too... we're far from being kids now, so we have a large musical background that counts, many bands and genres, too many to mention here, you know...we don't really care to be "labeled" as rock, oi!, punk...we can just tell: listen to our sound, whatever you want to call it.
5. Who is responsible for music and lyrics and what are your musical inspirations?
In our first album, "Sotto il suo cielo", Daniele is the main song writer of lyrics and music. All Cd is written and composed by him, except for the songs "Costruito in Sardegna" and "Tra fulmine e tuono", that saw their music written by Nick.
But our way to composing songs always gives, to anyone in the band, the chance to express his self, by adding solos, suggesting changes and things like that.
6. Can you tell us something about the living on Sardinia? I know that on your island are two languages Italian and Sardinian...can you tell us about the differences and are there also differences between Italian and Sardinian culture?
In Sardinia (Sardegna in italian language) life is good for many reasons: sun, clear sea, nice places, our culture, beautiful girls etc... of course, we love our land.
But life in Sardinia can be hard to afford for other reasons like unemployment, exploitation, precarious work, environmental problems caused by ruthless worldwide energy companies, etc...
Sardinia has a different story from Italy. We have a "Sardinian language", recognized as "a official language" by European community, that has some various sub-languages in different part of the isle; but bi-language is the main thing, because Italian language is the official and main used and, most important, Sardinian is not taught in school. We fear that one day it could become a fucking dead language...thanks politics!
It's a language mainly used to talk in private life, in family, between friends; it's more social, but there are a growing number of books, TV news, university stuffs in traditional language.
Maybe one day we'll do some songs in our trad lingo...who guess?
By the way in Italy there are a lot of different cultures, as in other big countries.
As Sardinians, we have our own kind of national culture and uses, but in modern terms we are not as different as other European peoples.
7. You are quite independent on Italia am I right? Are there any tendentions to make Sardinia completely independent country?
We are not independent from Italy; Sardinia has a Special Autonomous Status as a Region of the Republic of Italy.
There are many levels of political expressions of our national heritage and identity: for independent parties and movements, autonomist parties, federalist parties, etc...but the whole number of people votes for Italian political coalitions. By the way, there are a large number of Sardinian into Italian parties, that recognize our national identity, and the majority part of Sardinian people consider itself as Sardinian first than Italian and, in many cases, not Italians.
We can cut off and say that there's a nice and strong national identity that has no real and pragmatic political expression, for many reasons (it takes too much time to talking to).
Maybe, one of the most important reason is that: after all, is right and secure to stay with Italy. We aren't wont to govern ourselves...and it's a big gamble!
As a rock 'n' roll band, we have feelings of respect for our culture and traditions, but we don't take it as a political issue: it's just a matter of identity, some more spiritual than political.
8. I know Sardinian bands like Ciurma Skins or Sezione Ribalta...can you describe the scene more? Labels, zines, pubs, other bands...?
Ciurma Skins are a great Oi! band! Music without compromise, written and played with passion.
After all, we are great friends, and often we divide the stage up and down in Sardinian gigs.
About Sezione Ribalta, we can't tell much because we have never played together.
There was a time, between 1995 and 2005, that there was a real Oi! scene, with many skins, some mod and some punk-rocker. They was the golden days of bands like cited yet Adunata and 4Moors, but also Antiruggine, Nobody's heroes, Kumbatta Oi!, Non idonei...there was some ska and reggae bands like Moonwalkers, or mod'79 like Self-control.
The pubs who generally housed those gigs, were the "Animal house", "Madriguera", "Dolce vita", "Bar Campari", "Il Nuraghe" and someone else i can't remember.
We had a 'zine named "Ghost town", and every weekend there was a Oi! gig, or a Skinhead reggae Dj-set, or simply a party with good people, nice music and fresh beer...it was a great age!
But the good times always go by, and Sardinian scene doesn't make the difference.
Today there's no more a "one way scene", but many different cultures that support each other.
We can play together with a Thrash-metal band, an Hardcore band and a Oi! band in the same gig!
The actual pubs for gigs in Sardinia are not few, but they generally use to give their space to indie-pop-rockabilly and other trendy bands.
Tonino have a independent label called "Hammer of Sardinia", who partecipated to the production of our debut album "Sotto il suo cielo".
It produced great bands like Ciurma Skins and hardcore local heroes ToEdGein (listen to them!).
9. South Europe is famous for its terraces culture...are you supporting some football team from your region?
Some of us supported local football team in the past time, no one of us actually. But we always share respect for true traditional football spirit and values! Many of our fans are casuals or ultras.
10. What about the playing live? Do you like it and how often do you play? And dou you play also outside the banks of your island?
We really love to play live! Having a direct contact with those people who can undestand our message and appreciate our music, is absolutely priceless!
Recording an album is the first aim for a band, but concerts can give you the chance to see what people likes or dislikes and, most important, create a connection between band and public, a real adrenalin shot.
Unfortunately, we don't play so often as we would like to, because local pubs are more opened for trendy musics...in Sardinia we usually play in 4-5 rock pubs.
We played 3 times outside our island: 2 times in Rome, with Oi! heroes "Superyob", great bands like Swedish "Double Knockout", and Italian like "Pinta facile" and "Automatica Aggregazione"; and 1 time in Savona (the city of bands like Klasse kriminale), with young good bands, like "5MDR".
Now we have in program 2 dates outside Sardinia, always in Italy: Caserta on April 30, and Viterbo on May 1st.
We really hope to increase our live activity in the near future! We wanna rock all over the world! Ahaha
11. Do you know anything about Czech republic?
We know some great band like Pilsner Oiquell and Operace Artaban, and others like Disdainful, Orlik, FistbOi!s...we know there's a great fermenting scene, with cool bands, but unfortunately we can not say to know well the czech social-political situation, neither the musical scene...sorry! We'll find out a repair fot this negligence!
12. Plans for the future...
We are now composing new songs, our first target is to record the second album as soon as possible...and then start a worldwide tour with a multi-millionaire contract, personal jets, groupies everywhere, and a forniture of the better beer! Ahahah
13. Last words....
Thanks to Peddy and Backstreet Battalion for the chance he gave us to having our say! Best regards to all Czech rebels, hope we'll have the opportunity to visit your Country, one day. Keep the faith, and support zines and bands! Cheers!