Desert Motel - Americana Right on Our Doorstep

In 2007 a debut EP that gave real cause for hope, and in 2011 the extraordinary confirmation of “Yarn”, twelve tracks that, starting from solid alt-country roots, branch out in the most varied directions.

A great round-table chat with Cristiano Pizzuti (vocals, guitar and main songwriter), Fabrizio Locicero (drums), Massimo Gresia (bass), Roberto Ventimiglia and Simone Sciamanna (guitars).

I'd like to start with the many influences that can be heard within “Yarn”…

Cristiano: one influence many people point to is the alt-country of Wilco, which also marks the link with our previous EP; then there are noise touches, brit-ish drifts, more intimate moments, even orchestral arrangements. “Yarn” brings together the backgrounds of each member of the band, with a more rock-oriented approach than our debut EP.

Fabrizio: the EP was the result of my and Cristiano's work, almost an intimate thing, then during the recording sessions Roberto and Massimo joined in, and they went on to actively contribute to the whole arranging process for “Yarn”. Working as a foursome, the range obviously broadened considerably, even if an underlying consistency is still clear. Today the mix of past and present listening habits certainly makes for a more rock-oriented approach, although the seeds of a rougher sound were already there on the EP, in “This Town” and “In Your Time Of Need”.

If someone asked you "what genre do you play", what would you say, and what would be the closest points of comparison?

Fab: (laughs) maybe you just say indie rock, and get away with it - a catch-all term through which you've said everything and nothing at all.

Who sets the direction within the band?

Cris: actually, it's the songs that steer us. As if they were almost tangible entities. We follow the cue each track gives us, spontaneously, and through trial and error we figure out what the best route is for each song's own economy.

Fab: so far we've always kept a very live approach to writing songs, never working with the record in mind, never thinking ahead to the final result. In the rehearsal room we improvise over a chord progression, over a rough lyric, and then maybe the stroke of genius arrives. Once we've found an identity we work around it and polish it.

The story begins with a long-standing friendship between Cristiano and Fabrizio…

Cris: we can trace the official birth of Desert Motel back to the end of 2006.

Fab: although there's no primordial idea of Desert Motel as such - we've been playing together since we were kids, a thousand experiences, we've also played in other situations, in other bands, but in the end one of us always brought the other along. A kind of pull effect caused by the need to play together. Today I couldn't picture myself as the drummer of a band without Cristiano by my side; by now a fleeting glance is enough, each of us knows where the other is heading, right from the first rehearsal. We've always gone in the same direction. After our first childhood projects, we decided to carry on as a duo so we wouldn't have to submit every time to other people's influences, knowing we had good material in our hands. We didn't want to argue too much over which path to follow.

You've always aimed to have your own studio…

Fab: we've always wanted, and had, a space of our own where we could experiment, where we could meet even in the middle of the night to develop an idea. Even with our previous bands we always had the attitude of playing gigs with the goal of reinvesting the proceeds into technical equipment. Everything we have today is the result of years of shows. We've always reinvested every bit of income to secure our independence.

Cris: we came to work on "Out For The Weekend" with our own studio, already fairly well equipped, where we could carry out all our experiments without any stress, with microphones set up in unlikely spots, extension cables run out the window to capture the sounds of nature, all without the pressure of time running out or of being somewhere that didn't fully satisfy us. Our first EP was a record with no pretensions, no expectations. Then, when we realized the material we'd produced was honestly very good, we started thinking it might be worth selling, and that's when we began to believe in it a little.

During the "Out For the Weekend" sessions the lineup grew wider…

Fab: "Out For The Weekend" is full of overdubs, added so the final product wouldn't sound too bare. To play that material live we necessarily needed to expand the lineup. We needed to fill out the sound - during the sessions, on some tracks I was actually the one playing bass. Other bands were rehearsing in the same practice space, and we spotted other musicians we liked, both for their approach to their instruments and as people.

Cris: around that time a kind of small community started to take shape - 5-6 bands that today are part of our collective. There were constant cross-collaborations, unexpected affinities developed, people asked each other for advice, friendships were cemented. We weren't looking for session players to use temporarily, but real protagonists to share a journey with. That's how guitarist Roberto Ventimiglia and bassist Massimo Gresia became full members of Desert Motel. We'd actually already done something with Roberto Ventimiglia before.

