Getting to Know… Road Syndicate | Interview 🎤

In the 419^th Q&A in our Getting to Know… series, we get the inside scoop from Italian hard rock band, Road Syndicate.

“We are a rock ‘n’ roll band, we give our souls on stage, and we like to have the audience sing and cheer with us.” Awesome, Road Syndicate! In response to our first burning question, Lorenzo Cortoni (lead vocals), expounds, “[We want the audience] to be part of the band for a night and enjoy the rock ‘n’ roll ride with us.” Cortoni and Fabio Lanciotti (lead guitar) provide the inside scoop on the Italian hard rock band’s genesis, goals, musical influences, and current, and future musical endeavors. So, without further ado, let’s jump right into Getting to Know… Road Syndicate: Interview No. 419!

For those who may not be familiar with you, what would you say makes Road Syndicate distinct or unique? How do you rock the audience’s socks off?

Lorenzo: In a time where everyone has a character to play the strength of our band is to be “real,” what you get is what we are. We are a rock ‘n’ roll band, we give our souls on stage, and we like to have the audience sing and cheer with us, to be part of the band for a night, and enjoy the rock ‘n’ roll ride with us.

Okay, let’s explore some juicy backstories. How did Road Syndicate form, and what were some of your goals or visions early?

Lorenzo & Fabio: We have known each other since we were young boys and went to school. We are all involved in the Italian entertainment system, especially in the music business. It’s our main job. We have always worked together on many occasions, on many tours, theater, and television shows, album recordings, etc. We are a very reliable and experienced crew. We often told ourselves that we should start a band to play our music. As soon as the opportunity arose we took it. We had to record a KISS song for charity. It was at the beginning of 2018. A few weeks later we had enough songs to do our first show together, in a club in Rome.

Let’s talk more about goals.  Have your goals or your perspectives changed since first starting? What do your aspirations or goals look like now?

Lorenzo & Fabio: In the beginning, we wanted to play together for fun and to see what would happen, then we saw that we could make excellent music that people love to listen to, and the gigs arrived, the tours, the record company etc. It all happened spontaneously, not planned. We love playing live therefore we want to enjoy a long journey, the four of us together, and, at the end of the journey, discover what our final goal will have been. Without planning anything, without thinking about results, sales, etc…

Everybody is influenced by somebody else. Whom would you consider some of your biggest musical influences and how are they influential?

Lorenzo & Fabio: In our music, there are many influences due to the musical background of each of us!
We all love R’n’R Music, from the Beatles & Stones, through Zep, Purple, or Springsteen, up to Korn or Tool. We gave ourselves precise references regarding the band’s style: Bon Jovi, Europe, Aerosmith, Van Halen, AC/DC, and a lot of American hard rock from the 80s & 90s. We looked for a style that made everyone feel at ease so that every single musician could contribute to the band’s songwriting, without pre-established roles and musical dogmas.

Ah, the fun stuff.  What’s your craziest tour story or the wackiest thing that’s happened during a performance?  Feel free to be creative.

Lorenzo & Fabio: The funniest thing that happened to us was 4 years ago, on tour. The promoter had guaranteed us a place to sleep and we thought it was a small hotel. Instead, he wanted us to sleep inside a church, on sleeping bags. We couldn’t interrupt the show because the club was full of crowds waiting for us, but we wanted the money before the show. After the concert, we saw him very drunk. He was too stunned to understand anything, so we decided to buy everyone in the audience a drink at his expense.

While people had their drinks we were in the car driving all night to get home 😀

The craziest thing we did was continue touring during the pandemic. For almost a year, in Italy, it was not possible to hold shows in front of crowds. But we had concerts already planned. So, we decided to take some cameras, a video direction, and a lighting system and play inside a room in live streaming. We have done 5 or 6 live streaming shows.

It was crazy if you think about our low budget and the inevitable technical problems we had. But it went great. People liked it and became loyal to us!

To this point in your career, what would you describe as your favorite song you’ve recorded or performed live? What makes that song special?

Lorenzo: As a singer, there are a lot of songs that I love to play live, “Smoke” is one of them because is a real personal song. From the new album I love to play “I’m alive”, it is a sort of ‘statement’: We are still here playing our rock ‘n’ roll, no matter what anybody can say, we survived the storm and we still enjoy the ride.

Fabio: My favorites are many of the ones on the new album, “A Shot of R’n’R”, but I especially love playing live “Fallin’” and “Take Me Higher”, which are both included on our 2022 album, VOL II.

Is there anything else awesome, cool, or left-of-center we should know about …? Secret talents or surprising tidbits?

Fabio: In everyday life, we ​​are very normal ordinary people who love spending time with our children, playing sports, going to the pub for a beer… normal things. Secrets? None in particular. We really love doing our job and having the band is the moment of maximum satisfaction.

What is Road Syndicate currently working on or promoting that you can share? We love secrets, but there’s no pressure. 

Lorenzo & Fabio: We took some time to relax after recording the new album. During the recordings, a new bass player arrived, also a friend from when we were kids, and we did a series of concerts with him.

The new single from the album, A Shot of R’n’R will be released in October and will be a live version of “Smilin’ Devil”. At that point, we will start a series of promotional concerts around Italy. We are planning a tour of Europe for 2025!

Thank you so much for sharing and taking the time to answer these questions, and best of luck moving forward. 

Lorenzo & Fabio: Thanks to you! See you on the road! Long live R’n’R!

Follow… Road Syndicate: Instagram • Facebook • X • Spotify • YouTube • Website

Getting to Know… Road Syndicate: Interview No. 419 [📷: Brent Faulkner / The Musical Hype; Road Syndicate; Clker-Free-Vector-Images, Królestwo Nauki, OpenClipart-Vectors, Pete Linforth, Tumisu from Pixabay]