Kalashnikov: Romantic Punk for Love & Revolution

Kalashnikov were born in 1996 on the dirty floor of a squat in Milano, Italy, created to give vent to the adolescent restlessness of three punx. Drunk on heavenly libertarian nectar and rejecting the ruling culture, Kalashnikov came together with the desire to put their own utopias and passion into practice.

Hello, romantic punx! Let’s start with some definitions and tell us why Kalashnikov is not just a band but a collective. Do you think punk rock is really something revolutionary and that a punk band can be seen as a revolutionary cell? What’s the story of your collective?

The Kalashnikov collective has been active since 1996. We prefer to self-organize as a collective because we want to be a more “open” entity. In a band, everyone usually has their fixed role or instrument, and that’s it. But in a collective, we can change every role and add people who give us different kinds of support. For example, Peppus creates some concepts for the songs, and Claudio is a driver. Why should we give them only a marginal role? They help us and believe in the Kalashnikov project, so they are as important as a guitarist or any other musician.

About “punk,” I need to think in a different way: every form of expression could be revolutionary if you create it to show the contradictions of society. The word “punk” is too worn out, it’s useless. We care about messages: the message is revolutionary, not labels.

What’s so romantic about politics and revolution? How do you manage to mix politics and ideas of dissent with love and romance? What’s your definition of love, and what is the importance of love, passion, and creativity to human life?

Area, an Italian band from the ’70s, wrote a song called “Joy and Revolution.” They wanted to tell about the fun of destroying an order and living our lives in freedom, rebuilding the world as we want. Sometimes we have been defined as romantic, and that’s why our first album is called Romantic Songs of Dissidence.

In this sense, romantic means feeling the emotions on the skin of the people. We tell stories, not slogans, and we hope that people can understand the meaning of words like “war,” “oppression,” and “alienation” by feeling the emotions of the characters in our stories.

It seems that you’re influenced by the libertarian tradition of anarchism and autonomism, but you don’t play fast crust punk or hardcore like most of the political DIY bands in our scene. What is the reason for you to play a more melodic and not so aggressive style of music? What do you think of bands like Chumbawamba, who tried to use pop music as a medium to expose a similar message as yours?

We like elusive identity and unpredictable things: they can surprise you!

DIY means “Do it yourself”: get your instrument and create songs by yourself! But it also means being independent in thinking. Your songs should tell something different from capitalist artists. Invent your own means of expression and do not become the copy of someone else! If you play standard music, how could your message be really revolutionary? If you make your music with your own means, the message must be unique as well.

If you consider bands such as Chumbawamba, Scritti Politti, or Gang of Four, who wanted to reach commercial success to get to as many people as possible, there is probably a misunderstanding: the message you want to tell is linked to the means that you use to express it. Everything is connected, and it’s not realistic if you try to spread a revolutionary message and, at the same time, make major labels earn more money. If your band is on the shelves of a shopping center, it means that it’s already dead…

I’ve read an essay trying to make analogies between the ’77 punk rock explosion in the UK and the Italian autonomist movement of that time. Do you find such analogies, and what is the importance of both punk rock and the ’70s autonomist movements to the world?

Both movements exploded in a situation very different from ’68. During the ’60s, people wanted to realize ideals of equality, peace, and freedom. During ’77, this promise seemed to be a lie. In modern civilization, there would be no space for ideals and freedom. It was clear that capitalism and technologies would rule the world. In ’68, people said that the future would be gorgeous; in ’77, people spoke about “No Future.”

Autonomous people wrote on the city walls, “We don’t have past, we don’t have future: history kills us.” The union of punk and autonomous people is the knowledge that you can’t escape the system: capitalism has killed democracy, and politics cannot drive the world’s destiny. It’s the blind power of economy that guides the world.

I think you’re all from Milan. I’ve watched an old movie about Virus Squat, which I guess was a very important place for the development of political punk in the ’80s. Can you talk a bit about the history of punk rock in Milan? Do you live in a squat, and what’s the situation with autonomous spaces in Italy?

Virus was the first real anarchist squat in Milan. In the ’80s, the most important bands were Wretched, Rappresaglia, and Crash Box. Wretched were one of the first important anarcho-punk bands, with a unique sound like the early Discharge and Disorder, and the dark atmosphere of Amebix and Antisect. Crash Box were influenced by the fastest American hardcore. Rappresaglia were a punk rock band that reminded you of English bands like Blitz, Angelic Upstarts, and The Lurkers.

After a dark period between the end of the ’80s and the beginning of the ’90s, the punk scene was born again. In the ’90s, a lot of new bands were formed following the melodic punk from California. They tried to enter the mainstream music scene but without success. Most of these bands do not exist anymore, and the DIY of the 2000s has become stronger and more aware. Now squatting is quite strong in Milan, although repression is strong too.

We are very near to Villa Vegan squat and Telos squat in the north of the city. We often play there, and we think they are the best places for our music.

In your releases, you do covers of old bands such as Italian Wretched or the UK band The Mob. Which bands influenced you the most? Are you going to do a cover of Contropotere on some of your new releases? I think it would be great!