Let's hear Roberto and Massimo's memories…

Roberto: it came after a brief previous experience we did together a year or two before the EP, even though we've known each other personally and musically for about fifteen years. We settled into a four-piece in 2007, following the recording of "Out For The Weekend", a work that started as a four-handed session between Fabrizio and Cristiano and then became our first real release. I'm almost tempted to say that in our case it wasn't the band that made the record, but the record that made the band.

Massimo: Redhouse! That was our old rehearsal room. I don't even know how I ended up in that place. I was rehearsing there with another band. While we were recording a demo I met the original core of Desert Motel. They were looking for a bassist to record some tracks that were already written, the ones that would later become "Out For The Weekend". That's how the collaboration started, along with a great friendship that has grown over time. These days we talk to each other several times a day.

Fabrizio, at the same time you're involved in other important projects…

Fab: yes, but always more out of passion than as work, also because wherever I collaborate I'm given the chance to express myself in complete freedom. Right now I'm part of Orchestraccia, a 15-piece ensemble with which we revisit songs drawn from Roman tradition. Songs by Trilussa, by Gabriella Ferri and others, which raise awareness of social and political issues, obviously reworked in a modern key, a sort of folk-punk-rock. The band includes actors (Edoardo Leo, Edoardo Pesce, Giorgio Caputo, Luca Angeletti) and important musicians, among them Marco Conidi, Roberto Angelini, Matteo Pezzolet, Riccardo Corso, Daniele Latrella, Gianfranco Mauto, Giovanni Di Cosimo. Everyone contributes their own background of experience, seeking out an innovative form of entertainment. I handle the technical and video side, I don't play but I go along on tour.

I also play percussion in Marco Conidi's band. With him we're also carrying on a two-man tour in unusual settings, a door-to-door trip around Italy through unusual locations, like decommissioned buses, greengrocers, convents, private living rooms. We perform with guitar, percussion and voice. Wonderful places where we find unexpected hospitality and great warmth - it's been an important experience.

Cris: Fabrizio and I also took care of the stage design for Marco Conidi's tour. I dabble in drawing, I do graphic design, and I tried my hand at this project - a great opportunity.

Roberto, your style has undisguised points of reference in the noise techniques spread by Sonic Youth and, in Italy, by the early Marlene Kuntz…

Rob: you've mentioned two of my greatest loves in the rock music landscape. Marlene Kuntz have always been my band of reference. I've always loved that kind of sound. I love thinking, rethinking, arranging one or more guitar lines, avoiding as much as possible the standard division of roles between lead and rhythm. These days I like to think a single guitar can pretty much manage to combine both aspects almost completely on its own, chasing after another sister guitar, and maybe yet another one. But I'm convinced my sound is also the offspring of other important listening, Radiohead above all. That's just to bring things a bit into focus - the paths of influence are always endless, unpredictable, often entirely accidental.

What are Cristiano's points of reference?

Cris: I have my favorite guitarists, obviously, but I never try to redo other people's things or copy how they do them. I listen to a lot of music, but then I realize that what I do is somewhat the result of my own background, not traceable to a single source.

Fabrizio, are there any drummers who inspire you?

Fab: One I've always admired enormously is John Bonham. I prefer drummers who sweat over ones who are too polished and refined. I'm definitely not someone who spends time studying other people's DVDs to steal their secrets. In short, nothing premeditated.

Massimo, and what about you - which bassists inspire you?

Mas: well, there's no bassist in particular that I look to. What definitely comes through are my listening habits of the last twenty years: rap, punk, funk, soul, noise, rock and all their various offshoots. What I listen to is stronger than me, and it's usually what dictates what I end up playing. When Cristiano brings a new song into the rehearsal room, I go with my gut more than my head. That leads me to play something before I even understand what I'm doing. I could drop a lot of impressive-sounding names when it comes to my influences, but a TV show theme tune I heard when I was seven probably shaped me far more than any number of rockstars.

Roberto, once recording on "Yarn" wrapped up, decided to step back, while remaining an "external" member, and Simone Sciamanna took his place.

Simone: at the end of 2010, after Roberto's decision, I auditioned for the replacement spot and was chosen out of many thousands of hopefuls. No, I'm joking! (laughs) It all happened very naturally, thanks to a pre-existing friendship and some previous collaborations. Joining Desert Motel meant becoming part of a band that was already very present in my own listening, so from a musical integration standpoint everything was extremely straightforward.

