Interview with Lectern

Metal Addicts – First of all, guys, congratulations to your long and beautiful story! It is such an honor to interview a band with almost twenty years of history deeply grounded into underground. So, guys, how have you been? Tell us the secret of being active for such a long time.

Fabio – Countless words won’t be enough! If you want, if you dare, results arrive! I don’t know which are ours, but I think there’s no particular secret! For the truth, there isn’t any! We always pushed beyond every limit, so here we are again! When I speak about going beyond every limit, I mean not only about music: also lyrics and blasphemous artworks. We speak the truth, our truth! So, we have no limit and that’s for sure! If I think about “Fratricidal Concelebration” censure, okay we came with a new illustration! I think, everything we did, we do and we will always do shall be extremely blasphemous!.

Metal Addicts – For all those years Lectern remained loyal to a straight-ahead and raw death metal while some other bands sweetened a little their music to reach a larger audience. What kept Lectern away from being temptated?

Fabio – Death metal is for a certain audience, and not for the masses, and simply it’s not for everyone! Everything is not mainstream, belongs only to a certain and restricted circle. We are and we won’t be for everyone! And that’s for first! It’s lifestyle, something you cannot change, if you change its meaning, it’s not death metal anymore, you know! It’s hard to explain! If you don’t want death metal, you can search elsewhere! You all must! When death metal has changed, it doesn’t express its ferocity no f**king more! There is music and music, death metal is only a part of heavy metal, an issue from the extreme side of rock ‘n roll! Death metal extremizes music beyond its whole recognition, through all the notes you can use! Vocals, solos, riffs and structures follow all the footsteps of insanity. There are rules, but first of all, we all follow the laws of madness!.

Metal Addicts – Lectern have been around for almost twenty years. Some bands release an album per year. How come have Lectern only released fiver records until now?

Fabio – I always said, and I will always repeat that I faced a lot of troubles with all the line-ups, as I have been the only one in all of them There is a hole between 1999 and 2008 and also 2010. “Bisbetical,” then we have “Salvific,” the reprint of “Bisbetical” from our ex drummer’s underground label. It has been very complicated to keep the line, to pull the strings everyday. Rehearsals, gigs, interviews, promotion, labels and tours: I learnt to do all of that by my own! I think, no manager could have ever accomplished the job like myself! Staying behind all things, with the right care from he who knows what Lectern needs and what we have to watch out.

Metal Addicts – From where I’m standing, the name of a band is the most important thing because it’s the band’s identity which may reflect on songs and everything else. The band’s name is Lectern, what does it mean to you? How did you come up with it?

Fabio – Evil pulpit.

Metal Addicts – Heavy metal is one of the musical genres that still sticks to the good old album formula and it is consistently doing pretty well. I mean, heavy metal albums still sell, of course not as much as pop, but it does. There is an open debate among musicians and the media that bands are making very few Dollars with albums due to all the existing digital services which allow fans to get music without paying a penny. What’s your view about this debate? By the way, can Lectern make a living with their music or you all have other jobs?

Fabio – As we have Netflix for movies, that’s why we have many platforms dedicated to music like YouTube (just think that it hosts nowadays, all the clips, broadcasted by television since the very beginning), Spotify and all the s**t for listening, downloading and stealing tracks or full albums every f**king day for free. Who allowed that, destroyed the possibility to sell records. Digital music and all that is digital, liquid, virtual, synthetic and not real or physical, has unfortunately won. I still listend and buy records in the shops, but I don’t dare to imagine what expects us in the next years!

Metal Addicts – Lectern are from Italy, a country with a strong metal scene which is split in all metal subgenres. How is it to get gigs? Is metal scene different from other scenes around the globe?

Fabio – Someone really believes we have the best death metal bands around, as Mike Poggione of Monstrosity told me while we opened for Incantation in Latvia. Now, we have new summer festivals for metal and all the alternative rock scene, and that is the awake we all we were waiting for, but we need the support. Support is for bands, but mainly for the fans! I find that the increase of the prices for ticket, merchandise and all the stuff, it’s absolutely ridiculous! If I come back to the bands, well, the success of stuff like Fleshgod Apocalypse is amazing and at least, unbelievable but really deserved!

Metal Addicts – Death metal bands are known for having a political opinion that differ from the mass media. How would Lectern define themselves politically? How do you the world today where so many bands take no position at all?

Fabio – Lectern are not a political band, we are not involved or interested in that s**t anyway! And we will never be!

Metal Addicts – Due to all aforementioned, tours are more than ever a very important channel to get in touch with fans, to promote albums, and of course, to provide the means so the band can keep up. So, what are your plans for tours? Does the world have a plan to Lectern? Could tell us where you have played around the years? What was the most unusual place you have played?

Fabio – We just toured across Europe last summer with Anal Vomit. We also played with Incantation, Archgoat, Lantern, Skinned, Sepultura, Avulsed, Mystifier and Interment just to name a few. And I don’t think we will tour again until next year, or 2020 maybe for a new album. The most unusual… yes! It was a squat in Antwerp, in Belgium, through the Arab block, and we faced one of them who went out from his butcher’s shop unto the street, twisting a f**king sharpened knife! Our driver parked the van on the sidewalk just in front this f**ker’s showcase! He went out, bothered about all of that, just to use an euphemism! Everytime we went back to discharge our equipment, he looked at us in a very angry way!

Metal Addicts – Metal scene today is very diverse. There are lots of bands playing music with lots of influences bringing up some excellent new material. How do you feel about it? Are you a nostalgic band that praise the good old days or do you think the best is still to come? How do you feel about new bands?

Fabio – Ghost were for me a pleasant discovery, something between the new stuff is right, but I always look at the die-hard and old school side! I still like to take Iron Maiden records and listening to them, physically!

DISCOGRAPHY

Bisbetical (1999)

Salvific Of Perhaps Lambent (2010)

Lectern (2014)

Fratricidal Concelebration (2015)

Precept Of Delator (2016)

Deheadment For Betrayal (2018)

Line-up

Fabio Bava: vocals, bass

Pietro Sabato: guitar

Marco Valentine: drums

 

INTERNET

www.lectern.rip

www.lectern.bigcartel.com

www.facebook.com/lectern666

www.myspace.com/lecternband

www.youtube.com/lectern

www.reverbnation.com/lectern

www.twitter.com/lectern666

www.soundcloud.com/lectern666

www.last.fm/user/lectern666

www.instagram.com/lectern666

 

PROFESSIONAL VIDEOCLIPS WITH A PLOT

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNGmJ_0qiL0 (Fluent Bilocation)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGfHP_q-PZc (Discorporation With Feral)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIkX7oHhua8 (Diptych Of Perked Oblation)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OK7hmuHpfsI (Palpation Of Sacramentarian)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0rPgkqb4W8 (Precept Of Delator)

 

LIVESHOWS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9HIMNpafS0&t=6s (European Tour live in Paris in France entire show)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nswtplL3JzA (Pisa in Italy supporting Sepultura and Angra)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TstKdCoqZtg (Niort in France)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9RjxzAmvsc (Niort in France)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjdXvQh8SX4 (Niort in France)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsQ5tlHrLJg (Helsinki in Finland)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iRoHoVFfsI (Bozkov in Czech Republic)

 

TOURED AND PLAYED LIVE WITH

Incantation, Anal Vomit, Avulsed, Goblin, Angra, Sepultura, Archgoat, Mystifier.