“The Italian metal bandits TYTUS are back with a bang, delivering their latest EP “Roaming in Despair” just several days ago. Now , that their release is already collecting accolades from all around the globe, the guys are here to share more about whats going on with their formation and disclose some interesting details from their life as a band.”

THE NWOTHM: Ave, Tytus! Can you please introduce the band for our audience?

TYTUS: Ciao! Tytus originates in the Italian Far North East, on the borderline of what once was Yugoslavia, and probably we absorbed in our DNA some genes from the flourishing rock scene they had there in the ’80s. We are active since 2014, united by the urge of playing some good old Heavy Metal. Since than we published two full length and a bunch of singles and played extensively all around Europe, shared the stage
with many cool bands, drank huge amounts of beer and basically had a lot of fun

THE NWOTHM: All band members have interesting artistic names aliases. Can you share the stories around their origin?

TYTUS: Back in the days we were big fans of the Norwegian band “Turbonegro” and we loved their “hard but fun” attitude. We keep our nicknames from that era first because we are pretty attached to them and second because even if we often take the heavy side in our songs and lyrics, we don’t want to take ourselves too seriously.

THE NWOTHM: Name “Tytus” calls for some ancient Rome associations, while the lyrical topics of your new EP live in modern day’s pain points of the society. What message you aim to deliver with your songs?

TYTUS: I don’t think we send any defined message, really… We are just fascinated by human beings’ behaviours, especially their ability to destroy everything that’s good for the sake of (usually someone else’s) profit, to the extent of disintegrating their true and only home in the universe, their own planet. And it looks like they are not going to stop this even if they are all clearly aware of what will happen if they don’t. As a result, obviously, you can expect no way out of injustice and inequality which are actually spreading all around as never before (and they already did it a lot all along the human history). So, with our songs we just reflect on particular aspects of this huge field of study, from our own personal point of view. Which tends to be a bit radical. But that’s the way it is…

THE NWOTHM: Soon you will complete your first decade of existence. What are the biggest takeaways from the music industry you want to teach younger bands?

TYTUS: To be honest, we must say that we always tried our best to be out of anything that relates to music
in terms of “industry” or “business”. We fiercely share a strong DIY attitude and we like to cooperate with
people who do understand what it means, preserving our freedom to do things in our own way.

THE NWOTHM: All band members have a remarkable career in different formations. Tell us more about the traditional metal scene in Italy?

TYTUS: Yes, we all come from different musical experience, not only and not always necessarily related to metal or heavy metal, and we have seen how things go. In these (almost) ten years of Tytus, however, we found out that in Italy there are many heavy metal “aficionados” acting in a very pulsating transversal underworld that takes these sounds out of the niche and bring it in different environments. It is not uncommon to play in punk or hardcore circuits and this is definitely super-cool!

THE NWOTHM: As Italians, on the scale from 1 to 10 how outrageous is putting pineapple on a pizza?

TYTUS: You don’t need an Italian to tell you it’s a big 10. But let’s make it a 12: our drummer is half Neapolitan..

THE NWOTHM: Back to the basics – core influences and role models for your work?

TYTUS: We listen to a lot of different music, not strictly heavy. As metalheads who were teens in the early 90’s we define our musical taste with the classics (Maiden, Priest, Metallica, Sabbath..). A lot of Death metal and Black metal from the 90’s was playing on our stereos. We can’t hide our love for punk and hardcore not only for the music but for the attitude, the message, the diy philosophy…Our influences comes mostly from the past, it’s our mission to turn them into something fresh and new without losing the
original spirit.

THE NWOTHM: If you have to name one, which is the most pivotal and decisive moment for heavy music in the last 50 years?

TYTUS: It’s 1979, North West London. A DJ is pioneering new sounds playing demo-tapes through a very powerful band P.A. in his club, The Bandwagon. There’s one song he really likes from a very young band that just put out the first EP. Anytime he plays “Prowler” every single one in the club gets crazy. A short after the real thing finally detonate.

THE NWOTHM: How is your creative and writing process structured? Who is the engine behind the band or it’s a team effort all the way?

TYTUS: It’s a sort of “by any means necessary” approach combined with “go with the creative flow”. Usually somebody, who can be any of us, comes out with personal ideas for a song in form of a demo. Then we work on it together until the end, and there’s plenty of space for everyone’s contribution. The goal is to achieve something that all band members are satisfied with, and we don’t stop until we reach it. Also we are very lucky because our drummer is a fantastic sound engineer and owns the Track Terminal Studio, where we recorded all our music so far. This also means that we can hold studio sessions anytime, which opens to infinite possibilities and makes the composing process even more stimulating.

THE NWOTHM: Tytus has remarkable touring experience with some of the best bands in the genre. What’s your favourite backstage “activity”?

TYTUS: Well, left aside what you can’t talk about… It’s drinking beers and having fun with the guys from the other bands! And if the playlist suddenly features “Painkiller”… it’s always instant collective air playing!!

THE NWOTHM: Lately there is a certain wave of complaints about some clubs and venues claiming 20% of merch sales of performing bands. Any thoughts on that?

TYTUS: It sounds like mafia:”Wanna play? Fine. We take 20% of anything you sell. An offer you can’t refuse.”. Sicilian accent included. This thing totally sucks!

THE NWOTHM: Just recently you released your brand new EP “Roaming in Despair”, featuring an iconic figure like Jarvis from Night Demon. What did you learn from this creative collaboration?

TYTUS: Jarvis is one of the coolest guys around in the Heavy Metal scene. We had a pleasure to play before Night Demon at the Iron Fest in Germany and the guys were very nice to us. Absolutely no rockstar attitude. Jarvis and Armand also plays Jailbreak guitars, a handmade guitar company owned by our guitarist Mark. When we ask him to sing on Out in the fields he was very happy to join us. And he did a great job
with his unmistakable voice.

THE NWOTHM: How did you come up with the idea to put back to back two cover songs from quite different flavours and geographies? Do you think Gary Moore would have loved to jam with “Divlje Jagode”?

TYTUS: The Heavy Metal scene in Yugoslavia was great in the 80s but it’s mostly unknown to metalheads around the world. So we decided to make a cover of Motori, also to help people to dig some real cool music and discover the heavy metal from the eastern Europe. Out in the fields is maybe a more classical and well known tune, but we loved that song and had so much fun playing it. I try to imagine Divlje Jagode jammin’ with Gary Moore back in the days and this could be fantastic…

THE NWOTHM: With fresh EP material in hand how far away in time is Tytus’ new album?

TYTUS: “Patience you must have, young Skywalker”. But not much more, promised!

THE NWOTHM: And to wrap it up, when we can expect seeing you “roaming in despair around the stages of Europe and beyond?

TYTUS: We play Metalheads Open Air in May! Guess we catch up there!!

THE NWOTHM: Thank you for your time and before you go, please share where fans can check your stuff online and order your material?

TYTUS: Thanks to you all! And Keep up the good job! This is the link to anything related to Tytus: https://linktr.ee/tytusmetal
Have fun!!