Thanks to your engineering background, I know you enjoy building the pedals that make up your rig...

Sim: even though there are wonderful things made by established manufacturers, each of us has different sonic needs and ambitions. From that point of view, building and customizing your own gear is a good way to achieve the satisfaction you're after. Up to here it might sound like a triumph of rationality, but in reality it's a compulsive passion. I've been known to fire up the soldering iron at 3 in the morning. In its own way it's a creative process, and it keeps all of that urgency intact.

What do your lyrics talk about?

Cris: we don't go for classic songwriting, with a character's story unfolding through conventional storytelling. I analyze states of mind, observe events - even mundane ones - sometimes laying out my own points of view. For now we avoid political connotations, not because we don't want to take a clear stance, but because we want to steer clear of rhetorical, gratuitous or obvious solutions.

Live, between songs, you often offer a brief explanation of the lyrical side of your songs.

Cris: for example, I often introduce "Kurtz" by referencing Conrad's "Heart of Darkness". In that case, the book initially influenced the lyrics, but then the lyrics broke away from the book and began to take on a life of their own. The inspiration comes from the hypocrisies of the society of that time, which can still be glimpsed in the way we live today. I certainly wasn't the first to be influenced by "Heart of Darkness" (see the film Apocalypse Now) - I simply offered my own take on it.

I'd like to know what led you to choose to sing in English?

Cris: it all comes from the fact that, having overdosed on music sung in English, it felt natural for me to write in that language. It's true that singing in Italian would make our message more direct, and audiences would understand more clearly what we're talking about. But it's equally true that, in today's globalized context, English should be an extra weapon in our arsenal. These days, in real time, via the web, countless people around the world can potentially listen to your music or watch your videos: I worry that in this context Italian could become a limitation. Borders have widened, and besides, we feel deeply European. Anyway, I don't think singing in English means losing our country's cultural identity.

Fab: we're so aware of the value of the lyrics Cristiano writes that, in the inner booklet of "Yarn", we insisted on including translations of all the lyrics. Precisely because we care not only about the purely musical side of things: it's important for anyone approaching our music to understand that there are real lyrics behind it.

Cris: you know, there's this contradiction in a lot of people: they listen to loads of foreign music, then when an Italian band sings in English they say “but we can't understand you”.

In some recent shows you've also experimented with a five-piece line-up, with three guitars, which makes you sound even more sonic.

Fab: Roberto is finishing his studies at the Conservatory, and he felt the responsibility to see the work through to finish “Yarn”. But then he couldn't take on the commitment of touring the album live. So he took a sabbatical, which in the end turned out to be a good thing, because it allowed Simone to join the band. Recently Roberto has officially come back as a full member of Desert Motel, so the band has effectively turned into a five-piece. That now lets us go really heavy, with the power of three electric guitars on stage. Three guitars that complement each other, with Roberto remaining the more experimental-noise soul, who also enjoys dabbling with synths and doing violence to his own guitar. A noisemaker who knows what he's doing.

How does your songwriting process work?

Cris: it starts from an idea, almost always a musical one, and we all work on it together. I write the lyrics, but the arrangements take shape through everyone's collaboration.

A full four years went by between your debut EP and “Yarn”, an eternity these days…

Fab: we mainly focused on playing a lot of live shows. We felt no urgency to record new material. Quickly putting together a new album just to fill your house with boxes of CDs makes no sense. The major-label landscape is in crisis these days, let alone the garage-band scene (laughs). We questioned a lot of aspects of individual songs many times over, trying to find a shared direction to pursue. Then we had a break-in at our rehearsal space, which slowed down some stages of the work.

Cris: the band's maturing process demanded that kind of timeframe. There's no creative stalemate behind it, nor was there excessive work at the production stage, which would inevitably have flattened out the tracks and given them a polished sheen we didn't want. We simply needed time to shape the Desert Motel sound, we had to figure out what we wanted to do. It was a bit like starting over, also because it was the first time we tackled a new work cycle with the expanded line-up.

Fab: “Paths” (the track that opens “Yarn”, ed.) is symptomatic of all this: a song that appears on both our records, tackled in very different ways, it sounds like the work of two different bands.

How hard is it to break through when you come from Italy's chronic provinces?

