Interview with Go!Zilla

Go!Zilla is an Italian band from Firenze. They sound mainly like a garage punk band with a stronger beat than the usual, although in this last album, Modern Jungle's Prisoners, they seem a bit different we can easily find that warm beat that draws us to them. That and much more such as the powerfull and meaningful message they are spreading with the new album. They are playing in Portugal, yesterday they played at Sabotage, on the 26th they will be playing in Barcelos and the next day they will be heading to São João da Madeira. Don't  stay in the couch!!

Go!zilla by Titouan Massé

Songs to Nowhere - Could you introduce us to Go!zilla? It’s been a bumpy road regarding the line up of the band...you started as a duo, and you are now a quintet! How did that Happen?

Go!zilla - Always trying to renovate and find new inspirations and sound to propose to whoever is following us but in particular to ourselves.

STN - What led you into music?

Go!zilla - Music is a big world made of messages to send, of sound exploration: the idea of recreating your “world” during an Lp or a live set and “inviting” people to discover it is definitely one of the main reasons.

STN - Did you ever study music or this came naturally as a will to play?

Go!zilla - Yes all of us had a different approach to music, someone at university, I (Luca) had private lessons from different teachers plus I went to a guitar and music composition school for a couple of years as well. 

STN - Are you involved in any other bands or artistical projects?

Go!zilla - Not at the moment, but I work for a booking agency so I feel like I m doing enough!

STN - What are your major cultural references?

Go!zilla - Nice question but quite impossible to answer, I had classical studies so but first references in terms of art and culture arrive from Ancient Greek, and Romans. Nowadays we like to discover what’s going on or what happened between the 60/80s in Africa and south of America, where, at the same time of the rest of the world, was happening a revolution that was involving art and the pop culture.

Go!zilla by Clemens Mitscher)

STN - You’re Italian but have always preferred to sing in English. Never thought of recording at least one song in Italian?

Go!zilla - The English language is mainly cause we want to have the chance to perform everywhere, and also cause fits better into our music. I felt like sometimes I would have loved to try but simply that moment hasn’t come yet.

STN - How did you go acquainted to your record label?

Go!zilla - The actual record label came to us after seeing us in Paris and Brussels quite a few times. Was pretty easy to deal with.

STN - What were the main differences between recording Modern Jungle Prisoners and the previous álbuns and EP’s?

Go!zilla - The recording session went differently on this as we used the studio of a friend of use in Firenze, which is also our sound technician. We record basically one song each day starting from the drum and ending up at night with the vocals as I felt better singing one song per day and same for the rest of the instrument, you re more concentrated.

STN - Could you please be a bit explanatory about the choice of the title Modern Jungle Prisoners? I think it ‘s a bit self-explanatory, but I would like to era from you.

Go!zilla - Is a game of world between the sound which is composed using percussions and tribal Rhythms also and the mental captivity that the world nowadays is forcing you into the cause of internet and the social network and everything.

Evil is Satisfying - Modern Jungle's Prisoner - 2018

STN - Modern Jungle seems to have taken you into a different path then you were in Sinking in your Sea, was it something natural or a conscientious choice?

Go!zilla - Both of course, but mainly natural, as answered from the first question were constantly trying to evolve and move on towards new sounds and experiences.

STN - Who does your artwork? The new album seems quite different from the previous stuff you released.

Go!zilla - Is the first record where we used a picture as the main cover. The graphics instead was made by Elzo DURT which has collaborated with us already several times. We consider he's the “Michelangelo” of the 2000s.

 STN - Could you talk a bit about the songs on Modern Jungle Prisoners, the writing and the path to their final form and position on the album?

Go!zilla - We have worked out the whole record since the beginning with the idea that every song should have been linked to next (or past) one. In the studio we have created the various links playing a little part of the piano, or synthesizer or leaving feedbacks from guitars or else. The setlist went pretty natural in this case!

STN - You’re from Firenze, how’s the music scene there and in what ways has it influenced you?

