Not entirely how I want it, but here is the first "Happy Monday" issued late on a "Happy Wednesday" ;o)
I first saw Flypaper 4 Freaks at the beginning of February 2008 at a small venue (CSC) in Abano Terme. I remember being impressed by the vocalist's theatrical performance and the guitarist's mesmerising stage acrobatics. This concert was one of the earliest live performances I ever photographed. After the concert I got talking to Meno (Daniele Menorello) the vocalist and the rest is history, as they say...
Founded
in 2004 from the ashes of Feedback, the group’s first practice sessions took
place in the basement of Thomas Biscaro (ex drummer) with basic equipment
including a €10 microphone tied to a wooden pole. Shortly thereafter a better
location was found in a former school and the first public performance of the
group took place in July 2004. In September of that same year, the group opened
for Betty Page where Ray Davies, original guitarist of the group, completely
drunk injured the fingers of his right hand and bled all over his guitar,
throwing it to the ground at the end of the performance, and Livio (bassist
with Betty Page) smashed a TV on stage with a baseball bat. Shortly after this
David Battisti, Betty Page’s guitarist, joined the group along with Livio, and
following on from that and a few more changes in line-up led the group to some
stability with Daniele Menorello on
vocals. “I liked Meno's performances with Loving Dolls very much” says Devis,
“When Edoardo Necchio left the band, my friend Ale ‘da Bojon’ suggested Meno as
a replacement. I remember that it was a Sunday afternoon that I met Meno in the
Alpini Park in Padova to ask him if he wanted to be in the band. Then we drank
a bottle of wine, and when I woke-up I found myself locked in the park over
night.”
Four
years on from my first meeting with the group and the line-up has changed
little: just a couple of changes of drummer. In fact, at the time of writing a
new drummer has just been found, Luca "Ayeye" Lombardi, and I have
yet to see the new line-up in concert. “Changing the members of the band is
always difficult: even worse if you lose the drummer” says Meno, “but for us
it’s becoming routine. In the last three years we’ve changed drummer three
times. Lele was the last drummer we said goodbye to, two months ago. He’s got a
family now and we totally respect his decision. The inclusion of Luca is the
beginning of a new Freaks’ era! Each time it happens we have to start again, we
have to get to know each other and eventually change direction, but we love it
because we prove our abilities and we learn a lot.” Devis is perhaps less
forgiving saying “There is one thing that our drummers must understand: rock n
roll and pussy are not different roads.”
The
timing of the last drummer leaving the group coincided with the release of the
band’s latest EP “Green skies”: “Green Skies is a handful of daydreams and
sorrow. Unpleasant ideas and awful questions we cannot face in our fast real
life. We’ve got to take time, turn ourselves inside out and discover our own
‘green skies’...ehm or just wait for the weekend, sit down, and drink
something” explains Meno. Green skies was produced by Francesco
"Franz" Fabiano in Daniele's garage with Franz's mobile studio. “He
would come into the room, clap his hands and say: ‘this is not good for the
sound of your band. Next! Awesome!” says Devis.
“I think we’ve produced a good EP” says Meno,
“Electric, violent and sweet...
Franz was kind and did some great work in just a few
days.” There were no difficulties and we
reached a good equilibrium writing and recording these songs. That’s the reason
why we’re so sad about Lele’s departure, but this is also a good reason to grasp
the situation by the horns and improve our ability to write and perform. Luca is a very good drummer too and his ideas for
writing new songs will help us grow. We hope to record something else soon.
We’re sure we can increase the electricity and the violence of Green Skies!”
Meno
has written all the lyrics for the tracks on Green Skies in English. I ask him
why English and not Italian: “It’s only rock’n’roll but I like it. I’ve tried
many times to write in Italian. In my opinion it’s like drinking red wine with
fish: I don’t like the combination of our music with the Italian language. Then, every time we write a riff, the lyrics
come out easily in English. Maybe in the future!”
If
Meno could collaborate with one artist on the Italian music scene, it would
have to be Giorgio Canali he tells me. At an international level, were he still
alive, he would have liked to have sung with Layne Stanley (singer with Alice
In Chains) for his vibrating and mystic voice. Both Devis and Meno agree that
it would be good to collaborate with Greg Dulli who played in Afghan Whigs and
collaborated with a lot of great artists such as Mark Laneghan, Manuel Agnelli
and David Grohl. “I love his eccentric sexy and intense artistic ability and
skill” explains Meno.
In
my opinion the music scene is in decline in Padova and perhaps in Italy in
general. Devis says the blame for this rests squarely with the owners of clubs
and the radio, “If people listen to mainstream music all day, they want to see
a tribute band in the evening” he says, “unfortunately the managers of clubs
and pubs listen to shit music too and don’t know how to do their jobs.” Meno
says that the scene is becoming filled with umpteen bands where daddy gave the
guitarist €5000 to buy a guitar or where daddy has a pub where the group can
play every week. “It’s not rock’n’roll” he says “It’s just: I’ve gotta do
something different and strange to ignore the fact that my life is perfectly
straight! It doesn’t matter if the music scene is dying. The most important
thing, an immortal feeling, is our bad attitude and our dislike for the
auto-celebrative perfect society. We know it’s not what it seems and we need to
write about that. It doesn’t matter how many people listen to me: It’s
important to write about what I feel. Someone is gonna listen and will
understand.”
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Soundcloud: http://soundcloud.com/flypaper-for-freaks/
and the FFF wbsite.. http://www.flypaperforfreaks.it -but hacked!
These videos are recommended by Devis and Meno, but I cannot find a way to link them effectively into blogger. Aaargh!
"A song with great meaning mixed with a fantastic movie.The band is one of my favourites from my teenage years."
"I love the attitude of Guitar Wolf, they are the epitomy of Garage Rock, in my opinion. I also adore Japan."
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