Fans of Mortician, Internal Bleeding and Lividity need to hear this wonderful band.  I was eager to pick their singer’s brain on the inner workings of Vulvectomy, the new album, their brutal album covers and all things Italian of course.  Vocalist Diego Fanelli really gave intelligent responses and I learned a lot from this interview.  Hell he even mentions horse meat in his interview, which I have had years ago and it tastes great! Maybe we will have a cook off one day, my homemade sauce, meatballs and garlic bread I will put up against anyone’s food!  Regardless, Vulvectomy are awesome and support this killer band NOW!

Please tell us your name and what you do in Vulvectomy?  What is your goal with the band and why the name Vulvectomy?

Hi my name is Diego, and I’m the vocalist of the band. I propose this name because it was brutal and it was perfect for the visual and our titles and concept; our goal is to play what we like with passion and have fun.

So congrats on your third album Abusing Dismembered Beauties, it is killer!  Are you happy with how it turned out and how do you feel it differs from your previous two albums?

We are completely happy and satisfied with our 3^rd album. It’s a little bit different form our previous works because the song writing is a little more mature and varied, we can consider it an evolution, but always with our classic heavy parts.

So why the drum machine? Ever thought of having a live drummer and do you have one for live shows or do you use the drum machine live?  Is it difficult to program and how is the music developed with you guys?

When I met Mario, in 2007, he was just composing music with a drum machine, and living in two different places. This solution was almost a condition and easy for us — we can say we were born as a drum machine band and we’ve always written music in this way. It’s not difficult to Mario, after all these years, to write music in this way… It comes out spontaneously. He writes the songs starting mainly from his ideas, and sends them to me and Giorgio. We suggest our ideas, changes or arrangements and when everything is fixed up, me and Giorgio put our parts. In the past we were thinking about asking for a real drummer, but due to different reasons and due to the fact that we’ve built in this way for our personal style, and well recognized…we are still, and we’ll remain a drum machine band forever. Even during our live performances.

So with this album, the cover continues along with the theme of violence towards women, degradation. Is this something you guys believe in and why do you feel it necessary to depict such violence towards females? Do you guys have wives/girlfriends? What do they think of the covers and lyrics?

Obviously we are not violent guys. We have normal lives etc. It’s pretty fun to see sometimes people who take too seriously this kind of stuff… anyway, if you read with attention our song titles, they are not all “against women”. There are many “against” men… but this is not the goal of the band… to be “against”. I only let the people know about some situation pathologies and I like to make them smiles. And yes, we have intelligent girlfriends who know us well…so everything is OK with them [laughs]

Why do you think a lot of brutal slam death metal bands, such as yourselves, have these types of violent imagery/lyrics towards women?

I talk for us, but Vulvectomy is a brutal band and title concepts for us have to be gore and brutal. I know it’s not original, but we don’t want to be original. I personally like when I see gore artwork and gore lyrics. It’s an extreme form of art. I can take it and separate real life from extreme form of art, music artworks music etc…

What separates you guys from other slam/death bands and how do you like playing this type of music?

Well first of all we have a drum machine, also live, so this is the first big difference between us and others bands. [Pause] Other differences… I think that maybe you can easily recognize us between the other  bands for our sound; drums, guitars vocals, in general. But, maybe it is the people who can answer better to this question.

Are you supportive of your scene with the likes of other killer Italian bands, like Unbirth and Putridity? 

Yes we are! We try to support all the good bands over here, and fortunately there are many now; Putridity, Septical Gorge, Exhumer, Devangelic, Indecent Excision, Unbirth, Incivility Regurgitated, Onicectomy… I can’t remember now all the good bands we have…

What do you do other than the band, for fun/work and do you like being in Italy?

I’m now also involved in Dysphagia and Exhumer, I love to play/watch soccer and sports in general, listen to music, and watch some good movies. I work also as a counselor for kids with social disabilities… can you believe it? This is why I find it funny when people judge others for their appearance or lyrics of their songs [laughs] Yes I really love my country for the history, monuments, food, culture… obviously as in any country we have many problems too, political and economical.

What are some homemade dishes you grew up on and what are some of your fave foods, any recipes to share with us?

[Laughs] Frank! This is the best interview of my life! My mother is the classic mum of southern Italy. She knows how to cook almost everything in the best way! I grew up with the Italian classic dishes, lasagna, fettuccine alla bolognese, carbonara and the typical Sunday dish in my town — Ragù — with horse meat. Maybe this can result in being freaky, but you need to taste it! Living in a sea town, we eat everything that comes from the sea…fish and sea fruits etc.

What is your fave type of gelato and have you been to Sorrento and do you partake in the occasional lemonchelo shot once in a while?

My fave gelato is the homemade one. Almost in every town there is a homemade ice cream shop. It’s difficult to say, because there are so many good tastes here, and we always invent new ones. Maybe my favorite one is chocolate or coconut [laughs] but I become angry when I’m out of Italy and I find strange tastes. For example, I know this will change your life [laughs], but what’s Napolitano? I see it in many countries. Nothing like that exist back here in Italy! I live about two hours from Sorrento and all the restaurants here feed you limoncello after the food. Also my mom and sister make our homemade one, together with others: chocolate liquor, coffee liquor, strawberry, laurel liquor…

What makes Italian food the best food in the world, since I’m also Italian, I cannot imagine a life without pizza or pasta.

I think the secret is passion, tradition and of course the quality of our ingredients; tomatoes, potatoes, fruits, vegetables, oil, cheese, mozzarella, etc etc, together with the competence! Our bass player is a chef [laughs] and I also like to cook Italian food for my girlfriend and friends.

What are your influences and what helps you to get better as a musician?

My influences are back in the 90s, when I started to listen to death metal. Suffocation, Cannibal Corpse, Pyrexia, Repudilation, Broken Hope, Dying Fetus, and you and Internal Bleeding are also in my influences; I’ve got your demo in my tape collection! I don’t know if I’m a good musician or not… obviously when you do something, always have to consider that for someone you’re good and for others not. It depends by many factors. But I’m very happy to have realized something that I only dreamed some years ago: Everything is made with passion and dedication!

How did the deal with Sevared Rec come about and are you happy to be part of Barrett’s roster?  Does your deal include free merch and CDs for you to sell at shows or do you pay a fraction of the costs for those?

Well, the deal with them comes out in a normal way I think. After our first contract (Post Abortion) we continued our collaboration for the new album when they offered us a second, better contract, so we’re pretty satisfied with the deal with Sevared Records at the moment. We’ll see what happens for our fourth album. We’ll wait an even better contract from them if possible [laughs]

Any final comments/thoughts?

Thanks, Frank, for the interview! It has been a pleasure and an honour for me to answer your questions… especially coming from you, one of my vocal influences. Some of those questions were the best I’ve answered in my whole life [laughs] So I’m waiting for you in Italy to taste my homemade food and Limoncello, and thanks to all for supporting Vulvectomy during these years. Take care and keep it sick!

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