Interview
(Progressive Newsletter Nr.48 04/04)
excerpts from an interview with Daniele Caputo (Vocals, Drums)
The band got together in early 99 as a Standarte spin-off, then slowly developed its own identity. We relied on pretty conventional stuff at the beginning, like Soul standards, Brian Auger, Blue Note Jazz. Then we started writing tunes that led to the recording of the first, eponymous album. In the fall of 2000 we did an hilarious mini tour of Switzerland with our mates Starglow Energy. After some personnel changes we started working on the 2nd album.
Who are you musical influences and where do you get the inspiration for your music?
Frustration is often inspiring. And since none of us is a teenager anymore,we have vast spectrum of musical recollections, ranging from modern jazz to british psychedelia,early prog acts like The Nice, Eyes of Blue, Arzachel, 1968 Soft Machine, 1967 Zombies, Spooky Tooth, Latter day Small Faces, Gods etc...
What are your lyrics dealing about?
Personally, i'm deeply in debt with british authors like Mervyn Peake, Edward Lear and Arthur Machen,and i'd like to think that the words are like mindscapes within the songs.
Your obviously influenced by the late 60s, early 70s. What’s the special magic for you concerning this era?
It's obvious judging from our likings that we firmly think that that period holds a special place in rock history. Songs were crafted perfectly and each group tried hard to have a distinctive sound, with no worry about mass acceptance and record company crass policies.
How important is to chose original, vintage sounds like for example Hammond or Mellotron?
It's just that you cannot convey any emotin with crappy digital 80's keyboards!
Do you see any differences or developments between your two albums?
The 1st was a sort of well recorded demo, 2nd is far more mature and erk!....progressive.
Isn’t it sometimes hard on stage to be at the same time the singer and drummer of the band?
ItÄs a bit odd ,but i'm used to it ,i do it since 1983! Anyway I can't imagine a"frontman"singing our songs!
I think that your music just fits perfectly to the current Zeitgeist. Don’t you think you could be commercially more succesful with better distrubtion and promotion?
Yeah, media is full of shallow ,bogus pseudo artsy-fartsy semi god dj's sampling everything from Colosseum to Status Quo and earnig wages bigger than E.L.P.! What a fraud, but people tend not to think these days, only consume.
Is there still a chance for another Standarte album or is this band put on ice for the moment?
We 're considering various studio options,maybe in spring we could move to London......
Kristian Selm © Progressive Newsletter 2004