- What inspired the name of the band and what are your influences?
(Simone) The five of us have pretty diverse influences. Of course we are all rockers and metal heads but the amazing thing about Helligators is that we are all influenced by different tastes in the genre. Our inspiration ranges from good old fashioned hard and heavy rock and roll, heavy metal, grunge, southern, a pinch of punk and so on. Of course we are all in our 40’s so we are very proud of our musical background….that’s just a fancy way of saying that we are getting older and listen to so much different music haha! As far as the name goes, the band wanted a name that was not too long and somewhat catchy so, Helligators sounded pretty good and rock n’ roll!
(Alex) To be honest, the previous name was Snakebones, but there already was an american band with that monicker so we decided to change it in Helligators because it sounded really good to us and it perfectly represented as we are: 5 animals from a cage of hell to stage!
- How do you approach song-writing?
(Simone) Usually we start jamming on something or a riff that one of us brings in and we develop a song from there. All 5 of us contribute with ideas in the song-writing process and I start singing something on top of it as we jam. When the song takes somewhat of a form, then the lyrics are usually written. It may happen, as you can imagine, that a song ends up sounding completely different from when we first started working on it. It’s a pretty straight-forward process. We do what we think is cool and what we like to do without studying things. It’s rock n’ roll, right? So that is the attitude.
(Alex) As Simone said, we usually start from a guitar or bass riff and then we develop it all together with funny jamming sessions. It usually works! We are quite fast to compose new songs, we know each other for three decades and there’a a great alchemy between us. Instead, when we have to decide the graphic of a cover or a t-shirt, we can take years hahahahaha!
- Are there any themes that you specifically chose for this new album and why?
(Simone) Well, Hell III pretty much talks about everyday life, the trials and tribulations, feelings, thoughts, ecc. As always, everyone can give their own personal meaning and interpretation…that is the beauty of music isn’t it? Take the opener, REBELLION, for example. Obviously it’s about rebelling against any form of oppression or control that society wants to impose on us and our lives but not only politically, as it also addresses a certain rebellion against social conformity and rejecting the many attitudes and aspects of social interaction, friendships, relationships, ecc that are fake, not sincere and basically full of shit, haha. WHERE I BELONG talks about finding ourselves and believing in ourselves, BLEEDING is about how love is distorted in our modern society, CONFESSIONS part I is about addiction while part II is about depression, and so forth. All in all, you can say that Hell III is a pretty “human” album in its themes.
- What’s your favourite song from the new record?
(Simone) That’s a difficult question. Of course there are songs that I prefer compared to others but, in a way, that is like asking a child who is your favourite, Mom or Dad? Haha. I personally like all the songs because it is quite diverse. We are a heavy rock n’ roll band but this time around we ventured into more melodic territories while keeping our “pedal to the metal” heavy attitude always present. Among my favs are UNTIL I FEEL NO MORE, CONFESSIONS part I and II, BLEEDING but I really love this album in its whole.
(Alex) We have different attitudes and different musical tastes, so everyone probably has a different favourite one! My favourite songs are probably the ‘straight to the point’ and catchy ones like REBELLION, BLEEDING and PEDAL TO THE METAL. I also love to play our ballad WHERE I BELONG, probably because it’s relaxing and I am a really lazy drummer hahahahah!
- What plans do you have for the future?
(Simone) World Domination, obviously! HAHA. Just kidding. We just want to keep taking our music out there on the road and present Hell III, and our other two albums to as many people and as many places we can and hope that many people will buy the album and come see our live shows, which are always fun. We are extremely grateful for the following we have and always do our utmost best to offer an amazing show and have fun all together with our crowds. We have all dedicated most of our lives to music and have had lots of experience and achievements so, we just wanna keep doing what we do, how we like and sell our records as best we can.
(Alex) Now we just want to do our best to promote the new album, because we really believe that rockers could appreciate and enjoy it. We are very proud of ‘Hell III’, we would like to play our music everywhere and to make more and more Helli-friends around the world!