Go!zilla - We don’t have much and most of the 

cool shows or at least, inspiring and interesting for us are organized by Annibale Records which is our label as well.

STN - What bands influenced you more?

Go!zilla - Let's say what bands will influence us in the future? We want to take more inspiration from Italian composers, soundtracks and else ;)

STN - Is music your main occupation? What other occupations, jobs or hobbies do you have?

Go!zilla - Everyone of us has different occupations, I do have a booking and rental agency and so I just work in music even tho sometimes I d rather turn off my mind from this world and doing something different.

STN - Name the last song or álbum you listened to that really left an impression on you!

Go!zilla - Ehehe hard question: we discovered some band that we like as Cannibale from France or Indianizer from Italy, more exotics sounds.

STN - What can we expect from your shows in Portugal?

Go!zilla - I think is our 4th time over here and from the last tour has past 2 years so we hope to have left good memories and to have fun as in the past


facebook.com/gozillatheband/
gozilla.bandcamp.com
spotify.com

Acid Cannibals @ Music Box

An interview with Naxatras

Naxatras is a three-piece band, John Delias, guitar, Kostas Harizanis, drums and John Vagenas bass and vocals, from Thessaloniki, playing a heavy psy with an oriental flavor and some african inspirations. They've been around since 2012 but got most noticed since 2015 when they're debut album was released, giving us songs like Waves or Shiva's Dance.

In 2016 when the trio released II, ( take a close listen to Garden of the Senses, Proxima Centauri or The Great Atracttor), they were already in the circuit with many other bands, but III released in 2018 was the true confirmation of the outstanding creations the trio was doing for quite some time and we can listen to it in songs like On the Silver Line or Land Of Infinite Time. The three albums together resemble a trip from oriental sights ( I, 2015),  to Africa ( III, 2018 ) with a slight stop at sideral space ( II, 2016)!

Last year they gave a amazing show at SonicBlast Moledo, and they are now returning to Portugal with two shows, first in Lisbon next friday, April 19th with the portuguese band Jesus The Snake at RCA Club, and saturday at Hard Club in Oporto featuring the portuguese Talea Jacta on the opening act.

If you saw them at SonicBlast you know you can't miss this if you didn't saw them last August, you definitely have to come and listen to them live!

Songs to Nowhere - Could you introduce us to Naxatras and tell us how you three got together and started playing?

John Vagenas - John and me met at the Film School of Thessaloniki, talked about music we liked and decided that we had to jam at some point. John brought his childhood friend and former band member, Kostas, to play the drums. We became a band quite fast actually.

STN - What led you into music?

John Vagenas - Family, friends, radio, movies. All kinds of stuff. We liked to listen, so we had the urge to play as well.

Naxatras - I - Space Tunnel 

STN - Was Naxatras your first band?

John Vagenas - No. I used to play bass with some bands in my hometown, one band was funk rock, the other doom metal, the other more blues/hard rock. John and Kostas hard a rock band too.

STN - Are you involved in any other bands or artistical projects?

John Vagenas - I have an electronic music project called Ni Moya, John Delias has his own blues/jazz solo project, we both will release our first official material really soon. Kostas has a band, Movement of Static, they have released two albums in post-rock vibes.

STN - What are your major cultural references?

John Vagenas - The psychedelic scene of the 60’s, the 70’s in general, music and cinema especially, the 90’s stoner scene and lots of other stuff too.

Naxatras - III - 2018 - On the Silver Line

STN - You usually use the same image on all your álbuns, and the álbuns have been named after the Latin numbers, why is that?

John Vagenas - The face was done by Chris RW and we really liked it, it fit with the band so well that we decided to keep it in different incarnations. The album titles are like this, mainly, because we did not know what else to call them.

STN - Your recordings are fully analogous, despite the fact that music technology has evolved with unmeasurable speeds. Why this decision?

Naxatras - II - 2016 - Proxima Centauri

John Vagenas - It is more organic, spontaneous and cosy usually. That’s our experience with it at least.

STN - Which were the main differences between the first recording of your EP and III in 2018?

