Well guys...your seventh album is almost out... so, to start from one the titles in the album, "What is rock?"
TOM: Seventh?! Did we really make seven?! I didn’t know they were seven!
HANK: Ahhhhhh I don't know, I don't care... it's money!

Now Tom leaves us to go to answer to a phone interview...I keep talking with Hank meanwhile!

Let's talk about the title of the forthcoming album: Retox. What does it mean? I heard that the title was supposed to be "Orgasm in Progress", how come it was not chose in the end?
HANK: You know, we had many different ideas for a title, in the end we chose Retox because it was the best one, just one word, and a kick ass one! Do you know what it means? You know when you go to an institution to rehab from alchool problems then you de-tox, de-intoxicate...Re-tox is like starting with partying again, skipping all the steps and starting again!

Retox comes after the black trilogy which included Apocalypse Dudes, Scandinavian Leather and Party Animals. How did that trilogy end and what is new, what is different in Retox?
HANK: The trilogy was our project to bring death punk, a new kind of punk rock to the world, the albums had huge productions because we wanted to make the death punk thing as big as possible, to spread it all over.
With Retox we wanted to show the roots of death punk, where did it come from, that's why we wanted to make an album which is more a punk metal album, with sounds from the late 70's and early 80's, we wanted to show people all our influences, like AC/DC, Black Flag, Judas Priest and all the stuff we listened to when we were kids, to show the platform death punk comes from.

We have in this album a smaller but better production, more intimate. It's a really targeted album. We wanted to have it really basic and simple. We had about 22 songs and then we decided for the really basic ones, throwing away all the dead meat and keeping the lesson of the old school. The lyrics are also different, they are really punkish, about teenage frustration, about being outsiders and being always pissed off: with parents, with teachers, with disco kids in the school.

What about Nick Oliveri from QOTSA? I read that he participated to the recording of the album, how was it to work with him?
HANK: Yeah you are right, we recorded material with Nick, but in the end we had so much stuff to choose among and we didn't have time to put voclas on that material, so we didn't use it in the end for the album. He worked with us already on Party Animals where he sang in one song, he's a friend and it's always cool to work with him, and I'm sure we will be working again with him soon.

Do you have then any funny story about the studio sessions?
HANK: Actually it has been the longest and hardest time of recording I ever experienced in my life. We spent more than one year in the studio, all the songs were recorded three or four times to make them really really good and I had to work very much on the vocals to keep it loud and clear. So I think funny it's really the proper word and I don't have any funny story about the studio sessions. Now I think that working on keeping music basic and simple it's the most difficult job for a musician!

A question about the artwork...I always like Turbonegro's album covers: Ass cobra is an evident homage to the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds, Scandinavian Leather's cover was made by Klaus Voormann, a really famous artist who worked with many famous bands and made the cover for the Beatles' album Revolver. What about the cover of Retox? Anything noticeable to be pointed out?
HANK: This time the artwork is made by two norwegian artists. They are not really famous, they are kind of underground artists, but they were part of the punk scene, so they were the perfect choice to give us what we wanted to have: we wanted to have an artwork which is close to the music, so we wanted to keep it really simple, cut up, black and white illustration but well done, we wanted to make the classic punk cover.

Give me friction, Baby, the first book about Turbonegro and the Turbojugebd phenomenon is now out, written by Uta Heuser, the first oral document about death punk. What can you tell me about this book? Are you proud, are you satisfied about it? And was to remember and put together almost 20 years of career? How long should we wait to have it translated at least in english?
HANK: The book was written by that girl completely on her own, she made just research and wrote it, but we never spoke with her about the project and she never interviewed us. I haven't read the book because I can't read german anyway! We are now working together with a norwegian writer who's working on another book about Turbonegro, he's making a lot of interviews to us, our families, our friends and people who worked with us, and this will be the official book.

Happy Tom comes back after a phone interview and now I spoke with both of them together

I would like now to talk with you about a really predictable topic...the Turbojugend phenomenon. You definitely are the band in the world with the most loyal, most faithful and best organized fanship. How does it feel with this idea and what do fans represents for you?
TOM: We don't have fans, we only have friends!
HANK: We're in love with our fans! We want to make love with them and have children with them, especially with the sexy ones!
TOM: ...We are just full of hormons!

Somebody wrote that belonging to the Turbojugend it's kind of like being a fan of some football club, with people wearing the simbols of the team and carrying them around proudly. Do you agree with this? Or do yo uthink there are differences?
TOM: Yes, we agree with that. I think it's like a sum of the feelings of football fans, nerds and bikers! There were people who were buried with the Turbojugend denim jacked and the coffin wrapped in the Turbojugend flag!!
HANK: It's an empire, and we are the Darth Vaders!

