SATURNINE INTERVIEW WITH JEX FROST - ALL THE WITCHES DOOM DANCE!!

WHO ARE THEY: SaturninE
WHERE ARE THEY FROM: Bologna, Italy
FOR FANS OF: Bathory, 13, Amebix, Axegrinder, Gallhammer
LATEST RELEASE: Demo 2012 (self released)
BAND FACEBOOK 

I first heard all female band SaturninE late last year after a friend got hold of their demo for me. It blew me away and never left my stereo for quite a few weeks, these ladies play very heavy blackened crusty sludge doom and have been creating a bit of a buzz on the scene in recent months, which attracted the interest of long running American label Razorback Records who signed the band to their roster for the release of their debut album. I sent some questions to the band and bassist Jex kindly answered them

Hails! Please give me a quick band history and also tell me who
currently does what in the band?

Jex, Laura and Angelica were friends and decided to start a band. They were seeking for 2 guitarist, and finally Silvia and Giulia joined the band. SaturninE started to reharse at the end of 2010. At the end of 2011 a self-titled demo has been released. During november 2012, Silvia left the band and has been replaced by Elvira. The collaboration with Elvira didn't last long: Samantha joined the band in march 2013. So the current line up is:
Jex: bass; Laura: vocals; Giulia and Samantha: guitars; Angelica: drums.

I recently got hold of a copy of your Demo 2012 which really impressed me, the songs are very well structured and I just love your style of crusty blackened doom/sludge - please tell the readers abit about this demo in your own words and how they can get ahold of it.

The recording sessions of the demo started in late 2011, and the whole work has been concluded in february 2012. Everything has been recorded and mixed by our friend Adam, who did a great work: he knew how we wanted to sound and the result he achieved has fully satisfied us. 
It's a 7 tracks demo which includes also a Bathory cover. It's possible to listen  the demo in streaming from Bandcamp                                                                        ( http://saturninewitches.bandcamp.com ). It has been released as CD and Tape, you can order a copy by writing to saturnine666@ymail.com .


What has the overall response been like to the demo so far? Have you had much feedback from zines/mags or websites as far as reviews go? Are you satisfied overall with how the recording turned out? The production is great...where did you record it at?


The overall feedback was very good. As we previously said, all the credits for the production should be given to Adam. He mixed the demo at his own studio ( SFR ) and the result was a blast to us: we love it!
The band logo and artwork are also quite striking - who designed those?
Angelica has been inspired by the movie ''Haxan'' and told the band about it. Then we all agreed to use that picture for the demo. The logo has been created by Angelica and Jex.

Did you form an all female band on purpose or did it just turn out
that way, you know a bunch of girlfriends into the same kind of music wanting to play and jam music together? Did you all know each other before the band was formed?

3 of us (Jex, Laura and Angelica) were friends before starting the band. The other girls were initially acquaintances, met during gigs and generally in the diy scene, and of course now we are all friends. We didn't want men in our witch sabbath... ahahahah! 

Please tell us about the band name and it's meaning?

 “ Saturnine “ comes from a song of the album ‘’ Witchcult Today’’ by Electric Wizard - but it also recalls the darkest aspect connected to Saturn planet…the dark side of everything around us which has a certain affinity with our sound, gloomy and melancholic
.
I read that the demo attracted some interest from respected American label Razorback Records, how did they get to hear the band music and become interested in signing you?

They heard one of our tracks from the  compilation “ The women of Doom “, which also contains a track from Wooden Stake, the band of Vanessa and Billy Nocera. A couple of weeks after the release of the demo, they offered us the possibility to produce our upcoming full length. 

When can we expect the debut album from SaturninE? Do you have much new material written for it?

The plan was to release the album before the summer, but this hasn't been possible due to the problems we had with the previous guitarists (Silvia and Elvira). We have a new guitarist, Samantha, since march 2013 and we are completing the  tracks for the full length and playing some shows in the meanwhile. If things will continue to go this good, by the end of the summer the album will be ready. 

What is the songwriting process like for you girls? Is there always a
certain way a song is born and is a certain member always the one who first brings a song into life and then you all work on it collectively?!

Every song is the result of a different songwriting process. There is no a standard way that we follow. Usually one of us comes up with an idea and we all together participate in developing it. The important thing is that we all should agree in the final version of the song, so we must find a balance between our tastes – which is not always so easy, because each of us comes from a different musical background. But in the end we always find the balance and when this happen, a song can be considered “done”.