John Vagenas - In “III” we worked more, we went for more precision and a better sound quality, the compositions are more complex as well.

STN - How do your songs develop? You jam endlessly until you feel right or is there a person in the band who writes and then you develop over that?

Naxatras - Waves - Official Live Video

John Vagenas - Both, some songs like that, some songs like the other.

STN - You’re from Thessaloniki , how’s the music scene there and in what ways has it influenced you?

John Vagenas - There are not many stuff going on, especially in rock music it’s pretty quiet. We were influenced only in the manner of “not” wanting to be like this scene, we wanted to do more.

STN - What bands influenced you more?

John Vagenas - Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Jimi Hendrix, Kyuss, My Sleeping Karma, The Doors.

Naxatras - Garden of the Senses - Official Live Video

STN - Is music your main occupation? What other occupations, jobs or hobbies do you have?

John Vagenas - Cinema for me and John, Kostas plays football and he’s also a physiotherapy graduate.

STN - From what I read, began to play in 2012 at the beginning of the economic crisis that affected Europe and mainly countries peripheral regions such as Greece and Portugal. In what ways has this austerity affected your creativity?

John Vagenas - We didn’t care much, we were students at that period. We were free from society’s idea that you must be this or that, with the crisis, all this had no meaning at all.

STN - Spanish director Miguel Cano made a documentary about the Greek rock scene with the bands 1000mods, Tuber, Naxatras, Puta Volcano, Villagers of Ioannina City, Planet of Zeus & Nightstalker could you disclose a bit more about it?

John Vagenas - We met Miguel in Berlin, he’s a great guy and a great director. He managed to capture the spirit of the rock scene in Greece I think. All these bands are cool.

STN - Name the last song or álbum you listened to that really left an impression on you!

John Vagenas - Wooden Shjips - V. Listened to it countless times, super mellow stuff.

Greek Rock Revolution - 2019 - Official Trailler

Greek Rock Revolution is a 95-minute documentary movie, from the Spanish director Miguel Cano, about the rock scene in Greece featuring 1000mods, Tuber, Naxatras, Puta Volcano, Villagers of Ioannina City, Planet of Zeus & Nightstalker.

STN - Are you already working on a new album?

John Vagenas - Yes, but we are on the early stages yet.

STN - Your show last year in Sonic Blast Moledo was amazing, what can we expect from these upcoming shows in Portugal?

John Vagenas - This, and much more! Can’t wait to start this tour, see you all there! 

facebook.com/naxatras

naxatras.bandcamp
youtube.com/channel/Naxatras
sonicblastmoledo.com

An interview with Mien a year after

Mien is a four-piece band, with a name that came in a dream of one of them. But they're just not any other four-piece band. They are the gathering of four minds, voices and skills somewhat known across the globe; Alex Maas ( Black Angels), Rishi Dhir ( Elephant Stone), Tom Furse ( The Horrors ) and John-Mark Lapham ( The Earlies ). To have these four creating something together is more than an argument to go and check it out, with  100% certainty that whatever they did is worth being listened.

Today marks a year since the release of the album Mien, from which Bad Habit was the first single released a couple of months before. 

It's an album that enclosures a bit of everything we could expect from Mien, Bad Habits is a very good example of that statement, but at the same time is surprisingly fresh and renewed in songs like Hocus Pocus or even I'm Tired ( Western Shouting ), an original song from Pete International Airport.  in this journey they brought themselves much closer to another sonoritys, mixing all the accentuated 60's references and bringing them all to the 21st century. But I was really curious about how all this happened, and they were kind enough to enlight me a bit more with this interview which I now share, and for what I'm grateful. 

MIEN are: Alex Maas (vocals, samples, loops), Tom Furse (keyboards, programming), Rishi Dhir (bass, sitar, keyboards) and John-Mark Lapham (keyboards, samples, programming).

Songs to Nowhere -  Could you introduce to our readers the concept of MIEN?

