Ice and the Iced Interview

by Jared Sanchez

6/22/2005

Ice and the Iced are generally regarded as one of the best and most influential bands from the early Italian punk scene. Their 7" 45rpm "Wicked Wolves", released in 1980, is one of the most rare,and sought after punk records across the globe. Their popularity was reignited by the compilation series "Killed By Death #77", released in 1997 and also the new 88 Shoes Skate DVD featuring Correy Duffel (Ice plays during his segment). Their one and only 7" release recently went on sale on eBay for $450 USD. I became very fixated on this group after buying KBD#77, and was especially impressed with the song "We've Had Enough". I searched and asked just about everyone for more info on the group, calling different punk shops around the country, and searching the internet. I was told that Iced was a complete mystery group, and though most of the old timers had heard of them, virtually no info was known about them. I didn't give up, and after a few days, I finally found a small blurb about them on Diego Sandrin’s website. I discovered that Diego Sandrine (lead singer of the group) had established himself as a very successful international solo artist. He was discovered by Lisa Marie Pressly, and is signed by Sirius Satellite Records. Many celebrities like Drew Barrymore, Jason Lee (from the Kevin Smith films), many of the cast of That 70's Show, and others frequent his shows whenever he comes to America. The stuff he does now sounds nothing like his old punk band, but it's still very good.
I emailed him, letting him know that his old band had became a cult favorite amongst punk record collectors around the world, and he was very surprised and pleased to hear the news. He didn't have a copy of KBD#77, so I mailed him the cd, and a few weeks later I was shocked that he mailed me not only an original 45rpm, but also rare gig tickets, flyers, and other memorbillia. Since then, I have created this site for him as a forum for others to learn and discuss this amazing band. This is the first Ice and the Iced interview. We hope you enjoy, and don't forget that a new Ice and the Iced cd will be coming out in the near future.

I heard that you had started out singing in the church choir when you were a kid. How did you discover punk rock music?

In an Italian magazine, there was this picture of guys with pins in their mouths, i thought it was so cool, i really liked that were wearing lots of colors, in Italy everything was so fucking gray!! All the kids back then used to meet at the church soccer field and there were some social rooms there, me and Ronnie occupied one of them and used to take our record player after school there everyday and play which ever record we could get our hands on that came from London. Pistols, Crass, Clash, Dead Boys, Ramba (our name for Ramones), Damned, Sham 69, Angelic Upstarts, Generation X, Germs, UK Subs, Stiff Little Fingers etc., it was OUR room, the priest was afraid to come in. Once we were invited to do a show in the room by some guy who had a birthday, he was from the other faction, the "disco kids" and we hated them so we told them we will play disco music, of course when the party started we let it loose and all the disco kids started shouting and throwing things so it became a huge riot, we told them we were gonna finish the setlist with or without them so they left and we finished the concert alone, at the end we destroyed the room and all they had put in there (disco records, food etc:) that was the last day we were able to use that famous room, cops came and banned us from it.

Well, you probably did those guys a favor. Happy Fuckin' Birthday! I remember my band SPÄN starting a near riot at our high school talent show. Kurt Cobain had just killed himself, and everyone was moping around acting all depressed. I couldn't stand Nirvana by that point, I took the mic and shouted out on stage, "Kurt Cobain said punk was dead, but who's dead now?" We were showered with boo's and people throwing shit. I'd never seen so many angry people in my life! I didn't think we'd make it out of there alive. We didn't give a shit, and played anyway. I guess the freedom to say whatever the hell I wanted was the most appealing thing about punk for me. How did you start your band?

After only 3 months from the first band meeting we were called to play in a huge place as opening act of a big Italian rock band, we had 10 songs, it was an unbelievable emotion. We went from my garage to the big scene, fans, chicks, managers. We were 16, it was a fucking dream! I was a very depressed kid and at the same time full of energy, I used to write everything that came to mind, but the depression seemed to go away only when I could perform and play punk music. I loved it. I was another person afterwards, sadness used to turn into rage and then into happiness. Thank god we didn't have psychiatrists back then, we handled shit on our own and so we avoided the drugs that are killing kids now like Ritalin etc., if u were depressed you played in a punk band, period.

