I
really thought today's guests had call it a day as it was over 6
years ago since they released their awesome debut album - Si Non
Sedes Is Live. A blistering Psychedelic Doom/Space/Stoner Rock
extravaganza which I have featured numerous times on Sludgelord Pages
over the years.
Thank
The Stoner Rock Gods that L'Ira Del Baccano have finally released
their eagerly awaited 2nd
album ・Terra
42 ・an
album which is more groovier and spaced out that it's predecessor.
This is what I said originally about the album:
"Terra 42 a
sprawling epic that combines Doom, Stoner, Space Rock and elements of
trippy Trance based vibes all wrapped up in one delicious and
addictive jam-based package. With this being an entirely instrumental
album it is still a highly intelligent and exciting album as it
contains quite a few ambient-based noises to make you question the
world around you.
Terra
42 is a success on every level. The production is flawless throughout
and L’Ira Del Baccano sound incredible from start to finish. It’s
a very expansive album with the emphasis on volume and Terra 42 packs
quite an emotional punch.
Terra
42 is a must have album. You cannot pass this one by. An incredible
release. Let’s hope the guys don’t leave it another 6 years for
album no 3.”
With
their new album being released very soon and their classic debut
album starting to win a whole range of new fans 6 years after it's
original release. I thought it would be time to catch up with these
fuzzed up spaced out riffsters.
Q1
– Hi guys. Thanks for doing this interview. How are things with you
today.
Ciao
Steve!! Well..let's say pretty chaotic.. The new album has just been
released and we are working to maximize the work on the web and we're
also planning moves for the next months. We are of course very happy
that the new album Terra 42 finally is out… and honestly it feels a
little strange almost! Its been out for a month in Italy and we've
really had a lot of great reviews. The CD version of the album is out
since 2 weeks worldwide and the first reviews are also starting to
appear around the web. Yours was the first in English!
Q2 – Can you give our readers a brief history of the band and where it is today.
Me
and the other guitarist Malerba started to play together back in '95.
We played a sort of doom-death metal even if I think that some of
"our" trademarks already were somewhere in those
composition. In '97 we changed the name to Loosin'o'Frequencies and
the Italian guru of doom Paul Chain produced our MCD "Regeneration".
Later
in 2000 we recorded an album that never was released. After that, in
2003, we took a pause in searching for a good singer and finally
decided to simply turn the band into an instrumental act (in that
period we also met our drummer Alessandro Salvi and the bass player
that's on the first album). That decision was mostly made because at
that time we were all very busy with our real jobs and to play music
was more about the "need" to feed our passion for music,
but without the pressure of making album, etc.
At
that time me and Malerba were associated to a club with live music,
working as sound technicians with our own equipment and we also had a
small recording studio inside the club, near Rome. It was on that
stage we played the concert that was recorded and became our first
album " Si non sedes iS..Live". The past 3-4 years we've
had a change of bass player, and Luca Primo joined the band forming a
real great rhythmic section finally together with Alessandro"
Fred". 2 years ago we entered the studio to record Terra 42.
And just after the recordings Davide Cantone, boss of Subsound
Records, got in touch with us and we found a deal for the
release..and..here we are - Terra 42 is finally out!
Q3
– How would you describe you music. As I feel it's it better for
that description from the band themselves.
Usually
we write "Instrumental doomdelic space rock" as
description..I know that every band says its hard to be categorized,
of course..but you know our music well Steve, and you know that in
our case its really not that easy!! And I must say that this is also
one of the things that personally, even if it from a commercial
perspective isn't the easiest way, make me feel more satisfied
thinking at this project. We really feel very free in our way of
composing and playing. We try to gather up different musical
attitudes, more than a specific sound reference. That's why we say
that our influences span from Grateful Dead to Rush, Black Sabbath,
etc. But we try to not focus our sound on a specific band or genre, I
think that's our real "key".
Q4
– I have been a fan of your great band for over 6 years now since I
discovered your debut album – Si Non Sedes Is Live – which you
recorded live. That was a brave decision releasing a live album as
your debut album. Was that your original intention to release a live
album.
