The more I listen to that record, the more the statement becomes obvious: Supermothafuzzalicious is one of my favorite albums this year. The thing is, Italy’s Black Rainbows have reached a surprising level of excellence with their third album. Not that the previous records were bad or something, it’s just that the “pretty cool Italian stoner rock band” has become one of the best stoner/rock bands around. Supermothafuzzalicious is not as heavy or as dark as its predecessor, Carmino Diabolo; it’s even what you could describe as a “fun” record. Sounds fun, makes you wanna run around naked and hug strangers, but it also sounds like the fruit of the hard work of rock experts. Wondering how come? Well just try to measure the perfect balance on Supermothafuzzalicious: heavy riffing, cool choruses, psychedelic elements and a sick beat that will contaminate your mind before you know it. Everything falls into place; the record is so dynamic, so entertaining and simply EXTREMELY pleasant to be listened to. What else do you guys need to run to your local record dealer and grab a copy of this masterpiece? An interview with the power-trio mastermind, Gabriele? It’s your lucky day coz’ all you need to do is to scroll down that page and you’ll get to read a very cool interview in which you’ll sense the genuine passion of Gabriele for Rock.
First question is pretty simple: how does it feel to be releasing your third record?
Hey Yath! We feel good!! When you arrive to this point, it sure means that there’s at least someone out there who likes you! So it’s pretty satisfying. We had to work hard to get there: hundreds of concerts and lots of work at home; blood and sweat man! But now here we are and the feedback is very good so far, and everywhere! And we still are into this rock n roll life, for sure!
What does the title “Supermothafuzzalicious” mean? Is it an addition of all the words that would define the music on the CD?
Yes it is! The album title came to mind, when I was playing with the word « motherfucker » from that word I thought why not motherfuzzer, after that I was thinking to something about 70’s stuff, something delicious, and i added mothafuzzalicious… But our sound is a turbo sound! So came “Supermothafuzzalicious”!! And I thought yeah! I fuckin like it!! It sounds very nice in your ears! And I think it reminds a lot what we do and what is in the album: the use of Fuzz!!
Congratulations also on the artwork, it’s really fantastic, who conceived it?
The artwork this time is a masterpiece by GODMACHINE from UK (Carmina Diabolo artwork was made by Angryblue). For me he’s the best and most Talented illustrator right now, and we are honored to have his drawing on our best record ‘til now!
AWESOME!
I do think the guys is super talented and the art really reflects the atmosphere on the album…
Illustrations in this kind of music are very important, they evoke what is in the music, they are very close, imaginary and psych music. Something colored and a bit dark at the same time!
Was it an easy record to make? It sounds like it was.
The production was pretty much the same on the previous albums. I recorded everything by myself in the Channel 5 Studio… So we had a lot of time to spend on the basics sounds (for me it’ s the most important passage). Have time to mic the guitar amp in different ways, or try to mic the snare with different mics… After that we go to Pino Santamaria’s bigger studio. He’s got a great sound man; and we trust him a lot... He took care of the mixing part of the album with us… Last but not least: Fabrizio de Carolis a Reference Mastering studio, the best of middle Italian master studios.
Black Rainbow's mastermind Gabriele
Supermothafuzzalicious also sounds “fun” and makes me want to party.
Songwriting of this album seems easy but is not. To a first approach everybody can listen to it but there’s more, yes the bit sometimes is fast and is rock n’ roll, and when you play rock’n’roll, you must have fun man! This is sure! In fact last song of the vinyl (the bonus track) is a cover from the mighty Eddie Cochran “C’mon everybody”. Our tribute to the roots of rock!
It’s like a big scream of your love for rock!
With these songs we wanted to explain how much we love this kind of music, how much we are in debt with that, coz’ is the music style we play… Yes, maybe sometimes we are reffered to as a Stoner rock band, but the root comes from that. We start playin’ our instruments inspired from band of the 50’s and 60’s, and 70’s… And we want to spread the word of rock n roll!!!
I also felt it was a very personal record for you; because of the lyrics as well.
Yes it is, especially the lyrics, sometimes you have the song inspired by blues rock lyrics like “Lady” that is a song that talk of women or “Burn Your Nation” rock’n’roll hymn, sometimes you have the psychedelic lyrics like “Solar System” or “Mastermind”, I like the album coz’ there is a lot of different atmospheres from one song to another, songwriting-wise and even in the way I sing these new songs!
