Xabier Iriondo - The Craftsman of Italian Avant-Garde

We met with Xabier Iriondo on the sidelines of the Damo Suzuki's Network performances, four Italian dates of the touring project conceived by the former Can singer, which toured our peninsula in January 2011 with Iriondo on guitars, Manuel Agnelli on keyboards, Enrico Gabrielli on horns and Cristiano Calcagnile on drums.

We take the opportunity to trace the key steps of Xabier's artistic journey: not just Afterhours, but also Six Minute War Madness, A Short Apnea, Uncode Duello and dozens of other projects experienced as a musician or producer. And then the feelings he took away from his experience with Suzuki, and the bold Sound Metak project, a shop-cum-workshop that quickly became a cult fixture of the Milan underground.

Xabier, this wasn't the first time you performed with Suzuki: an experience unlike the usual. How much genuine improvisation is there in these performances, and to what extent is there some kind of pre-arranged outline?

I've played with Damo Suzuki about 30 times, and every concert has been a unique, unrepeatable experience. It's improvised in the truest sense of the word, with nothing decided before getting on stage.

What criteria does Damo use to choose the musicians who accompany him? Can it also happen that someone puts themselves forward to him?

Damo doesn't choose — it's the others who have chosen him!

The “Never Ending Tour”, which has now been going on for several years, is run in a very simple way. Musicians who want to play with him get in touch with Damo, in all kinds of spaces (clubs, theatres, museums, galleries, and so on) in many parts of the world, not just Europe and the United States, but also Canada, South America, Japan, Oceania, Russia — pretty much everywhere. Having roughly four thousand sound-carriers scattered around the world, and having lived through different experiences every single time, has given him a unique and deeply personal understanding of the human and artistic spirit.

On stage, you and Manuel clearly exchanged looks of great chemistry: is a love affair being reborn?

I think I've always had a great musical chemistry with Manuel, the same goes for Cristiano (Calcagnile, the drummer, ed.), with whom I've played together in many projects for several years. The real surprise of this tour for me was the excellent chemistry I found with Enrico Gabrielli, with whom I'd previously played on only a couple of occasions.

Last summer you toured with Afterhours as a special added attraction. For the occasion you went back to styling your hair the way you did in the days of “Germi”. All things considered, it seems to have been a thoroughly successful experiment…

Back in the days of “Germi” I used to play live wearing a dress designed by Enrico Coveri. On last summer's tour with Afterhours, the only resemblance to that period, in terms of look, was my hairstyle.

Tell us how you and Manuel met, and whether there's an anecdote from those years that you're particularly attached to.

Back in 1988/1989 I saw some Afterhours shows that struck me enormously. They became my favourite band, along with Ritmo Tribale and Carnival Of Fools.

I met Paolo Cantù, co-founder of Afterhours alongside Manuel, through some mutual friends (in particular Massimo Marini, bassist of Six Minute War Madness, now singer of I Figli di Madre Ignota) at a Beasts of Bourbon concert at Bloom in Mezzago. Paolo then introduced me to Manuel, who asked me if I wanted to audition for Afterhours, since they were looking for a new guitarist. The band's line-up was undergoing a deep restructuring: Paolo Cantù, Roberto Girardi and Lorenzo Olgiati, respectively on guitar, drums and bass, had left after recording the album "During Christine's Sleep".

I did the audition… and it went well!

You've always been the experimental soul of the band; everyone believes the best riffs and all the quirkiest ideas were the fruit of your ingenuity.

Well, I find that a simplistic claim, one I don't feel like agreeing with. Anyway, everyone's free to believe and imagine whatever they prefer…

At a certain point, though, the toy breaks…

I simply wanted time and space to dedicate to myself, both musically and personally.

Satisfy our curiosity: is the title of the album (and the song) "Quello che non c'è" a tribute to your absence?

You'll have to ask Manuel and Giorgio (Prette, drummer and longtime member of Afterhours, ed.): I wasn't playing with Afterhours anymore at that time.

At the same time you were carrying on with Six Minute War Madness, a pivotal band in those thriving Italian '90s.

