1: How did the band come to be named Awaken Demons and is there any special meaning behind the band being named this

AD: We were searching a "hard name" for our new project. I was looking into my records and I found the record Wake the Demons from Full Blown Chaos and I said: "hey this name is great!" and the other members said: "What do you think about Awaken Demons?" and that's how it comes out. Nothing of special actually. ;)

2: do you find it difficult touring with bands who are not straight edge or does it not matter at all when on the road

AD: As far as we are on Seventh Dagger records in USA we are not a militant sxe band, we love to tour with sxe and non sxe band, the most important thing is that there must be respect between the both band's beliefs.

3: who are some of the bands main musical influences

AD: We basically love and are inspired from the most famous 90s hardcore bands like: Hatebreed, Madball, All Out War, Earth Crisis, Merauder, Integrity, Ringworm and more.

4: are any members in side projects other than Awaken Demons

AD: Yes, our singer, Luca has another project called SHALL I DIE (www.myspace.com/shallidie) and our drummer Raffaele has 2 other side-projects called THE VETERANS and SUPERMARKET (www.myspace.com/veteransitaly - www.myspace.com/supermarketmania)

5: how long has the band been together

AD: Awaken Demons are together since 2005 but the 90% of the band come from 10 years of practice and shows behind their back, of course in the HC/METAL scene.

6: how many cds eps 7 inches split cds and demos has the band currently released

AD: Just From Heaven To Hell at the moment, there will be a new record coming out next year maybe.

7: what do you base your lyrics on when writing new material

AD: It depends, sometimes personal feelings, other times just inspired from something that is happen in life etc etc. Basically important things of course sometimes everything is expressed via metaphorical sense.

8: is there a large and thriving scene in the Cesena Brotherhood area as well as throughout Italy

AD: We have our small local scene made by friends and cool people but the whole HC scene in Italy sucks because its made by assholes and stupid people.

9: how did the band come to signing with Demons Run Amok Seventh Dagger and Double X Crossed and how have they been treating you so far

AD: Basically DRA has been the first label to be into our sound than Danny from SxD decided to get us of the SD family because he loves us he is really into us and we are very pround of these both labels because they are doing a lot in the DIY underground HC scene. DXC was supposed to put out the vinyl version but for some delays problems nothing will happen with this release...i dont know about the next one now.

10: is this the original lineup and if not what is the current lineup

AD: Yes, I mean just one singer, Alessandro left the band a couple of months ago for some personal reasons, while the rest of the band is original, since the beginning.

11: what can someone expect to see when attending an Awaken Demons show especially if they have never seen
or heard the band before

AD: Good question dude! :) Well, it depends about what the people, who is on the floor, use to do during a hc show. Our sets are full of energy and we always try to do our best to involve people, but like i said before it depends what the people wanna do. I saw a show with Throwdown, Remembering Never, The Agony Scene and Sinai Beach in California in 2005 and, I swear, nobody was moving....so it totally depends.

12: if you could have anyone do guest vocals on your next recording who would it be and why

AD: I'd love to have: (i say I cos i dont know what the other member would like to get...but i'm sume that they'd agree at the 90% with my opinions :))

1) Karl from Earth Crisis because is our favourite straight edge band and they are the meaning of the sxe in the HC scene for us.
2) Jorge from Merauder cos they are Merauder and we are fully inspired by them
3) Dwid from Integrity same as above
4) Mike from All Out War same as above
5) Ice Cube (LOL) this is just a personal guest. Cos is one of my favourite hip-hop artist.

13: does the band have any plans to tour the USA in either 2009 or 2010

AD: We'll tour this august in the west coast...and we hope to get a lot of attention to give us the chance to come back over there again in the future.

14: in only one sentence describe your sound to someone who has never heard you before

AD: R E A L

15: How can the readers from around the world contact you about ordering merchandise

AD: They can write me an email, i work with cumputer all the day so i always answer fast and ship fast. Or they can just use paypal with our little webstore. Everything is easy for everyone.

16: when the band is on tour in the van what is usually playing in the cd player

AD: Dude everything, LOL, from Slayer to Jimmy Eat World...we love every kind of music.

17: how were you first exposed to the scene and what made you say i want to be in an band

AD: Like i said before, some members are in the scene since 1996 but i don't know what they did to be exposed in the scene and what they made to be in a band...but i can say that i've decided to be in a band because is what i've always wanted to do int he hc scene, since when i've started listening hardcore and going to shows in 1997/1998.

