My Love My Way 'Zine: HOLY

After more than a year of hiatus i decided to comeback for interviewing some of my favourite bands around.
I started again with HOLY from Milan (Ita). I think everyone of you already know them, mostly because they have already played (for sure) in your own hometown and even because you can only love them listening at their records (first one out for Hell Yes! rec. , second one out for Adagio830).If you don't know them, please follow the links at the end of the interview! Let's talk with the singer Stefano about what's around the band.

The first question is the usual boring one: please introduce Holy. Could you please guys stop touring in this way?

Ahahah Don't worry, I don't mind to introduce the band, mainly because there's nothing too complicated to explain. Holy is a punk band, made by four friends, we come from Milano, and we love to play. Right now is Stefano typing, I'm the one who sings. Tadzio is playing bass, Giacomo the drums, and the other guy named Stefano plays guitar.
To answer to the second part of your question, right now we're just coming out from a 3 months of hiatus, for the first time in these two years, so, we stopped for a while.
Right now we're about to start practicing again, and plannig new shows/tours and probably start writing a new record.

When did the band begin to take form? How did you come up with the name of the band? What bands did inspire you to play the sound that you do?

We started rehearsing in the June or July of 2011; we've been discussing about forming a band together since forever, somehow we got all stuck in Milan during the summertime, and you can imagine it could be pretty boring, so we decided to give it a chance.
The name "HOLY" came out because we were looking for something very short and catchy, but also in some way ambiguous and Ironic/sarcastic; we are all Atheist/Rationalist, and also religion is a recurring theme in our songs, so we picked up the name Holy. We were (and still we are), very aware that this name it's very easy to misunderstand; it happened more than once that we had to make ourselves clear about the fact that WE ARE NOT A RELIGIOUS BAND.
Speaking of our sound it's something we turn into during the very first afternoons we spent praticing.
I can't quote just one band that mainly influenced us, i think we put in the mix everything that we love, like classic punk, 90's hardcore, powerviolence and obviously tons of DBeat.

Making hardcore punk and touring around the world is even a way of expressing dissent ideas and being part of an "underground" culture but do you think that today just being DIY and working outside of the mainstream it’s a political act in itself or does it risk to became just a form of dissent art?

You're making a good point, I mean too often DIY, and punk in general, are mythologized and one of the biggest threat for bands and individuals is start practicing something merely self-referential, and stop looking at the big picture. On the other side we're living in a world founded on manipulation and suppression of individuality, and I don't mean only in politics, but under any aspect of our lives, how we eat, how we have fun, how we spend our free time, who we decide to have sex with, how we earn and spend money (like these two last things are absolutely essential).

I think that DIY encourages individuals to chase a more suitable lifestyle, and now I'm aware that I don't need a corporate media to spread my ideas, or to make my music listened, I don't need 2000 € to spend a week abroad, because luckly someone will let me sleep on a floor. I can live as a perfect healty human even without consuming meat or dairy and so it goes.

To preserve it for turning to something merely "arty" we have to try to keep it alive on a political level, and by "political" i mean in the easiest and primary form: interaction between people, share ideas, question things, get ready to be questioned and, most important, be opened to change our minds.
I'm not that naive to think it will always work, and I'm conscious, in first place, of my limits as a person, but i still think that this is the only way it somehow can work.

You toured around west-coast together with Punch last summer. How was this experience? What are the biggest differences you've found between touring Europe and Usa. How was tour with another band from the "new world"?

The tour was amazing, and so far, the greatest experience we've lived as a band. I really felt I was literally on the other side of the planet.
We ate tons and tons of pretty amazing vegan food, we had the chance to play with so many amazing bands, and in so many amazing places.
There are plenty of differences, just to quote one it's pretty amazing to see how the kids there have managed to "run" a DIY and political active scene even though there are no proper squats over there.

We felt we were warmly welcomed, and everybody was so supportive and seemed so happy to have a band from abroad playing their town, and this is very different from what, in most cases, happens here in Milan with touring bands.

Punch deserves a whole chapter of this history, I mean they were the main reason why we played there, they booked all the tour, they shared with us their van and all their gear, and still got time left to carry us around, and let us act like proper tourists in Cali.

Also we were always late (not me, but the other three guys!) and they were super patient and understanting; and I can't imagine five better people to share a tour.

Do you consider Holy being a political band?

I think in part I've already answered to this, to be more specific I can say YES, Holy are a political band. A lot of people will probably disagree, because not all of our lyrics are what in punk is considered strictly political.

I take full responsibility for this, because, when I write lyrics I try not to use any slogan. I never believed in the dicotomy political lyrics vs personal lyrics, i think that in everyday life the two aspects are connected, and, as I said before, I intend the word "political" in his primary meaning; it's political being angry for another imperialist invasion of a sovereign state, as well is political being frustrated for the incapability to relate between individuals.

Also themes like veganism and atheism are themes that we try to consider under a different light, beside the two punchlines "meat is murder" and "no gods, no masters".

"This town has blew the life away from me" - Does Milan really suck in this way, and how is for Holy living as a band in this city?

Milan is not that bad, but in some ways is bad. I mean it's not a very welcoming city, and sometimes it's hard to feel some human warmth. I don't want to reinforce some of the worst stereotypes about my city, but it can be a tough city.