We
had no intention to release an album at all!! This is the story;
working at that club I meet a lot of bands and musicians and people
often asked me if I had a band and my answer was always "Yes, I
have an instrumental, strange, band. Right now we play just for the
pleasure to meet and play our instruments". So after some time
more people asked me to let them listen to something by us so we
decided to play at "our" club on Halloween.
I
decided to record the performance with my equipment, mostly just to
have something to practice on as sound engineer. Months later, when I
started to mix the concert and let some friends listen to the first
results all told me that both sound and songs were great and that I
needed to think of publishing them in some way. Since that was the
"Myspace era", I created one for the band, uploaded the
songs and prepared the free downloads. As a social network for music
Myspace was at its climax in that period, and the name of the band
started to spread around the web very fast.
Q5
– How were the reviews/responses to your debut album when it was
originally released back in 2008. Were you pleased with the original
responses.
Oh
yes, definitely.. One cool thing..and I'm very proud about this.. is
that we never sent the album to receive reviews. Because as I told
you, that wasn't our purpose when we built our Myspace page, we just
thought about people having the possibility to enjoy and hear those
songs, and not to "once again" enter the circle or world of
reviews, etc. But after some time we started to receive mails from
people saying that they published a review of the album or people
asking if they could write a review. And I mean..we had a review on
Decibel Magazine and I still don't know how! We were also on
album/band of the day on the Roadburn site.
Q6
– With it being a live album, was it an easy or hard album to
record for. As if you make a mistake you have to repeat the whole
process at another gig.
It
was just a concert in that moment, the only huge tension was the fact
that we had never played on a stage with that line up. And it was
also, for both me and Malerba, the first concert we had played in at
least 4 years. I really don't remember so much from that evening, for
example, if I even told our drummer and the former bass player that I
was recording it all on a multitrack recorder! From a point of view
we could say that we have been very lucky, because with a bad
recording or a bad performance on that day I don’t think I would be
here, answering your questions Steve.. hahaha.
Q7
– It's a brilliant debut album that I feel that has a cult
following within the Doom/Stoner Metal community. It's received a lot
more praise from fans over the last few years or so. Have you noticed
this yourselves recently.
Uhm,
honestly not so much. But in this sense, the bands name went around a
lot between 2008 and 2011 and as I said we've had a lot of contacts,
reviews, and so on. But from 2011 we had no opportunity to get out
and play as we would, so the web was our main way to keep the band
alive and active in music listeners mind.
That
was also the time when Myspace went from being the main social
network, to getting beat by Facebook. And I must say that in that
period of not having more material out and having a break in our live
activity, we sort of got forgotten in some ways. Facebook has grown
hugely and very fast in the last 2-3 years and I think a whole lot of
the, let's call it "generation", of people who have gotten
involved in the stoner/psych/doom scene never have heard about us and
our first album.
Q8
– Looking back would you change anything about the album.
The
answer is, Yes ALL, and at the same time, No NOTHING. We are better
musicians now and following our own attitude we left those songs
changes a lot back then, gig by gig. So naturally when I listen to
for example "Tempus Inane..." from our live debut I feel
that its now much better, but at he same time I'm very proud and
happy because that version represented the band in that specific
moment. that song is the perfect example of our attitude. It will
never stop to "move" so it will be always right for that
moment and wrong in our perception for the time that has been after.
Q9
– Now lets talk about Terra 42. What an album that is. 6 long years
I have waited for that album. Can you tell us why the incredibly long
delay for the album.
Ah
well...there are many, many reasons and some involve the personal
life of everyone of us in the band. Let's say that a pretty huge dose
of misfortune and some changes in the line up basically is the reason
for all this delay!
Q10
– Terra 42 is an album influenced by the works of Douglas Adams.
Are you big fans of his work and Hitch-hikers Guide To The Galaxy in
general. Are you fans of other Science Fiction based works.
Yeah,
I’m a huge fan of the Guide and of Douglas Adams as "thinker".
