These Go to 11: interviewing We Were Never Being Boring Collective

Time for another interview! Now with Samuele Palazzi, musician and member of one the happiest labels around, our beloved We Were Never Being Boring Collective (WWNBB) because, as they say, "we can't succumb to boredom"! These Go to 11!

Samuele Palazzi, We Were Never Being Boring 

Indie Italians having fun!

The WWNBB Collective was born in June 2009, when Le Man Avec Les Lunettes, The Calorifer Is Very Hot and Enzo Baruffaldi published a collective EP of four covers of Wavves tune ‘So Bored’. Since then, they have published more than 60 releases, including exciting bands such as Be Forest, Burnt Palms, Crescendo, Joyce in Pola, Making Marks, Brothers in Law or Tight Eye. Impressive. But there's more, as aside his work at WWNBB label, Samuele, now living in San Francisco, is a musician, member of The Calorifer Is Very Hot (also known as Calorifero) with whom he released 'Marzipan in Zurich' (2007), 'Evolution On Stand-By' (2009) and 'Mind Warp' (2011) and core member of the worldwide supergroup Still Flyin', leaded by Sean Rawls and with an extensive discography with ten EPs and albums like 'Never Gonna Touch The Ground' (2009), 'On A Bedroom Wall' (2012) or Perfect Future (January of 2016). Not enough?There's even more, as he has played with many bands of WWNBB, like The Ian Fays or The Yellow Traffic Light. All proofs we are in front of a man who breathes music 24/7, every single day of the year. Here we go!

King Kong revisited, early 90s style 

1.First record that you bought (be honest)

I have two stories that I consider my first purchases: do you remember when we used to buy from mail order magazines? My first 2 tapes bought that way were Counting Crows – 'August and Everything After', and Meat Loaf – 'Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell'. But I grew up in the middle of nowhere and I will always remember my first adventure to the record store (bike to the bus stop and then bus) when I was still a kid, asking people at the farmers market where I could find 'On the Rock' (that was the name of the store), and once there I bought Pearl Jam – 'Vitalogy' on vinyl and Pink Floyd – 'Pulse' on CD.

Queen of 'privilege pop'?

2. First and last concert you have attended (be honest too!)
Good memories here too… First was in Bologna (Italy) and the band was Marion for their tour of 'This World and Body', my 10 years older neighbor (with whom I was obviously in love) asked my parents if she could take me to the show, but obviously her boyfriend came too. Last show was Metric in San Francisco.

3. Guilty pleasure (song/band you shouldn’t like but you do, yes, it’s the embarrassing question)

I have tons! Maybe my biggest crush happened with Lana Del Rey – 'Born to Die'?

4. Most precious music item you own (collector mode on)

I do not go extremely crazy for pricy collector’s items; I mostly care about the music on a support that I can touch. I have a lot of rarities that are not collector’s items, but for me they mean a lot, like limited editions of friend’s projects or the test presses of the WWNBB’s releases.

Mark "joyful" Kozelek: keep your guard up!

5.Favorite lyrics (not yours)
BIRTHH has a song called 'Queen of Failureland', and its opener got stuck in my head the first moment I heard it: 'We live worthless lives just to prove/that we’re victims of the system/that our wounds cannot be mended/that you’ll never understand/the pain inside our chest'…

6.Musician/s you would like to meet (should be alive, for obvious reasons, but you can choose a dead one too)
Polly Jean Harvey!! And Mark Kozelek too, but with time to chat…

7. Favorite artwork album (not yours)
Pearl Jam – 'No Code' / Mogwai – 'Come on Die Young' / Belle and Sebastian 'Tigermilk'.

Mark Ruffalo, the impossible manager

8. Books or movies? Depending on your answer recommend us one (trick: you can choose both) 
Books: suggesting is too personal, but I can tell you that at the moment I am reading 'Lust for Life' by Irving Stone and it’s very good. Movies: I do like some films that are not really challenging, and one of these that I liked lately was 'Begin Again', especially because I love Mark Ruffalo in it.

