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Fight The Fight caught my attention when they released the debut album months ago. They are young, dynamic and 100% schizophrenic. Surprisingly they joined the Satyricon fall 2017 tour, giving me the change of seeing them live in Bologna, something I really wanted to. But the mighty Indie recording also offered me meeting them guys for an interview, so after talking to Frost, I took the chance to sit down with the kids to make sure they were really crazy, and not just posing or showing off. Well.. they aren’t just crazy, they are CRAZIER… willing to party, but 100% focused on their art and their band. If this is what the new generations offer us, well, metal will survive for many years to come. Enjoy our weird conversation! (Leggila in Italiano)

TRIVIA: I had an agreed Satyricon interview, with Frost. I agreed this with the band’s label more than one month ago. Fight The Fight meeting, on the other side, was agreed the afternoon before the gig! They barely had the time to be notified that somebody would interview them! I usually take my time to craft some questions to be asked to an artist, trying to avoid being obvious, trying to ask something that isn’t asked by any journalist out there. But I had no time. Not at all. So I came out with a funny idea, and the result was just fantastic, especially in the end! I like to think my questions boosted their already overwhelming energy… and that was clear later onstage!

MH: Thanks for the time guys. I arranged this interview yesterday noon… so I had to set up the questions in a very quick way. But I did review your album… I gave it a 9/10 (here), I loved it…
FTF: (applauding me, editor’s note) Thanks mate! Thanks!

MH: I did read, few days ago, that you signed also for Metal Blade Records in USA. But you stay with Indie in Europe I guess. So, how’s the relationship with two labels… in two continents?
Lars Vegas (Vocalist): Surprisingly it’s actually not bad. They work very well with each other, they both did this for us, so it’s really not an issue. It’s been really nice working with both of them. We have seen the good and bad sides, I suppose… and we are really happy with it actually.
Amok (Guitars): It’s a new relationship and it that started out really with Metal Blade reaching out to us directly on our Facebook page, and all the conversations … they have been doing, not us, they have been having a lot of Skype meetings together, and I know it has been clear from the beginning that it is a cooperation.

MH: Well.. congratulations. When I reviewed you, I read on the press information (and here I apologize for my Norvegian)… that you were called ‘Faenskap’…
FTF: (correcting me, editor’s note) ‘Faenskap’
MH: Faenskap, before being Fight The Fight. That was more of a black metal past… how did it upgrade to what you do today?
Amok: It’s really just we getting older…
MH: …don’t tell me…
(laughs, editor’s note)
Amok: …with Faenskap we were… 16,17,18,19… years old… when we were working with that band … now we are aged 22, 23… so…
MH: I still envy you...
Amok: …so many things happened…
Lars: We matured a bit and also we have a main goal, main focus that shifted a bit…
Amok: Have you seen Pokémon? (loud laughs, editor’s node)
MH: I know what they are but… (fuck man, I am 44… Pokémon what? I just got a vague idea of what that crap is…. editor’s note and words unspoken while sitting in front of the band…)
Amok: It’s like Pokémons do upgrade… they evolve… so Fight The Fight is the next stage… at least on the name.

MH: Well, your melodic and catchy feeling… is also very furious. It’s somehow, as I wrote in my review, schizophrenic.
Lars: yeah, it’s a bit schizophrenic, yeah…
MH: so what does generate this peaceful attitude on moment and then all of a sudden it bursts into this extremely violent lyrics and music? What is this the thing that generates this jump, this pokémon upgrade?
Lars: To be honest, it’s because that is what it feels like. We have that kind of schizophrenic brain when it comes to the music, in first place me -for example- I love the dark and heavy shit and I really really like to be angry on stage, stuff like that … but I am also aware that I like … what I like I music when I listen is catchy choruses and stuff like that. So how can we plan this …. but (pointing to Amok, editor’s note) he is usually the mastermind behind creating the riffs and the overall picture of the music… and then we just work together and make what we can to sound the best way possible. But we are schizophrenic in the approach to the music as well, so it reflects.

MH: I think I’ve read you’re the same line up since the beginning. Or about.
Amok: We are (indicating the four of them, editor’s note). But the drummers… we have a thing with drummers… they are coming and they are going… it’s like… but now we have a new guy, Bjørn, right now it’s out eating “spaghetti bolognese”…
MH: that’s what we are gonna do later, after this interview!
Amok: so… but hopefully he would stay, he is a really good drummer…
MH: Where is the boundary between being friends -because even given the age you were a bunch of friends setting up a band- and being professionals?
Lars: yeah, yeah, it’s that we grew up together. Us three live in the same area (he points to Amok and HM, the bass player, editor’s note). We all live in the same city.
HM (Bass): we went to the same kids school
Lars: I know him (HM, editor’s note) since kindergarten. I’ve known them since elementary school and we met him (Lord, guitars, editor’s note) at beginning of high school.


