Necrot is a three-piece excellent death metal band, and with their new record called “Lifeless Birth” coming out soon, I emailed some questions to Luca Indrio (bass player/singer), and here is what he said to them:
Here are the answers of Bass Player/Singer Luca Indrio
Now I don’t know who is doing the interview, but all three of you play instruments, so what made you pick up what instrument you play, and who are some of your favourite players?
LI: Hi, I’m Luca Indrio, and I’m the singer/bass player of Necrot. I started playing guitar when I was 8 years old and switched to bass when I was 12. One of my favourite players is Ian Fraser Kilmister; you might know him as Lemmy. His favourite drink was Jack and Coke.
I have to mention that I also really enjoy Steve Di Giorgio, especially the Death albums he recorded, even if his style has literally nothing to do with mine.
How did you guys, minus Sonny, find each other? When Kyle House left, how did you hook up with Sonny Reinhardt?
I met Chad when my old band Acephalix played a show in Oakland with Chad’s band at the time.
Kyle House (Acephalix guitarist) was in Necrot only for a few weeks. It was April 2011, and I was playing with Kyle in Acephalix at the time.
I remember that soon after we started, Necrot Kyle told me he didn’t want to tour anymore, so I talked with him and told him he wasn’t the right guitar player for Necrot. It was a friendly talk, and he understood that we needed someone with more drive than he had at the time.
Necrot was always born to be a band that would be able to record albums and go on tour. That’s when me and Chad decided to just be the two of us until we found the right person to join the band, not someone who would be wasting our time. We didn’t want to work with a guitar player who wasn’t ready to make the band his main priority, so we turned down a few people who initially wanted to be in the band. Sonny was Saviour’s guitar player at the time, and they were coming from years of intensive touring, so when his band started to fall apart around 2012/2013, we knew he was eager to find a new band that would go out and play a lot of shows. We already had our self-titled tape and the “Into the Labyrinth” tape out at the time, so we gave them to him to listen to, and he was immediately into it. He ended up joining the band. We already had songs ready for our third tape, and so soon after Sonny joined, we recorded “The Abyss” tape with him, and we started playing shows.
Was the plan all along to remain a three-piece? Did you ever think of adding a second guitar to the band?
LI: We never thought about adding more members to Necrot. When we started Necrot, I already played in a few bands that always had problems with one or more members, and for that reason, I wanted a band with the least number of members possible so that we could last in time. I wouldn’t say I like it when bands change members a lot; to me, the band is like a family and is supposed to stay together in the good and the bad times. If you don’t have serious intentions, you shouldn’t join a band where other members are fully dedicated to it. That’s usually a big problem in many bands, but not in Necrot.
You guys have had a pretty steady line-up since 2014, with only guitar player Sonny Reinhardt not playing on your two early demos. How do you attribute that? Do the three of you pretty much get along with each other?
LI: Yes, we get along with each other and we enjoy what we do, so it’s not that complicated. If I’m not wrong, Sonny joined in late 2012.
Chad and I didn’t want to get the wrong person in the band so we patiently waited instead of rushing to get some dumbass in our band.
You guys released three demos early on, from 2012 to 2014, and then a compilation appeared on Tankcrimes Records. Were you doing the old thing of sending the demos out to fanzines and radio stations back then before the comp came out? I probably even reviewed you for Metal Core (my paper zine from 1986 to 2001).
LI: We were mostly trading and selling our tapes to anybody interested and to other bands. We got a few reviews and some buzz around what we were doing because the songs were good. It has been slow but steady growth for Necrot since then, mostly because we have been true to our plan and our sound.
Now, how did you hook up with Tankcrimes Records? Why did they release a compilation of your demo tunes instead of a brand-new record, which came out the following year?
LI: We already knew Scotty for years when he approached us about Necrot. We all lived in the Bay Area, and we were all part of the same scene. When Scotty approached us, he wanted to re-release the tapes we had previously self-released as a collection on one LP. At the same time, he asked us to release the new album because we already had most of the songs written for it. That’s how it all started with him—the collection of the tapes and our first full-length Blood Offerings. The album sold well, so it was all downhill from there.
I see you are based out of California. What were some of the live shows like for you guys back then, and were there many clubs to play around those demo days?
