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!