Some people compare the Kalashnikov collective to Contropotere: we have a creative approach to anarcho-punk like them. Anyway, I don’t think we could make a cover of Contropotere. They had a very personal style, and it could be very hard to remake their songs! We love to take a song and transform it in our own way. We think that the desire to play new music was a very important target for ’80s punk. Now this spirit of innovation is weak. We were influenced by old hardcore bands from Italy and England in attitude, politics, and music. Some people underestimate English anarcho-punk bands, but The Mob, Karma Sutra, Liberty, Alternative, Crass, and Poison Girls played great and creative music.

Each one of your releases looks great, and you don’t use plastic cases for your CDs. You’re so dedicated to the DIY approach in every aspect of your music. Tell us about the process of writing new songs, about your lyrics, rehearsals, shows, putting out records…

The process that starts with imagining a song and ends with packaging the disc on which it is recorded is very long but very funny. The game is to take nothing for granted and, indeed, to reinvent each step. We try not to delegate anything to the assembly line, with its standard and prepackaged ideas. We want everything we do to be made as part of a coherent project of thought, with the greatest possible control.

What are the strangest places where you have played gigs? Any interesting stories from your shows?

We have played in many strange places. In some cases, you don’t have to go far to find them: in Milan, a few years ago, there was a place called Approdo Caronte that was a warehouse for abandoned boats, landing on the banks of a canal in Milan. It was a sewer, in the mud and with the rats, and inside it could fit 30 people. It was incredible.

In France, we played in the mountains, in places reachable only by paths through the forest, where some primitive communities lived without electricity, gas, or water supply. In Moscow, we had a gig in a Cuban bar run by an old Russian woman. In St. Petersburg, we played a show in an illegal squat, in a building occupied in the suburbs, where everyone was afraid of the arrival of the neo-Nazis or the cops.

You’re putting all of your releases up for free download on the internet. You also have an internet blog where you put a lot of information and free mp3s by punk bands from all around the world. What do you think about copyrights, and what are the positive aspects of the internet for punk rock? Also, your blog looks like a webzine, with much more than just mp3s. It seems that you really enjoy writing stuff, communicating with a lot of people, and exposing radical ideas to the people you communicate with.

Internet allowed the free movement of things that before were really hard to get. If you are a curious person, with the internet you can really satisfy all of your perversions!

What do you think about the case with WikiLeaks?

It is gossip at high levels, appreciated for its iconoclastic and pirate charge, but in reality, it did not significantly alter the condition of ordinary people, who already know they are governed by people who make their own damn business. WikiLeaks revealed that Berlusconi is believed to be a clown, a bad governor, and someone who thinks about his business. Well, do you think that Italians did not already know this?

But mainly: do you believe that all of this can interest Italians? For many Italians, Berlusconi is an idol, like a rock star. He could be the worst inept, but these people will continue to support and vote for him. So for us, the revelations of WikiLeaks are useless after all.

Are you all vegans, and do you think that veganism really makes sense in the larger context of today’s world, or is it just a personal moral choice for the liberal modern citizen? A lot of political activists say that veganism is just another niche for capitalism to sell things and try to look more humane by putting labels such as “vegan,” “bio,” “organic,” “fair-trade,” etc. If it is something more than just a consumer boycott or a lifestyle for middle-class and privileged people, then what is it? What can you say about the animal liberation movement in Italy?

Being vegetarian and vegan is an effort, not so hard to do, to boycott the meat industry and respect the planet and yourself. A trend? We hope it becomes more and more! A person can be vegan or vegetarian for many reasons. Ethical reasons, if you refuse exploitation and experimentation on animals; philosophical reasons, if you embrace an antispeciesist vision; or health reasons, if you are interested in well-being. All good reasons that make good for people and the environment.

Few people know that the breeding of pigs, beef, and chickens is the leading cause of greenhouse gas emissions in the world, more than the pollution from engines. Not to mention the further damage, such as the impoverishment of the soil, the destruction of biodiversity, water pollution, and the use of land and resources that could be used for other things. Let’s not forget that the breeding of animals is much more expensive than cultivation and needs a lot more space. Certainly then, I admit that nowadays, in most industrialized countries, being vegetarian is cool. It means being part of a cultural elite. But I see nothing wrong with that!

In Italy, there are many eco-radicals and animal rights groups, mostly involved in struggles against the laboratories where there is the practice of testing animals and vivisection.

Tell us about your projects outside of Kalashnikov. What other kinds of things are you interested in, and what are you doing in the sense of art, creativity, and activism?

In reality, everything we do, excluding the hateful need to work, is part of the activities of the Kalashnikov collective, for the simple reason that there is no difference between “the band” and our existence on earth.

As Kalashnikov collective, we have made some documentary videos about strikes or occupations, organized gigs and benefits, managed a distro, led underground radio programs, and done other political and creative activities. We do not need to create another “label” under which to categorize the various facets of our being. And this is another aspect that we find effective in being a “collective” rather than a simple band.

Thank you for your time. Anything you want to say that I missed in my questions?

Really, thanks for your very interesting questions. We love getting in touch with such zines from all around the world. A big hug and take care!