MH: yes, but the issue I mean is… me too got friends since kindergarten, we carry on pretty well, but they are just friends, we have no business together, like a band that sells albums. So if you run a business together the disagreement can show up… and the monetary side is bad devil…
Lars: what we do is that we share things equally. We try at least to share everything equally unless there’s some special reason not to.
Amok: I think working together professionally makes us better friends
Lars: Yeah! Because you have to listen to people, you have to be open to ideas.
Amok: really, and we don’t have time to have other friends. We only have time to be each others so we have no other choice and we have to like each others.
(general laughs, editor’s note)
Lars: I see these guys more than I see my family. And this is not even a joke!

MH: The lyrics. They sound and are quite furious, full of hate and disdain. What’s the core of the topic and how is the stuff written?
Amok: It’s really like we don’t have any concept album. That’s a very normal thing to do these days to have a concept album, but we… when we gather into our space, and we write a song, and we start writing the lyrics, we just write the lyrics after how the music feels. The feeling the music gives us when we’re playing, we are writing the lyrics after that.
Lars: and one of the the reason why it’s so violent is because repressed emotions, a lot of things that you can’t say in regular speak or when you talk to people in general… so it’s a very nice venting place for…
MH:… a valve….
Lars: yeah! For hate and wrath and all that. And the nice part is to make so that there would be a balance… but we make each song individually. We don’t make fifteen songs and then think how to fit them in something like a story or anything. Each song is THAT (hitting the fist on the hand, editor’s note) song in particular. And that’s the way we approach to writing as well.

MH: And how do you craft the song from zero to the complete version? What is the typical process… lyric first? Riff first?
Lars: No, no, no, it’s the music first…and the lyrics afterward. As I said…
Amok: ONE song was not like that!
Lars: Yeah!
Amok: “Perfect Combination” was written the lyrics first and then the riff.
Lars: Yeah. But that’s because he had his heart broken… and he needed to vent it!
(general laughs, editor’s note)

MH: As I said in the beginning, I had this interview confirmed yesterday… I asked for it as I wanted to see you live, I liked the album and when I saw you were supporting Satyricon, I said to myself ‘wow, fantastic!’. But the interview, for my way to do interviews, only live interviews… no email interviews… I hate them…
Amok: way better man, I have to say I hate email interviews!
MH: I like to be there and catch the feeling
Amok: yeah!
MH: Hey, mind that whatever you say, this topic included, goes online… both in original language and Italian… we have no censorship!
Amok: yeah!
MH: whatever you say is going there!
Amok (shouting): YEAH MAN! WE ARE SINGLES! REACH OUT! COME AND VISIT! (general laughs, editor’s note)

MH: well, since I had not much time to craft a proper interview… I had an idea. Since your art is music and mine is writing, so I read my review of your album again, and out of what I wrote back then for the album, I spotted some points I want you to comment.
FTF: Yeah!
MH: One is…, well I wrote you are blend of nu-metal, WHATEVER-core, melody, catchy, mercyless riffs and even rock&soul. And black metal.
Lars: (laughing, editor’s note) It’s pretty accurate actually!
Amok: What it is actually, you can’t say it is one general thing.
Lars: you nailed it. Because this is exactly all the things we do!
Amok: you forgot Hip-Hop!
MH: I forgot it! But I was not allowed to write “hip-hop” on a metal magazine!
(general laughs, editor’s note)

MH: Then I added: “it’s not alternative. Not even metalcore. Neither post-metal. Neither strictly black. But still all of these styles, with a lot of grunge, punk and schizophrenic attitude.“
Lars: That’s very true! We are very much ‘in your face’. Very much punkish attitude. Because we don’t give a fuck and we don’t want to be fucked with, so…
MH: I wanna see this attitude onstage later tonight!
Lars: oh, you’ll see it! And you will probably see the schizophrenic part as well!
(general laughs, editor’s note)

MH: then I written this: “the glass is either way too full and dropping our or dry empty and smashed on the ground. Not mid way in between.”
Amok and Lars: that is correct. I agree with that!
Lars: …and that’s one hundred percent of what it is.

MH: I added “Fight the Fight can be either be loved to death or hated with unlimited violence.”. So what about your fans and the feedback you get…
Lars: there is a fair limit. Most people we talked to, do like it… and the people who like it really like it. And the people who don’t, they don’t! Either way it doesn’t really matter to us because the fact that so many like it is good enough for me. And if so many dislike it, they keep talking about it… so we win anyway!
Amok: we reached one million streams yesterday!

MH: The one before the last...(and towards the photographer, editor’s note): you get ready! Because I am going to inspire ‘em!
(general laughs, editor’s note)
MH: in the end of my review I wrote this: “Love ‘em or hate ‘em, they always have the right answer. And they will start any talking and deal showing the mid finger off….”
(general laughs and a storm of mid fingers!, editor’s note)

MH: We are METALHEAD.IT, close it the way you want for the fans, the public here tonight and our readers.
Amok: WE ARE FIGHT THE FIGHT and come out, drink with us, party with us, if you are a girl come have sex with us, and… see you soon babe… and … Hasta la vista!
MH: Thanks!
FTF: thanks! (clapping hands, editor’s note)

So they left, as they came. Back inside for the upcoming soundcheck and pre-gig drinking… They rocked the stage hard that night. I came that I loved the band, I left that I love ‘em even more. Hope they’ll be back soon! They bring some new fresh air into the old and good metal!

(Luca Zakk)