Federico Ciappini on vocals, Paolo Cantù on guitar, Massimo Marini on bass, Daniele Missirlyan on drums (later replaced by Daniele "Jack" Fontana) and myself. A journey that lasted from 1992 to 2000.

Assisted from the start by Fabio Magistrali, who helped us grow both musically and personally in the recording studio.

Massimo Volume have gotten back together, One Dimensional Man are finishing up a new album, it seems a sort of '90s revival has kicked off: could SMWM have some pleasant surprises in store for us too?

In 2010 with Six Minute War Madness we reissued our last album, "Full Fathom Six", which Santeria/Audioglobe released in 2000.

In this new edition (excellently reviewed on these pages, ed.) a second CD was added, containing unreleased tracks and radio live sessions from the 1992-2000 period. On March 9, 2010 we presented this reissue with one final concert held at Bloom in Mezzago.

After Six Minute War Madness came the time for A Short Apnea and Uncode Duello…

The A Short Apnea project (Paolo Cantù, Fabio Magistrali and myself) was the natural consequence of the time Paolo, Fabio and I spent together in the recording studio.

A trio of friends playing without genre boundaries, five albums released, one of which ("Just Arrived", released in 2004) was made together with Gorge Trio, and a few dozen concerts played in Italy and the former Yugoslavia.

Uncode Duello is a duo, expanded with other musicians on the first two albums.

The natural continuation of A Short Apnea, after Fabio decided to stop playing with us. A duel without codes, bare and primitive, played out between myself and Paolo Cantù. In 2011 we mark nineteen years of music and friendship together.

Today you're regarded as one of the most authoritative experimenters on the national music scene. Your partnership with Mirko Spino (Wallace) has given you an outlet for avant-garde projects and unconventional productions.

Tell us about a project, collaboration or production of yours that's stayed a bit more in the shadows...

I'll pick three:

– "Your Very Eyes" (2008) is an album co-produced by Wallace, Amirani and Phonometak Xabier Iriondo and Gianni Mimmo (soprano sax and a wonderful friend), recorded in a paleo-Christian church inside the Sassi di Matera. A secular psalm shaped by our instruments, the configuration of the place - entirely carved by hand into the tuff - and the special atmosphere that came together in that moment;

– EAReNOW – "Eclipse" (2009), a trio made up of myself, Alberto Morelli and Paolo Cantù, released by Wallace, Amirani, Phonometak and ReR (the label run by Chris Cutler, drummer of Henry Cow and countless other art-rock projects). It's a work full of evocative atmospheres created with unusual instruments. Original, personal music made possible also thanks to the contribution of other musicians, Cristiano Calcagnile and Gianni Mimmo first and foremost. A journey that ranges from folk to progressive to European avant-garde;

– Tasaday – "Waiting, in the Labyrinth" (2004). Tasaday, active since 1981, were one of the first Italian industrial music bands. On this record (alongside the original lineup there's me and Daniele Malavasi, drummer of R.U.N.I.) the sound ranges from No Wave to industrial, from ambient to electronic. Long live Tasaday!

Among the more recent things, we've enjoyed the experimentalism of Shipwreck Bag Show, sounds that nonetheless occupy a niche that's perhaps too narrow...

Roberto Bertacchini, formerly the drummer of Starfuckers, and I aren't interested in settling into comfortable, relaxing armchairs, the kind almost everyone loves. We prefer tight, uncomfortable seats: we write songs built on formulas that are both primitive and thoroughly modern, deeply personal lyrics paired with asynchronous drumming and cutting, devastating stringed instruments.

Unlike what happened with Manuel, you haven't fallen out of love with production...

I record and mix the sound for nearly every musical project I'm involved in - I like having direct control over what I do. In fact, right now I'm producing the new Bancale album, a band from the Bergamo area who sing and play a blues for the last days of this world.

The national independent scene is going through a moment of great vitality: which artists do you like most, and which up-and-coming acts would you bet on today?

Look, in all honesty I don't like making bets, I've never made one. In Italy there are a lot of interesting scenes. The more these scenes look for their own personal path (whether it's pop or electro-clash makes no difference), the more they'll be able to carry their music forward and get it out there.