And I introduced the other guys to the Hitch-hikers
Guide To The Galaxy when we were composing
the 32 minute long song that became "The Infinite Improbability
Drive". The main characteristic of that song is the fact that in
those 32 minutes, its only at the end that there's is a repetition of
a previous part/riffs.
In
Douglas' world "the infinite improbability drive" is a way
to travel with a space ship going from a point to another, passing
through every conceivable point in every conceivable universe
simultaneously, not knowing exactly where you will arrive. I thought
that all of this could fit with the dynamic of our song, especially
thinking of the "first listen". Of course, as many know,
the title of the album itself, TERRA 42, is based on the Douglas saga
since 42 is supposed to be "the answer to the Ultimate Question
of Life, the Universe, and Everything".
Q11
– Was Terra 42 an easy or hard album to write record for. It's a
very different sound to your debut album. Was that your intention to
release something different and push yourselves further as musicians.
All
the music inside Terra 42 has been written starting from some months
after the release of Si non sedes iS..and it has been in constant
evolution through these past years. Let's say that we had all the
time to search and challenge ourselves to find the best way to play
these composition, that definitely are more complex than the songs
from the first album.
The
last "huge" change in the songs was probably when we
changed bass player and Luca joined the band. His skills as musician
and knowledge of the instrument really made me take the song where I
wanted it to reach from the beginning. So we decided that it
definitely could be worth to re-arrange all the songs, thinking of
Luca's way of playing. So after all this work we entered the studio
really well prepared and knowing exactly how we wanted this album and
the songs to sound. The most hard part has probably been the "trauma"
to come back into the studio instead of making a live performance.
But
I decided to keep the production pretty simple, not so much editing
but more the act to choose for example the best of 3-4 different drum
takes, also, the guitars are mainly arranged to play all the parts
live. For what concerns the musical concept of Terra 42, as we
explain in the album credits, its is a sort of trip and exploration
into how many different ways to play and structure a song we could
use.
As
I said before "The Infinite…" has a structure that never
repeats itself for almost all the song and it opens the album. On the
opposite end, "Volcano x 13" that is the closing track, we
have a completely different structure. We play almost always the same
theme for 14 minutes, but changing the perception of the listener
with time signatures, rhythmic patterns, etc. "Sussurri…",
the song in the middle of the album, even if is the shortest song
lasting "only" 11 minutes, is an extreme summary of the
other 2 songs concepts. The first part is very static, only noises
and sounds that move around the leading bass until the second part
starts that has 5 minutes of different riffs.
Q12
– The album is being released on Subsound Records. How did you hook
up with that awesome label.
Subsound
Records is based very close from where I live. We have a lot of
friends in bands under Subsound so when Davide Cantone, the owner,
contacted us knowing that we where about to finish the new album
recordings, we started our communication. Thus, he was the first one
to listen to the album and we found a deal very fast.
Q13
– Congrats on Terra 42 being released on Vinyl. Did you have much
input into the design and recording of the vinyl. Or was that left
upto the label.
Thank
you so much. As I said, we entered the studio before getting in touch
with any label so when Subsound Records contacted us we just
discussed about the best way release an album in these times. And of
course we all agreed that we had to take advantages of this return of
the vinyl market. I like vinyls even if I don't care so much about
the aesthetic side, in terms of different versions, etc.
So
I let the label lead and decide on what would be the best, Davide
knows very well the actual market and it was natural to trust his
decisions and the common thing in all the 3 versions is that it will
be a double gatefold, 180 gr. And I must say that the artwork, that's
already great on digipak, will be stunning as a huge version on the
vinyl.
Q14
– Who designed the fantastic covers for the album. Trippy as hell.
All
the artwork has been done by the Italian artist Fabio Listrani. Fabio
is a long time fan of the band and I'm a huge fan of his works. Even
if his work usually has been more into cyber sci-fi art. I contacted
him and we started to talk about the album title, songs etc. He soon
started to send me the first ideas and in some months of feedbacks
and hours of chatting and talking we reached the result. I'm a very,
very happy and proud of it and also that I decided to call Fabio.
He's also working on the new T-shirts so I can say that this
collaboration is still going on very well.