LI: The Bay Area was the perfect place to be for a band like us that was just starting. There were a lot of underground venues and punk houses that had shows, so we were able to get on a lot of gigs immediately. Also, a lot of touring bands come through the Bay Area, so promoters are always looking for local bands to use as openers.
We all played in other Bay Area bands before Necrot was formed, so people already knew us when we started playing shows. Lots of people had also been listening to our self-released tapes, so there were a lot of expectations for us to finally play live. We built a following pretty quickly in the underground, but also, that was like 10 years ago now; the demo days are just a memory, even if they were really good. Now we play bigger shows, but the energy we have on stage is still the same.
Who came up with the name and logo of the band?
LI: Me and Kyle came up with the band name at the very beginning, and the logo was done by our friend David, the singer of the Danish band Undergang.
So now, in 2017, you released your debut album on Tankcrimes Records called “Blood Offerings.”. What are your thoughts on this release these days? I read a few really good reviews in the press as well, and I like it too.
LI: We still love it, of course. We are pretty loyal fans of our band, haha. People liked Blood Offerings a lot when it came out, as well as our 2020 LP “Mortal,” which managed to be one of the top-selling death metal albums of 2020.
It’s not easy sometimes when your previous album did well to do even better with the next one, so we are pretty proud that we did.
We have a new album called “Lifeless Birth” coming out in 2024 on Tankcrimes Records, which, in my opinion, is our best album so far, so check it out.
Do you think around this time you were finding the Necrot sound, so to speak?
LI: I think we always had a clear idea of how we wanted Necrot to sound; of course, the more time goes by, the more we can translate our ideas into music.
Your next and current release came out in 2020, “Mortal,” also on Tankcrimes Records. What would you say are the big differences between the two releases? I imagine the whole COVID thing sucked as there were no live shows, etc.
LI: I think Mortal is a more mature album than Blood Offerings, but at the same time, I like both equally. After Blood Offerings came out, we played a lot of shows, and we got to tour with bigger bands on bigger stages. That makes you grow as a band just by being on the road and having to face bigger crowds. I think that helps you become more confident in your capabilities, and then it translates into the next record. We appreciate a lot Albert from Decibel Magazine for inviting us on the 2019 Decibel tour, as well as Trevor Strnad (RIP) from the Black Dahlia Murder, who was the first one to invite us on a non-underground tour.
Now, who have you shared the stage with over the past couple of years? Do you feel you are a solid band live? I’m sure there are live clips on YouTube, am I right?
LI: We shared the stage with a lot of bands; I won’t be able to list them all. Municipal Waste, Testament, Cannibal Corpse, Morbid Angel, Black Dahlia Murder, Suffocation, Immolation, Toxic Holocaust, Exhumed, Midnight, Pig Destroyer, Autopsy, Eyehategod, and a lot more.
We are a way more solid band now than 10 years ago, for sure. There are live clips on YouTube, yes.
Now we are in 2024. You are going on a US tour with Municipal Waste soon. After the tour, can we expect new music in 2024?
LI: We are excited about this tour coming up, even if we have been on this type of tour before where the shows are in big venues.
We know exactly what to expect and what is expected of us. We have been friends with the Waste guys for years, as well as our labelmate Ghoul, so it’s going to be like a big party for a month.
If you have the chance, you should go to one of the shows. Tickets are for sale at municipalwaste.net
I saw on your Facebook page that you had a special running on your Bandcamp page about a release that came out in Mexico a few years ago. Is that still for sale?
LI: I think that specific one’s sold out by now, but we have a lot more merchandise for sale; you can find it at Necrot.com
For someone who has never heard the band, what would you say you sound like?
LI: We sound like a contemporary extreme metal band. Lots of people say we are a death metal band, and I think that might be the simplest way to describe us, but there is a lot of different inspiration that goes into Necrot.
If you pay attention when listening to us, you can hear that we are not a band that tries to sound like someone else, nor are we a band that only listened to “Left-Hand Path” before starting to play metal.
Please plug any social media sites the band has and where people can buy your music.
LI:
is where you access our merchandise.
On social media, we are mostly active on Instagram.
Horns up for doing this interview, and best of luck on the tour. Any last words to wrap this up?
LI: Thank you for taking the time to write this question, and thanks for supporting Necrot.
“Lifeless Birth” is our new album coming out in 2024 on Tankcrimes and, in my opinion, is our best work to date, so make sure to check it out.
