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