18: when on tour and driving from city to city what is some of the weirdest shit you have seen happen or pass by

AD: mmmhh actually i don't remember...but what i remember is something that could be "disgusting" for someone LOL.
Well, in april we were on the road to play a couple of shows in Holland, while we were in Germany we got a very looooooong line in the freeway (like 3 hours in line or something). hahah some AD's members decided to start farting a lot (maybe cos they were stressed and pissed about the long line)....and when i mean a lot, i mean in a terrible way that nobody can understand, really! So the other members were dying because the smell has invaded all the van....so it's been very funny/disgusting. You know, after 3 hours of line people could become crazy :) Yo you can find 2 videos of those moments (of course is in italian):

1) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpK4P81RR5w

2) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALWZkptBvos

19: where do you see the band in 3 years from now

AD: Hope still alive, still playing shows and doing records. We hope to get the attention from more people around the world .

20: who are some of the up and coming bands from the Cesana Brotherhood as well as throughout Italy that we should be on the lookout for

AD: You can check: SHALL I DIE, A REASON TO REACT, KERNEL ZERO, TO KILL, UPON A CURSED VESSEL, ABEL IN DYING, REINFORCED CONCRETE, WATCH YOUR STEP, GONNA FALL HARD...these are some names of some good italian hc bands.

21: the term hardcore has become so overused that any band putting a breakdown into a song is considered hardcore but explain to the readers what hardcore means to you

AD: Hardcore, real hardcore, is something of pure, true, that you can not find in any other part...today the 70% on the new generation kids dont know what hardcore is, they just listen all the crappy fake death metal bands with tight pants and bla bla bla....that's not hardcore that's bullshit (in my opinion, this is not the whole band's opinion) if i wanna listen death metal i'll listen Cannibal Corpse or Suffocation no the today's bands.

22: What is your most memorable show and why

AD: I guess our first show hehehe

23: where else besides myspace can the readers go to to findout about upcoming shows and other band related information

AD: I'm sorry but myspace is the only way to find infos about us. I guess 1 guy on 3 has a myspace profile so is pretty easy for everyone. Maybe soon a website will be up.

24: what are your views on fighting at shows

AD: It's always a bad thing of course...but it depends what is happening. In Italy you can find different kind of assholes in the pit or in a show so i guess the only way to enjoy a real hardcore show without assholes is to kick them off because they are not part of this thing and they dont deserve it. Of course the problems are always started by this assholes here, so sometimes seems to be right, but fighting without reason is just a fake tough bullshit.

25: what is your favorite city and coutnry to play shows in and also your least favorite and why

AD: I don't know man we've been in just few country like, Switzerland who is amazing cos we have tons of friends over there, Holland and Italy. Actualy the best shows has been in Swiss and Italy.

26: Who are some of the bands that you enjoy touring with

AD: I'll let you know as soon as we'll tour with another band. I hope that AFB and Rhinoceros will be cool dudes...i guess it'll be.

27: What advice can you give to some of the newer bands starting out that maybe having a tough time and thinking about giving up

AD: Don't give up!!!!! If the band is italian the problem is 100 times worse because, i dont know why, but people seem to be unbelieving with Italian bands.....but everything can always change cos we have tons of good bands around here.
My advices are: do a myspace profile, print merch, play as much shows as you can, get in touch with people, record a demo etc etc. Another problem is that young bands today think that they'll become famous with 5 months or so, but is not like that. If you wanna get good attention you have to sweat to get it.

28: where do you think you would be right now had you not been exposed to the hxc metal scene

AD: I guess it's be a classic italian guy, but who knows dude.

29: what is the most embarrassing thing that has happened to the band when playing a set

AD: Playing a show and get a tech problem before each song, like drum problem, head problems etc etc.

30: why do you think that people always associate violence with hardcore shows and it always gives hxc scenes and shows a bad reputation

AD: Because they are violent! I mean if you are not in the HC scene and if you go to a show you see people moshing, kicking and punching everywhere, people who walk on the people's heads and do stage dives etc etc so it's normal if someone think: "what a violence!!". But the difference is that for the hc kinds this is normal so it depends from the points of view.

31: what is the worst injury that any of the band has had happen when playing show

AD: I don't know, nothing happen to us at the moment (i touch my balls right now. Is a italian warding off ill-luck thing)

32: Do you have any upcoming shows that you would like to tell the readers about

AD: If you live in California, Arizona, New Messico, Texas and Oklahoma, please come to see us and support us. If you like mosh hardcore you wont get disappointed!

33: Is there anything else that you would like to add that i may have forgotten to ask that the readers should know about

AD: I wanna tank you Sean Walsh of Worldwidetakeoverzine to give us the chance to be part of this great interview. Please check the latest infos at www.myspace.com/awakendemons and buy our merch at www.awakendemons.bigcartel.com. Thanks AxD

I want to thank all the members of Awaken Demons for taking the time out to do this interview with Worldwidetakeoverzine

Sean Walsh
Worldwidetakeoverzine