I must admit that after some years of struggling with the idea of living here i'm right now (for now, maybe...)in peace of mind.

The song you quoted is pretty much about a strong feeling of disillusion, and the feeling of not fitting in anymore with my peers, not only with the town, it's also about facing years of failures of and not achieved goals in politics.

For a band Milano is pretty challenging, I mean Milano is still on the map of Italian punk, but in the last years having shows in packed rooms, with a lot of people having fun, and not standing still in front of the band, has become pretty hard.

Also the lack of venues to play is the root of this problem, We're still playing shows, and booking shows for touring bands, but basically it's ups and downs.

To be fair, it seems like it's gettin better, more young kids involved e more new (good) bands.

Reading your lyrics i felt a lot of dark feelings; are we really live a life without sense? How do you try to overwhelm the bad things around you?

Obliouvsly the dark feelings are right there, where you read them, ahah. When I was writing the lyrics for "the age of collapse" I Was facing a lot of disillusion and a certain sense of impotence, among my usual trust issues, so I guess everything sounds a bit nihilist. But I don't consider this negative or, even worse self indugent. In our view of the world having consciousness of the shit that surrounds us is the first, unavoidable, step, to try to change these things. You can say "Be negative to be positive", ahahah, don't say it, I'm just joking.

Religion (every kind) into punk hardcore...are people serious about it? What do you think?

First of all, we're all atheist but we all stand for freedom of cult; in other words, I don't blame anyone for believing in some god or for being a spiritual person.

What really depress me is how can somebody think that religion can fit into punk. Religion is by definition a static and dogmatic syste; religion is, and has always been, one of the main obstacles to social changes, free tought and self realization.

I don't know how it happens that religion and punk joined, if we're talking about the whole khrisna core thing (which is not the only example of religion into punk), i think that probably a certain way of seeing straight edge helped, like trading one set of rules with another; but honestly I don't know for sure, what I know is that for me punk will always be the black sheep LEAVING the herd, not joining it.

You are a 100% vegan band. What does this thing mean to you and how does it affect your everyday life? I'm captured by the lyric of "Old Habits" and in particular <<You're the slaughterer Repeat yourself: "at least it tastes better">>. In what terms do you think a personal choice could turn life in a good or bad way?

I think we're living in a very complicated times, it's like the causes to fight for are getting more and more, and bigger, but everybody feels powerless and feels let down and disenchanted.

What really encouraged me to be vegan is that by being that I'm not delegating the change to anyone else, I'm not givin away anything of my power of choose and do things, I think that eating and consuming other living beings is wrong, and so I do something about it, I'm not voting for a law to reduce the consume of meat, or to enlarge chicken cages.

I quit contribuiting with my money to this system, and try to be as much communicative as I can about it, with the people around me, so maybe someone else will start considering to became vegan.

Just to discourage some Anti-vegan enthusiast, who maybe is reading, I'm aware veganism is only a small thing, and that it's not enough per se, and I'm in no way saying that I care not of human animals.

I choose to became vegan maybe later than my bandmates (I Was like 22 yo, or something), it was a well thought out choice, and I was not passing through some phase, and after these years I realize it is more challenging explain the reason of my diet, than the diet itself.

I mean, being vegan is pretty easy for everyone to me, so everybody should considered it, but earing EVERYTIME justifications like: "meat tastes good", "meat is healty", or "eating animals is natural" is pretty depressing, mainly because distract from the main point about veganism; eating/exploiting animals means to kill living being not different from your cats and dogs and yourself, this what "Old habits" is about.

What do you do outside the band? Any other big passion?

Punk is a big part of our lives, even outside Holy, and probably playing is what we love the most. Besides Holy Tadzio and Giacomo plays in Komplott, Giacomo also started a new band with some friends from the US, it's called TORSO, Stefano Has also a new hardcore band named CLASS, they just recorded some songs which you're going to ear probably at very beginning of 2014. Giacomo and Tadzio set up shows here in Milano. I'm thinking myself to start a new band where i can play the bass and not singing at all, and I'm about to print my first zine. We all have other passions but probably nothing so intersting to read in an interview; i spend most of my time reading, watching movies or cooking stuff.

I was hoping you could comment on some of the writers, artists,bands and thinkers that you currently find inspiring in your life and work.

I'm a voracious reader, sometimes too much, and maybe it doesn't help. Right now I'm reading stuff from Henry David Thoreau, and watching lot of documentaries by Werner Herzog, and I'm in general very interested in the relationship between humans, society and wild nature.

I hope that somehow I can make it fit in some lyrics. I'm also a lot into Edward Bunker, and in general prison novels.

Speaking of band lyrics, i really love the approach of classic italian punk bands like Indigesti, Wretched, or Sottopressione. His is hero is gone are between my all time favourites, nowadays I Particularly like the lyrics of Dangers and Punch, and the (early) Ceremony.

Is there any more you can tell us about further Holy plans?

Tomorrow we're gonna have our first rehearsing time in almost 7 months, and next saturday we're gonna play our first show after 3 months, so things are starting to roll again, we're gonna write new stuff, and the we'll decide what to do with it.

We're planning a european tour around February/March, and whenever all the shows are booked we will start the usual spam.

Wanna add anything?

Thank You so much for the interview, and the space you gave us, I hope my answers aren't boring, because I really loved the questions.

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Hey you out there! you should listen to CAINO!

Bye