Let's move on to the international front: what are you listening to, and which records have struck you most over the last few months?

For a few years now I've been listening to music that's distant, both geographically and historically. Here are a couple of examples of rewarding listens from the last few months:

– Alan Lomax's "Haiti Recordings", which are field recordings made in the 1930s;

– "Goodbye Babylon", gospel music recordings ranging from the early 1900s to 1950.

Among the many demos you receive, does it ever happen that you get curious about a submission and decide to get in touch with a musician?

I try to listen to everything I get. Sometimes it piles up, if it's a period when I'm very busy. It does happen that I get in touch with someone, absolutely, it's happened quite a few times.

Your commitment led you in 2005 to open a shop that became a real cult spot in the Milan underground (and beyond): Sound Metak. It closed its doors in December, and from now on sales will continue exclusively online. Tell us about this experience...

I opened my shop-workshop in 2005, knowing that after five years I would close it. This early decision of mine should be understood as a necessity, so as not to remain a slave to the role of shopkeeper-retailer, and to carry this experience elsewhere. No longer in one fixed physical place, but wherever the means and spaces would allow it (the web, for instance, ed.).

On October 16, 2005, Sound Metak came to life: an idea, a dream, another way to give shape to what has always been my way of "feeling" music. To gather and preserve the origins of musical forms and techniques, in order to reach today's avant-garde expressions and contemporary artistic experimentation. Sound Metak was a shop with a craftsman's attitude in offering objects, items, instruments and initiatives.

A place, a space, where I could keep and hold together (metak means a sheaf of straw) objects, items, instruments, in order to share them with people who feel/understand my passion for music and art in general the same way I do. Within this space-container, Sound Metak was also a driving force for artistic/cultural ideas: installations, performances, concerts, exhibitions, seminars.

Keeping this kind of activity alive has by now become a heroic undertaking. I'm also thinking of a number of historic record shops, both in Italy and abroad, that have pulled down their shutters for good.

Yes, but as I said, in my case things were a bit different, it was planned a certain way. I closed my shop in the physical sense because that's what I had already decided five years earlier, at the start of the adventure. I didn't want this wonderful experience to turn into a form of slavery.

A real workshop of ideas and initiatives: let's run through at least the key ones in quick succession.

Over these five years, Sound Metak:

– it dealt in and sold music gear that's sold by no one else (or almost no one else) in Italy;

– it hosted more than 130 artists who performed live, in shows held almost every Saturday and free for the public to attend;

– it co-produced a series of vinyl releases under the name Phonometak Lab. Among the names involved are at least Zu, Iceburn, Mats Gustafsson, Paolo Angeli, Ovo, Sinistri, Damo Suzuki, Talibam, Jealousy Party, Gianni Gebbia, Miss Massive Snowflake, On Fillmore, Scarnella;

– it co-produced a number of CDs I was involved in as a musician (Your Very Eyes with Gianni Mimmo, EAReNOW with Paolo Cantù and Alberto Morelli, The Shipwreck Bag Show with Roberto Bertacchini);

– it co-designed, co-produced (together with T-Pedals) and sold electric guitar pedals (metak fuzztron, metak boost) that are one of a kind.

Five years ago I realized that in Milan there were no spaces, shops or workshops where artists could put on concerts, showcases and performances free from genre constraints and untethered from trends. Sound Metak could be a pioneering project in that respect, with its two shop windows looking out onto a square that could double as a stage. Like a spark, to light a desire among shopkeepers (and not only them) to open up their own spaces to music, art and culture. For me, this shop-workshop has above all been a meeting place for ideas.

What kind of clientele has Sound Metak had over the years?

Over time there's been real diversity in the clientele: from mainstream artists such as Antonella Ruggiero, Eugenio Finardi, Mauro Pagani, Afterhours, Negramaro, Le Vibrazioni, to young musicians just starting out.