Fab: these days it's hard to break through anywhere, even if you're from Milan. Sure, coming from the provinces is a disadvantage, because you're further away from the key hubs. You're farther from venues, from people, and it's harder to forge important collaborations, the kind of things that let you cross-pollinate your sound and make what you do more interesting. The potential audience is inevitably smaller, and if what you're doing isn't mainstream, it's hard to grow your fanbase numerically.

Cris: breaking through locally, in the provinces, might not be that hard, the real problem is getting out of the provinces. We have a lot of people who support us in our area. The people who get involved really get involved. But making the leap beyond those borders is the real challenge.

You've however decided to actively commit to helping promote the music made by artists from your area, through the Tube Association…

Tube is a collective of musicians who make their own music against all sorts of odds. It's important to have a home base where you don't have to watch the clock, just your instrument. Recording, listening back, comparing notes. In our home area there are so many extraordinary musicians who stay in the shadows, who risk never climbing out of the proverbial basement. Something needs to be done, forces need to be joined. The Tube association, which we're active promoters of, has plenty of projects in its portfolio, all worthwhile. Thanks to Tube, a strong spirit of collaboration is developing, a kind of mutual aid. The goal is multimedia: not just playing, but also shooting videos, handling recording, mastering and editing, running press office duties, managing booking. There's already a sort of label, it's called Sofa Recs., and all our releases come out under that name.

How do you see the state of health of the national independent scene?

Cris: the Italian scene has for some years now been one of the most thriving and varied in Europe. Unfortunately, for a lot of the major music media, this whole fantastic underground world simply doesn't exist. Maybe they know about it, but they don't talk about it, which certainly doesn't help matters. What is genuinely extraordinary, though, is that thanks to the constant work of webzines and specialist magazines, and to having practically everything at our fingertips through the web, what would once have been strictly niche is now accessible to the masses. I'm not saying we've got it made, but we really can't complain, can we? Thanks to these dynamics, the Italian independent/alternative scene has gained an informed and engaged audience. This phenomenon forces us to raise our game: when you write music you know you have to be precise, keep improving, keep renewing yourself, keep searching; you can't cheat the people listening to you, because you're not facing an audience of unprepared consumers, but of listeners, lovers, enthusiasts. That means greater awareness on the part of both musicians and labels. What Italy has to offer is getting broader and more refined all the time. Think of any genre and you'll surely find solid names covering that territory brilliantly.

Which other Italian artists do you feel closest to?

Cris: since Desert Motel is a mix of so many opposing forces balancing each other out, if you asked any other member of the band you'd probably get different answers. Personally, what I appreciate most about the indie scene are, first of all, the obvious names, like Afterhours, Zen Circus, Verdena, Marlene Kuntz and everything that sprouted in the '90s out of the Consorzio Produttori Indipendenti. Then there are a lot of more niche acts like Yuppie Flu, A Toys Orchestra — especially their “Technicolor Dreams” — Green Like July, Julie's Haircut, Farmer Sea, Blessed Child Opera, News For Lulu. Even though they're currently disbanded, Franklin Delano were a genuine blessing for me, and I keep following them as Blake/e/e/e. None of the names I've listed have any real, concrete affinity with what Desert Motel does, but you can definitely find a lot of shared values, and plenty of common influences too.

What's your take on talent shows?

Cris: I'm afraid that whoever comes out of those TV shows won't easily shake off a certain label. It can be really hard to change what's been built onto you from the outside. If you're fine with that, you've won the lottery, but if down the line you want to do something else, it gets complicated. Talent shows pigeonhole you. You might think you can compromise at first so you can go it alone later on. But it's tough to actually turn situations like that around in your favor.

Fab: X Factor at least makes you sing, I could even get behind that. But Amici is a circus. Marco Carta wins Amici, but to do it he has to dance, he has to play the clown a bit. And it's awful that someone should be put in a position where they have to do all that! We've never aspired to become famous. We want to play, make music, experiment, have fun. Obviously if what we do ends up being heard by thousands of people, that can only be a good thing. But of course, if time goes by and success doesn't come, you're left without financial independence, and the project risks falling apart, along with the enthusiasm.

Cris: the point is, if you have an audience but you can't do what you actually want to do, that's a defeat regardless.

It's been a summer full of important things: a date at Circolo degli Artisti in Rome, opening slots for Roberto Angelini, Niccolò Fabi and Bud Spencer Blues Explosion, and success in the contest sponsored by OndaRock.

