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.

Comments

[sonnycheeba]

My name is Sonny, I'm concided and I constantly have a shithole attitude. I will pay 10 fold for the stupid pranks Ive pulled all week
I WILL BE SORRY
FOREVER!
AND IM GAY

[mealone]

^Okay I will be first because that bull will be ignored.

[mealone]

I don't watch FUSE or BET so I am not that much of a music critic but I need to know if you know of "A Perfect Circle" and if so how do you compare to them?

[mealone]

Oh yeah and "sonny" concided=conceited...

[Andrew Thomas]

Isn't that first shit over with already.

[Robbie]

I'm pretty sure all the angry, confused white kids who would have listened to death metal in the '80s are now listening to Necro CDs.

[the Doctor]

WTF?? i thought this was supposed to be a hip-hop blog. Ain't there enough up and coming rappers for you to interview?

This is a general question for all angst/anger ridden white boys that rock n roll: what the hell are y'all mad about? what is your problem? stop fucking yellin...chill...jesus

[The Internets' Most Hated Man, Speed da Young'un]

"stop fucking yellin"
Then, what, may I ask, is your opinion on "crunk" music? Crunk = black man's heavy metal.
Think about that shit for a while.

[Nas]

Bol go do a review of the new AZ joint A.W.O.L.

[mealone]

>Isn't that first shit over with already.

You can call seconds?

[Bol]

>Bol go do a review of the new AZ joint A.W.O.L.

This will happen. Not tonight though.

[the Doctor]

crunk is shit too...it's not a coincidence that as soon as white suburbia became a significant consumer of hiphop, the garbage/crunk/southern rap became popular

"chimped up with a pimp cup, illiterate nigga, check the inf(ra)..."

[The Internets' Most Hated Man, Speed da Young'un]

True. White suburbia became that significant consumer only because blacks love to bootleg. Hell, I do too.
But, anyhow, there are some "aight" Southern rappers, not crunk, but just Southern.
So, how do you feel on "chopped and screwed" music?

[djxplicit.blogspot.com]

congratulations, the Doctor, you are the first person to whine about how bol doesnt do exactly as you want.

again, congratulations.

[Monty]

Metal is shit music

as is that chopped and screwed garbage

I said it

[Tim Canalichio]

I enjoy most kinds of music. Crunk is good stuff. But not all metal is screaming, just like hip hop and rap isnt all about ice and bitches.

[The Internets' Most Hated Man, Speed da Young'un]

True that about the "not all metal..." comment.

[C-Dawg]

Power to The Doctor, Bol has gone teh Ashlee Simpson on us doing more interviews of white kids than Disney fucking channel.What happened to the good old days in which Bol would interview rappers who would talk about how many bitches' titties they sucked or how many slushies they could buy with all their money or share common hatred towards Indians and gays. those were interesting interviews.
PHD 4 eva skallywags.

[Monty]

What metal isn't screaming? That's one of the key elements of the genre.

[djxplicit.blogspot.com]

> Bol has gone teh Ashlee Simpson on us doing more interviews of white kids than Disney fucking channel.What happened to the good old days in which Bol would interview rappers <

now, i may be wrong, but isnt this like the first white person to be interviewed?

...okay, there was Big Walt, but he's a rapper.

[The Internets' Most Hated Man, Speed da Young'un]

^LOL. Not all of metal is "AAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!! DIE!!! I HATE YOU!!!!", though that's most of the shit that they play on the radio.

[Tim Canalichio]

There are different kind of screams in metal. If you consider metallica or megadeth screaming, then you would have Death or children of bodom. There are aggresive vocals where people push their voices to the limit and it can distort. Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden never did any screaming.

[Monty]

I didn't say it was "ahhh, die I hate you!!1", but it's definitely screaming. The lyrical content is usually very juvenile as well. I'm talking in generalities; there is good music everywhere.

[Tim Canalichio]

You are talking about metal have juvinile lyrical content. Compared to what, certainly not hip hop, or at least the hip hop I have heard.

[Monty]

I'm not comparing it to anything. The constant focus on anger and fucking shit up just gets grating.

I only listen to instrumentals because I'm cool like that.

[Tim Canalichio]

i like instrumental shit. The angery metal shit is just as annoying to me as the hip hop that just talks about ice and bitches. Do you know of an instrumental band called Sleep?

[The Internets' Most Hated Man, Speed da Young'un]

http://speedbored.blogspot.com/2005/08/pregnant-teenagers.html
http://speedbored.blogspot.com/2005/08/she-sure-loves-her-braids-why-did-one.html

Now, back to the matter at hand. Since I haven't peeped the myspace site yet, are ya'll Nirvana fans or no?

[djxplicit.blogspot.com]

hip hop or metal, just like any genre, may or may not have juvenile lyrical content (for examples in hip-hop: PE, immortal tech, mos def, talib kweli, dead prez, etc.)

generalizing about either is wrong.

[Djxplicit's slayer]

Djxplicit, will you please remove Bol's dick from your ass. You always run to this dude's rescue. You defend him the way a bitch would her man. Do you, and gargle his jism out of your mouth. 16 year olds should be sleep by now anyway.

[the Doctor]

>congratulations, the Doctor, you are the first person to whine about how bol doesnt do exactly as you want

I wasn't whining; it's his site and he can do whatever he wants. But like i said, i thought this was a hiphop site, at least in the most part, and the content would reflect that. So i would've thought that if the choice was 17 year old unknown rapper vs 17 year unknown metal rocker, he'd interview the rapper. And i know there are a lot of 17 year old rappers that would dig the exposure
Hell he could even ask em if they rap about ice and bitches and why

>So, how do you feel on "chopped and screwed" music?

some of it is aight...

>generalizing about either is wrong

agreed. however to my untrained ear, a lot of metal (not all) is yellin. All i wanted to know is what they are mad about

[Tim Canalichio]

So the docter...all metal is just angry? I can name plenty of rap and hip hop artists that talk about beating slapping their girlfriends, gang banging, poppin caps, etc. Do your research before you make judgements.

[djxplicit.blogspot.com]

> Djxplicit, will you please remove Bol's dick from your ass. You always run to this dude's rescue. You defend him the way a bitch would her man. Do you, and gargle his jism out of your mouth. 16 year olds should be sleep by now anyway.

LOL. if anything man, i was defending metal and this band, not bol.

its not like im not right, anyways.

[SoDoStL]

I think BOL's gotten the response he wanted out of you. Having to justify your your dislike for something foreign to you. You're thinking about metal now though, aren't you? Can't figure out why metal's great? I'll tell you why. Because you don't like it.