Alongside that there's been just as much diversity among the performers: Damo Suzuki, Paolo Tofani, Steve Piccolo, Wu Fei, Gianni Gebbia, Gak Sato, Vincenzo Vasi, Gianni Mimmo, Shane De Leon, Lombroso, Fuzz Orchestra, Comaneci, just to name a dozen among the many who chose to come and play for free in my space. Talking and exchanging ideas and thoughts with them has let me grow both as a person and as a musician, to see beyond the narrow genres that the music market creates and sells, and to understand how anyone can offer a showcase, a space, a container in which culture, free of the usual frameworks and preconceptions, can thrive.

I'd like to dig deeper into the subject of guitar effects. You mentioned that many of the pedals available at Sound Metak are your own designs…

Some of the pedals I sell, and will go on selling, were designed by me and Alberto Dani (T-Pedals).

Let's get into some technical details: there are lots of forums online where young musicians swap advice on which pedals to buy. Let's hear some expert tips: what's the bare minimum gear needed to create a nice noise-shoegaze sound?

There's no single fixed, certain formula. The chances of putting together a good dish depend on the quality and proportion of the elements involved, in other words the ingredients. Sound works the same way. There are thousands of noise guitarists who use different formulas to create similar sounds. It all comes down to each person's taste and creativity.

What kind of setup would you need to put together to sound like Sonic Youth on "Dirty"?

You should ask Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo that, I wouldn't want to offend them…

And to emulate the mighty Motorpsycho?

The cold of Norway, two Ampeg 8×10 cabinets each, and a couple of 100-watt Hiwatt heads apiece.

Sound Metak also handles music productions…

Phonometak is the name of SOUND METAK's division dedicated to music production.

First of all there's the "PhonoMetak Series", a collaboration between Wallace Records and PhonoMetak Laboratoires, which has so far resulted in the release of eight 10" vinyl records

Here are the records involved, starting with the most recent, released in November 2010:

PhonoMetak Series # 8 – Scarnella / Fluorescent Pigs

PhonoMetak Series # 7 – On Fillmore / Pupillo, Kazuhisa, Yasuhiro

PhonoMetak Series # 6 – Gianni Gebbia / Miss Massive Snowflake

PhonoMetak Series # 5 – Talibam / Jealousy Party

PhonoMetak Series # 4 – Damo Suzuki with Metak Network / with Zu and Xabier Iriondo

PhonoMetak Series # 3 – Ovo / Sinistri with Xabier Iriondo

PhonoMetak Series # 2 – Mats Gusatfsson / Paolo Angeli

PhonoMetak Series # 1 – Zu with Xabier Iriondo / Iceburn 

Then there are the two Shipwreck Bag Show albums, "Kc" and "Il tempo…tra le nostre mani, scoppiaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!", plus two other releases we've already discussed: "Eclipse" by EAReNOW and "Your Very Eyes" with Xabier Iriondo and Gianni Mimmo.

Xabier, had you stayed with Afterhours you would have taken part in the Sanremo Song Festival…

In the years I spent playing with Afterhours we never even considered that possibility. Since I left the band ten years ago, it's not something I ask myself anymore.

After so many years in the underground, do you ever feel like writing a potential hit to "give away" to someone? We know you'd be capable of it…

If I really had to, I'd do it for Bruce Springsteen.

Tell us about your main ongoing projects.

The already-mentioned Uncode Duello (that is, me and Paolo Cantù), a primitive duel with no holds barred. We've been touring live these past few months. The already-mentioned The Shipwreck Bag Show (that is, me and Roberto Bertacchini), through which we're taking our latest CD ("KC") around Italy armed with a suitcase full of wood and scrap metal. Then there's Noguru (Scaglia, Marcheschi and Briegel from Ritmo Tribale, Bruno Romani from Detonazione, and Xabier Iriondo), a frantic, urgent urban band. We released a CD titled "Milano Original Soundtrack" in October 2010, and we're doing some live dates to promote it.

You certainly don't get bored... What are your main goals for the future?

To live as long as possible, to be happy, to make my daughter happy, along with my beloved partner and the people I love.

And Xabier's musical adventures don't stop there.

After returning as a permanent member of Afterhours, taking part in the recording of "Padania", word has just come out that in September 2012 his first true solo album will be released: "Irrintzi".

It will be a double vinyl, featuring a host of guests.

Ride the wave of great music

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