9. Release (of yours) you are most proud of
As record label I can’t say. As musician probably The Calorifer is Very Hot! – 'Evolution on Stand-by'.

10. What does it mean indie for you? (yes, the “serious question”)
Indie means that I wake up without knowing what I’ll end up doing for a band that day, that money is something that goes out but doesn’t come in, that if there were no passion there wouldn’t be indie!

11. Where do you see yourself in 10 years? 
I really have such a life that I can barely think about tomorrow…10 years from now I don’t see myself being too different than now, but I hope to incorporate some nature-related work and surroundings to music.                                                                     

 Zillion thanks Samuele!

Discoverer 137: new indie findings

Sometimes, the stars align and the trio of bands proposed are just so good it's a no-brainer for our discoverer series. That's the case today, so we prepared to enjoy!

Witching Waves. Hailing from London, UK, the band is the creation of vocalist/drummer Emma Wigham (Weird Menace) and vocalist/guitarist Mark Jasper (Sound Savers Recording Studio), who joined forces in April 2013 with a first tape arriving at the end of that same year by Supplex Cassettes. Two more tapes followed, a split covers tape with band As Ondas in 2014, and the 'Concrete' single tape that September, which anticipated the release of their first LP, 'Fear of Falling Down', out in December, as well as the signature with the always recommendable Soft Power Records, and the addition of Ed Shellard at the bass expanding the band to a trio. A couple of limited cassettes, including another split, now with Rattle, whom with they toured, has now preceded the arrival of sophomore album 'Crystal Cafe', out just now on Soft Power and our dear friends HHBTM Records. You should check it immediately, because their music is a sonic blast. Early Cure, Wire, Sonic Youth, Buzzcocks, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Pylon... you name it. Waves of noise, echoes of punk, a relentless urgency, a threatening edge, a fearless attitude, a mystery hiding in fuzz. An early MUST of 2016.

The High Violets. Hailing from Portland, Oregon, this unbeatable named band formed in 1998, from the ashes of the Bella Low breakup. Initially the trio of founder members Clint Sargent, Luke Strahota and Violet Bianca Grace, the line-up changed dramatically with Grace leaving very soon, while the remaining duo recruited Allen Davis of Echoplex and the amazing voice of Kaitlyn ni Donovan, self-releasing their first EP 'Dream Away' in 1999. In 2002 came out their mini-album '44 Down', followed by 'Invitation', another self-released EP, in 2005 and their debut album 'To Where You Are' a year later on Reverb Records. After a remixes album in 2007, the High Violets delivered 'Cinéma', sophomore LP in 2010, out via Comet Rock Records, probably their most celebrated release to date. Now, after another line-up change (Davis left, being replaced by Colin Sheridan) they are back with 'Heroes and Halos', scheduled for early April through Saint Marie Records. A record you shouldn't miss by any chance: a haunting collection of dreampop/shoegaze tunes recalling beloved ones like Slowdive, The Sundays or Soft Science, leaded by the magnetic vocals of Kaitlyn, the layered guitars and lush arrangements. Gorgeous sounds enveloped in haze.

Crescendo. And we end in L.A., California to meet the dreamgaze (half dreampop, half shoegaze) trio formed by Gregory Cole, Olive Kimoto and Jess Krichelle, expanded to a quintet in their latest incarnation (google cres·cen·do if you don't find enough info on them). They debuted in 2014 with self-released album 'Lost Thoughts' but now, with their sophomore release 'Unless', out now via our dear friends of the WWNBB collective, they are bound for greater things. A stomping yet ethereal collection of tunes, urgent and distant, melodic and fuelled by a very tight rhythm and light-years ahead vocals. Like a brighter and accelerated version of Wild Nothing or the Radio Dept, it's the sound of a collision, of a fast and enigmatic voyage, of adventure, rumble and endless excitement. It's the sound of the night, aiming to be lived. A crescendo of sonic wonders!