Q15
– What is the song-writing dynamic in the band. Is it a group
collective or down to one individual.
Usually
when we rehearse all start from me riffing, or from a drum groove on
which I start to play on and then we jam all together for even a
couple of hours. I listen to the recording during the days after and
start to imagine a possible structure or way to use the ideas. And so
when the band meets again the follow time I start to explain, let the
other listen to specific parts they played, etc, and we proceed from
there. And this usually takes a long time, ahahah, before we decide
that "OK, the first incarnation of this song is born". Its
really a group work mostly, let's say how I often like to say it,
that I'm the director that gather all, trying to maximize the
qualities that my incredible band mates have as musician. No one
writes a song alone, each song is always an ensemble work, from my
point of view.
Q16 – Can you tell our readers what is your musical setup when performing live and recording new material.
We
have a very simple set up, even if by listening to our songs a person
could think that for example we've used a lot of pedals etc. Well,
its definitely not this way… I only use my amp, one channel I do
most of the parts just working with the guitar volume and change of
pick ups during the song. I only use a reverb pedal for the more
quite clean parts and even Malerba who plays 90% of all effects of
guitars and synths, uses very few things. One delay, one chorus one
wah-wah. The bass has no pedals at all.
Q17
– L'Ira Del Baccano have been going as a band for over 15 years
now. What have been your favourite moments with the band. Also your
least favourite moments as well.
Considering
all the various stops and breaks we've had I can say that the best
part still is creating and jamming in the rehearsal room. Because
that's probably where we, from a "egoistic" point of view,
give our best in the sense that its our safe place that we go to. We
still go to for the most simple reason…we love to play. We need to
play to escape the stress for some hours, the stress of our works,
problems, etc, and I'm very happy we still keep this attitude after
all these years. Because otherwise, again as I wrote about the first
album recordings, in this moment I would not be here writing to you
and your readers.
About
least favourite moments, well, I have some but you know Steve it is
people who are " bad " so I cannot say that about the band
as an entity and concept. It is a huge difference! Because the band
is always something good and is always only a positive thought in my
mind.
Q18
– Italy has a lot of brilliant Doom/Sludge/Space/Stoner Metal bands
to call their own. What is the scene like in your own words. Do you
gig much in Italy or do you have to travel further afield.
This
is a difficult question. Well let's say…yes, Italy definitely has
that, and that is true from many years now. An incredible number of
really great bands in what we could call the doom/stoner/psych genre.
But
since we have been "frozen" for a long time, except for the
virtual contacts, I honestly think that I could answer this question
about "the scene" and how it is nowadays, in full only in a
couple of months Steve. We still have to get a taste again of all the
dynamics that then will allow me to talk about an actual "scene"
in Italy regarding the world of both band and live promotion.
Q19
– Apart from your new album, what other plans do you have in store
over the next 12 months or so.
We
have material to work on for at least another two albums already,
material that has been recorded during the last years rehearsals and
such!! But for now my real wish is to have the possibility to bring
our music on stages around Europe. It's not that easy due to many
factors..to cross the italian boundaries from Rome already means more
than 700 km. And lets just say it…the general economic crisis is
making a wide cut between those who economically can afford risking
to lose money on going on tour, and those who cannot. We really hope
that the response about Terra 42 will let promoters, etc, be
interested in L'IRA DEL BACCANO. And we are already in fact searching
for someone to organise a tour for us as soon as possible.
Q20
– Before we go, Do you have anything else to say to your fans.
I
would like to say something to someone who still isn't one of our
"friends". First of all, be curious!! The internet, with
its blogs and social networks give the opportunity to discover so
much music and so many bands, but don't just follow what the "others"
share on their pages just because everyone does it or because it's
band of the moment. Listen to what you've never heard, not what has
the most "Likes".
Well
guys thanks for doing this interview. See you in 2020 when I review
album No 3. HA HA.
Thanks
to L'Ira Del Baccano for talking to us here at Sludgelord HQ. Terra
42 is now available to buy Digitally from BandCamp now. CD/Vinyl
from Subsound Records.
Words
by Steve Howe
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