The next expectable question now...speaking about style and attitude, Turbonegro have for sure no rivali. You have a unique attitude and a unique look in the scene, and you have been always different from all the other bands. How important is this image for you and how much do you think it contributes to your success?
HANK: We always felt like the bigger outsiders, we considered our image as the problem for the music industry and what it made it impossible to sell. We thought we did everything wrongso we are quite surprised of the success and we think it comes from the music, while the image could have represented an obstacle to our success! But time proved it was not like that, and we are still surprised about it!
TOM: We were always wrong at the right time, or always right at the wrong time!
HANK: Yes, we come from the future!
TOM: Ohhh yeah, we come from the future and that's why we knew it would be a success!

You recently participated also in Bam Margera's Viva la Bands project. How was working with BAm and with all the other bands, most of which are also from Scandinavia, like The 69 eyes, HIM, Negative, D.A.D?
HANK: It has been great, it's always funny to work with Bam, we really enjoyed it! And the bands, well we knew them already from gigs, the 69 eyes and Ville are our friends, it's always cool to hang around with them and drink! We also did the theme song for Jackass 2 and Wild Boys with Bam! MTV hates us and they never want to show our videos but they have to coz Bam decided it and imposed it! ehehhehe

Do you know any band from the italian scene, and if you do which ones do you like most? [Now the discussion degenerates on funny nonsense...you’ll see!]
TOM: We don't know many italian bands, moslty hardcore bands like Raw Power and Negazione. It's the only music for the Brigate Rosse, they need hardcore!! Cosa Nostra only listens to Eros Ramazzotti!! You know all the judges in Palermo, they don't grow so old, they have a really low life expectation! They all die young!
TOM: yeah...when a kid in school at the age of seven is asked what he wants to be when he grows old and he says "I want to be a judge" then he's shot!! Ahhh and how do you call the guys who live with their mums till the age of forty?

Mammoni??!
TOM: yeah, mammoni! All the mammoni should buy three copies of the album, one for them, one for girlfriend and one for mum! Then if mum listens to Turbonegro the Bolognese will be even more tasty!! All the Lazio's fans are mammoni! And and in Italy, all the women are prostitutes except mum!
HANK: We are the rock'n roll virgins of the Pisa Tower! No better, of Lamborghini, but before they started making cars, when they were still producing tractors!!

What about Norway...is there and new cool band in the norwegian scene that you would recommend?
TOM: TURBONEGRO!
HANK: We only live in Norway but we don't know many bands and it's anyway mostly black metal stuff. We are the only great norwegian rock band, all the others are bullshit!

You came here to promote the new album, and I've seen that you will be playing many gigs around in germany, Spain, England but not Italy by now. I've heard that you will after the summer...can you tell me something about this?
TOM:You know, we are very very scared of coming to Italy. Every time we played here one of us got to the hospital. Playing a gig and then hospital. The first time, you know, in 1998 Hank ended up in a psychiatric hospital, the second I got sick, was always puking and the gig ended in hospital. The third time when we played at a festival in Bologna Pal Pot Pamparius had problems with alchool and we ended up in the hospital. Say Italy!
Italy!
TOM: Porco Dio!!
Well, we really want you to come back and see you playing in here! I will be your bodyguard and protect you from all teh evil araound next time!
TOM: We need the Pope as bodyguard!

One more question... I know that your first single was made available by Telenor on cell phones. Do you find it a good strategy to make music available through these new media? And what do you think about the painful topic of music being downloaded from the internet?
HANK: Yeah, it was available from Telenor but you know, it's also on the album. They wanted us to have a 7'' vinyl but we prefered the downloading thing. Vinyl lovers hates this!
TOM: yeah, so it's not that people need to buy a cell phone to get it. We don't really have the problem with downloaded music. Our fans buy or records, t-shirts, and all the stuff!
HANK: Yeah, I mean, they download the album coz they want to have it as soon as possible, but then they buy it anyway, maybe don't even open it, they buy it as piece of art, not only for the music but for the object itself, the piece of art with the artwork and stuff, because they are collectors.
TOM: And in Italy they should only buy official t-shirt and not all the black market shit! The mammoni from Lazio sell the black market t-shirts!!

ok guys...one last comment and a greeting to the readers of SLAM! and thanks a lot from me!
TOM: Avanti motherfuckers!! Denim flag, bandiera denim!!
(Now they both sing along on the theme of Banidera Rossa with "Bandiera Denim instead" =)