How active is SaturninE as a live band? Do you play locally and around your home country a lot? Have you done much touring or playing outside of Italy yet? I know you recently did a short mini tour of England - how was that experience for you? Please tell us your thoughts about those 3 shows here. What can people expect from a SaturninE live show?

We play in gigs since summer 2011 and we often play in north and center of Italy. For what concerns playing abroad we did a mini tour in England with three gigs (London, in Bradford and Bristol). It was an amazing experience ‘cause people were really into our music and they showed a lot of support to us. Last week we also did a mini tour: Udine (Italy), Vienna (Austria) and Treviso (Italy). It was our first mini tour with the new line up and we had a lot of fun together. We never played in those places before and it was amazing, especially in Vienna: playing abroad is always so exciting... different from playing in your own country. We love both, though.
What can people expect from Saturnine? Come to a gig and you’ll see! 

Lyrically what are your influences? What makes you want to put pen to paper?

Laura has many influences, for instance the horrors of war and the mental disease that it provoke or the illusion of religion and its stupid moral. But you can read also about nightmares or feelings of oppression.
Musically what shapes and fuels the sound of SaturninE?

As I said previously, all of us have a different musical background: each of us listen to different genres. Would be impossible to make a complete list of all the bands we love, but for sure we can name some: Amebix, Axegrinder, Saint Vitus, Electric Wizard, Celtic frost, Siouxsie & the Banshees, Death, Slayer, Black Sabbath.

You did a GREAT Bathory cover on the demo why did you choose this song and have you done or will you do anymore covers? What does Bathory's music mean to you -why is it so special?

Bathory is one of the few bands which all the 5 of us love, so that's the reason why we choose it. In the upcoming album there will be also a new cover, not from Bathory though.

 
Describe SaturninE in 5 words only!

Jex – Julia – Laura – Angelica – Samantha. Ahahahah :)

What is your local scene like both venuewise and bandwise? Any cool
local bands you care to mention?

The area of Bologna is full of amazing bands and with some of those we are also friends, for example Horror Vacui, Kontatto, Cancer Spreading, Black Temple Below, Bland Vargar, Undead Creep, Children of Technology – but the problem of the local scene is the lack of places to play in... 


There seems to be quite a few female fronted bands/all female fronted bands in the extreme music scene now which can only be a good thing - are there any other bands with female members that you feel an affinity or bond with both musically and attitude wise?

In Italy the issue about female musicians is kind of controversial: from one hand, there are people who complain about the fact that often girls don't know how to play an instrument; but on the other hand when people see girls playing, they complain because they say you are having “ success “ just because you are a girl. Luckily not all the people think this way, but unfortunately we often met this kind of stupid and contradictory people. 
We know a couple of bands with female musicians that share the same attitude of us: Agatha and Horrow Vacui for example. We are friends and attend the same kind of events in here.

What is your opinion on

A/ the current doom/sludge scene
B/ the current crust punk scene
C/ the current Italian extreme music scene

A) The doom/sludge scene is growing, there are a lot of listeners, but still it's a niche scene because is not that “easy” to listen. Even if it's small, the level of italian doom/sludge scene is very high: we can mention amazing bands like Black Oath, Doomraiser, Grime , Tons, Funeral Marmoori, Gum, Black Temple Below, Naga, Fangtooth..
B) The crust punk scene is not in a good moment unfortunately... but we can't complain too much because at least here in Bologna gigs are organized often, but the main problem is the lack of places to play in... there are few squat and a lot of clubs and pubs, but this situation is all over Italy, not only in Bologna.... and another problem is that many people attend only the big venues instead of supporting local bands.
C) We are in love with extreme music, is part of our life and we can't live without. We are playing our own interpretation of the extreme.


Thanks for answering this short interview! Please tell us about
websites, merch etc..the last words are yours!

So, if you want to be updated about SaturninE you have just to like our facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/SaturninE/122895697798357?fref=ts you can even order our merch from there.
Thank you so much for this interview: questions are very interesting and it was nice for us to answer. We made you wait a lot for this interview... sorry for that, we really want to apologize. We've been DOOM even in answering... ahahaha!
Thanks again!
SaturninE