My first meeting with 7 Years was somewhat special. Back in 2015, I planned some holidays in Japan and I've been offered to open for them on their Japan tour, as a solo acoustic act even if I never played an acoustic show before. The dudes were super nice and I eventually discovered they were not really newcomers among the Italian punk/rock scene. Let's have an interview with Diego Caldari (7 Years) !
7 Years is a true pioneer in Italian punk/rock and you are still active. What is the key to such a longevity ?
The secret is not to think about the fact that you are getting old, even if after the shows your knees and your back are there to remind you that you are not a kid anymore! :-)
7 Years has always been strongly associated to Seed and Feed. What’s your view on this ?
When we began as 7years back in the 2001, Seed and Feed were really important for us and they helped us a lot. At the time, they have already released a couple of great records and played a lot of shows. They come from Viareggio, just 30 minutes by car from our hometown, Livorno. We played our very first shows supporting them and I was always impressed by their shows, their songs, their skills as musicians and I’ve always thought they were so talented. Lorenzo is absolutely one of my favorite songwriter, he teached me a lot and he introduced us to a lot of new music styles and new bands, that I didn’t know at the time. So, it was natural that our first official release was a split with them (2003). During those years, we also created together our label Inconsapevole Records and after some lineup changes, me and Matteo joined Seed and Feed as guitarist and bass player until the band split up in the 2012.
Your latest album “Lifetime” has some good feedback so far. How is your feeling about this ? Are you satisfied or are there still some things you’d like to change ?
I’m proud of this record. Tommy (Tommaso Bandecchi - Ice Factory Production) did a great job and we enjoyed to work with him because we are friends for many years. You know, every recording session can teach you something and every record is always an important milestone of your life as a musician.“Lifetime” tells us who we are as a band in the year 2017 and after all, I can say i’m proud of this band. I have fun to play our songs with the other fellas and spend my free time with them. Like every DIY band, I think we could do more and better, but we have jobs, families, rents to pay and we can’t spend enough time on the band ... you know what I mean.
“Lifetime” also features some super high quality guests, as Hans Roofthooft of FOD and Joey Cape of Lagwagon did guest vocals. What is the story behind ?
We love FOD! They are just one of our favorite european punk rock bands and it would be great one day to have the chance to tour with them, just because I would love to watch them live every day for some days in a row. We asked Hans to sing on "DIY or die" with his own amazing “style” and he did it in a great way!About Joey...what can I say ? It’s just a dream that comes true! We know him for some years as he played in Livorno several times during the last years, as an acoustic act and with Lagwagon. We opened for them a couple of times and every time, we spent hours with him hanging around, talking about music and everything else. He is really a good man. Joey is absolutely one of my heroes and honestly i’m really proud that when i have the chance to meet him i can speak with him like you do with a “friend”. You know what I mean? Anyway, we wrote this song called “Never down”. I wrote the lyrics with Matteo about our children. From the beginning, we thought it would be perfect with Joey. We already talked with him in the past and he was open about it, and then everything went the right direction at the right place. We were finishing the recordings and Joey came to Livorno with Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, Matte waited for him at the venue and he said to Joey : “So, our song is almost done, the guys are in the studio, we just miss your vocal parts”, and Joey just said “Let’s do it, let me hear the song!”. He liked it, so they went to the studio.I was working that morning. I was waiting for a phone call from Matte to let me know if Joey would do it or not, but he eventually sent me a video message from Joey who told me something like “Hey Diego, it looks that I’m going to sing in a 7years song. I hope I will be good enough ... wish me good luck!”. I was like “WHAAAAT?”. Later, I literally ran to the studio and when I came in, he was there, singing that lyrics that I wrote about my daughter and he was so nice, asking us if he was doing a good job, if we liked how he was working out ... great moments! :-)
You announced that Chico (drums) was leaving the band and was being replaced by Simo Perini (Actionmen), then Chico resigned and is now back into the band. What happened ?
We know each other for so many years, me, Matte and Chico play together since 2001.Giulio (guitar) knows Chico well too, because they played together in another band called One Night Stand before Giulio joined 7Years, so it was quite easy for us some months ago to understand that Chico wasn’t ok. We had a talk and it wasn’t easy for him but he honestly admitted he lost the energy and the motivation necessary to play in a band.At that time, we already had some shows booked and Chico told us he would be available to play these last gigs together. In the meantime, we would talk with other drummers.Simo is an incredible drummer, a true ace! We know him for some years, and we met him just few weeks before at the Bay Fest in the backstage. After our show, he told us he enjoyed our set so we tried to ask him...we aimed at the best! :-)Simo is a popular drummer, he is quite busy, playing with different bands, so we were surprised that he accepted to play with us. It would be not easy because Simo lives far from us, but he gave us his tour schedule.So we did a “THANX FOR EVERYTHING CHICO” post on Facebook and in November, we had a show with Thanx 4 All the Shoes for their release party. It would have been last Chico’s show with 7Years but during our trip to the venue, Chico told us he changed his mind, he wanted to rejoin the band...so, that’s it, he’s back! All’s well that ends well :-)
So, what can your fans expect from 7 Years in 2018 ? Do you have any touring plans ?
We will play with Satanic Surfers in Livorno on March 30th, and we will go to Finland for 3 shows the last weekend of May. We will tour there with One Hidden Frame ... can’t wait!We will play some shows during summer and we are working for something cool for the next fall. In the meantime, we have already started to write new songs.Giulio will record new songs with One Night Stand in the next months and Matte is also working on his solo stuff ... anyway, Give a like to our Facebook page and you can follow us on Instagram and Twitter too. You can check our music on all the digital stores and our videos on Youtube.
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