Calibro
35 started as a one-off project that rediscovered obscure Italian
60's soundtracks. At one point they realized it could go further and
things got serious. Mike Malloy, movie director, contacted them to
create the soundtrack for a documentary [Eurocrime! The Italian Cop
and Gangster Films That Ruled the '70s].
More than a decade
later, 6 studio albums, 1 live album, various soundtracks and endless
movie and documentary excerpts, the sound of the Calibro 35 remains
fresh. In this series of interviews that intend to make known a
little more the current Italian music, could not miss the milanese
Calibro 35 and their fresh attitude towards music and all the
cinematic ideas are reason enough to do not miss them because it's
one amazing show. It could be as simple as what I just wrote, and yet
it's not. Here are the words of Tommaso Colliva about Calibro 35!
Songs
to Nowhere – When and how did you met and began playing together?
Tommaso
Colliva - Calibro started as a one-off studio project. Back
in 2006, I was on tour in the US with an Italian rock band and we
ended up playing SXSW but trying to sell Rock n Roll to Americans
seemed wrong to me. I started thinking "what can be proud
of doing music and being Italian?" and the only answers I could
come up with were Opera or Film Music (read Morricone).I've always
been a soundtrack lover and during that time I was thinking about
potential ideas for something to do with my good friend Massimo
(Guitar/Keys) whom I collaborated before doing albums for other
artists. Back in Italy, I dropped him a call and we started
assembly what later became "Calibro", selecting the best
musicians for the idea we now had: recreating the sound, feel and
music of Italian Golden Age soundtracks. We thought it was a cool
thing to do but we never imagined we would stretch this far.
Psycheground - Calibro 35
STN – Why did you call yourselves Calibro 35?
Tommaso Colliva - As with most of the band I know that was the first name that came to mind and we couldn't find anything better! Eurocrime movies have been a big influence at the beginning of our journey and "Milan Calibro 9" is probably the most known film of that genre. So we took "Calibro" from there and attached a very cinematic "35" (as 35mm, the width of movie film) at the end of it.
STN – Why did you choose this unusual path, the revisitation of Italian cinema soundtracks?
Tommaso Colliva - We started revisiting them on the first two albums but then slowly abandoned playing music composed by others to concentrate on our own (last four albums are made entirely from our material)
This said though playing somebody else's music is great! it forces you to understand and study something else and can teach you a lot. We just released a live recording of a concert we did playing some obscure Library Music and the whole process of putting together that show was a great experience dwelling into someone else's musical mind.
Eurocrime! The Italian Cop and Gangster Films That Ruled the '70s trailler
STN –
Have you seen all the movies of the soundtracks you like?
Tommaso
Colliva - Not at all. Some B Movies are great but many of them are quite terrible. Most of the time music is better
than the movie itself
STN -
Who's your favorite OST composer?
Tommaso
Colliva - Impossible not to say Morricone.
STN -
Calibro 35 is an idea of Tommaso Colliva, but the idea only exists
with all the members performing. Keeping this in mind how would you
describe your individual part on the creative process of Calibro 35?
Tommaso
Colliva - We all come from very different background and
have very different skills but we blend together quite well. We are
definitely A BAND now but quite an unusual one to be fair. For
example, we all have other projects/bands/gigs that fuel our
creativity but when we are back to do Calibro we really are CALIBRO.
Giulia Mon Amour - Calibro 35
STN -
You mix many styles, and that mix has taken to very distinct places
and to play with very distinct artists and venues. However, in your
own terms how would you describe your music?
Tommaso
Colliva - Mixing genres is one of the things we took from
Italian soundtracks. Back in the 60s, you had a classically trained
composer trying to copy Isacc Hayes' Blaxploitation sound, writing
music to be performed by young jazz or prog rock musicians backed up
by full orchestra's and that created a very unique sound. We like to
do the same. We keep our ears open and we share our musical ideas
with the others.
Therefore
we exist in a no-mans-land area of music where different inspirations
blend: funk, rock, jazz...
STN –
Were there any differences between the making of Decade
and your previous works?
Tommaso
Colliva - Decade was different from other albums because we
recorded it with a MUCH larger ensemble: 15 people. and when you do
that you can't improvise, you need to plan in advance to make things
work. This leads us to work on pre production/writing and that was
difficult since we all lived in different cities (London, Milan,
Rome, Bologna...) but it was also new, fresh and inspiring. Once we
had the songs fully formed and written we wrote scores. The whole
recording process was trying to balance the instinct of Calibro
quartet (where musicians improvise and influence each other every
second) and the orchestration ideas (where everything is written on
paper beforehand). You can bet it was intense but we are SO happy
with how it came together!
