Rob: What kind of heavy rock scene is there in Rome and what are some of the other bands doing that Doom heavy stuff that you like if any locally?
Francesco: You can`t really talk of a heavy rock scene here in Rome, the only other band I`m aware of is a band called Loosin`o`Frequencies, they`re friends of ours, but are much more into Electric Wizardish style. The rest of the bands here in Rome are into Power or black metal, or hardcore and ska.
Ennio: Probably the roman hard`n heavy attitude is made by power and classic metal band, but i prefer the few bands hard rock-inspired or punks. There`s not a real Stoner/Doom scene here. I only know band as Solifuge and Loosin`O Frequencies.
Rob: What are some of the common influences within the band ?
Francesco: We are more or less of the same age, so we have a common background, we started listening to hardcore and thrash metal, bands like Metallica, Slayer, .C.O.C., and ended up listening to 70s stuff, Black Sabbath, Hawkwind, the Skynyrds and C.O.C. (ah ah!) But we also dig a lot bands like Butthole Surfers, Entombed and Cathedral.
Ennio: Black Sabbath and COC above all.
Rob: How often do you guys jam and what kind of songwriting goes on within the band?
Francesco: We enjoy jamming as much as we can, but at the moment our drummer lives in Siena, 200 miles away from here, so we don`t have much time to practice, we kind of meet a couple of weekends a month and lock ourselves up in a practice room. This means that most of our songs are born at home, somebody comes up with a good idea and let the others listen to it, then when the song seems to be ready we play it all together and see if it works.
Rob: What are some of the other newer bands in the stoner rock scene around the world that you all agree rule?
Francesco: Personally I`m quite fond of bands like Sleep, Alabama Thunder Pussy, Dixie Witch, High on Fire. heavy stuff in general. But we listen to a hell of a lot of new music and our taste differs, for instance our synth/moog player loves kraut rock and experimental bands. The drummer is into jazz and so on.
Ennio: Nebula, Orange Goblin, Drunk Horse, Zen Guerrilla and naturally QOTSA.
Rob: How did you guys start? who met who?
Francesco: I put up the band with guitar player Emiliano (at the moment he isn`t playing anymore due to a serious health problem), we went through a couple of drummers, in the meantime we found out that an old friend of ours we hadn`t seen for ages was into the same kind of music we played, so Ennio became 2nd guitar and then added up Emiliano Lembo to play synth and effects; we met the latter at the seaside (yeah!). We knew each other by sight and he was wearing this fancy sunglasses and a Hawkwind t-shirt so we said "Hey man whatever instrument you play you must do it with us", and a week later he was on stage with Skywise.
Rob: Do you have any plans for upcoming tours?
Francesco: We have scattered dates here and there, on the 5th of April we`re playing in Viterbo, in May in Rome and we`re trying to see if it is possible to support Nebula in Treviso, we`re also in contact with a couple of Swedish bands trying to exchange dates, but that is likely to happen in the summer.
Rob: Do you have any upcoming releases or plans to record soon?
Francesco: Our debut CD`s been out only since a couple of months, but to tell you honesty we have a lot of new stuff ready, we`ll see if it is possible to record before summer.
Rob: This whole new stoner Rock doom scene of late seems to have a lot to do with bands connecting through the internet. Have you guys found the internet useful? What do you think of this whole information superhighway and how does it fit in with Skywise if it does at all?
Francesco: We started playing when we were kids in the mid 80s, and everything was like send me a letter, fotocopy the flyer, make a hundred phone calls and so on, internet has saved us a lot of time and money, so we`ve been able to sell our demos and CDs everywhere from Venezuela to East Malaysia, now everybody can have infos by visiting our site (www.skywise.it ) and that`s just great.
Rob: Is there anything you want to say to the community at StonerRock.com?
Francesco: Honor Mother Earth, enjoy life and drink to our health every now and then, we`ll drink to yours!
Rob: Alot of people take offense to the term StonerRock-- What do you guys think of the term Stoner Rock?
Francesco: Labels are a necessary evil. and since English is not a mother tongue the term "stoner" here in Italy sounds just like any other label. We are not "drug fiends" (not anymore) and even if we just smoke a couple of spliffs when we feel like we don`t care how people define our music as long as it`s useful to the bands. If the term stoner helps the bands to be easily recognized to me it is welcome. So let`s not be hypocrite a lot of the bands taking offence in it owe some of their popularity to it.