Right, being in a punk band, or anything to channel your energy into something productive is the best form of therapy, not a bunch of pills and some over paid asshole telling you what's wrong. Being only 16 when you got signed to the Trux label, how did your parents react and how did they respond to you being involved in a punk rock band?

I guess most of the grown ups used to think it was a fad, fashion, all but my mother, she loved the Pistols and used to drive us around with her AMI8 Citroen and used to hide at our gigs to see us play, and if I found now all this material from those days is because she carefully put it away until now.

That's awesome she was supportive of what you were doing. There's nothing worse than getting shit at school from your peers and teachers, and then coming home to the same thing. My mom was also supportive, and she would drive me to shows across town, sit in the car for hours reading her VC Andrews novels until it was over. The only complaint was probably the way I dressed, but it was never a big deal. It was just kids having fun. What were the kids like in the scene at that time that came to see you?

They were normal kids, they were not dressed up like punks. In Italy back then if you had an earring you were a fag, if you had something colored to wear you were a clown. Very few people had the courage to put up a "punk uniform"; I used to steal clothes from my sister and the kids loved it. I had leather purple boots, a white coat long to the feet, pink pants and red shoes. They loved it and they knew they would never have the courage to do it. I had three earrings and wore make up on my eyes and I was not a homosexual at all, this for them was truly something different. Some of them used to bring a bag of clothes to change on at the gig and then put their own clothes back to go back home. We were friends with them, and after each gig we were the only ones with a few lires from the gig so, we bought beer and whiskey for all. This was locally, once we played in Vicenza and if it weren't for American people from the air base we would have been killed by the crowd.

I guess the word got around pretty quickly about your band, and soon you guys were picked up by Trux Records. Were there any problems getting signed?

No, Piermario Ciani came to us and asked so we said sure we would do it. He rented a little studio near Udine, it was inside a washing machine store and we had it for three hours to record 4 songs. The sound guy got so upset at us (we were destroying his shop) that he said he would keep the masters if we didn’t calm down. So we really didn't finish the songs, they needed more guitars and vocals. But the songs are as they are on the 7" cause we got kicked out basically. They still sound good though.

How many 45rpms were pressed originally?

As far as I remember 600 copies were pressed, they were supposed to be sold in supermarkets in "ICEPACKS" next to potato chips bags and candy but we couldn’t get a distributor to do it so they went the normal channels.

What was your relationship like with Ado Scaini, and the other bands from your time? I have read that Nazism was a pretty heavy influence on some of the bands from that era, with alot of waring punk factions.

I personally always loved and liked Ado, he was such a pioneer into new things and was scared of nothing, he was always happy and doing some new project. But we came to clash with the Great Complotto faction because the others (about 50 other bands) were turning to New Wave music and Nazi bullshit and we were anarchists. They were a bit of dandies, rich kids with nice pressed punk clothes and Mod clothes and stuff and we hated them. So we went with the other faction, more leftist who were the WICKED WOLVES and we used to hang and rehears at the DUKE, on the other side of the center of Pordenone. Once in a while when we were dunk or bored we used to walk to their hangout and start a fight, it was a great time, hundreds of kids on the streets of Pordenone, lots of ideas and music and nobody telling us what to do, now you walk those streets it's like a fucking fashion show with catwalk and all.

What are your favorite Iced songs?

Definitely Squallid Life and School Rules, two songs which were never recorded, only played live, they will be on our next record.

I know a lot of the Killed By Death collectors will be anxious to hear those songs for the first time. How did you come up with the special effects for Rock 'pn' roll? There’s some really strange sounds, one even sounding like a little kid laughing.

That was an experiment our manager was doing with tape machines connected to each other, the girl you hear is his daughter when she was three. She has kids of her own now!

What was your motivation for writing the song "We've Had Enough"? That song has really struck a chord with not only hardcore Killed By Death collectors, but also with the skateboard scene after pro sk8er Correy Duffel put in on his new DVD.

I had been thrown out of school for irreverence to the teachers and the institution, so I went back and robbed the school and had a fight with a teacher. They kicked me out of course and had to go to school 40 Miles away with the train every morning at 6 am. Needless to say I'm not a "morning" person anymore!

What was your relationship like with your bandmates, and how did you guys hook up? Did you know each other since you were little kids?

Brothers, we knew each other since we were like 10 years old and we hang out every week still now. Real blood brothers. Ronnie is writing the book of our life now, with music, sex, death, crime, drugs and success all in one, its going to be good.

