INDIE BAND OF THE WEEK: ACE MAFIA

Ace Mafia was formed by Geos ‘Mr. Daniels’ who was writing some tunes, later joined Richie Faulkner with amazing guitars, K. Ghibli who couldn’t do any less vocals wise and Bruno Agra who besides executing excellent drumming produced the first album. Ben was the last member to join, and in March 2010 their first album ‘Vicious Circle’ was released with many gigs, including ‘Hard-Rock Cafe ‘n’ O2 Islington Academy’.
April 2011 Richie Faulkner joined the legendary JUDAS PRIEST!!! without quitting Ace Mafia; just a little break.
May 2011 Bruno Agra left the band and Jerry Sadowski joins immediately, and completes Ace Mafia’s line up officially.

Are you bored of metal bands consistently droning out the same note in a blasphemous attempt at getting the “Heavy” and “Brutal” sound, trying to reflect the good old days of rock? The London based Ace Mafia is our Indie Band of the Week for a reason – they provide the raw heaviness that we wanted whilst sticking to their classical roots. We got to interview their bassist – Geos – and you can see how the interview went here…

**Interview with Geos from Ace Mafia:**

Connor/RR: You’re our first British band in the Indie Band of the Week, how does that feel?

Geos/Ace Mafia: Yeah, it feels amazing, y’know? We’re really proud of it. We do this all as mates for the music; to be recognized is a truly great feeling.

Connor/RR: Tell us a bit about Ace Mafia. How did you guys start out?

Geos/Ace Mafia: Basically, I was starting to look for a band when I moved to London, as the music scene from my country wasn’t the right one for me. It took me a couple of years to find all of the musicians that fitted in with what I wanted to play. After we got Ace Mafia together, we started recording together and it was all about assembling the right sound – and it worked perfectly!

After that, Richie (Lead Guitarist) went off on tour with Judas Priest which was an awesome experience for him, and it made the band proud, y’know?

Connor/RR: Out of curiosity, what’s the music scene like in your country?

Geos/Ace Mafia: Well, it’s more like groove rock and generally most bands there would try and copy Accept’s sound, something raw and hard-hitting. Listening to other bands abroad, such as from Britain (something a lot different) helped with our music to stand out from Germany. It’s like, “Why do we want to sound like someone else” and stuff like that, y’know? In that case, there are quite a lot of bands who want to sound like their heroes and become close-minded. When I found my English band, I was pretty happy with it.

Connor/RR: What do you think makes Ace Mafia stand out from other bands around your local music scene?

Geos/Ace Mafia: Personally, I think it’s the raw sound and we don’t try to sound like anyone else. We’re all about feeling the emotion in the music.

Connor/RR: You’ve got an album out – Vicious Circle – how do you feel about that album overall?

Geos/Ace Mafia: I think that it’s one of the best things I have ever done in my life. I’m very proud of it and now we’re waiting on the production of the second one. You’ll find the sound on that one will be a lot more mature.

Connor/RR: As a band, how do you go around writing songs and working with the production aspect of it?

Geos/Ace Mafia: We all work in a room – the drummer’s room. Jerry helped to produce our album; he’s so full of ideas. When we’re writing something and there’s something he doesn’t like, he’ll change a little bit of this and a bit of that, work out where the break is and blah blah blah. He’s into all the producing and helps with the backing tracks and helped out tremendously for the album, for which we’re all thankful for. So, yeah – what else can I say? Everyone helps with the writing so it isn’t just down to one person doing it, and everyone knows what they were doing and what to expect out of it. So, when we were recording there weren’t any hassles and we just got straight into it!

Connor/RR: As you’ve got another album coming out, whilst Ritchie has been on tour with Judas Priest and having a new drummer, do you feel that your sound may be different in comparison to the first album?

Geos/Ace Mafia: Well, not really. As Ritchie left a couple months into recording to go with Judas Priest but keeps his own style, if you know what I mean? Our drummer has the same sort of style as our old drummer. So yeah, maybe there are a few differences but we still stay for the hard rock sound. But even if we have a new drummer, we’re still friends with our old drummer and keep in contact and he’ll help us out sometimes, which is good.

Connor/RR: On top of the new album, what can we expect to see from you guys in the future?

Geos/Ace Mafia: Well, we’re looking forward to touring with our new album. At the moment we’ve been working hard on our album and all we want to do is tour with it. We love touring and after the hard work put into our album, we’re definitely looking forward to it!

Connor/RR: Ok, thanks Geos, it’s been a pleasure talking to you.