Interview with Kevin Aper


1 - Hey Kevin what’s up! It’s good to hear from you! How is it going? Big hugs from all the soldiers here at S.N.A.F.U. Yo SNAFU!
All good, yourself? Sorry for the late reply, but I was smoking weed and doing very non-important stuff haha

2 - As I was writing these questions The Apers got announced at Punk Rock Raduno! How cool is that?! Are you looking forward to it? It’s been a while since you last played in Italy! (This interview has been written long before Mondo Bizzarro Fest).
Yeah, really looking forward to that! Great location, amazing line-up, and I get to play some songs aswell! We´re also doing small acoustic shows at the Monster Zero booth inbetween shows at the main stage, so come hang out!

3 - What will The Apers do in the future? Do you think you’ll record a new album, or maybe tour more?
At this point I really have no idea. We haven´t been really active as a band the last few years, but who knows! Currently, Mikey is really busy with Drunken Dolly, Ivo plays with Windowsill and Lone Wolf and probably a zillion other bands and Kasper is a big-shot manager at a biker bar. But thanks to parties like Raduno, Crossbone, Pukefest we´re still alive and we get to play for the right people.

4 - Do you think 2017 will be as shitty as 2016?
Haha, I had no problems with 2016. For Insanity Alert it was a great year with many cool support shows and festivals. We also released our second record. So far 2017 has been great and the summer is shaping up to become another one for the personal history books.

5 - When you’re not with The Apers, you’re busy with Insanity Alert. Tell us about this other project! How was it born?
Insanity Alert started as a big weed smoking joke in 2011. I had just moved to Austria and then we started to started a band. I was hanging out with the same dudes anyway. Simone Riccobelli got us a show with Suicidal Tendencies in Brescia, and thats how we got started. After two years of not really being active we decided to put out a record and that really speeded things up.

6 - Insanity Alert already have two albums out, tour a lot, big shows (Hellfest for fucks sake!), they even have more likes on Facebook than the Apers…are you happy about how things are going?
Yeah really happy! This is by far the biggest band I´ve ever been in. I love The Apers, always will, but it´s also nice to do something else, play different shows. The metal scene is huge and really interesting. The fans are super loyal and there´s more and more people coming to our shows. Festivals like Hellfest and Summer Breeze are amazing to play. So let´s hope we get to do it some more!

7 - Let me be mean….what would be your choice between The Apers and Insanity Alert?
Haha no idea! At the moment I´m focussing more on Insanity Alert, but The Apers will always be my band. However, Insanity Alert has also become a big part of my life and the guys in the band are some of my best friends. So I prefer to keep both going.

8 - What happens when Kevin Aper turns into Heavy Kevy? How do these two personas coexist?
One and the same dude! It´s like Pokemon evolution! Really, I do exactly the same on stage and offstage. Singing, drinking, smoking weed and talking out of my ass. It´s a wonderful world between Ramones, ABBA and Slayer!

9 - Have you always been into metal? What got you first, punk or metal? What are your favourite metal bands?
When I was 17 I sucked up music like a sponge. Ofcourse I discovered the whole Lookout! Stuff and all the skate punk, but I was also really into Pantera, Sepultura and Slayer. I also like weirder bands like Faith No More and Life Of Agony. So yeah, maybe ´into´ is not the right word, but I´ve always listened to alot of different stuff. Punkrock is great, but just punkrock is boring.

10 - Since you toured a lot in both “scenes” we wanna know what are the main differences between punk rockers and headbangers!
Headbangers show up earlier and buy more merch, punkrockers stick around longer after the show.

11 - Are both scenes going towards a deadend or is there one “healtier” than the other?
I can only speak for the poppunk scene I know, and I´m pretty sure that scene, small as it is, will never die. With the Apers, I´ve been playing for 21 years now and there´s new bands, labels and parties every year. Right now there´s so many people active doing cool DIY stuff, so many bands touring and putting out great records. As for metal, pretty sure that scene will never die, it has become this huge movement next to the mainstream, an untameable beast.

12 - And what about 2016 releases? There were more punk rock releases you liked o hard rock/heavy metal ones? Could you name a few?
Basically I´ve just been listening to Ella Fitzgerald, David Hasselhoff and Goatwhore.

13 - Does it suck playing such a huge festival or is it cool? Some juicy tidbits about backstage?
I love big festivals, especially with backstage entry. So far we have always played early so after our show we get terribly drunk and party. Sometimes we get to hang out with cool bands like Iron Reagan, Negative Approach, Casualties, Pro Pain and Lagwagon. But most of the time we end up being thrown out of our backstage and then we wander around the festival for hours, putting Insanity Alert stickers everywhere.

14 - Did you listen to Metallica’s Hardwired…To Self Destruct? And Testametn’s Broterhood of the Snake? Did you like them?
No, no, no!

15 – Snafu soldiers like Manowar a lot and we’re definitely going to the farewell tour. Plus we all love Rhapsody (Of Fire) and we’re really looking forward to the farewell reunion tour. Are we posers or true metal warriors?
Trve Metal Warriors for sure! It´s all in your head if you bang it!

16 - Last: ask something to Speciani, chief executive of One Chord Wonders. We will send him the question and get back with the answer.
Mr. Speciani, how did you develop such a nose to pick up extremely good punkrock bands for your label?
Speciani OCW: unfortunately I count for nothing. I Just rumnage trough rubbish bins in Innsbruck looking for the demos rejected by Kevin.

17 - Thank you for your time Kevin, it’s been great to hear from you, we all send you big hugs and hope to see you soon. Now it's your turn....ask us something and we’ll be happy to answer. Go ahead amigo!
Thank you! When will there be a S.N.A.F.U. Fest?
Pvt.SNAFU: It would be great to have a SNAFU Fest even just to show Andrea Imbalzano that sometimes your heart is not enough in doing these kind of things. You have to be good at doing dirty business like Barcella or Berlusconi (just kidding Andrea eheh). Anyway the first SNAFU Fest will be on June the 6th... and you know why amigo!

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