TONY GORILLA - Monkey Business ? (Hard-Core Punk - Interview with Richie, Matt & Roald)
Please introduce yourself and let me know how it all began with the band ?
Tony Gorilla are five guys from Dortmund/Ruhrpott Germany. We started the band in the late 90s. Through the years we had several line up changes and since 2022 the band members are now Matt (voc), Huschang (bs), Richie (dr), Gregor (gt) and Roald (gt). We recorded three long players and a single.
With the new Singer we had like a restart and playing completely new songs since he joined. Also the style changed as the vocals are more aggressive.
We formed the band because we all love playing hard music and enjoy playing live.
Describe your sound and explain why I should listen to YOUR band at all cost ?
Our music is a mix of punkrock and old style hardcore music, with a little touch of metal. We are influenced by many styles of music, e.g. America/Englisch and German punk music as well as the Englisch and American metal music.
Lyrical and musical inspirations/influences ?
An inspiration for our drummer Richie, was the oportunity to play as support some shows with Suicidal Tendencies, when Dave Lombardo was their drummer. The nicest dude on earth, drumming like hell!!!
Matt, our singer was influenced very much by american punkrock, hardcore and also crossover and nu metal. Bands like the Offfspring, Pennywise or NofX as well as Rage Against The Machine, Limp Bizkit and bands with harder vocals like Slipknot, Mad Ball or Hatebreed... this is the mix of vocals I wanna do. Cory Taylor is one of my bigger idols.
Roald, one of our guitar players, loves the hard and progressiv music of the 70s, for example AC/DC, Kiss, Motörhead but also Rush, Zappa and stuff like that (too many to mention). He’s also influenced by the early and mid 80s punk and hardcore music like Dead Kennedys, A.O.D, D.R.I, RKL because it sounds still powerful, fast and mind blowing.
How important are the lyrics for you ? Are there any specific messages or thoughts you try to develop and share through your lyrics ?
The Lyrics are straight outta harder life. I mean it's not the simple attitude singing about friendship or drinking. It's about how life sucks in this world most of the time and endless fights against the own weakness and society. We care about depressions, addiction and of course antifascism. We live in very instable times and I want to let some people know that they're not alone with their pain and problems in life.
About your latest release ?
Last summer we recorded two songs with our friend and engineer Robin who hosts the luna studios not too far away from Dortmund. These songs ended up as two singles that were released via all important streaming portals. In the beginning of this year we just released a video for our single „In Another World“ made by our bass player Huschang.
Future plans ?
We want to play more shows and hopefully have enough songs for a long player ready by the end of the year.
Your most insane dream with the band would be ?
To play in France and meet you at the show !!! (Awwwh, how cool ! Ed.) So we played just one show in Nancy, but it´s a long time ago. Of course we would enjoy playing more and more bigger festivals, In our Area the Ruhrpott Rodeo would be a banger ! I guess it's also a dream for every Punkrockband to play Punkrock Holiday in Slovenia.
Your BEST & WORST concert and why ?
There were so many best concerts we had in the past. Furthermore a show in Switzerland was very nice and the people really friendly, the same was in Belgium and Czech republic.
Last year we had the honor to play with Knochenfabrik at a private show and don´t forget the festival last year on a castle in Bad Kreuznach with Svetlanas and N.T.A..
The worst I remember was as we confused the cities Norich with Norwich in the UK. So we get in a really hurry to arrive to the venue.
Next live-appearance(s) ?
Our Label dude invited us to a festival in the Ruhr area, what is fantastic. But we don´t say something about it, because it's a surprise. You will see it in our newsfeed in July this year on facebook or instagram.
Further we are looking forward to open up the Eisenfest in Schwelm this year and share the stage with Motorjesus, Ignition, Devine Zero and Agenda.
Some words on your local scene - bands you're friends with and you'd like to name ?
Our wish is that the punkrock scene stays united and forwards its rebellion to the next generation. And please make an interview with N.T.Ä .our friends from Saarbrücken near France, they are really cool.
Last word is yours..
Check out our music and stay tuned. We wanna let the monkey grow ;)
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