Tell me about the groove and that “dancing” beat on the record, it really stands out…
After the last album ”Carmina Diabolo”, we wanted to make the new record, with cool beats and so it goes, inspired by rock’n’roll beats we created this album! Especially when you play live, I think you win if you have songs with “dancing” beats, cause people go to concerts yes to listen, but everybody at least wanna dance! And they reminds you cause you bit them with your beats!
Do you think some of your fans will be surprised? You previous records were a bit “darker” and “heavier”.
I think yes… Maybe they were expecting a Stoner volume number 3! But you can recognize it still is the same band that wants to explore new things, I think we are not a band that found a formula and that repeats it in every record, we are professional musicians and we can play also other things… Our big influence comes from the band Motorpsycho… They have explored all kinds of rock, from psychedelic to hard rock and so on. We would like to do quite the same, in the next steps we want to make something more psychedelic and loopy tunes, we are not only into stoner things, even if we comes from there!
Great, because I personally LOVE the psychedelic effects, with the use of awesome keyboards, how do you insert them to the songs, because I guess most of the songs are written based on riffs?
For the previous records I used to play all the Synths but for this album we called our friend Dario Di Gennaro, who is a professional keyboard player as well! After we done all the basic tracks, he started having fun with the songs, so we tried a lot of different things, dub the riffs or improvise on the songs… At least we cut all the shit things and kept the good ones!
Although people use the term “stoner” rock for many bands that have nothing to do with stoner rock, I consider Black Rainbows as a genuine “stoner rock” band. Even though you were just saying that Black Rainbows is a “rock” band that will explore many different territories...
Yes, like I said before, we are not only in this kind of music, you will discover on the next albums, we are stoner oriented yes, cause we love that tune… But step by step I think we want to change and will evolve, maybe more psychedelic, maybe more hard rock we don t want to be the same band on every album… We can do better!!!
And what is the definition of stoner rock anyways?
Is the sound that bands such as Kyuss, Fu Manchu, Nebula, Monster Magnet have played in the early 90’s, it means the use of some amps, the use of fuzz, some kind of drums, detuned guitars and basses, it comes as well from late 60’s and early 70’s bands like Captain Beyond, UFO, Black Sabbath, Hawkwind…
I also think that this record will help you take things one step further, it’s potential is pretty huge and it sounds universal, any rock fan can like it!
Yes we hope to increase our fan-base… Coz’ in that album there’s much work, blood and sweat! Yes a general rock fan can find in it many things, when you listen first time it is catchy and sounds easy to listen to… But we need more audience, so we still are working hard and touring as much as possible.
How’s the feedback on the album so far?
The feedback is so good, in a few weeks we’ve sold a lot of albums, we had 2 European tours and we are doing another European tour in April with Farflung from LA, lots of good reviews and people contacted us just to say that they loved the album! This is a step further indeed!
Do you guys have any special double LP edition planned?
In April we will release on Longfellow Deeds/Heavy Psych Sounds a split album with 6 unreleased songs including 3 incredible songs from Space Rock Legends: Farflung. It will be a single vinyl, with an inner-sleeve with lyrics and credits. The artwork was done by Rise Above. It will be a limited edition vinyl and or digifile… Will be a super cool album: something like 40 minutes of unreleased music. Farflung recorded 2 of their songs at the Rancho de la Luna (Chris Goss studio) with amazing guest appearances from Dave Catching (QOTSA, EODM), Gene Trautman (QOTSA, EODM)… Really cool!
Are you going to tour to promote these releases? Any chance to see you guys on stage in France soon?
We have played in December with NY heavy psych band Naam. The Paris gig was just awesome! Maybe in April we’ll be in south-east France… Just check the dates on the web right here!
On the song “Burn Your Nation” you say you wish you were born in the USA. You ever been there? And did Black Rainbows play any shows there?
Absolutely. You know US is the land of rock n roll… The entire story started from there… So it’s just a fun sentence, like some sort of verbal tribute! But we’ve never been there… But we are planning to go so soon!!! Very soon... Stay tuned!
Behind The Line: Great video for the second track on Supermothafuzzalicious!
What’s you’re wildest dream? Like the rock’n’roll artist you’d most like to tour with?
Wildest dream?! 6-months touring; non-stop and visit all the countries. Not sure if we go on tour with Kyuss, Monster Magnet or Fu Manchu… Maybe all three of them!!
Great! Thanks Gabriele for the fantastic interview and thanks to Xavier for Longfellow deeds records!
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