Silvio Novelletto of Nailed Nazarene Industries On Running An Extreme Indie Label

In this interview Silvio Novelletto chats about his work at the Brazil-based label Nailed Nazarene Industries, and its work supporting Harsh Noise Wall, and Extreme Anti Music, as well as what goes into signing and supporting the artists affiliated with the label.

Guest post by Dave Wolff of Autoeroticasphyxium Zine

Nailed Nazarene Industries is an indie label supporting Harsh Noise Wall, Dark Ambient and Extreme Anti Music, that had over three hundred releases this past year. How do you account for the level of dedication that fuels your label?

I believe that when you do something from the heart with no behind intentions and deliver what you promise, creating a link of friendship with every artist, never looking if it is one new project or an big name on the scene, everyone has the same promotion and dedication from us. We dig like miners every day, looking for somebody with potential but locked in just one space. We contact bands personally asking for their work. This simple action made some artists we work with try to reach something greater and believe in themselves. That’s what we are looking for. If we lost this we can be sure we will be out of the game. Underground labels start every day and close every day. And we know that noisers tend to be introspective people. I fight every day to show bands they can trust us and will be part of a noisy nailed family!

How long has Nailed Nazarene existed, and how many independent labels have come and gone since you started?

Nailed Nazarene started in January of 2019 as a DIY label. We were blessed with the support of the former label KV & GR / RECS and our first release from Tim Noiseguy, who is now the owner of Imploding Sounds, and who had already been in the scene for a while. He kind of adopted NNI, sent material of his project, TAB IN/TAB OUT and helped us get in contact with Protomit from Russia. We also released a split. That support showed us we were going in the right direction. We started contacting some projects in the very beginning and suddenly were releasing artists we were fans of, like I’Eternal & Specimen by Eric Jovet and Hana Haruna by Ken Jamison (co-owner of KV&GR, now Basement Corner Emission). The scene has its own hierarchy. Many labels are able to release physical releases by prestigious artists like Vomir, Richard Ramirez and great Italian artists. But most labels work hard to get free downloads, using Bandcamp or Archive.org to promote their artists. All of them basically work for free for the passion of it. Sometimes it takes much more time than we have available. It is natural that some of them stay behind or decide to stop. It becomes daily work to research new artists, looking all over for material to release and places to promote. Facebook is breaking lots of labels by blocking material as spam, so we have to find other ways to promote.

Why was the name Nailed Nazarene chosen for your label? Does it stem from your personal views on religion or is it for shock value?

I think the name was chosen for two simple reasons. First, if a person is offended by it, he is not the type of person we would be interested in having his work released. So it provides a free environment to release projects of any kind of genre. The second reason is how contradictory the name is. Because the only thing that make Jesus act with rage was when he saw how the temple was turned into a market of offerings and greed. Sometimes we need to put anger away. In a world where every single word is distorted and everybody is offended so easily, my label would be the place to people find a safe place to release his internal demons. Of course, even here we avoid three themes: Nazism, pedophilia and animal abuse. Why? Because considering publicity, Facebook would block it anyway. I don’t take political sides, I am a father and I love animals, so there are other labels that accept this kind of material. 

Where is your label based? What is the current state of the underground and what subgenres are most popular there?

Nailed Nazarene is based in Brazil. But I must admit I am completely out of the local scene since I am the kind of person who is a hermit. As I have a regular 8 to 17 job, I use all my free time to dig, make new friends and discover some lost pearls. After a while, when the label started to come out with regular releases (mostly two per day), I felt confident to offer space to local projects. I came from the local Black Metal scene. Metal and punk were always strong in Brazil, but the noise scene is long-standing with artists such as Rot and New York against the Belzebu. I just started listening to noise thanks to Gnaw Their Tongues (Maurice de Jong is GOD), that opened my mind for a more incredible world of insanity and filthy noise aesthetics. The first HNW I loved was Hana Haruna, which possibly gave me fresh ears to the genre. Now we release local artists and help promote them with the labels we are friends with. Interzona, Bushido and the side projects of Vitimas do Crack like Me Desculpa and Te amo Porra are some examples. Today I have my own projects which I prefer to release on other labels so they don’t take the space of a new project that I can help to spread to the labels we are friends with. The only one of my projects I still release on NNI is FERRA-RETO because I make splits between it and other artists who I can and later release on albums.

