Pure Inc.

Posted on Jun 19, 2006

by Anders

Pure Inc. a energetic rock band from Switzerland, ready with their second album "A New Day's Dawn". An album that offers great rock n' roll, straight forward music, with a layer hidden behind the surface, so there is a basis for digging in deep and spend many hours on the album. I hooked up with singer Gianni Pontillo to hear what drives the band and what they are all about.

Hi there, how are things in Switzerland as we speak?

Great so far the world is still intact despite the fact our album has been released.

How is the Swiss rock n' roll scene and which bands should we look out for, besides Pure Inc. of course?

Oh, in the past we had really famous bands like Krokus they're still together but today they're not so big anymore and of course Gotthard they're still very big here, but they simply don't rock anymore, it's a kind of Bon Jovi so-called Rock/Pop. The great bands are down in the underground like Favez, Gurd, Samael, Treekillaz, Disgroove or Zatokrev or even Shakra to name a couple.

Will you please start off by introducing yourself and tell us how you ended up playing rock n' roll?

Well my name is Gianni Pontillo singer of the band and it all began when a school mate asked me if I would like to join a rock band. I was 15 years old and a real Guns N' Roses fan at that time, so it was quite obvious that I wanted to be a little Axl Rose.

A small introduction of the rest of the band will be really appreciated as well!

Sandro Pellegrini plays guitars, Gentman plays the bass and Dave Preissel plays drums.

You are now ready with your new album "A New Day's Dawn", how do you in the band feel about the album?

We feel that we found ourselves in our sound and in this kind of style we want to continue writing in the future. It's like a renascence for the four of us, a great start for something new.

What do you expect of it?

That people enjoy listen to this album carefully because it's not as straight as the last one, it needs a bit more time till it opens your mind, but then it will simply rock and make you wanna hear it again and again.

In addition to this it's important that this album brings us a step forward in our career.

"A New Day's Dawn" is your second effort, how would you compare it to your first album and how well did the first album do?

The first did quite okay in the press and media, but actually the second is more energetic with a real rock n' roll attitude, this is a real Pure Inc. album. We wrote the songs in a compact modus and these songs are very meaningful and very deep for us, as we focused on specific things on this album.

Who are the main songwriter(s) in the band?

Actually we're a very jam band so most of the time we write the songs together, but the first ideas are from Sandro or from myself, sometimes our bass player comes up with an idea as well. The lyrics are my part and I like it a lot.

Where is the inspiration for the music found?

Everywhere in this world, TV, newspapers, other people, every day stories and of course some bands are inspiring us as well.

What do you want to tell with your music?

First of all we want to rock that is the most important part, then I want to open the eyes of some people for example, that we have to take more care about our world because we're seriously in danger. The human race will destroy themselves sooner or later and politics and religion will be the cause. I think despite the human race will die anyway someday, we should go along nicely together and stop fighting all the time, it isn't worth it.

Do you have to be in a special mood when writing music or does it just flow all the time?

It flows sometimes; at other times we need something that make us become in the right mood, no dangerous stuff, no worries.

Which lyrical themes do you touch on "A New Day's Dawn"?

Politics and world chaos. Medias like the TV, it makes you see only the bad things in the world and you know why? Because people want to see other people die or want to see blood or poverty. We're all a bunch of greedy assholes who hate another because of our different thinking, believing or religion. Some are even envious and ready to kill because of it. It's a crazy sick world and my lyrics are all about that; human and social problems or love, smile and enjoyment. 

Who's the man behind the lyrics in the band?

That's actually me I write all the Lyrics and I like it a lot. Even more I think it's the singer's job because he has to perform it live and in the studio. I think if you want to be a good singer you have got to put all your feelings and emotions in the lyrics and express that at its best.

Where is the inspiration for the lyrics found and do you have a message with them?

As I already mentioned the inspiration is everywhere in the world anything can inspire me, an important thing is to capture the moment and make it being meaningful. If people on top of that understands my message, I'm very satisfied.

Will you please pick out your 3 favourite tracks from "A New Day's Dawn" and tell us a bit about the lyrics, how the idea for the music originated and so forth?

Ok. Let's see

'Saviour': Is a message to the people. We need to open our eyes and see what's going on with the suffering and poor people in the world, because the rich is getting richer and the poor are getting poorer, it's not the right way we should help each other instead of classify each other. The music was fun and we wrote this song in about 3 hours. Sandro came up with the starting melody and all the rest we worked it together as a band.

'Burst': Is a song about love, it contains feelings about my private life. It is about being hurt when you love someone desperately, it makes you almost mad. Sandro came up with the beginning melody and the rest was worked out by the band, but in this song we had more difficulties because there's a part which is not a typical Pure Inc. part so we had it to arrange it as a Pure Inc. part. Quite fun and very interesting.

'I'm A Rolling Stone': Is a song about rock n' roll and it describes how I feel on stage, I can be real crazy and acting like a diva but it's just show and 'I'm A Rolling Stone' is what I am and feel, a real heavy stone rolling down to the people, I hope you can imagine it. This song has the same writing process as the previous ones.

Who has made the cover artwork, who came up with the idea with it and what does it symbolize?

The starting idea was Sandro's, it has been worked out by "flyart" friends of ours and it symbolizes a new birth or a new begin or a new way for us as a band, for you as listeners and for Andy Allendörfer ex-label boss of our record company AFM, who died last year in a car accident.

How did you end up with the band name Pure Inc and what are your thoughts behind it?

Pure Inc. comes from the band called Pure Yeast in which I started my career as a singer and songwriter; I'm the last remaining member of that group. Then after a couple of changes in the band we decided to re-arrange the name coz today we're other members. We ended up calling ourselves Pure Inc. for the simple reason: "Pure" is the art of music, we play pure and rough and Inc. is for a company or a friendship inside the band.

Where do you see your place on the rock scene?

In the rock scene and only in the rock scene or hard rock scene but please don't call us a metal band we like many metal bands and we respect that style because it's near to rock/hard rock, but we do not write metal songs. For the reputation I guess we got a good one because we play music from the heart and we're a real life band, pure, plus I know that people in the scene knows who we are and likes what we do.

How do you look upon the future of Pure Inc. and what do you expect of it?

It would be great if we would find a big band to go on tour with but there are so many, don't ask me with whom, plus I wish we get the chance to record another album, we're writing new stuff and it sounds great so far, let's see what happens, I'm anxious.

Will you share you 5 all time favourite albums with the readers of Nocturnal Horde?

Guns N' Roses - Appetite For Destruction
Skid Row - Slave To The Grind
Tool - Lateralus
Pink Floyd – Dark Side Of The Moon
Soundgarden - Badmotorfinger

Thanks a lot for answering my questions, if you have anything to add, feel free to add it now!

Thanx to you all out there! Keep the rock alive and stay true!

Pure Inc. website

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