FOAD Records is proud to announce the release of RAW POWER’s “Birth” gatefold LP, a totally remastered version of the band’s first ever demo tape (1983) and a live from Kentucky, USA 1984 recorded during their first American legendary tour!
This album comes to celebrate RAW POWER’s 30th anniversary; F.O.A.D. Records reached singer Mauro Codeluppi to conduct an exclusive interview regarding this release and the glorious past times of Italian hardcore…
You are the only Italian hardcore band that has continued playing live and recording albums from 1980 until today. The easy question is… why?|
And the answer is another very easy one: we have been very lucky to have fans that have supported us all the time and are still doing it after so many years. You see, we have to carry on for them, as well as for my brother and for ourselves too… we would be lost without Raw Power.
Why do you think at least half of today’s HC bands won’t reach the 10 years activity benchmark? What has changed from the days when you started?|
I think that the biggest problem has always been that in the moment a band member thinks he is good or even very good, he starts getting strange ideas in his mind… he may want to go solo, start his own band, or think that the others aren’t good enough anymore for his level. So he leaves, starts his own band and most of the times what happens is that his new project doesn’t go anywhere. He then will realize that without the others he is just an average shit of a musician. I think that this is something that has always been happening and always will, and furthermore these days the kids are so spoiled that I think it’s happening more than ever. On top of this, of course, consider the fact that a lot of kids get fed up quickly with working hard, making sacrifices… they want everything and they want it quickly. But of course, that is not how it works.
This record, “Birth”, that will come out for FOAD Records in LP (regular edition and limited die hard edition) contains your first Demo from 1983 on side A. Can you remember now, after 30 years of distance, how it all started?
Well of course I can’t tell you exactly how it happened, first of all because back then I was the last member of the band and my brother was the one doing all the work… but what I remember is just that we all had this great desire of doing something a bit different, something that might give us a chance of going away from where we lived to see places, meet people and have new experiences… that was the reason why we started writing our own songs, rather than carry on with performing cover versions.
The B Side will be a live recording from your first legendary USA tour. As you were the first Italian hardcore band to get to play in the USA , how much did this experience count for you? Do you have any memories of it?
As I have said many times before, I think that the first tour in the US changed our life. It was an experience that made us grow, something that I/we will never forget . There are so many episodes that happened during that first visit, and to mention them all would take a very long time. We were just some young kids (yes we have been young too!) that passed from a village of 6000 people to cities like L.A, New York, San Francisco… we travelled to all the major cities of the East/West coasts and the South. We were just like children, discovering new things every day. It was wonderful and we have to be grateful to all the people that made it possible for us to get there, and to all the people that helped us once we got there, and also to the ones that came to see this unknown Italian band playing hardcore… we really have been blessed.
Too many people have bootlegged records without proper artists’ authorization. This has been going on for many years, and has become a huge problem with reissues lately. Has this ever happened to you? Would you like to give a message to the culprit readers?
Well, we’ve had people printing and re-printing our records and Cds right from the beginning, and I must be honest, sometimes we were the ones giving the permission to print our stuff. As long as we knew it, that was ok; the people I really hate and cannot understand are those that will release your music without even asking… I mean, we have hardly made any money at all from our records… I also know for a fact that the people that I care about who have put our music out haven’t made a lot of money either… they are just like us, nuts about the music and that is fine. However, those that have taken advantage of bands by printing everything behind your back, well… I hope they all meet a very sticky end.
Your final space to say what you wish…
I would just like to thank everyone at FOAD for the great job they have done here. I didn’t believe that they would fulfill what they said they would have done, but the result is here for everyone to see, and what a wonderful job they have made of it!! I think this record is a definitive must for all those loving Raw Power. Last but not least I would like to thank everyone we know and also the ones of you that we have never met but have constantly supported us. Thank you so much!! I hope we can still carry on for a long time, able to come and play, and never disappoint you!