With all the bands you are supporting worldwide, do you have a staff helping you out?

Not as label employees. I use the term “we” because Nailed Nazarene was able to reach so many artists thanks to other label mates, artists and groups that accepted our support. They became what I call the Nailed Family. This also included the very first projects who believed in and supported the label in the beginning, like Llur, Istochie, Mokeru, Goth Girl and others, but they unfortunately stopped activities.

How would you describe Harsh Noise Wall and Extreme Anti Music? In what ways do these genres differ from more familiar genres like black, death and doom metal?

Harsh Noise Wall and Anti-Music are more experimental, with no preoccupation with a melodic aesthetic. Harsh noise works straight with pedals, effects, modular filters and overdubbed loops. The theme is just a direction to some painful feeling, a way to transform internal demons into a senseless mass of noise, but it’s a creative redemption from anxiety and depression by finding the perfect release. Anti-Music can be free improvisation, musique concrete, in a dark sense, dense and sophomoric, sometimes bizarre or cacophonic and not so light as free-jazz or ambient. Or it can be noise genres, like noisecore, shitcore or grind. We also release some black metal, dungeon synth and dark ambient, like Enbilulugugal, Nothingness, Verminking and Pessimista. We are open to these styles as well. The problem is that metal is a step above in underground music. Bands are always looking for physical releases and that is not what we have to offer.

Is it easy for you to balance your married life with your support of underground music? Is your wife supportive of your work?

I already had a radio show, crust/hardcore punk and black metal bands and blogs. Since we started dating in the end of the eighties I was involved with music, so we have been together thirty years. On my regular job I always have to travel or work late at my home office, so weekends and holidays are the time we have to disconnect from everything.

How long were you doing a radio show before you started the label? Were any of those shows taped and uploaded where people can listen to them?

This radio show happened when the internet started to have mp3 pages. I don’t do it anymore. I’ve been in the underground scene for over 34 years, so I always was involved with underground music, as well as having done djing, radio, zines, blogs, reviews and playing so I decide to work with the label. In 2020 we are introducing a new label Herd Of Swine that will release one album per month at my choice. We got a manufacturer deal to sell physical CDs (Jacket cover only) for US $2 (shipment not included) & NO PROFIT INVOLVED For releases in 2020. If an artist wants physical copies and approve the label no profit deal policy, he just needs to ask me to upload his release to CD. If not, we release it in digital format. I deal to no profit, so the artist can sell it at his site: 1) with the lowest price straight from the link I will send you or 2) at the price he wants, buying straight for the link at the lower price possible.

How soon will you start signing bands to Herd Of Swine? What genres will you intend to support through this label?

Herd Of Swine’s first release will be available on January 17. I choose to start with a new and brutal Harsh Noise Wall project named Gnawing the Flayed – Militant Nihilism. This label will release projects that are impressive at first listen, and can be considered above average The genres it supports will be Harsh Noise Wall, Black Metal, Power-violence, Dark Ambient, Industrial and Power Electronics. We already contacted the project KHMER for a February release. It is exceptional visual-art and amazing harsh drone noise.

Who are some of the bands you have contacted recently?

For 2020 we contacted Falalisté, Resist Concept, Toothkicker, Com-Formed, Om Ra, (2), Cop Stench, {AN} EeL, Mexican Noise, Gnawing the Flayed, ᴛʀᴀɴsᴏʀɢᴀɴɪᴄ ᴛᴇʀʀᴀғᴏʀᴍᴀᴛɪᴏɴ, Spacial Absence that was their first time with us. We keep supporting projects we released last year and have new material, Like Solypsis, Three Moon (a new Project from a great friend from Serbia), Narcotic4 , Noize Thing and Sound Wave Attacking Nothing

How well do you hope this manufacturer deal will benefit Herd Of Swine and the bands you will be working with?

It will benefit everyone mostly because artists will have access to quality physical material without expenses of most manufacturers that is too high for underground labels and artists.

At what point after Nailed Nazarene was founded did you start supporting bands from other countries?

