Ok..as the next blog is taking too long to get out of this mish mash slumbering mammoth moaning through the membranes of my brain I’ll give ya a taste of something related to it..don’t get too over excited though..more is coming..zoon.. From Zu to Zoo..
An interview to Zu by Luca Zoo Franzoni
With Jacopo Battaglia (Drums) and Massimo Pupillo (Bass)
Brescia, 18th December 2009
Zoo: I remember seeing you live for the first time in 2002 as support band for Girls Against Boys. It was at Leoncavallo in Milan on the 2nd of November …
Jacopo: Shit! The day of the dead!
Massimo: We played at 22:31 pm. I remember. If you want I can tell you the names of all the people that were there…
Z: I tell you guys, you ruined my night. After watching you, GVSB weren’t as good as I thought they would be. And I do love that band! Anyway…Let’s go back even further in time. I know you started playing together by working on theatre productions.
M: At the really early beginnings!
J: Even before making our first record. From ’97 onwards.
M: It’s been two years in which we basically dismembered Gronge, a band from the Rome scene of the 80’s, and then we found each other playing together in this new formation. We developed this musical madness, and one by one the other members left and here we are, the furious crazy three. So yeah, there’s been that period from ’97 in which we made music for plays, and in the meantime we worked on the first record.
Z: That record being Bromio.
J: Exactly. It didn’t even have a name at the time. And we never thought to arrive were we are now. Our aim was doing a gig out of Rome.
Z: I remember receiving from Wallace Records a copy of Igneo (Zu’s album from 2002) on 180 grams vinyl. Heavy!
M: Yep. Heavy…
Z: Ok. Talking about present days, you signed with Mike Patton’s Ipecap Records. Patton himself also joined you on stage during the tour. How was touring with someone like him?
M: It was great. We’re really good friends now.
Z: Any plan of working together again?
M: Yes. We hope. Well yeah! Definitely! With him we found ourselves in situations that we saw as enormous before.
Z: Ok…Stupid question. A Spinal Tap kind of question… Why at heavy rock and metal gigs the majority of the crowd is male? I was talking about it with a friend while watching a Lightning Bolts gig…I know…Dumb question…
J: Well. We like the pussy. Let’s make that clear. (laughs)
Z: You played with Lightning Bolts, didn’t you?
J: Yes, many times.
Z: In London you did that gig at The Astoria (R.I.P.) where you were introduced by Danny De Vito…
M: No! The Danny De Vito thing was in Rome! At The Astoria we played with Fantomas and Locust. But Denny De Vito no…he wasn’t there.
J: I think we did the last gig ever there. Then they crashed it down to build a Shopping Mall. (laughs)
Z: Five days ago I saw Polvo playing in London. While having a chat with them, it came out that one works in a Museum and another is a therapist. So…how are you dealing with this crippled music biz.
J: We live of this. We don’t have time to be exploited by someone. We exploit each other with great pleasure. It took some years to arrive where we are, but… from when you saw us live seven years ago, everything, thank god, went better and better. This is our life. The chances at the time were working as waiters in some shitty restaurant in Rome or be penniless musicians. We chose the second. Ant until now we’ve been doing quiet well.
M: At the same time you make lots of sacrifices in your private life.
J: Well, me especially. He’s married, and the other got a baby. The only loser is me, talking about private life. (laughs)
M: And our families claim us back home.
Z: Talking about music formats, I’m not a collector of records, but I love to play the few I got, and usually I let them play from beginning to end. There’s a thing that I like to call “Skipping Track Syndrome”, referring to the habit of users of iPod and MP3 players in general of downloading loads of albums and songs, and then just skip them without really listening to any. What’s your point of view on this, how would you feel if someone would start skipping an all album by Zu.
M: He’s a piece of shit and he got to die. We like the 78rpm.
Z: Yes, the heavy black piece of shellac.
M: 78rpm and it got to be listened on a gramophone. In Mono.
Z: Yeah! Back to mono!
M: Back to mono! (laughs)
J: But if you think about it, ok, maybe you’re a bit younger, but the generation of the mid 70’s, is the last one that had a contact with that something that was before Internet. After that it went from the mid 90’s through the Noughties, where the digital downloading became massive. I still have a relation with the object, with the record.
Z: True. So, thinking about album covers, do you see it as part of the record?
M: Definitely.
J: Yes. Certainly.
Z: While with the digital all you got is a really small icon of the artwork…if you’re lucky.
J: There’s a completely different relationship with the music. Anyway music should be live only.
Z: Talking about mix tapes, did you ever do one for your friends or girlfriends?
M: We should go back to cassettes. Thousands and thousands of chicks conquered with mix tapes! Tapes where you had Mina (famous 60’s Italian singer) followed by Indigesti (80’s Italian punk hardcore band). (laughs)
Z: Any cover you remember designing for one of those cassettes?
M: No, I have always been pretty shit at that…
J: Me too, but I used to make photocopies of pictures. You know, giving an intellectual feeling. You’re sixteen years old in the suburbs of Rome, and you make a mix tape with a copy of an Escher’s paint as cover.
Z: If you could chose a souvenir statuette of an important building or monument, which one would be and to who would you throw it at? (Reference to the Berlusconi Cathedral-in-the-face accident)
M: I want to throw a Nuraghe (megalithic edifice found in Sardinia), but a real one.
Z: To whom?
M: Too many people…
J: Way too many people…
M: But, if I’m not wrong, there are 2400 Nuraghi in Sardinia. They might be enough.
Z: Radio. I love the radio. Unfortunately it’s not easy to find a decent radio channel.
J: But nowadays you can find them only on the internet.
Z: Yes, but I love the idea of transmitting on airwaves
M: There’s Resonance.
Z: Yep. It’s great to have Resonance in London. But why’s so much rubbish on the radio!? I remember going around London with this old cassette walkman, and it had a radio on it. Unfortunately, most of the time the only thing decent was the classical music channel.
J: In Italy there isn’t any Radio phonic culture.
Z: Well, X-Factor is everywhere. No place is safe. Are you planning to go to X-Factor?
M: We’ve been invited this year! (laughs) We’re even in talks for “I’m a celebrity (get me out of there)”…
J: Yes, because Simona Ventura (Italian TV host) sells coke to our saxophone player. He got a really good deal. So now we’re all great friends.
M: While the Heroin we get it from Morgan (from the Italian X-Factor). Really good stuff. Actually if someone lives around Milan we can give him his number. Great quality stuff.
Z: Have you got a new tour in program?
M: No. We don’t tour. We stay home.
J: We spent the last ten years in the living room.
M: We watch TV…
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