Para empezar diría "Tears from Space", es uno de los últimos temas que compuse y me aclaró las ideas sobre algunos horizontes sonoros que me gustaría seguir en el futuro. Además, fue muy divertido escuchar las guitarras de Mario Lo Faro de CLUSTERSUN, que enriquecieron mucho el tema. Luego definitivamente "In Dreams". También uno de los últimos grabados y también quizás más enfocado que otros temas. Creo que tiene una letra bastante significativa y fue agradable y divertido trabajar con las guitarras de Sebastian Lugli y la voz de Laura Iacuzio de Rev Rev también en este tema. "Close Your Eyes" es definitivamente un tema que me importa porque tiene un sonido que me cansa menos que otros temas, me parece divertido, incluso tocarlo en vivo. Luego podría decir "Phony Love", me divertí citando ciertos sonidos de los 80 y ensuciándolos con algunas guitarras ligeramente torcidas. Finalmente, "Be Your Blood" es un tema en el que dejo salir mi lado romántico y el placer de trabajar con la melodía. Si tuviera más tiempo, haría un proyecto paralelo compuesto enteramente de temas como ese, muy tranquilo y construido sobre la melodía.
Te seguimos casi desde la salida de tu debut y te hemos visto en el Festival de pandemia NMER Fest allá por el 2021. Cuéntanos ¿qué has andado haciendo en estos años, hasta la edición del nuevo álbum?
Como ya he dicho, al principio no tenía muy claro qué dirección tomar, porque cuando intentas hacer algo personal sin ninguna referencia concreta, creo que lleva un tiempo conseguir que las cosas salgan bien. Así que me llevó tiempo hacer PsychoDreamElectroGaze. Algunas de las pistas se compusieron dos años antes del lanzamiento de PsychoDreamElectroGaze y también forman parte de un viaje hacia una idea precisa de sonido que lleva tiempo hacerse realidad. Por cierto, en los últimos dos años también he probado mi espectáculo en directo, que actualmente tiene un set en solitario, que tenía que y quería probar en directo, afortunadamente con muy buenos comentarios.
¿En qué momento en la vida de Bear of Bombay llega este álbum?
Creo que he alcanzado un buen nivel de madurez musical, aunque uno nunca deja de madurar.
Durante varios años, entre colaboraciones, he estado intentando encontrar la forma adecuada para un sonido que tenía en mente para mi proyecto. Con Bear Of Bombay siento que he encontrado la forma adecuada que estaba buscando, así que intentaré llevar adelante el proyecto lo mejor que pueda en los próximos años.
Empecé a escribir material nuevo con calma unos meses después del lanzamiento del primer EP Something Stranger. Me llevó dos años escribir y producir todo el álbum. Desafortunadamente, también tengo otro trabajo y el tiempo disponible no era infinito.
Has lanzado hasta el momento tres videos de este álbum. Cuéntanos sobre ellos y si tienes planeado llanzar otros.
El primer vídeo que salió, "Tears From Space", lo grabó mi amigo Antonello Raggi en mi sala de ensayos. Grabamos con pocos medios, pero con su imaginación creo que logramos hacer un bonito vídeo que combina muy bien con la música. El segundo vídeo, "Close Your Eyes" y el tercero, "Phony Love", los hice yo. En "Close Your Eyes", el vídeo consta de tres tomas separadas de actuaciones de bailarinas burlescas de principios del siglo XX, todas las cuales logran capturar el placer inocente del cuerpo y su movimiento, que es lo que representa la música: la emancipación del pensamiento, cerrar los ojos y dejar que el cuerpo tome el control. En "Phony Love", el vídeo musical describe un amor venenoso como una alucinación monotemática mediante el uso de colores ácidos y efectos agresivos. Un amor aterrador, desagradable, ligado a una mirada de la que anhela escapar, como si estuviera atrapado. Utilicé imágenes sin derechos de autor que luego edité y posproduje en profundidad.
¡Muchas gracias, Lorenzo!
¡Gracias a ustedes!
- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – -
PsychoDreamElectroGaze blends different musical genres. Can you talk about the initial inspiration for this eclectic album and how you decided on the title?
Actually, the inspiration for this album is the result of a long journey during which, over the past years, I have tried to find the right shape for a sound I had in mind, without there being any precise genre or artist references, but based only on the countless influences of the music I have enjoyed listening to during my years of musical growth. Not having a precise genre or artist reference, the process of finding the right formula for what I had in mind was quite long and complex, and I went through other projects first, such as Zivago. On Bear of Bombay’s first ep, Something Stranger, I definitely had less clear ideas about what precise format to give to my personal sound. With PsychoDreamElectroGaze my path has definitely taken a big step forward and I thought of calling it that to sum up, with a name that also sounded good to me and that also seemed a bit ironic, the mix of genres to which the record refers. It was a bit of a game to me and I think you can hear that there is also a playful aspect to PsychoDreamElectroGaze.
You’ve described your music as a blend of electronica, dream pop, and more. Can you walk us through your creative process when merging these diverse genres in your compositions?
Let’s say my creative process is based on an initial idea, a substantial core that I feel is strong enough to build a song around. This has to be something instinctive and usually not very rational, so there is no initial intent to mention this or that genre, but simply my various influences surface very naturally. I have never been interested in genre barriers. I have a predominantly rock background but I have always liked electronic music as well. And I’ve always aspired to create something that was as personal as possible, that went beyond the single genre, with the ambition to anticipate trends, although that may sound very pretentious.