Calibro 35 "Sabotaggio" vs Beastie Boys "Sabotage"
STN –
Calibro 35 now have a string section, it’s a bold move, but it most
definitely accentuates all the cinematic aura Calibro 35 have, giving
your sound a very well deserved greatness. Can you talk a bit about
this addition?
Tommaso
Colliva - We only had strings with us for recording and few
dates after DECADE was released. The idea is not to have them all the
time but broadening our palette was an interesting move that opens up
so many artistic options.
STN –
How did you choose the songs to feature in your live álbum?
Tommaso
Colliva - CLBR35 was a great document. We wanted to have a
clear picture of that tour since it felt focused and fully formed to
us. Songs were picked based only on a subjective level: what felt
better to us, what we thought it was good to remember.
STN -
All of you already had previous experiences before Calibro 35…
Where did you all learn to play?
Tommaso
Colliva - We mixed quite a lot of different experiences:
classically trained (Enrico), self-thought (Luca), started with one
instrument then switching to another (Max), played pretty much all
known genres (Fabio), started playing and then abandoned the
instrument (myself)…
Calibro 35 - Bandits On Mars
STN -
How did you buy your first gear and how important that was for you?
Tommaso
Colliva - We've all been vintage instruments lovers since
ages ago but a big part of Calibro journey has been learning how to
play and use them "as they did back in the days".
Instruments and gear can be hugely inspirational.
STN -
Can you tell us how was your first rehearsal?
Tommaso
Colliva - Calibro started as a studio project so there were
no rehearsals. You can actually listen to the first time we all met.
It's "Trafelato" out of our first album.
STN -
How was it your first tour in Italy?
Tommaso
Colliva - What we are playing is a bit out of the usual
standards and we didn't know what do exactly. First two concerts we
actually performed being sat because we thought our music was
something like jazz!
STN -
How the local music scene for you? Are there venues that were anyway
crucial for you?
Tommaso
Colliva - BIKO club in Milan is the first spot we ever
played and we love to go back there when possible (they changed their
location to a much larger venue to what it used to be).
We
also have had incredible support from the Italian alternative/indie
scene even though our music doesn't belong there.
Calibro 35 - SuperStudio
STN -
How’s the interaction between bands?
Tommaso
Colliva - As said when we started we gravitated towards the
Italian indie/alternative scene and that has been crucial to
spreading the word and having our music heard to a much larger
audience than what instrumental jazz-funk usually gets.
STN -
What Italian bands most influenced you?
Tommaso
Colliva - Ennio Morricone, even though he is not a band.
STN –
What other musicians or artists influenced or influence you?
Tommaso
Colliva - The whole Italian soundtrack/library scene: Marc4,
Umiliani, Alessandroni, Ortolani, Romolo grano, Gianni Oddi... too
many to mention.
STN -
Could you do us a short resume for dummies of Italian music?
Tommaso
Colliva - Mmmmm not sure I can sum it up. We are a very
weird beast in this country.
STN -
How are the radio and press in Italy? I mean regarding the
underground scene…
Tommaso
Colliva - Underground has its outlet either as dedicated
programs/ magazines/radio shows or leaking through cracks on more
mainstream things.
STN -
How did you got acquainted with your current label?
Tommaso
Colliva - I was a fan of Record Kicks, they were fans of us.
They organized a DJ set by Neal SUgarman from Daptone and we met
there... love at first sight.
STN-
Do you have other occupations other than music or are you in any way
connected to other artistical projects?
Tommaso
Colliva - Nope, we just do music.
STN –
“Decade” was out in 2018, pretty fresh yet. What are your
expectations for it in the long term?
Tommaso
Colliva - Keep on Doing our own thing really.
Calibro 35 - S.P.A.C.E.
STN
- If you could time travel, were would you like to go see a show
or play?
Tommaso
Colliva - Not sure but I'd personally love to time travel to
NYC in 1978 and see what the hell was going on there: between punk
hip hop and disco there was so much going on!
STN -
When can we expect another show from Calibro 35 in Portugal?
Tommaso
Colliva - I
fear you'll have to wait till new album will be out but we'll surely
come.
STN –
Name the last song or band that completely blew your minds!
Tommaso
Colliva - Andersonn Paak and Flying Lotus collab.
STN –
The Last word is yours!
Tommaso
Colliva – Thanks!
Interview
by Isabel Maria
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