Billy Graziadei, known for being the guitar/vocalist of one of the most powerful and oldest American Crossover Hard Core Rap Metal bands from the good old days, Biohazard. The band was formed in Brooklyn, New York, back in the year 1987. Being a fan from the band since the early nineties and having seen them live plenty of times, since 1995 (URBAN DISCIPLINE!!). It was a real honour to talk to Billy himself at the ‘Sound Of Revolution’ Festival in Eindhoven, The Netherlands!
-What’s up Billy? Are you excited to play in The Netherlands again? It seems you have many friends over here, in my opinion the ‘Sound Of Revolution’ is the coolest Hardcore festival in The Netherlands!
Awesome, it’s great to be here! It wasn’t supposed to happen, but it’s because i am on tour with Life Of Agony. They asked us to play the After-Party, that’s great, tonight we are filming a video. Actually it’s a pre-party and a After-Party for today. Two shows in two days!
-About your new album! Damn it nails! Sounds like fucking Biohazard meets Slayer! Are you satisfied about the result and how’s the feedback so far?
Wow, both are my two favourite bands! Very satisfied, I produced the record myself and the guy who mixed it, he fucking nailed it. It has aggression, it’s very very aggressive. The opening track built it up and it’s like the world is to me right now. Every day you turn on the TV and something crazy is happening. Only problems, fucking politicians, religions, everybody is fighting. When we were younger something crazy was happening and six months later something bad was happening again, but now it’s every day!
Musically it’s all my approaches. I do everything, from Metal to Hard Core and Punk Rock. It’s all part of what I do.
-What’s going on in the Biohazard camp these days? New album and/or tour coming up and is Europe/The Netherlands included in the tour schedule? Plus are you going to play some Biohazard tunes tonight?
Right now, nothing is going on with Biohazard. We are just not doing anything. (phone is ringing…..), Billy: you have to answer the phone, it could be mom and very important haha… Billy: I have a funny story, it’s about a band who opened for Biohazard when we were on tour. There was a girl filming the concert. I grabbed her telephone and looked for MOM in the phone, everybody got a MOM in its telephone. So I phoned the mother and told her: Hi, it’s the singer from the band, your daughter is miss-behaving, haha…
-When I think of you I naturally think of Biohazard and when I think of Biohazard I can’t help but think of the early 90s. I am a teenager of the 90s myself and I remember when “Urban Discipline” was released. Back then the music industry was still strong. There was a whole new breed of bands coming up with Fear Factory, Sepultura, Machine Head, Dog Eat Dog and you guys. It seemed that Hard Core and all Metal subgenres were fading away, it was just as accepted to listen to stuff bordering Death Metal as it was listening to Biohazard. It was the time you guys played some pretty legendary gigs at Dynamo Open Air (then one of the few Metal fests around), how do you look back on those days and the tolerance between Metal, Hard Core and all subgenres? Even a lot of Hip Hop was included…
I think it was great back then. It was a great time! There were no boundaries, no subgenres, people liked Metal. People liked Venom and people liked Biohazard and Sick Of It All and Agnostic Front as they liked Anthrax. It was cool like that, I liked it, too. In the record store there weren’t many sub-categories, I still feel that way. I don’t think it’s that strong like it was back then, but still similar. People are into different types of music. Look at the Spotify playlists of today’s kids. It goes from Slayer to 50cent to Sick Of It All and then hopefully even Biohazard or something else. So I think the generation of the nineties was getting more open-minded. Music saves! My nephew is also autistic and is twelve years old and he is amazing on piano. Music saves, it saves also my life. It’s a beautiful great thing! If its Death Metal or Classical Music or Country.
-No offence Billy, but you are not 20 anymore. (Billy: I am 27 haha) How do you look at the need to stay “relevant”. It is no secret you guys peaked in the early and mid-90s and everybody remembers you for it. I just listened to your new solo album and you still sound hungry and full of ideas. Your own legacy is a hard thing to fight in some cases, I am an ex-musician, a boss of a record company and magazine myself and I can relate to the feeling not wanting to be a nostalgia act. Just look at Slayer who are playing their final tour, those guys are all in their mid-50s and play very aggressive music. They can release a new album and the press will give them a polite review but everybody still wants to hear “Raining Blood” and see the band as they were in 1986. I want to know how you look at the phenomenon and how you deal with it?
First of all I support your magazine and the Ideology behind it, but I don’t fight my legacy. I am proud of what I did and what I do and I am going be proud of what I am going to do next year. I don’t look at it as if I try to reinvent it. The solo record will be just me. Biohazard is me with the other guys and Bio is just me. You can see and you can hear it. Bio is my Rap style, you hear the Metal, you hear the Punk Rock and you hear the Hard Core. Billy Bio is just pure me! That’s my legacy from the 90’s, and it’s now 2018. (Billy is doing a personal Rap for us from being around the block). Wicked very cool, he did that for us privately. I still do, I still believe, I still love, the shit I did back then. The things I screamed about when I was 17 haven’t changed that much and now as a father it affects my world more. I am more angry and more intense. That’s my secret to my 17: I don’t do drugs and alcohol anymore. I did many years, but not anymore.
-Anyway, this is the end of our chat! Kick some ass tonight! Please do you have a final message for us!
Expect a lot more from me, also with my friends from Life Of Agony!
(This interview was originally printed in Headbangers Zine Issue #10, Released in Fall 2019).
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