The album features contributions from artists like Mario Lo Faro and Sebastian Lugli. How did these collaborations come about, and what did they bring to the overall sound of the album?
Clustersun and Rev Rev Rev are bands that are part of the same ‘scene’ as me and although some of them live in other Italian cities, even far from Milan, we are in touch with each other and support each other. With Clustersun we met in person in Milan at one of their concerts, we esteem each other and the idea of doing something together immediately came naturally to us, so when I composed the album I asked them to participate. Tears From Space was the last track I composed, when I had already agreed with Mario Lo Faro that he would collaborate on my album. So when I composed the track I purposely left room for his guitar parts, which I imagined would be saturated, enveloping and reverberated, in perfect Clustersun style, and so it was.
With Rev Rev Rev we’ve been friends for years and we’d been talking about doing something together for quite some time, so as soon as the opportunity arose we did it.
We met with Sebastian in Milan when he came here to spend a weekend. I had just finished producing the tracks for the record but we thought that in In Dreams there would be some of his guitar interventions well, according to his style, although the song is quite different from the genre of Rev Rev Rev. He tried to put in some of his somewhat jangle and somewhat dissonant guitars and the experiment I would say succeeded very well and it was inspiring to add this influence of his to the song, as well as the voice of Laura Iacuzio, who joined later as a second voice in some parts of the song.
Single Tears From Space: This track features guitar work by Mario Lo Faro. What inspired the song, and how did Mario’s style influence its final sound?
I call Tears from Space “a ‘trip’ in kraut sauce”, poised between electronica and psychedelia, between melody and sonic experimentation.” To give the track the three dimensional character I had in mind it needed walls of shoegaze/post punk guitars just like in Mario’s style, whom I asked to work on the track when it was already complete with all its other parts
For the singles Tears From Space, Close Your Eyes, and Phony Love, what were the concepts behind their respective music videos, and how do they complement the songs?
The music video of Tears From Space was created by Milanese visual artist Antonello Raggi. He attempts to visually depict the syncopated movement that the music narrates, as if we were in a hypnotic search for something, that is both “outside” and “inside.” Antonello has used a technique that dates back to the 1980s of “video feedback and light art performance.” I think we managed to make a nice video that goes very well with the music. Close Your Eyes is about the innocence of the body, the delight of leaving the comfort zone and learning about the movements and expectations of desire. The video consists of three distinct takes of early twentieth-century burlesque dancers’ performances, all of which succeed in capturing the innocent delight of the body and its movement, which is what the music represents: the emancipation of thought, closing the eyes and being carried away by the body. In Phony Love the music video depicts, as well as the lyrics of the song, a poisonous love as a monothematic hallucination through the use of acid colors and aggressive effects. A frightening, unpleasant love, tied to a gaze from which it longs to escape, as if trapped. The video’s main character recalls Nuestra Señora de la Santa Muerte, a lovely being on the boundary between the living and the dead who fascinates, ensnares, and terrorizes.
How do you feel your sound has evolved from your first EP Something Stranger to PsychoDreamElectroGaze?
Something Stranger was the first step in this project. I had initially composed four tracks, without being able to think in what precise direction I was going. I didn’t ask myself any questions. The record was then produced by Lele Battista, who gave the ep a certain imprint, which I definitely needed a bit because, as I said, the whole thing wasn’t so much in focus. PsychoDreamElectroGaze from this point of view is definitely a step forward. There is a greater awareness both in the direction of sound taken and in the vocal interpretation. And there is a greater homogeneity, I think.
Being the main producer of your album, what were some of the biggest challenges you faced during the production process, and how did you overcome them?
Well, producing almost completely the record by myself was not easy. Initially I was thinking of relying on a producer, but then I realized that to achieve what I had in mind, which I had pretty clear in my head this time, I could only self-produce. And so it took me about two years to prepare this album, between composition and production. There was also an additional production phase in the recording studio with my friend Francesco Campanozzi, who helped me to finalize the structures of the tracks and produce the drum machine parts better.
You’ve cited musical influences from the past few decades. Can you share specific artists or albums from these eras that have significantly impacted your musical style?
New Order, The Fad Gadget and generally the first publications of Mute Records, Depeche Mode, Visage, Neu!, Psychedelic Furs, Human League, current LCD Soundsystem, Vacant Lots, Nation of Language, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, The Smile, Jagajazzist, the first things of Caribou, but also Sonic Youth, Deus, Dinosaur Jr, Sam Prekop, Notwist, Plaid, Stone Roses, The Cure, Spiritualized, Stereolab and many others that I can’t think of now.
What role did James Aparicio play in the mixing and mastering of the album, and how did his expertise influence the final sound?
James’ role was important because he better defined the direction of the sound just as I had in mind. In fact, when I produced the record I did it already thinking that he would then mix it. And that was very important because he focused all my work, precisely in the sound direction that I had envisioned listening to some of James’ earlier work. I needed someone to emphasize certain aspects of my sound.
With PsychoDreamElectroGaze now complete, what are your plans for future projects? Are there new directions or styles you’re interested in exploring?
I hope to play live as much as possible. There will be some artists I will definitely collaborate with on remixes of some of my tracks, also And I’m already looking forward to composing a new album. Let’s say that with PsychoDreamElectroGaze I opened up several possible paths of sound, we’ll see which one will be the most fascinating to beat in my near future!
- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – -