By Luisa Terzulli
We met Manuel Agnelli (M), Giorgio Prette (G), Giorgio Ciccarelli (GC) and Enrico Gabrielli (E) from the Afterhours before their gig in London on 25th September 2006.
Let’s start with a question that we ask to all those we interview: what is art?
M: Well, for us it has never been a problem to define or identify the meaning of the word, because it has never been a matter of having to make art; the real matter is to communicate, and perhaps this is one of the meanings of art. For us the matter has always been to communicate in an effective, powerful, complete and sincere way; so we prefer to present ourselves in a more instinctive and less artificial manner, rather than looking for different – even intelligent – expressions.
This recalls a verse of one of your songs: “I have no will for an important journey”…
M: Yes, you can refer this concept to that song, even if it ends with “inside the noneity”, because very often in Italy you have to be “learnt” – as it is used to say – to do something. But not always this is the right way to face music or literature: sometimes you have to be a living encyclopaedia, but being an encyclopaedia may also give you very tight limits and you are not able to move any more. There is no harm in that, but in Italy is a must to be intellectuals in order to be involved in “art” or even in music. Actually it is not like this, and we are thought that by England or the States, the latter being a country with a very low average culture but that produces tonnes of art exactly thanks to this mental freedom, that certainly does not come from having any dogma.
There are people making music practically to make money, others to communicate, somebody else for fun… do you belong to the last two categories then?
M: Well, surely there are those who make music to do “proper art”, to feel as part of something completely different from the past, to invent something new. As for us, actually, finding our sonorities and solutions is like a game; but the main aim is exactly to communicate, because music has become our language, playing is our way to communicate ourselves humanly: however banal it could seem.
Communicating what?
M: There are no particular messages; it is our language to communicate with the others: it is the best way we have found to be ourselves towards the outside world, not necessarily to send messages but just to interact.
Communicating should also be a relationship in both directions: you communicate and should also receive something. What?
G: It depends on where we go! (laugh) This is right, and it is one of the reasons why we are here, as we had the chance to release abroad and to confront with situations and scenes different from those of “home”, with which we have been confronting for more than 15 years. It has been a necessity that probably we were already feeling inside, but could not force. It has happened when it had to happen, with a specific album in a specific time, and all these circumstances concentrated in Ballate per Piccole Iene – or Ballads for Little Hyenas – so this period is for us enrichment and reaction to stimuli in the fight against any inurement from this kind of activity. So far, we have always fought the routine renewing ourselves musically, now we are getting new by confronting with new situations, to have then new stimuli when we are back to Italy.
M: This recalls what you said before about receiving something back: playing in Italy after so many years, with a numerous and faithful audience, sometimes makes the situation one-way, instead. That means that we were making our music but feeling understood to a certain extent only, because what we had as a feedback was completely different from what we wanted to stimulate. Going abroad puts us in a brand new condition, which is that to go back to send not messages, but musical tension, some atmosphere. Behind the words and the music there is a story, the magazine covers, a specific type of professionalism, all things that make us get understood in a distorted way. Here we are nobody, so what works is the music and the tension transmitted as it was in Italy at the beginning, so we can have a reciprocal relationship with the audience again and recognise the reactions that are exactly what we want to provoke. Even if there are 100 people instead of 5,000, for us is very galvanizing having this chance to be again a new band.
As to the audience, the Afterhours’ public has been historically characterised by a strong male component. In the last times, instead, it seems that the situation has pretty changed…
M: Now there is a very very strong female component. I think that at the beginning it was because of the environment we were surrounded of rather than the music or the approach we had. The music world is extremely misogynous, on the border with racism, women had always been put aside like in the movies – girl bands are almost grotesque exactly because are composed by women. For this reason on one side, and because the locations at the beginning were not very comfortable on the other, female audience has always been quite scarce. Now, on the contrary, there is a strong female component probably because the songs are taking the place of the environment.
Is it possible to make a classification of the various arts? Why does it seem that music is the most popular, with the greatest turnover? I mean, it is easier than a youth had as a model a singer rather than a painter or a writer…
M: Well, nowadays it is even easier that a youth had as a model a footballer or a reality show contestant, there is much more money there… It is also difficult to define the art boundaries; because literature could also be a gossip magazine, as well as music could be a boy band… It is difficult to define what is art, what is music and what is not, what is just curtain raiser. I think that youths do recognise themselves into a musician during a certain period of their lives, but there are even more guys recognising themselves into a footballer, or even a politician.
Therefore, does the Afterhours historical song Sui giovani d’oggi ci scatarro su [I hawk and spit on the nowadays’ youths] reflects an effective decadence of the values of the youths or it is just a commonplace that repeats itself during the generations?
M: No doubts there are clichés handing down while the situation is always the same, unfortunately clothes are the only thing changing. Anyway, that is a verse that I have stolen from Giorgio, but it is a laughing song, we did not mean to do some philosophy. But it is also true that digging in deep, what we have found during these 15 years of wandering around, the only certain thing, the only thing that never changes is exactly the never-changing of specific mechanisms.