I can say Nailed Nazarene is a label of phases, because we first looked for American artists, then we had a strong European response. This led us to a strong Italian phase, we are ending a huge Russian phase, and next year we want to reach the South East Asia and Japan. Brazil is already part of our cast so we are open and confident to offer a higher level of exposition. That is how we grow, like that WAR board game, going for specific areas till we reach world domination. Also discovering new ways to promote our artists.

Who were the American bands you began promoting through your label?

Vger (Colorado), suffer永遠に (Pennsylvania), Temporalhaze (Michigan), DropWeapon & A.R.C.∞ (Massachusetts) and Z23 (Arizona) to name some of them. We promote every project through social media and invite them to be released by other labels with whom we are friends. I believe it is another difference for Nailed Nazarene. We network to help band with more labels, different audiences and more promotion.

Who are the bands from Italy and Russia you have most consistently supported through the label? Where else in Europe have you sought bands to promote?

From Italy we released I Corpi Presentano Tracce di Violenza Carnale, Attualità Nera, Paure, Vuoto Parciale, Sexy Crocodile For Dinner, fragile, Maria, Bug Catcher, tormentor of limbs, to name a few. From Russia we released Istochie, XVII.III.MM, Obscure Heaven, Шумоизоляция, Deddom, Rådiövölnå and much more. We also released bands from Spain, Finland, Serbia, Greece, Belgium, England, France, Netherlands Romania and Switzerland. From South America, from Central America, North America, Asia and Japan. So from everywhere a nice project was promoted by us.

Name some of the labels you are corresponding with and where they are based. Do you do any cross promotion with those labels?

From Russia, we support and are supported by Broken Teeth Records and Noise Jihad. We made splits with the Russian label Monolithic Discipline Recordings, E.S.O.D. Production. From the UK, Shrouded Recordings, from Canada, Mapawi, from USA, Imploding Sounds, Wound Botulism, Basement Corner Emission, from Brazil Sattvaland, Plataforma Records, in Italy, Sputo Records, Purewoolgarden, Formalhyde Production, Malaysia, So Fuckin Noise, Kalamine Records from France, and we send material to be included in compilations.

Are all your releases on social media/streaming sites, or are they also available in physical format (CDs, cassettes)? Have you released or would you release any of your bands on vinyl?

Nailed Nazarene Industries releases are all on digital format. This year I will begin to release compact discs on my experimental/electronic/ambient label Maaninen Henki Records. The price will be the costs of Kunaki.com. No profit involved. Unless the artists ask to raise the price, for now it would be US $7.00. Horror Italiani will be released in physical format by other labels and our double debut release will be self-released in physical format by Horror Italiani Records, that will be a label focusing on horror soundtrack releases. The other two projects will be released in physical format, but I prefer to keep people in suspense until they’re released. 

Name some of the compilations your bands have been featured on, and indicate where people can order them online?

They’re on Ferra-Reto: from Tides That Grind: Vol. I (Cancer Island), 4 Way Split Vol.5 (Brain Ticket Death), Soundscapes Throughout The Global Consciousness: Volume 7 (So Fuckin Noise), Harm Reduction Saves Lives (Wound Botulism Records) to name some. Santa on Vaara are on I Love Cows (Throne of Bael), Storm Area 51, They Can’t Stop All of Us Compilation (Muteant Sounds) Fumetti Per Adulti are on For All Saints (The Noise Syndicate), Memory to Jessica (Pötögiikräz & Prospekt Borschevikov & Fumetti Per Adulti & Agonizing Bodies & Coprohammer).

Describe Ferra-Reto. How much material has this project released, and what bands have splits been released with?

FERRA-RETO is a project in which I try more harsh tones and pedal effects. It was my first attempt to have an HNW project. By watching pedal configuration videos I learned about digital effects and that opened the door for several projects be released. We made over fifty splits; 45 in two months, so every day there was a new split with FERRA-RETO. Then I settled down and could make splits with artists I was a fan of, like Hana Haruna, Begraved, Monolithic Torment, TAB IN/TAB OUT and Extreme Kindness for example, and discover some great artists that maybe wouldn’t be possible without the project, like Mowlawner, Snuff Reel Projectionist, Nightmare Park, XVII.III.MM and BRTHRM. BRTHRM was such an enjoyable pleasure to work with that Bianchi and I now have a project creating dark soundtracks for classic Italian horror movies, named Horror Italiani. 

