Ofeliadorme - Pop-rock between dream and reality

F: Over the years I've noticed that all four of us share a trait: a close attention to the parts each of us plays. We listen to each other a lot when we're in the rehearsal room, we're not the kind of musicians who chase individual "glory" first and foremost, who insist on playing as much as possible on every track no matter what. On the contrary, every note or hit is exactly where we feel it should be. If we're playing and realize the song works better without something, we take it out without hesitation. We look for balance, we don't want to force our way into the listener's perception, we'd rather aim for attention that's genuinely worth paying, even if that sometimes means fewer listeners. But we don't really mind, just as we don't mind that some people don't get why we sing in English or the fact that we're not easily pigeonholed into this or that sub-genre definition. We're the kind of people who notice the most insignificant details. Every song has its own genesis and its own story. And a very personal mood.

F: There are so many heroes, so many anti-heroes and so many ordinary people, which doesn't mean they're less interesting - it means that in their own small way they make History, even if no shared memory of them will be kept. In our songs, it happens that we come across all of them. Ian Curtis and Ulysses are both, in their own way, very tragic figures. And we, as Italians, can be pretty dramatic at certain moments. "All Harm Ends Here" and "Bloodroot" are like two photographs taken at different times and in different places of the same person. Let's put it that way. You know that feeling when you're already a bit unsettled looking at photos of yourself from 10 years ago? That's kind of the sensation for me - you know it's you, sometimes you like what you see, sometimes less so, but there's no doubt a lot has changed. The details make up the whole picture. I think we can say with a light heart that we've come a long way, and we keep on doing so. The search can never really end.

M: Problematic.

Gianluca: Two words: hypnotic, eclectic.

F: Maybe we're too lazy to come up with some interesting, catchy formula to sum up our music. The truth is we just don't think about it at all… there are lots of influences, but they're filtered through our own sensibility. Some of them probably don't even show up at all, like my passion for certain rap, say the Beastie Boys. Or g.Mod's passion for opera. What I can tell you is that we've been labeled in a whole bunch of ways, here they are — if you can think of a way to sum them up, let us know: new wave/neo-psychedelia/alt-pop/alt-rock/psych-folk/post-rock/shoegaze/dream-pop/indie/dark-folk/soft-rock/etc.

F: No man is a prophet in his own land. And then there's the by-now-completely-derailed logic of the record industry and, as a result, everything that revolves around it. There's also a lot of laziness, even mental laziness, in our country.

M: I don't know if it holds true for everyone, but it certainly seems to for us.

M: Bologna is a really great city from that point of view, we know a lot of the bands based here or nearby. Maybe it's our own fault, or maybe it's simply because we've never gone looking for it, but so far we can't claim to have shared many stages with others. We share rehearsal space with Umberto Maria Giardini, and some musicians from the "scene" played on the album (Vittoria Burattini of Massimo Volume, Marcello Petruzzi-33ore, Bruno Germano-Settlefish, Angela Baraldi, Alberto Poloni-ohTheLadyStone) and, even though it was wonderful to share those days, I don't think we can really talk about sharing a path together. We've always made our own way alone, up to now.

F: Right now I'd love to play a show with Daughter, or if we really want to dream big, Nick Cave.