What was your relationship like with the Great Complotto leaders? There’s some great bands to come out of that scene like Tampax, Mind Invaders, Hitler SS, Onda 400 and so many more.

It was great in the beginning and with Ado is still very good. We did not agree with the fact that they had started wearing uniforms and being all clean and in suits with combed short hair and ties, we hated that so we left. We were involved politically and revolutionaries of a sort, they want to create their own "country", which was a good idea but I did not like the rules, so I screwed one of the leaders girlfriends and we took off. He still is not talking to me! But I really admire them now, what they did, what we all did, was just fantastic, a whole city was at our feet, nobody could walk in the town without our knowledge or eyes on them! They HAD to hear our music, thousands of kids playing music on the streets, it never came back and never will if it goes on like this, we are witnessing the death of music. it will have to start from the very bottom again.

What’s the craziest thing you experienced in those days?

Probably at the peak of our success as a Wave of bands and punks, the Saturday we closed the town down, we were so many that all streets coming into the city were filled with kids hanging out and cars could not pass in the city. We owned the city, people had to leave their cars outside the city limits and walk home. We were not violent though, just obnoxious.

Looking back, do you have any regrets or things you would have done differently?

Yes I would not have experimented with drugs, and I would not have stopped to play soccer for the music, I was a pro at 16 but I thought soccer was for idiots, I was the idiot. I was making more money at 16 than I make now playing music!

How did Ice and the Iced break up?

Compulsory military service. Officially we never broke up, like there was never a meeting or a call in which we said "ok, its over", we just drifted away and met up again when Punk was all done. It was compulsory in Italy then, you had to give one year to the state, I chose the fire dept so I was a fireman for a year.

Did you regret that? It must have been heart breaking to go off to the military just when Ice and The Iced was at it’s peak of popularity.

No, it was fun, except for the band, that sucked.

After you completed your duties to the military, you made a surprising move to the USA. What made you decide to move to Louisiana of all places?

I had a ticket for Florida, I did not know where I would end up, then in Florida I met a guy that needed work in his office which was in Baton Rouge Louisiana. I rented an apartment on the phone, when I arrived there I was in the black ghetto, no problem though, when they found out I was Italian "Aitalian", they embraced me and we had the best time, super good soul food!!

After the military and the big move to the states, did you ever consider forming another punk band?

No, not until recently.

Do you still keep in touch with old bands and friends?

Yeah, we meet every once in a while there is a reason to meet, like this movie "A BAND APART" I did the music for, its about those days in Pordenone and at the Premiere all the old guys came to see it and we had a party.

Why did you decide to move back to Italy?

I missed my family and friends, America was going through the difficult times of 9-11 and I could not find myself to agree on the Iraq War thing or the monopoly of Hip Hop music on the market, I do not agree with the majority of the kids nowadays, there is no revolution brewing, they are all so fucking happy and full of themselves, into Celebritism and Beauty, I found the same exact thing here in Italy though so....stupidity just went fucking GLOBAL!!

The sad thing is that’s it’s only getting worse. You can’t turn anywhere without being smothered in all this Celebritism bullshit and the hip hop garbage. How did you start your current solo project?

I was in LA, hanging out at LA POUBELLE club on Franklin and met all my band mates there, it was a fun time, with Angela McCluskey, Danny Keough, Lisa Marie Presley and many other sitcom actors came to see us play so it grew from there.

How did you hook up with Lisa Marie Pressly, and what is your relationship like with her?

She called me to write with her after hearing my shows, we are very good friends, I think she is tremendously talented as an artist, people should buy her CDs and hear her, she has this very particular way of singing, like nobody else and when somebody is original these days its worth something!

When did you first hear about Killed By Death, and discover they had comped your 45rpm on #77?

My friend Jared in LA told me during an exchange of emails, he was trying to find Ice and The Iced material, I was shocked!

Will there ever be an Iced reunion?

Yes there is one right now, we are looking for a label to put up a bit of money for studio time to record a CD whith all the Iced songs, old recordings and new in one CD.

Many thanks to Diego Sandrin for taking the time out to give us some insight into the glory days of the Perdenone, Italy punk scene. We look forward to hearing the new cd coming out later this year. Keep checking for news at www.iceandtheiced.com

-Jared