No Hope No Fear. Dario Torre tells of Neapolitan rock from the ’80s to date.

“At the dawn of the ’80s, Italy was flooded by new sounds from England and the United States. The revolution abroad had already started a decade before, and the echoes of the challenges from bands such as Ramones, Damned, Sex Pistols (the latter not so much for the punk ethos but rather for the aesthetic impact), or the most extreme ones such as GHB, Crass and so on, stood out on Italian ground too, a land usually unenthusiastic to anything that isn’t traditional and politically harmless. Naples, although slowly, digested and reworked the incoming tide giving back its own generous contribution. New wave (in its widest meaning, from dark to punk/hardcore) or metal (including the most extreme forms, such trash, grind and death) became common language among youths, gathering media and angry reactions to the ancient and proverbial feeling of dissatisfaction soaking in the Neapolitan (and Italian) environment.”

This is the very beginning of Nessuna Speranza Nessuna Paura (No hope No fear), the first book by Dario Torre, guitar player and music critic. The subtitle better explains: Neapolitan rock from the ’80s to date. It is a sort of mini-encyclopaedia offering a journey into the rock settings and trends around the Naples area. We have interviewed Dario, who answered faster than light, debunking the myth that good musicians are “evasive sons of bitches.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bq08ePPtJo4

–  Dario, you are the member of a band, Stella Diana, with a good following in the Naples area. What kind of music do you play, and what is your role within the band?
–  I am Stella Diana guitar player and singer. What do we play? If we use the group we have been inspired by as a reference, Medicine, Slowdive, Ride, Chameleons, Echo and the Bunnymen, Joy division, what we end up with is a sort of wave-shoegaze… in February we will release our new record.

–  Nessuna speranza Nessuna paura deals with an unusual topic which must have required a long investigation: indie rock from the mythical ’80s until today. Why this choice? What brought you to delve so deeply?
–  Because I reckoned it was time to bring justice to the city of Naples, which is musically speaking very active, even in little known and underground genres. We have always been known with popular music, VesuWave and posse. I don’t want to underplay them, but Naples has also been a trend setter in much more underground scenes, and failing to emphasize these too would be a shame. The last 30 years have been rich with bands and with the backgrounds where such culture has found expression.

– Nessuna speranza Nessuna paura is also the title of a record by Contropotere, one of the first hardcore punk bands in Campania. What is their role in your book and in the Campania scene of these years?
– As I’ve described in my book, Contropotere were, and still are, the greatest punk group (and more than just that) not only in Naples but in the entire nation. For all that they have given they are no more to be accounted just as a band: they are rather a state of mind, kind of an attitude. They also showed it at the book launch last November, playing after such a long time out of the scene in front of 500 euphoric people. Contropotere have shown that “if you got them” they won’t manage to shut you down…

–  In your book introduction you state that “punk altered the coordinates”. Can you give an example of how punk seeped into Naples?
–  By contributing to the freedom of expression, redefining codes. The punk clothing, the method, the language is nothing but a backlash to the establishment, a slate clean of everything that had been dictated and filtered. Punk put back the youths in the centre of the scene. There were no music stars but ordinary people showing that it was possible to express freely through music even with limited technical skills.

–  The million dollars question: what is rock for you?
–  It is a mirror of your “other”, which otherwise would remain hidden.

– So, your Nessuna speranza Nessuna paura has a nice soundtrack. Do you think it’s only for music nerds or it could also be useful to who is “looking for enlightenment”?
–  Mostry to the second group. It is useful for who doesn’t know much about it. It is useful to bring respect and consideration our own city’s culture. It is useful to stop being subdued to what comes from other parts of the country without looking at what we already have beforehand.

–  What do you think about the current music scene?
–  There is a lot of stuff going on but there’s useless competition about everything and that’s a shame, because the artistic level is not bad at all. The problem is our innate will to hurt each other with base and self-destructive behaviours. The bands themselves instead thrive and create a wide diversity of music: grunge, post-punk, electrowave, stoner, punk… a lot of really worthy stuff.

–  Can you kiss us goodbye with a nice track? Good luck, Dario!
–  This is a prime example: Contropotere’s “Non indietreggiare” recaps everything I feel and want to tell with my work… never back off in front of anything, ever.