Born in 2000
The Pythons are one of the best hard rock bands that
I've listened to recently. Ok Exploders, Rock'n' Roll
has no boundary, so even Italian rock scene increases
its power day by day. We've tons of really great rock'n'roll
bands
check it out! The Pythons are: Luca Minichiello
(bass), Nick Donati (guitar), Francesco Castoldi (vocals),
Luca Umidi (guitar, vocals), Giorgio Costa (drums).
Hy guys, do you want to tell
us your story? How did the band form? I know you come
from different musical experiences
Francesco: The band, as
often happens, was born after a drunk among five friends
that wanted to play together. At the beginning it was
a joke, because, as you underlined, in that period everyone
of us had other musical projects under way, from metal
to rock and blues. Little by little the other bands
have been abandoned and The Pythons' project began to
gain importance in our musical life.
Is there any meaning behind the
name of the band? How did it shoot you ahead to call
the band The Pythons?
Francesco: The python has
always been an icon of rock, just look at the Whitesnake,
it's their symbol! By the way, we don't think that The
Beatles is a better name, we are The Beatles of Hard-Rock
(obviously we're joking)! And there's another reason
look
at our bass player in pants!!!
Before talking about your last
work, "Four Stones", could you tell us how
did you participate in the "Saturday Night Live
Compilation"? Did Sony directly contact you?
Francesco: We've been contacted
by the stage manager of the Rolling Stone, a big live
club in Milan, to participate in the compilation, that
gathers the best band that played on saturday night
on that stage (and this explains the name of the cd).
It's been a good occasion to know and to confront with
other bands of the Italian underground scene!
Your mission seems to be playing
an '80s melodic hard rock, revisiting it in a personal
way, is it right? How do your past experiences affect
your sound today?
Nick: That's the main influence,
but everyone of us with his personal musical and cultural
background, and listening to different kinds of music,
not only rock, but blues, electronic and jazz for example,
aims to renew the sound and the horizons in a strictly
personal way.
In "Four Stones" I
really appreciated the melodies that support every single
composition. Who writes the songs and which is the method
of composition that you generally use?
Francesco: I write the
melodies and the lyrics and I'm proud of it
(laughs),
but it's clear that our songwriting starts from an idea
by me, Luca or Nick and then the band works on it to
create the arrangement.
Ok guys, I give you the space
to introduce with your own words every single song in
"Four Stones", a "step by step"
for our Exploders!
Francesco: Thanks for this
opportunity! "Four Stones" is a metaphor that
describes four moods, four feelings that we all can
feel.
"Blackstone": this song represents the distress
and the anger of a person that has to face an unexpected
and undesired situation
there's no way solution;
"Shadows": It's the logic consequence of the
previous song, it is the overcoming of all the fears
and the way out from the shadow. Even if the melody
of the song appears to be a little melancholic, Shadows
has a very positive meaning. The first part of the demo
analyses inner feelings, the second part the more direct
and aggressive ones;
"Texas Queen": It's celebration of freedom
and thoughtlessness that you feel when you have solved
your daily problems and you can be completely yourself;
"Hide": The protagonist of the song is in
a situation similar to that of the protagonist of Black
Stone, but this time he faces it in an opposite way:
he doesn't lose heart and overcomes it with instinct
and determination.
Are you satisfied about the result
you obtained with "Four Stones" or, at present,
you would change something?
Nick: We are completely
satisfied about our product. Clearly, every time we
listen to it we find something to change, and we'll
keep in mind these tricks, because the constant goal
is to improve ourselves.
I think for you the live dimension
is very important and you have a lot of considerable
gigs! Is there any of these lives that particularly
satisfied you? Why?
Francesco: The stage is
surely the best situation for a rock band! When we're
on stage we have a lot of fun and we try to infect the
audience with our energy! We've done more than forty
lives playing on very big stages, as that of the "I
Tim tour" or at the Idropark in Milan, and also
in clubs where there's not even a stage! For us it's
better to communicate and have have good time with the
audience than a big stage, in the end it's the spirit
of rock and roll!
Have you got any propitiatory
rite that you celebrate before going on stage? Or in
general, what do you do just before your shows? Do you
prepare yourselves in any way?
Nick: We don't begin to
play before a shot of rum and pear juice
we're
all addicted to it!
If you had to choose a great
artist to go on tour with, who would you choose? Why?
