GIUDA (Italy – glam / bovver rock)

Italy’s Giuda made a huge impression with their debute LP ‘Racey Roller’. The band finds inspiration in 70ies bovver & glam rock. They combine the stomping rhythm of Slade, the aggro of the Cockney Rekects and the attitude of The Jooks. All questions were answered by Lorenzo (guitar).
may 2012 – thanks to Jenny Woo for helping out – band website

Several of the band members were involved in the populair band Taxi before. Can you tell how Taxi ended and how Giuda started?
Yes, Tenda (vocals) and me (guitar) both used to play Taxi. We were around for a while and released two LP’s, but decided to break up in 2007 after the sudden passing of our drummer Francesco.

A few months later the rest of us started playing music again, with the help of Taxi’s first bassist, Danilo. It took a while to stabilize the lineup. The band was rounded up by Michele (guitar) and Daniele (drums), and that’s been the Giuda lineup ever since.

The name Giuda is Italian for the biblical person Judas Iscariot. Italy is a very catholic country, do you received any negative feedback on the name so far?
Our name doesn’t sound very offensive in Italian, and even if it did, there’s no shortage of bands over here with names or lyrics way, way more blasphemous than ours. Besides, I’m sure that at this point the church has more pressing problems than going after some tiny band. And even if they did, I doubt many would listen.

Unlike what is sometimes believed abroad, the church has almost zero influence in today’s Italy. Sure, politicians keep paying lip service to the Pope, and the church still meddles in high level political decisions, but in everyday’s life its grip on society is filmsy at best: even many of those calling themselves “catholic” hardly follow its morals.

Your LP breathes nostalgia all the way: the superb lay-out, the analog recordings… Do you still follow the current music scene or do you stick to your 60ies and 70ies records?
I listen to new bands sometimes, but very little in modern music excites me. I’d rather spend my time looking for more forgotten 70s gems.

You’re an Italian band but your LP was released on Dead Beat from the USA. Why didn’t you release the LP in Europe?
Both Taxi LP’s (Like A Dog and You Tolk Tu Mach) came out on Dead Beat, so we’ve worked with them for a long time now, and throughout the years they were always very supportive and we never had a problem. So when the Giuda record was finished it was natural for us to approach them. Then again, the two Giuda 7”s came out on two different Italian labels. And our next records will be self released.

You played at this year’s Punk & Disorderly festival in Berlin. How was it like to play there as it’s quite a big festival? Do you often play for a punk & skin crowd?
We’ve played some bigger shows in the past, although probably nothing as big as the Punk & Disorderly. We were really excited at the prospect and we gave our best – like we we always do, no matter if we’re playing in front of ten people or ten thousand.

As for the punk & skin crowd, yes, they often show up at our shows, but then again our audience is usually a mix of every musical subculture imaginable, plus a lot of ‘normal’ people, which is how we like it, because our music is for everybody. Even my mom likes us!

The band lay-out, image and also your music is a tribute to glamrock classics as Slade, Mud or The Jook, but your music is also populair among punks and skinheads. Although the glam-skinhead connection exists since the days Slade had short cropped hair, glam sometimes has the image of being ecletic/heterogeneous and maybe also a little ‘effeminate’. Do you get any negative response from the punk & skin crowd, especially as both subcultures are often rigid and dogmatic?
We haven’t received any negative response, because all these years what we’ve been doing is to play rock’n’roll. It’s been like this since the Taxi days and in fact I’d say that all those who listened to Taxi listen to us today.

As said the band’s image and lay-out are inspired by classic glam bands, but so far you only recorded self-written songs. Do you play covers live? Are there bands that you like to pay tribute to? If so, which bands or songs would that be?
When we started out we did Down Down by Status Quo. We tried a few Slade song and Elton John’s Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting, but they didn’t really sound that good. Right now the only cover we play live more or less regularly is Borstal Boys by the Faces.

I suppose the song Number 10 is a football song. About which player is it? can you tell who he was?
Of course. Number 10 is for the greatest AS Roma player of all time, Francesco Totti!

The recordings for the LP date from 2009. Do you have any plans for recordings and releases yet?
We’re working on new songs, I think we’ll be back in the studio in November and we’ll try to have the new album ready for 2013.

Do you have any closing comments or future plans to announce?
Clap your hands, stomp your feet, here comes Giuda…