Hunzilla: Interview

Hunzilla is a young metal band from Bethesda, MD - just outside Washington, DC. In the photo above, 3rd from you left is Tim Canalichio, vocalist and bass player for them who recently sat down for the olde q&a with yours truly. I can't imagine that very many of you "me watch BET" types will be that interested, but whatever.

How old are you?
I am 17.

Not too many 17-year-olds these days are into metal, no?
Sure there are, I think there are metal fans of all ages. It just depends what style of metal.

I meant more so as a percentage of the overall population. I guess with Ozzfest and everything, metal is coming back from where it was 10 years ago.
Yeah, pretty much. Metal comes and goes, different styles, different fads, different messages.

You're probably not old enough to remember, but metal was like the biggest music in the world and then grunge just sort of killed it overnight.
I may not have been there to witness it, but I have done my homework. Ever since Nirvana came out, the whole scene that had "feel good" metal died out. People wanted to hear something they could relate to more, I guess. I am a big grunge fan, especially Alice in Chains.

So would you say you've been into heavy music in general your entire life, or was there a moment when you "discovered" it?
I think there was definetly a moment where I discovered it. I remember listening to whatever was on the radio and then I found there is a whole world of music that isnt on the radio.

And when was that, approximately?
Probably around 5th grade, I started to listen to Metallica cds that my brother showed me. I remember hearing "Fight Fire With Fire" for the first time.

So you're interest is more so in the Metallica, Megadeth style of metal more so than what people generally think of as being "metal" i.e. poppier stuff like Guns N Roses, Motley Crue and what have you?
Yeah, definetly. I enjoy GNR and Motley Crue, but the old school thrash is where it is at.

Do you have a top 5 albums of all time, metal or otherwise?
Hmmm...in no particular order: Metallica - Master of Puppets, Rust in Peace - Megadeth, Painkiller - Judas Priest, Vulgar Display of Power - Pantera, Powerslave - Iron Maiden

And who do you think are the best out of the current generation of metal bands?
Oh there is some great stuff out there, but it is hard to find. Mastodon is great. 3 Inches of blood are cool, Trivium, High on Fire, Beyond the Embrace...

How did Hunzilla form?
Hunzilla came about from friends who enjoyed the same music that happened to play instruments. We are all best friends and play the stuff we love. I remember talking with Bernardo about making a Megadeth cover band.

People don't really think about it, but lots of bands actually start as cover bands or bands that play a lot of covers.
Yeah, half of our set is in covers. They are fun and people enjoy them. Metallica started out as a cover band, I think they still are, in one way or another.

How long have you guys been together as a band?
About a year, on and off. Half the band lives in other countries during the summer, so that allows me to write music and do all that I can without them.

So in the past year, what would you say has been the highlight of being in Hunzilla?
Playing live. There is so much energy on stage and we have such a good time. You see many bands that take themselves way too serious on stage. We work hard, but once we hit that stage we have a good time.

I know Washington, DC is sort of known as the home of Dischord, and I think people get the idea of it as just being a bunch of straight edge kids all trying to be the next Fugazi. Would you say that's an accurate assessment?
Sometimes yes, sometimes no. In every area you find different types of people and music fans. There are a lot of people in into the extremes of what Hunzilla do. Either they like really heavy hardcore/metalcore or they are into alternative and emo stuff.

So when you guys do shows, what kind of people are you generally playing to?
Anybody that enjoys music ranging from rock to heavy metal. Any age really. We are young, so we play to younger crowds but the covers we do can be appreciated by people who are much older.

Again going back to the Crue, a lot of people would say that your kind of music is best enjoyed wasted on alcohol. But you guys are still pretty young. How much does alcohol play into what you guys do? Do you have to play at a lot of all-ages (i.e. no alcohol) venues?
Pretty much all our shows are all ages. We don't have a strong enough following at the time that we can count on people only 21 and over to show up. Alcohol is enjoyed by a large percent of youth today, 21 or not.

You're still in high school, right?
Yes, 3 of us will be seniors and one is a freshmen in college.

What are your plans as far as the band is concerned once high school is over?
We are going to do as much as we can until that happens. We all plan on going to college and if we happen to live near each other, then we will continue. Otherwise we may hold off. But after college I will definetly be contacting these guys if we get seperated.

Cool. Anything else you'd like to tell your fans?
Come check us out at www.myspace.com/hunzilla. We will have a website up soon and we will have more music for you to listen to. You can find out more about us at the myspace page and when our shows are.