We made an
interwiew with Gianni Caldararo, the
singer of Vestfalia's Peace, the band that has been the 2017 revelation of the italian scene,
despite their beginnings root back in the '90s with some demo tapes and a cover of "Scythe & Spade" on
"Beyond the Horizon", a compilation tribute to And Also The Trees,
but Gianni will explain everything better than me.
Despite your
debut cd has been published in 2017 the
band's story roots back in the '90; can you tell us something of that far away
beginning?
Well, the story
is about four friends who shared a passion for music since their childhood. We
know each other since we were children and we had been living our lives in a
tiny village in the centre-south of Italy before moving towards great
industrial italian cities, in our 20s. We started playing at a very young age
the music we liked, like goth and new wave from The Cure to Joy Division.
What pushed
you to reform the band in 2015?
As I said
before, we currently live in four different cities, between Turin and Rome and
we rarely met during the last ten years. We used to meet at our native village,
in the countryside, only in special occasions such as Christmas or in the
summer holidays. We spoke about a possible gig in a local club in 2012 (due to
a friend who pushed us to meet and play again a reunion gig) and we did it in
december of that year. We felt that it was the right moment to begin playing
again more music and to record a whole album with new and old songs.
Time changes
us and our lives; do you think that it has changed also your approach to music?
Sometimes I look
back at my life and I can see it flowing like in an oil painting or like in an
old 50s italian film set in the countryside. This is my first approach to
music: remembering memories and put them into melodies that can call back
stories from the past. It hasn't change very much and I always try to be honest
with myself and mix things I liked when I was younger with my last listenings
from the present: so, I think my approach to music hasn't really changed that
much. I'm only aware that there is so much new music in the present and that it
would be stupid to ignore it.
Is it hard to
keep on playing having replaced in different towns?
It's not easy
because of the time of our lives before the distance itself. Today you can
easily take a train and meet somehow, even if you are very distant from each
other. During the year, for example, we use to meet and make rehersals in
Florence, that is an equidistant point from where we live, but actually, time
is our worst enemy.
Do you think
that your origins in a small southern italian town have influenced somehow your
music and the subjects of the lyrics?
The fact that we
came from an unknown part of Italy (even for italians) is something that many
people can't understand. Our whole region is only 300.000 inhabitants, like a
district in Rome or Milan and our little town is only 800. When we came back
home for holidays it seems almost like we've travelled through ages. The air
that we breath, the simplicity of the people and the marvellous view of the
surroundings has always filled our spirit with inspiration.
The nostalgia
for your birth town seems to come back also in some of your tracks.
I'm glad you
noticed it. It's not a nostalgia for the place in itself but for the simple
life we used to have until we lived all together. I remember nostalgically when
I could close the door of my home and meet with each other. We didn't need a
smartphone, skype or any other technological stuff to talk and laugh together.
This could sound nostalgic, but maybe it's true: I am very nostalgic.
Why do you
chose Vesfalia's Peace as band's name?
This is an odd
story. At school, I used to take notes in italian and english while studying
History and sometimes there were weird names coming out from my personal
copybook. We had another name at the time and it was “Carestia” (Famine in
english) but it was really heavy to carry on with, so one day we decided to
change it with a temporary one in order to find the final name. We picked it up
from my history copybook and we never changed it (even if it's not correct
grammatically, but we decided to leave it as it was).
What are your
inspirations when you compose a new track?
Books, dreams
and the places I've visited are great source of inspiration.
In music, I try
not to sound like anyone I like: it could be strange but that's how it is. I
try to be Gianni while singing even if I'd like to be Scott Walker or Charles
Aznavour, but they are way better than me, so why I should try to imitate them?
There is a
track that has a particular meaning for you?
There are two
songs, “The Peasant” and “Wet Ferns Shine” that really touch me. Those songs
were composed in 2003 and I have good memories of that period in my life.
Something was still magical and pristine.
There are
feelings or visions that you'd like that the public would have thanks to your
music?
I really hope
so. But it's something only listeners can feel.
If you should
make a balance after almost one year from the issue of "Loneliness"
what would you say?
“Loneliness” has
been released in March 2017 and nowadays I can't really understand if people
had listened and liked it or not. I found mixed opinions about it and I'd like
to receive more feedbacks about it.
For you is
important to play live?
The live gig is
something any band should experience. Recording
is still a mechanical process and the songs can sound a bit artefact
because of the overdubs you can add to the tracks while mixing. It's only on
stage that you can understand if all the work you made is working.
What do you
feel in front of an audience?
I personally try
my best to perform without singing out of tune or hit the wrong note while
playing. I feel that this may compromise a bit the fact that I should be more
relaxed and maybe let myself go with the audience.
Do you have
any plans for the future?
At the moment
we're going to play some live show in Europe and we hope to start recording new
songs as soon as possible. As I said before, time is our worst enemy and to
make thing well means to take a lot of time for making. We have a bunch of new
songs and we hope to record them on the same session and not individually. And,
most important, we'd like to find a stronger musical dimension in terms of
resulting fresh and new at the same time.
Gianni, I
know that you have also another project called "La pietra lunare"; do
you want to tell us also something about this?
La Pietra Lunare
(The Moonstone in english) is a side-project born after the split with
Vestfalia's Peace, in 2006. Duccio and I decided to record an album inspired by
italian literature and italian music (the name is taken from a novel by the
italian writer Tommaso Landolfi). So we had surrounded ourselves with many
classical musicians and we recorded the first full length album between 2009
and 2014, working at the distance. It has been influenced by a lot of
songwriters and folk music and the result is a kind of neoclassical / folk
music with dark attitude. The record has been printed in 2015 by Lichterklang
and it has been reprinted in April 2017 by SPQR label.
