How long have you been over here?
I have been in London for 5 years. I arrived in the summer of 2006, a couple suitcases and my guitar. It felt a bit like the old bluesmen leaving the Delta for the big lights of Chicago!
What’s the Americana scene like in Italy?
Italian fans are really supportive of independent music and what is now called ‘Americana’ and thanks to magazines like Blow Up and Mucchio Selvaggio, a lot of underground bands are very popular down there.
I left because there are not too many opportunities to play live in Italy and the idea of an Italian singing in English is somehow perceived as ‘uncool’ by the Italian audience/media. I never really understood why and I find it funny that I had to move to England to be taken seriously in my homeland.
How did you come to be on Bucketfull Of Brains’ label? Had you been a reader before you met them?
Bucketfull of Brains has championed most of the music I love in all these years, like the 80s underground US scene (Dream Syndicate, Gun Club etc). I remember reading some copies at my ex-bandmate Franco Di Terlizi’s house, he was subscribed from Italy back in the days.
I met Nick West at The Betsey Trotwood in Farringdon , the pub that has become the heart of our scene with many great live shows almost every day of the week. He signed my friend Ben Folke Thomas for his debut EP and also wrote a very positive review of Cerberus for his magazine. I asked him if he would be interested in having a listen to the Inferno Valley masters and then he decided to issue it for his label.
Cerberus has a very dark content and forbidding artwork. Do you think you’re a particularly dark person?
I remember being very desperate at the time of Cerberus, it is a record that I find very hard to listen to now. It still has the power to bring me back to those dark places.
In Inferno Valley, the overall mood is different, my life has changed a lot in the last couple years. There is definitely a dark part of me, a mean and evil streak that I cannot control, but I don’t dwell in it as much as I used to, neither do I fight against it anymore. I simply have learnt to accept it and live with it.
What were the main differences between your approach to your first album and the new one?
Cerberus was recorded mostly in my bedroom in Holloway Road on an 8 track Tascam and then I mixed it at Randomcolours Studio in Seven Sisters with Richard Johnson. He helped me engineer and produce Inferno Valley as well. I knew from the beginning that I would never be able to record it without a proper studio. Also working with the band was definitely different. The guys gave a lot of feedback, especially Anders [Dal, drums], Jim [Taylor, bass] and Jason [Collins, mandolin]. We mixed the album together and there is a lot of them in the final sound we achieved, not only in the parts that they played.
You seem really keen to promote the band, rather than yourself as a solo act. How important is this? Do you think you’ll continue to work with the band on your next album?
I certainly don’t see myself as a ‘solo act with a backing band’ at this point. We are a band in the real sense and there is a strong bond between all of us.
At the moment we are working on the songs for a new album, Richard [Johnson] has joined on the electric guitars and we are moving towards a more electric, dry sound with Anders on the drums and Jim on bass. Jason will also definitely be involved because he plays a great mandolin and he’s one of the best backing vocals singers around!
But I still enjoy playing solo acoustic shows and will keep doing it as much as I can, is a totally different feeling being alone on stage with only my guitar and harmonicas.
You were recently involved in a Thin White Rope tribute project. How did that come about?
I’ve always been a great fan of Thin White Rope and never understood why they did not reach the massive stardom that they truly deserved. And Guy Kyser is one of the greatest singers ever! One of my first cd-r versions of Cerberus (there are several of them scattered around London before it was issued for my Hangmen Records label) was reviewed by ML Compton (ex-tour manager of TWR) on his blog and they contacted me after reading it.
Do you have any plans to gig in Italy?
I will be touring Italy in September and October with Dan Raza. He’s one of my truest mates and one of my favourite songwriters, it’s gonna be fun! Also Radio King, an Italian band fronted by my ex-bandmate Franco ‘The Finger’ Di Terlizi will share the bill with us.
Who or what would you say has been the biggest influence on your career so far, musical or not?
I’d say Hank Williams, Gene Clark and Jeffrey Lee Pierce – to name the most essential, a sort of ‘Holy Trinity’ to me. I don’t listen to much contemporary music but I absolutely love the old Brian Jonestown Massacre albums, the way they were recorded has really influenced the way I approach the studio.