Alex Maas -  This is collective of music lovers/composers who where brought together by Rishi Dhir the Ravi Shankar of Montreal.  We trade ideas and concepts virtually through email exchanges from where ever we are at the moment. 

STN- What inspired you to make music together?

ALEX -  There is a general concept of what all turns us on sonically that was discovered after we started sharing ideas. This kind of unspoken vision is something we all believe in.

STN - Some people have been saying that MIEN is a supergroup, but on your site, I read that you somehow reject that idea. Why?

John-Mark Lapham -  To me personally, a “supergroup” sounds like a novelty, something you just muck around in when you have free time away from your “main group.”I think we all take MIEN very seriously and treat it as vital and important as anything else we take part in, and to that extent, should be perceived as a standalone entity. So much of music and the way people consume it today seems very disposable, so it seems worth making it clear that this is something that is meaningful to us and not just a lark.

Mien - Black Habit

STN - I read that you recorded the album without meeting to play ou rehearse.Was it a new experience or is it something you're used to it?

JM -  I’ve never recorded an album with a band when we were all in the same space. Since I began this journey, I’ve always sent and been sent parts and worked in my own space.Sometimes it can be limiting, but for me it makes sense and more often than not works best in terms of what I bring to the table.
~

STN - Where did you get the name MIEN? 

JM -  If I remember correctly, it came to Alex in a dream. It was something that involved him peeling off wallpaper and the letters being revealed. It happened right around the time we first started talking, but before we ever knew we were going to be a band, so it seemed fated somehow.



STN – Knowing what the members of MIEN already have done, it’s fair to say that any of this is new to you. But at the same time, listening to the álbum it seems this is a whole new experience and you focused on things you weren’t doing at this point, such as a bigger focus on electronic and samples. Was it unexpected for you how the álbum turned out?

JM -  I can’t speak for the others, but I’m pretty sure this is the sort of album we were all imagining ever since we heard the beginnings of our first couple of tracks, Black Habit and Ropes, respectively. When I heard what we all could do, especially what disguises and characters Alex’s voice could inhabit, it really opened many doors of possibility. 


STN - Listening to the álbum and reflecting on the lyrics I felt they are dense and meaningful, but somehow show some disappointment to where mankind is heading to. 

Alex -  We agree with you 


STN - (I’m tired of) Western Shouting is an original song from Pete International Airport were Alex Mass is in. Why did you choose this song to be in MIEN’s álbum?

MIEN performs "Earth Moon" in KUTX Studio 1A.

Rishi - Alex and I both worked on this song with Pete. We all really loved the track and wanted to see how MIEN could reinvent the track, with Pete's blessing of course. I think versions are great and present a different take on the tune.

STN - You played Levitation a few days ago, and already have a few show schedule for Europe. Can we expect a concert in Portugal?

ALEX - We would love to play Portugal, we are just waiting for the call and we will be there.

STN - How has your music evolved since you first began this idea of making music together?

Rishi - When we started the project, we didn't really have a clear idea of what MIEN would sound like. We just knew that by bringing each our ideas and aesthetics to the table, we would have something new and powerful. 

Mien - (I'm tired of )Western Shouting

STN – Have you ever thought of doing a show where all your bands would play? 

ALEX - Yes we have tossed the idea around! Would love to see that happen!

STN – Who are your major influences?

JM - I’m a somewhat old school electronic/industrial fan, so my influences range from Cabaret Voltaire, Ike Yard, DAF and Conny Plank’s many varied productions.


STN - What about new bands you recently discovered?

JM - These days I listen to a lot of what I imagine many would call “boring ambient music”, like Stars of the Lid, Kyle Bobby Dunn, Wayne Robert Thomas, The New Honey Shade, along with modern classicalLike Jóhann Jóhannsson and Max Richter.

STN - I know this record took quite some time to be made, but now you opened Pandora’s Box, can we expect another one soon? 

Alex - We are currently writing so I imagine there will be another record. I imagine it will happen as the first one did, with patience.



Bandcamp - mien.bandcamp.com
Official Site - mienband
Facebook - facebook.com/MMMIIIEEENNN/