G: And indeed, we live in a parallel dimension (laughs): for some we are the worst of the mainstream, for somebody else we are nobody at all. We live on another planet.
M: It is anyway interesting to notice how in Italy, once reached a certain degree of notoriety, what we do is no longer a novelty for the audience because it does not analyse us from the musical point of view: there is a different analysis, coming from the knowledge of you as a personality. Going abroad, and especially in the States, there has been an incredible use of definitions! And we were really surprised by that: for them we were new, fresh, original, we were not like any other band, there were some components of the traditional Italian music in what we do – that could even be true, I do not know – and it is wonderful that the point of view completely changes as people is not misled by some platitude you have been assigned. And it is exciting also because, once back to Italy, we can be more “laic” towards what they say about us.
Anyway, as for the components of the traditional Italian music, it has to be said that in your repertoire there actually are some Italian classics such as La Canzone di Marinella, La Canzone Popolare, as well as other covers…
M: Yes, I think that there is a very strong melodic component that probably is noticed more abroad. Perhaps has stricken the fact that we use instruments such as the violin, the bass clarinet, the flute, which are hardly ever found in a rock band. Actually, there is a more complete analysis, focused on the music.
What do you think of the so-called “charity performances”? Do you think there is corruption?
M: Well, even if there is no corruption, it depends on why they are benefit performances. In the case of events pro-Africa or Third World countries, I think they are gigantic manifestations of hypocrisy. Because Africa has all the raw materials and the resources needed for its own support but also for an enormous development; simply we do not let them use their own raw materials for a series of economic interests. For example, the oil companies in central Africa maintain and support devastating political situations because this way it is easier to profit of those resources for ridiculous prices: an independent and really democratic government, with the possibility to use its own materials, hardly ever allows others to take advantage of them this way. They do not want our money, which does not solve anything, because they could have money just utilising their own resources. Therefore, I think that this is just a system to clean our conscience, and the fact that it involves intellectuals or musicians is even more serious, because it means that we really are slaves of a foolish immoral system. It is true that the excuse is “if I can save even just three children I have already achieved something”, but this way we keep on feeding and supporting the system, playing as generous while we are not at all.
G: There is a fundamental difference between the concrete and silent charity, and the promotional one. There is a load of people that commit themselves in doing important things – small as they are – without telling to the four winds. I personally feel much more respect for this kind of people.
So, honestly, you would not join a Live Aid for instance, would you?
M: If they pay us a lot, of course we would! At least it would be a benefit for us!
What is the question you have always whished to be asked during an interview, but nobody ever has?
E: Well, a “strange” question that nobody asks is if we are believers… Because musicians usually are quite extraneous to such matters, and besides, I absolutely would not know what to answer!
M: I am not a Catholic, but believer may mean different things, it is also to feel things in a certain way, not to be completely cynic in respect to them, to have values – also spiritual – and to give superior values not only to things but also to people. So, from this point of view, yes I am a believer.
GC: Following the classical categorisations of religions, I consider myself absolutely an atheist, because I find it absurd to believe that there is a superior entity controlling from the heights or to which to turn to for some consolation. This is in the “classical” meaning of religion, while I totally agree with religion meant as a sentiment.
E: For example, yesterday I attended an Anglican mass, which is incredibly different from the catholic mass in Italy: honestly, an unbelievable atmosphere, very nice.
G: My family, from my mother’s side, comes from a protestant tradition, therefore I have attended different ceremonies in Germany and what stroke me since I was a child was exactly the difference from the atmosphere’s point of view: churches are bright, cheerful, there are brasses playing… I personally am very hostile to the Vatican, because it has and always had a strong influence on the life of our country, but am not adverse to religion itself.
What has been the best place to perform abroad?
M: I think the dates in Washington and Seattle have been the absolute top, both from our side and the public response.
GC: In Europe, instead, I would say Berlin. There was a particular atmosphere but I would not know how to explain it: these are things happening almost by chance.
M: In Spain surely there has been the most exalting reaction, but coming from Italy we are a bit “used” to the Latin reaction and are now more interested in looking for the dense atmosphere of an attentive and listening public. Berlin and that club were the ideal places for such a situation. Yes, it is true there are things happening by chance, some concerts are accidental, the fact that there is some magic is accidental!
Is there anything you would like to add?
M: I am very intrigued by playing here. In the States, for example, there are still some basic parameters of musical analysis, there is still attention to some “technical” characteristics. Here in England, instead, there are bands that may sing badly, playing even worse, with lyrics that will not hold water, but still work because express something also on a social level. This happens in this country more than in the rest of the Western nations. So, also considering that we are not teenagers expressing their generational uneasiness, I am very curious to see what the audience reaction will be to this “lack”.
See you to the next London gig of the Afterhours, surely very soon!
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