The italian hardrock band BIGROUGH is a brainchild of Alex Cole, guitarist, composer and singer, who has a significant and long musical journey. After several months of disperate searching for the right partners in crime, in Mid-December 2010 Alex finally finds the right musicians to realize his project. In 2011 the band released an 5 song- EP “Hang on Tight!”. Metalshock Finland‘s Kostya Aronberg had a change to interview Alex Cole, the band’s lead vocalist and guitarist, please join the conversation…
1. Hey Alex! I’m Kostya, Welcome to Metal Shock Finland!
Hey Kostya ! First of all nice to meet you, it’s a great honour to be here. A Big hello to MSF fans !!!
2. At first, lets start with “How are you” and “What are you doing right now?”
I’m really good thankyou, i just got back from rehearsals and i’m so excited, another good riff for a new song has come. I’m very underpressured but in the positive way because i’m workin to the new stuff with my band. We are creating a lot and we can’t wait recording.
3. Now lets talk about the bands biography. How did you come to the idea of forming the band?
The band was formed at the end of 2010 when i started doing auditions to some musicians coming from professional experiences; i had to listen to many bass and drum players before finding the official members . The first who joined the band was the drummer Massimo Cavagnera, few months later the bass player, Paolo Vendetti completed the trio. I’ve always had an energy that makes me feel unordinary and at the same time in synthony with that kind of pure and genuine rock’n’roll behaviour of 70’s. In the last few years i’ve seen that new generations follow fake models for whom the music is just business. So i want to bring back to life the true spirit of rock, which is a matter of content more than appearances. I would like to create the sinergy between the crowd and us because every movement, every action we do on stage comes from our souls and we want to transmit this feeling of freedom to people who listen to us.
4. Why do you choose the name BIGROUGH ?
Bigrough is a mix of two words, big and rough: it took me over a year to find the right elements to form the power trio and the title had to reflect what I am and the band is too.
5. How would you discribe your music style?
Nothing else than pure, straight, powerfull Hard boogie mixed with rock’n’roll, classic rock, rhytm’n’Blues, Blues, Funky and soul. The secret key is groove, and our music is a good and genuine pretext to be on stage and have good time, feeling the voodoo sound and tasting deep Energy and sinergy that is gonna create with the crowd.
6. Which artists or bands influenced on the band style?
I could put down a list with a hundred names, but the bands/artist most affected are Ac/Dc, Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, Cactus, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Molly Hatchet, Jimi Hendrix,Ted Nugent, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Funk Brothers, John lee Hoocker, Albert Collins, Tower Of Power and Zz Top.
7. On April 22th you played at “Italian Revenge Festival” with Dario Cappanera, White Skull and Bad Bones. What can you tell us about this experience?
Well, let me say that it was amazing to be part of a great festival very well organized, the same festival where the band “Extrema” had performed a week before us; and it was a pleasure for us to be there under the spotlights with some other amazing bands as White Skull, Dario Cappanera, Bad Bones. That evening there was a nice atmosphere, because of the respect and the collaboration between all the artists. As an ecouragement for our work, the White Skull at the end of our set made us some greets, impressed by our passion on stage and their words made us understand that we are doing a good job. We had great feedback after that concert, a lot of new fans have started following us. In the same evening we played also with Bad Bones; we know them, they’re simple people who want to rock as much as us. A few months before to present our new ep (Hang on tight!) we had a concert with them. Dario Cappanera and his trio have been really powerful, and we have had the occasion to talk with the band and to exchange opinions. We are proud of all our concerts from the most relevant to the simplest.. We had the luck to know a lot of important characters and maybe we’ll have this luck also in future, hopefully abroad. But now it’s time to move on and to continue our journey to the edge of rock!
8. Can you tell us more about the creation process of “Hang On Tight!”?
First of all this Ep is a way to show to the world who we are and how genuine rock n roll is still alive. For the process of creation, which has been really fast, I’ve suggested some new riffs to the rest of the band, and all togheter we have completed the musical arrangement. Every time we create new songs, before the recording of our tracks we test the whole work face to face with the audience, to understand the reaction in front of our rock and blues sound and to make people understand our message. We want to suggest the idea of “never give up” (as in the track “Double ace to hell”) and especially we want tell people to trust themselves showing to the world their “guts” because decide to follow the crowd is easy the real challenge is to follow our instincts. The key-words in our music are simplicity, no rules or restrictions and honesty. As I say in one of our tracks : “Games are over, let’s start to fight”! Seen the reaction to our music, we understand its effectiveness and we record it. That’s how “Hang on tight!” is born and how, hopefully, other ep will rise in the future..
9. How can you describe this EP, and which feedback you’ve got so far?
I can describe this EP as a mix of pure rock n roll and blues, overwhelming sound, “fat” resonances and powerful riffs; these characteristics create a harmony between the boogie and rock n roll component which create a strong and effective trio! Our Ep is getting good responses from Italy, but especially from abroad. Thanks to some reviews (as the one written by David Pierce for Metal Shock Finland) we have achieved a good result also in Manchester on radio Firerockbrand. We want to be heard worldwide, that’s the reason why we sing in english even if “the language of rock” doesn’t need to be translated… it’s already international.
10. What plans the band has for the second part of 2012?
We want to play all over the country and especially abroad. Our plan is to find a professional management who make us show the audience our work. We want to reach a large number of tour dates. In these last months of 2012 we’re going to play in some renowned pubs near in the city of Milan, and it will be an occasion to try some new stuff that we’ve just created. At the beginning of 2013 we’ll have a gig with the American band Rhino bucket, in that occasion we’ll show to people that we are international, and that we want to be noticed also abroad.
11. Thank you for the interview! Would you like to say something to our readers and your fans?
Thank you for your attention and support, i want to say to our fans and to all the readers not to listen to people who say that “Rock is dead”. I know that the celebrities of 70’s and 80’s are still there but also new generations can rock! We are young and ready to set the audience on fire ! We want to create good and strong music to make the world undestand our messages. But the fans is the secret ingredient, only the audience can keep rock n roll alive, we want to express what we feel and share these feelings with people like us. Well, we can’t wait to come and play in Finland! keep following Bigrough and you will not regret, because you have seen nothing yet \m/ THIS IS FUCKIN’ ROCK N ROOOLL!!!!!
Interview by Kostya Aronberg
To read MSF’s Hang On Tight -review, please go HERE.
https://www.facebook.com/bigrough
http://www.thebigrough.com
