Metallic hardcore, post hardcore band TOTAL RECALL have an EP along with an album, with them already hard at work upon their next release out sometime in the next year. The band discusses their history, music, and more below.
1. Please tell us about the history of your band and its members.
Total Recall was born in 2019. The founding members Luca (Pigo) (K-Aagain, Samaritan, Embrace Destruction), Stef (K-Again, Traces of You, Die Trying) and Danny (Embrace Destruction) were already veterans in the Hardcore/Metalcore scene and decided to start to write music together after their common friend and brother Massy passed away after a long fight with his disease. Massy toured with Pigo and Stef for more than 20 years and he wanted the 2 old friends to come back together in a band as they played in different bands for many years. Stef and Pigo recruited the drummer Danny who played in Embrace Destruction (the last band of Pigo and Massy) and decided to form a band with members who played or toured with Massy. After Pigo decided not be a singer anymore and to take Massy’s bass guitar to keep his legacy alive, with Stef at guitars and Danny at the drums, the line up started to write music without following any particular influence, with the only purpose to write songs that could reflect the style of music they played with Massy throughout the last 20 plus years. After a few months Andy was added as singer. Andy toured with Massy when he was in Rise Above Dead and his friendship with him went back some 15 plus years, and Stefano (Bleed) as guitarist who also was in Rise Above Dead.
With the line complete the band wrote 9 songs and released a mini Digital 2 songs EP “Wooden Scars” ( https://totalrecallhc1.bandcamp.com/album/wooden-scars-ep ) in January 2020 produced by Mark Gervasio who toured with Massy in Traces of You Being comforted by the positive reviews they entered the studio and they recorded the first Full Length “Always Together” ( https://totalrecallhc1.bandcamp.com/album/always-together-2 ) produced by Steph Orkid Santi who knew Massy since K-again in the early 2000’s. After receiving some interest for the release the band decided to sign with the Australian label 1054 Records and released “Always Together” in July 2021. The album was preceded by 2 singles videoclip Poison Flow ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xumKtnl3Wc ) and Seas of Illusion ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZ_6VWUOpkQ ). After the pandemic the band started to play live shows in Europe trying to support the release of their full length doing what they do best…meaning playing live and released a third video “Never Again” ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3E23BPuxZ-c ).
2. What’s the origin of the band’s name?
After the completion of the line up the band was struggling to find a name that was somehow related to Massy’s memory. One night during the songwriting of a song in the studio we took a break and we had a drink with Massy’s sister. We were just going through some memories and she said that the first ever movie she saw was Total Recall and she saw it with her brother who loved it. We found this story fascinating and the sound of the name was really appealing, on top of that we all love 80’s movies and “The Governator” movies in particular. Just check the old merch from Embrace Destruction and you will understand why. That’s how Total Recall was born.
3. Where is the band based out of and what is your music scene like there? Are there any local bands you could recommend?
We are now all based in Milano,IT after some of us relocated back from Holland and UK. The Heavy Hardcore/Metalcore scene is really struggling to even call itself a scene to be honest, even though bands like Defamed or Deep as Ocean come from there, actually also our brothers Fulci can be considered a Milan based band somehow. But there isn’t a specific scene really. All this bands are doing pretty good playing their way outside of the city and actually outside of the country.
4. How would you describe your style?
Good and difficult question. As we are all in the scene for more than 20 years we got influenced by lot of music like Metal, Nu-metal, Hardcore and all their subgenres. Most of the low tuned style we play we were already doing it back in 1998. Anyhow you could consider it as a low tuned metallic hardcore with a spark of post hardcore FFO Knocked Loose, Sanction, Norma Jean, Will Haven, Bodysnatcher, Desolated, Hatebreed and Kublai Khan.
5. What have you released so far and what can someone expect from your works?
As we said previously we released a 2 song digital EP in 2020 (Wooden Scars) and a 9 songs Full Length in 2021 (Always Together). Always Together though was ready in March 2020, this means that the songwriting was mainly done by the 3 founding members in 2019. The songs were straight forward and constructed to involve people in a live show. The thread was to focus on heavy and bouncing tunes but somehow accessible to a larger audience, the new songs are less focused on inclusiveness musically speaking of course.
6. Do you have any new music in the works?
After this 3 years the line up blended together pretty well and this has resulted in a different songwriting with an output that indeed is different from the previous releases while keeping the mood that was in there. We are now recording some pre productions and the new songs are definitely more blackened and more heavy. After the pre productions we will decide if we will record a full length or an EP but for sure in early 2023 we will release new music.
7. How about playing shows and touring, have anything planned out?
The pandemic forced us to change all the plans we had and after that the live shows schedule was crazy, as there was a backlog of 2 years. Still now it’s hard for us to find spots planned ahead, but we managed to enter some good line ups like the Perseverance and Alliance Tour in France this spring and several club shows in Italy in really nice venues with a good turnout. In the near future we will play a short UK tour in November (3-4-5) supporting No Second Chance and a small run in mainland Europe in December in Switzerland, Holland and Belgium. We will go from there and try to plan a decent set of European shows to support the new release in 2023.
8. What plans do you have for the future as a band?
Our plans are focused on a new release in 2023 supported by as many continental shows as we can, mostly week enders or medium runs if there will be the occasion. We will release also a couple of videos to support the new release which will have some nice featuring's in some of the songs but we cannot spoiler too much ;)
9. Where can we listen to your band and where can we buy your stuff?
You can listen to our music pretty much everywhere but of course we would suggest our Sportify Channel ( https://open.spotify.com/artist/4CEQfQQ6l9oOaEJpuaa3co ), if you like to see some more content don’t miss our YT Channel TOTAL RECALL TV with official videos, Studio Diaries, Live Performances, Short Docs and Playthrough ( https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgVL02wd44dzTDKQdAzDGzA/videos ). If you feel like check out our textile and buy our physical releases feel free to check our Bandcamp Page ( https://totalrecallhc1.bandcamp.com/ )
10. What is it you’d like a listener to remember the most when hearing your music for the first time?
Nice question. We would love if he would remember that our songs gave him a sensation, or a feeling of warmth and that he could remember clearly a sensation of truthfulness through the music and the lyrics.
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