How long has Horror Italiani been active? Can you name and describe some of the independent horror movies you have contributed soundtracks to?

We started working together in September and have three deals to release our material on three different labels. We create new soundtracks for Italian movies we like. “Torso” will be released on December 31, “5 Tombe Per Um Médium” in February/March and “La Casa Dalle Finestre Che Ridono” in June/July. Every step is being made to learn more about the movie scene. We are contacting directors and screenplayers, getting their blessings for our projects. This is just the beginning of our entrance into the independent movie industry.

What are the storylines of those movies? Will any of them be released in the U.S.?

All these movies are classic Italian horror movies from the 60’s and 70’s. They are called Giallo Movies, and mix horror and sensuality. They are all available on DVD/Blu-Ray and some are available on streaming channels, like Amazon Prime or Netflix. What we intend to do is change that funky, psychedelic soundtrack which is peculiar and dated to a darker vision, thrilling the audience through the whole movie. Torso is a slasher movie with beautiful women being killed by a masked man. La Casa Delle Finestre Che Ridono is a masterpiece of Pupi Avati and real insane. You just understand what is happening through the whole movie. Very horrifying deaths, but an intense turn around ending. 5 Tombe Per Um Médium is a tribute to the amazing actress and gothic diva Barbara Steele. It is about a cursed house that was a leprousarium, a dead doctor and corpses returning from the grave.

How did you hook up with the producers of those three films? When you and Bianchi were composing them, did you look for a certain tone based on the atmosphere of those movies?

I did research on the movie and the director or screenplayer. In the case of Pupi Avati I got his e-mail through his son and then I asked Bianchi, who speak Italian as first language, to contact him. I found Ernesto Gastaldi on Facebook and checked with his book editor. So it is with a little luck and a lot of lack of shame. Bianchi is a much better musician than I, so I made the base layer, made some experiments with orchestral music and he improved it mixing, mastering and including layers on the track. I watch the movie while preparing the base on it. For all the scenes we make a flowing track, and Bianchi makes the cuts and divides it into single tracks.

Are you seeking other movies to compose soundtracks for after “Torso”, “5 Tombe Per Um Médium” and “La Casa Dalle Finestre Che Ridono” are released?

We will start working in mid-2020 on a movie that is over its time (1970). It is about a disturbed family and the deaths they are involved in and keeping a secret. It’s mind-blowing and full of unexpected turns, a real psychological thriller. Incest, decapitations and cyanide baths, concentration camp flashbacks. The critic was shocked by so much bizarre behavior. I think it is one of the best movies I watched while doing my research. I already had watched more than thirty movies. When I saw this one I stopped looking for the next Horror Italiani release. Sergio Bergonzelli in the director and this is his first thriller movie.

Besides your labels and musical projects, do you have more plans for the future you want to share here?

I just got a deal with a publicity video maker site to create simple videos and vignettes. It will be another way to promote our artists. Depending on how Herd of Swine grows, we think we’ll make limited vinyl editions. Also, I will try to restart a project I started last year named The Noise Syndicate, a joint venture with selected labels to create a safe place to expose artists in one place. One Facebook group to publish without being blocked. Before I had a hacking problem and people didn’t know while I was out making choices that didn’t serve for what I had in mind. So I will come in with another name and am already looking for some sites, exploring the material we will be able to promote. We would like to thank you, Autoeroticasphyxium Zine, because our new priority is to be known outside the labels circle and have our label spread by mates like you that work hard with zines and also your readers. I thank you for your time and space you allowed me to explain our goals and missions. We can with hard work change a scene and achieve higher levels for artists and labels.

Where on the internet and social media can Nailed Nazarene be found? Do you offer information about the bands on your roster?

On Bandcamp: https://nailednazareneindustries.bandcamp.com. On Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrTRQuGMIc6qfgAZuNbCjuA. On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nailednazareneind and https://www.facebook.com/nailednazareneindustries. On Soundcloud: https://www.facebook.com/nailednazareneindustries. I try to add information on our Bandcamp page. People in the noise scene normally don’t mind sending info.
-Dave Wolff