Fab: summer 2011 was important for our growth as artists. We shared stages in significant situations. Playing with quality gear, with top sound engineers looking after you, having people ask for your autograph after a show, watching your popularity grow, seeing all this reflected on social media — these are all milestones that help you grow.

Cris: you become aware that you need to give the audience something worthy of them. What we do on stage, we want to do properly. And we want to respect the venues that host us. That's why we decided to delay the promotional tour after releasing “Yarn”. So we could be truly ready, and show respect for the people who come to see us. So, after a few live tests around our area, the official presentation was moved from September to November. We're getting the event ready in one of the most important venues in the capital.

“Yarn” has been well reviewed pretty much everywhere, I've read important things about it in the print press too.

Fab: huge satisfaction, respected names, kind words. Honestly, we didn't expect it. We read the first reviews over and over, dozens of times, in magazines and websites that have always been essential points of reference for us.

It's clear that the members of an emerging band can't yet afford to live off their art. I'd like to know what your "day jobs" are at the moment.

Cris: I'm a graphic designer.

Fab: I work in a family business, while Massimo is the most rock'n'roll of us all.

Mas: I work as a night porter at a hotel, I play with the band until late at night, then I rush off to work.

Sim: electronic engineer at a company that makes security systems for aircraft.

Rob: an all-around musician, I'm about to finish Conservatory and I teach in various settings.

Instead, I'd like to hear about your passions, your hobbies.

Rob: music, on various levels, fills up most of my time. But if I had to name something I enjoy doing beyond playing and composing, I'd definitely say writing texts that aren't songs: a few lines, notes that when they grow up would like to become poems or mini short stories, though I reserve the (good) taste to stop them. I like putting words together and sometimes physically making little booklets, from layout to binding. Manual work on things like this has always fascinated me.

Mas: music aside, there's not much time left. Well, it depends on the period — I'm a book and record addict, but not a collector. I'm actually quite good at growing chili peppers on my balcony, so maybe I could say gardening.

Sim: leaving aside the obvious stuff, I like listening, thinking, walking down streets I don't know, and not much else.

Fab: I love fishing, it relaxes me.

Cris: graphic design, reading, cinema, lots of music.

Cristiano, name an album, a book and a film you'd recommend to anyone listening to "Yarn"

No doubts about the album: "A Ghost is Born" by Wilco. You'll find out why once you listen to it. Without a doubt one of the masterpieces of recent years.

For the book I'd recommend "The Corrections" by Jonathan Franzen: those points of view we were talking about earlier — here they offer perspectives that are pretty easy to trace back to your own life. The things people often avoid talking about, the disappointments, the frustrations. I like the depth that builds up around characters who are essentially anti-heroes. In a thoroughly ironic way, they're the real modern heroes.

For the film I'm torn between "La Science des rêves" and "I Heart Huckabees", so I'll mention both. There's a big dreamlike component inside "Yarn", precisely because dreams are the complement of disillusionment. They're both cause and effect of it, depending on where you're standing when you look at the process. Either way, we're talking about two components that can't exist without each other.

Cristiano, what strikes me is that you're not afraid to show your influences. Your first EP, steeped in country-folk flavors, takes its title from a Neil Young song. Now that you're being compared to Wilco, you don't shy away from performing in t-shirts of Jeff Tweedy's band.

Cris: we don't run away from certain situations, we reinforce them. Why hide your own sources of inspiration? Labels can always be disproven with the next record, by betting on unpredictability. No one can know what Desert Motel will be doing in six months' time.

Who would you like to collaborate with in the future?

Cris: in Italy, Zen Circus, I like their sound, and then Yuppie Flu. Among international acts, Jim O’Rourke, the Chicago scene, Steve Albini, Nels Cline.

Fab: in Italy I'd say Roberto Angelini. I'm already lucky enough to work with him, but I'd happily spend days on end in the studio with him. He has an extraordinary technique. Abroad, I have a soft spot for the great classics, those untouchable names everyone can only learn from. I'm thinking of musicians of the caliber of Clapton and Dylan. So, out of reach.

Final ritual question: future plans?

Cris: We're trying to put together an Italian tour built around double features, swapping guest appearances with bands from other parts of the country. On November 21st, the official presentation of the album in Rome at the venue Le Mura. Then we'll head back into the studio, we already have some material to start from. There are some edgier ideas that could quickly turn into an EP, which would capture where we're at right now. There'll be plenty to enjoy.

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