E.Z. RIDERS
PAGE 56
ROCKNATION ISSUE 24
Hello E.Z. RIDERS and welcome to Rocknation. You have some
new members in the band, please tell us about that.
Hello Tom, thank you, it’s a pleasure for us to talk with you again here
at Rocknation. Yes, some new members have joined the band in the
last two years. Our lead singer, Ivano Andreozzi, was the first to come
in; he recorded with us our latest record “Wishing Well” and he’s been
playing with us for a couple of years so far. After the new release went
out, and after 4 albums together, our drummer and founding member
Rodolfo Ridolfi left the band. It was a tough moment for us, because at
that time we had scheduled a gig as opening act for Deep Purple, and
all of a sudden we didn’t have a drummer anymore. So our friend
Roberto Basili helped us for that show and then he was happy to
remain in the band. Now we’re proud to introduce a new member: Marco Tifi on the Keyboards. He used to come to our shows as a fan and had already
played with Roberto and our bass player Luigi Ridolfi in other bands. He plays organ Hammond B3 and piano and we are all very excited about this new
sound and new line up.
Congrats to your release of your new CD “Wishing Well”. Please tell us about a few tracks from this release.
Thank you. The first 2 tracks, “Wishing Well” and “The Firing Line”, are quite loud and strong rock songs, with catchy guitar riffs and refrains. In particular
“The Firing Line” can recall some early AC/DC guitar riffs. Then the album slows down a little bit with “Blown Away” wich starts with a power rock guitar riff
and then turns into a blues number on the bridge, with a great solo by Ivano on the harmonica. “Heart on Fire” is one of my favourite songs; it’s a mid tempo
with a great refrain and a great guitar solo, very funny to play; the bass player Luigi wrote the most part of the lyrics of this song. “Without You” is the ballad
of the album, written by me, Alessandro, about 3 years ago. It’s almost a soul ballad with the organ as a highlight. Since I wrote it, I’ve always dreamed to
hear that track sang by Gregg Almann. Unfortunately that will remain only a dream; Gregg will be missed so much by all of us.
Your last CD was “Try Hard Or Die Hard” has the direction or sound changed for your new CD release?
The Direction and sound didn’t have change so much, except for the great contribution by Ivano Andreozzi; his rough and soulful voice and his skills on the
harmonica helped us to make a step forward. “Try Hard Or Die Hard” was a straight rock album; maybe this new record has a wider range of influences.
You can hear that many songs are quite different one from the other, but that’s not a bad thing for us; melting different styles and different musical
influences have always been one of our trade marks, so we’re glad to have been able to do that in this new album too.
What has been the reaction for fans and press to “Wishing Well” so far?
Reactions have been good so far. Both fans and press considered it as a good album. Of course many of our fans are emotionally engaged with our first
three albums, with myself on the Lead vocals and the overall sound of the classic power trio; so it was not foregone that the new album and the new line up
would have been appreciated by everybody. But Ivano is such a good friend of ours and he is such a talented guy that has been considered one of the
family since the very first day. I really think that now the band is playing better than ever. Press also appreciated the production; though this album, just like
the previous ones, is a self production, the experience made before helped us to focus on many important details, specially during the recording sessions.
I think that, if you listen closely to the new record, this can be heard very clearly.
If you had to tell someone what your music sounded like, what bands would you mention?
Our music has always been influenced by the Classic rock and Blues Greats. For me, as a guitarist, my models and inspirations since the early days have
been Johnny Winter, Billy Gibbons, Duane Allman, Eric Clapton and, most of all, I have to say Warren Haynes, which is definitely my favourite Artist. So I
would mention bands like Gov’t Mule, Allman Brothers Band, ZZ Top, Johhny Winter AND, but also Mountain or Grand Funk Railroad, and last but not least,
one of the best bands around nowadays, Blackberry Smoke.
What plans do you have for 2017?
Our plans for 2017 is to play as many gigs as possible. We want to promote our latest album
playing live on stage all the new songs. One of our goals is defintely to book some dates in
the rest of Europe. We have some good contacts with some guys from Holland; they invited
us to play at a festival they made here in Italy, and now we’re working together on setting a
mini tour in Holland for this summer or the next fall/winter. We have some new material too.
A couple of brand new songs have already been written and we’re about to record them with
Marco Tifi on the keyboards. I have an idea for a new record containing new songs, and old
songs from our previous records revisited with horns; a kind of “E.Z. Riders’ big brass band”.
Thank you for taking time for this interview, any last words to the fans?
Thank you and Rocknation for this interview. We’d like to thank all our fans for their great
support and tell them to keep in touch, because E.Z. Riders are really sounding better than
ever and there’s a lot more to come for the next future. Let’s work together to spread our
music in order to extend our fan base and finally come back to play live in the rest of Europe
and in the U.S.A., where the most part of our fans are and where they’re waiting for us.
Thanks again Alex from E.Z. Riders