Blonde Redhead - Music from the years of magical thinking

It feels like yesterday. And yet almost a decade has passed since the last album by Kazu Makino and brothers Amedeo and Simone Pace. Over the past few months, without much fanfare, the trio has been releasing new songs. One after another came the two parts of "Sit Down For Dinner", "Before", "Melody Experiment" and "Snowman". Five tracks that aren't easy listening, but are light in the sense of gentleness. On one hand, they pick up the threads of the 4AD period. The same depth achieved through subtraction, the same natural reluctance to show their hand too openly or declare emotions too plainly. A lot of truth. There's also an echo of the electroacoustic vein found in some of the most essential moments of "Barragan", the 2014 album. The full album, which readers will find reviewed in our dedicated section, clarifies the context and finally gives these songs back their specific weight and an identity born also from thematic and sonic continuity. Blonde Redhead always change something from album to album. And yet they remain unmistakable. You listen to them and, even in altered forms, you recognize their usual obliqueness — cultured, symbolic, elegant and urbane. Icons in profile, cordial and minimal, introspective just enough, or as much as the demands of art allow. Ahead of their Italian date on November 21 at Teatro Regio di Parma, our interview with Simone Pace offers a glimpse into what lies behind these long years of silence. The engine was never off, nor out of fuel. It was simply looking for reasons to fully commit to the road ahead. They came back because it was the right time, for these new songs in a state of grace, because they've been friends forever. Because they wanted to.

The tracks on "Sit Down For Dinner" are Blonde Redhead's first new material in a long time. How did it feel to go back to working on an album together?

In the end, we can only do what feels natural and genuine to us. We've never really had the ability to copy or try to recreate a sound that isn't part of who we are. It's a weakness, but also a blessing, because we only do what we feel inside, and it forces us to stay on our own path.

I read that the record came to life between New York, Tuscany and Milan. How did the creative process unfold in terms of writing and recording?

The songs were written in New York. The recordings were initially done in Tuscany, in Lari, then a bit in Milan and finally, for most of the tracks, in New York. In Tuscany we mostly did pre-production, but one of the tracks, "IF", stayed in its final version straight from those sessions.

Chronologically, you've said the album was written over the span of five years. Years in which a great deal happened and which had an enormous impact on the collective imagination, from Covid to war to economic crises. Were there any direct influences in this sense on the album's themes and expressive choices?

Covid had an impact, in the sense that it forced us to flee to the countryside, and that's where we finished the record. Otherwise I don't know when or how we would have finished it. It was a difficult period, always bad news, but good things happened too: I became a father, and we left the city for a while to live close to nature.

Were there other elements in particular that inspired the songs?

Yes. For example, "The Rest Of Your Life" was inspired by the loss of Harry, the horse Kazu had had for many years, and "Sit Down For Dinner Part 1" by the fact that Kazu had to leave the island of Elba.

Speaking of "Sit Down For Dinner", which also gives the album its title, what's the symbolic weight of the theme of sitting down to dinner at the same table, expressed in such a touching, straightforward and evocative way across the song's two parts?

The state of the world reflected nothing but sadness during the Covid period, and Italy's situation in particular. But these are moments when you have to stay positive and grateful for what you have. In our case, we're talking about the ability to express ourselves and carry forward a creative path. The title on one hand reflects the sadness of those days, and on the other alludes to a moment of togetherness and the peace that characterizes our everyday life when, at the end of the day, we sit down at the table.

The album's title comes, among other things, from a very specific suggestion drawn from a passage in Joan Didion's "The Year of Magical Thinking." Is there an intentional reference here, a choice tied to the novel's central theme, which is the processing of grief?

Attributing pain to the creative process isn't a choice. But you can choose how to live through it. For this record we sought lightness. Especially Kazu.

The three of you must have shared countless dinners together over these thirty full years of activity. What's a dinner among the three of you like? What's the atmosphere? Are you quiet, or do you talk the whole time?

It depends. We always go to dinner together when we're on tour. We talk, we put together the setlist, etc. It's still a sacred moment we never give up. We've had so, so many dinners together! But we always have something to say to each other, and if we're quiet it's because Ame and Kai need to rest their voices before the show. On off days we'll also have a bit of wine.

I read that as part of the promotion there will also be special packages for fans who want to have dinner with you. Will you be doing that in Italy too?

Nooo, but it would have been nice! It'll happen in London, Paris, New York and Los Angeles.

At other times your albums drew on literary sources — I'm thinking of "Una vita violenta" — while on the new album the line "Even stars are closer," sung by Kazu on "Kiss Her Kiss Her," is inspired by Nayra Atiya. What are your desert-island books right now?

The two volumes of Ryuichi Sakamoto's autobiography. "Breath" by James Nestor.

One of the themes running through the album, both musically, lyrically, and even in the vocal performances, seems to me to be freedom: being yourself, being curious, feeling emotion, being innocent, creating, loving...

Yes! In fact... as I was saying before. Music has to be pure. As far as we're concerned, there can't be extraneous things that aren't part of something deep we carry inside. Otherwise it would be very hard to play the same songs every night and keep working on them.

Speaking of vocals, the performances on this record have a very deep intensity and expressiveness, maybe more so than in the past. How did the vocal recording sessions go?

I think Kazu and Ame found less pressure and more peace recording their own voices. Ame went into a studio alone and so was able to work at his own pace. Kazu, on the other hand, recorded hers with Sam Owen, with whom she gets along beautifully. Before "Sit Down For Dinner" she had worked with him on "Adult Baby," her solo project, and a strong friendship and a great working relationship grew out of it.

This is one of your records where the melodies are more precise, more clearly defined. What's that down to?

The melodies are created by Ame and Kazu, and each of them has a strong ability to choose and express what comes from within.

At the same time, though, the harmonic context is truly unpredictable, and it draws on Brazilian music, jazz, contemporary classical. It also strikes me as your most cosmopolitan record. Were there any particular listening experiences that influenced you in this respect?

Yes, you're right to mention Brazil, because Ame and I especially listen to a lot of Brazilian music. Then there's also the fact that Mauro Refosco was a guest, and that had an impact on the songwriting, mostly on the rhythmic side. Our influences come from everything around us, though.

Ten albums in a 30-year career. Is there one you're particularly attached to, for whatever reason?

I'd say no. It would be like deciding which of your children you love most.

Before this album, the compilation “Masculin Féminin” brought back the raw, expressionist sound of your very first records. In your view, what's the most defining trait of your way of making music, the thing that, beyond the natural evolution of your sound, makes you most recognizable, first and foremost to yourselves?

We are and always will be a band that writes melodies and harmonies rooted in classical music, the Italian music we grew up with, and a love for the beauty of the world around us: cities, nature, film, literature, design, etc. Beyond that, I think it all comes down to the chemistry that happens when we're together, and there's no escaping it.

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