Here is the part of the interview we here at StonerRock.com call the "13 stupid questions"...
Rob: If you weren`t a rocker, what would you most like to be?
Francesco: I`d like to work on the railway.
Ennio: Movie director
Rob: What was your worst gig and why? What was your best gig and why?
Francesco: Last August we were in the mountains of the Matese (south of Italy) at the end of an Italian mini tour and Emiliano had gone completely mental. we went on stage at 1:30 a.m. with the police threatening to turn off the power at any minute, Emi was playing something which was anything but Skywise songs, I felt like David Gilmour on stage with Syd Barrett without even being that good. But it was cool, we ended up 3 a.m. with people shouting and still dancing, that was the worst and best gig we`ve had so far.
Ennio: The worst: at a place called HM caf� (Rome 2000) cause the fuckin` drummer got everything wrong during "Ace of Spades" cover. The best at "Imposto" (Grosseto- Tuscany, 2001) `cause not programmed and was full of people, and we were playing with an additional jamming guitarist: Nico from EXP.
Rob: Top 3 movies, books and albums of all time?
Francesco: Movies: "The Grapes of Wrath", "Star Trek", "The Good, The Bad and the Ugly". Books: "The Lord of the Rings", "Stranger in a Strange land", "Crash". Albums: "Volume 4" (Sabbaths), "One more from the road" (Skynyrds), "Powerage" (AC/DC).
Ennio: Movies: Citizen Kane (O.Welles), Jaws (Spielberg), Shining (Kubrick). Books: Necronomicon (H.P. Lovecraft), The longest Day (C. Ryan), All "Swamp Thing" comic saga (A.Moore). Albums: Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (D.Bowie), Paranoid (Sabbaths), Raw Power (Iggy Pop and the Stooges).
Rob: How often do you surf the net and what do you mostly do while online?
Francesco: I surf it daily, write e-mail, look up for my favourite bands and comic writer sites.
Ennio: Almost 1 hour a day for infos and downloadimg software.
Rob: What is your favourite city and venue to play, and why?
Fran: Any club in Naples, cos` it`s my hometown and no matter how messy and torn and fucked up I love it!!!
Ennio: Everywhere with more than 10.000 people.
Rob: What is the most Rock `n` Roll thing you`ve ever done? What`s the most Rock `n` Roll thing you`ve seen someone else do?
Francesco: One of the too many times I woke up on some floor and it took me a while to remember where I was or what I`d done the night before. Gibby Haynes from Butthole Surfers waving his dick at the sound engineer in front of huge crowd in Reading Festival 93.
Ennio: Stage diving with my guitar after my first gig when a kid. Someone else: Mike Patton on stage.
Rob: What`s your worst "bad trip" story?
Francesco: Never had bad trips, never had bad trips, never had bad trips never had...
Ennio: A needle in my right ball.
Rob: What`s the most painful thing you have ever witnessed at a rock show?
Francesco: Stupidity spreading every day more and more.
Ennio: The death on stage of Mark Sandman.
Rob: How old were you when you first realize you wanted to rock?
Francesco: I was probably ten and the TV showed Ozzy singing "Iron Man" live, .I saw the light.
Ennio: About 16
Rob: What`s the most embrassing job you ever had?
Francesco: Night porter at a Hotel which (I sadly discovered later) was on one of the most famous gay guides of the world (honest!)
Ennio: None.
Rob: What`s your favourite ice cream flavor?
Francesco: Kiwi e muorto.
Ennio: Delizia al LImone
Rob: If you could date any rock star Dead or Alive in the world, who would it be? Movie star?
Francesco: Bon Scott or Cliff Burton would do, but I wouldn`t mind getting to know Liv Tyler or Penelope Cruz. E: Jimy Hendrix and Massimo Troisi.
Rob: What would be the ultimate dream gig of all time line-up be, with your band opening? Limit to 3 bands please (including your own...) and where?
Francesco: Motorhead and ZZ Top in my backyard.
Ennio: Everywhere with the Sabbath in the `70s.
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