The Pythons: If they still
existed we would go with Led Zeppelin
they have
"only" invented the music we play and love!
But, at the moment, The Darkness would be enough for
us
we're content with little (laughs)!
What are you listening to in
this period? Wich are the albums of actual artists that
are played most often by your stereo? Is there someone
you hate?
The Pythons: We try to
listen to everything, modern or older music, and also
Italian artists, we love the '70s, the music we play
was born in that period, but there's not only rock!
We believe it's very important for a musician to deal
with things that are completely different from what
he plays! Some albums we appreciated has been released
lately: The Darkness, Jet (rock and roll is back), the
Muse, an album that's simultaneously rational but simple
and effective, a very beautiful live by Battiato. The
last Nickelback's album is quite poor of ideas but has
an incredible production, the first song is made to
bang your head! We hate dj Francesco
banal but
true!
Tell us the last news about the
band?
Francesco: In this period
we're aired by some radios as Radio Lupo Solitario,
Radio Antenna 2 and Radio Onde Friulane in the program
called "Symphony Of Silence". We've been contacted
even by two American and Mexican radios, Rock Revolucion
and Tim Rock & a Hard Place. But the most important
news it's that we've found a label (Valery Records)
that will produce our first album. We'll record it this
summer and will be out in October. We hope to find a
good worldwide distribution.
What do you think about the italian
hard rock and rock and roll scene in this years? The
situation seems improving: more bands, webzines and
so on, isn't it? How do you explain this rediscovery
and this reversal of the trend?
Francesco: Yes, it seems
that rock and roll is coming back, thanks also to brave
fanzines and webzines, as The Rock Explosion obviously,
that constantly and professionally propose "our
music" to the audience! In the underground there
are a lot of very good bands. Perhaps people is understanding,
although very very slowly, that there's not only what
the main stream offers.
Fortunes
and misfortunes of being a Rocker made in Italy
then
choose a nation where you would have liked to be born
and tell us why!
Luca: The fortune is that
the food is so good, but in other place you drink better!
Jokes apart, the Italian market is, and it's an euphemism,
somewhat "cold" with Hard-Rock, moreover,
the fact that we sing in English complicates it all.
In the end, there's not much interest in our music,
especially from the majors. If we had to choose a country,
it would be the States, it's different there, there's
a great hard-rock movement, maybe always talking about
independent labels, but people could be more interested
in our music. Also in the north of Europe the situation
is better
life is hard for a rocker in Italy, and
we'll play hard!
Associate one or more adjectives,
a description or a comment o any other thing to the
following words:
Stage: adrenaline!!!
Flash Bombs:?
Drugs: Alcohol is ours
Groupies: The girls that
follow us, thanks to all!
Dollars or €:: You've
better to have al lot of
U.S.A.: The land of Rock
and Roll...
Hair Metal: It's coming
back!
Bikers: The best audience
you can see
.
Love: Sex is better!
Favorite drink, pornstar and
the best five albums of all time according to The Pythons!
The Pythons: Fav Drink:
beer or rum! Pornstar: Venere Bianca, we know one of
her managers and we would like she will make a show
during our concerts sooner or later! Albums: (chosen
in democratic way): Led Zeppelin "I", Metallica
"Black Album", Guns N' Roses "Appetite
For Destruction", Genesis "Selling England
By The Pound"; Queen "A Night At The Opera".
Is there a question that no one
has ever asked you and you want to answer? Here you
have the space to aks and answer it!
Luca: Can you tell me something
about the album that will be out on October? How are
you going to promote it? It's our first full length,
we want it to be a bomb!! We have nearly finished to
compose the songs that will be on this album and we're
very happy about them. We can say that the new stuff
is harder, more powerful, but doesn't deny the roots
of the band. The atmospheres are more similar to those
of a song like Black Stone, darker, but there are also
more "open" episodes, we want that people
listen to it as soon as possible! With regards to the
promotion, we'll try to organize as much lives as possible
around Italy and not only! We wanna play everywhere!
We hope to find a foreign distribution.
Ok guys, the interview is finished,
do want to greet all the Exploders and the people who
will read this interview? Free Words
The Pythons: Bye-bye guys!
We hope you'll enjoy The Pythons! Visit our website
and see ya on the road! Keep on rockin'! Thanx to everybody!
Intervista realizzata da Bruno
Rossi
Traduzione realizzata da The Pythons
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