Spiritual Front - Ballads from a World in Dissolution

Let's start with a question that might be a bit obvious for you, and one you've surely been asked a million times: where does "Spiritual Front" come from?

Simone: Actually, I like the contrast between "spiritual" and "front". It's not really a contrast, but if you think about it for a second, "spiritual" evokes something very spiritual, while "front" is more about action, something imposing, something drastic, something strong. "Spiritual" brings to mind the mystical, the lofty, which has nothing to do with action in material terms: it's a nice contrast, and I think it works pretty well too.

So it was you who came up with it, it wasn't a group decision?

Simone: No, but actually I started the band on my own. It was a project I started like that, within four walls, between the end of '99 and the beginning of 2000. But then, as I also wrote in the liner notes inside "Open Wounds" (their latest album, ed.), it's not like I started doing these things thinking that within a few years I'd form a band, expand the thing, start making wine, etc. etc.

So what were you doing back then?

Simone: Nothing! (laughs). Do you mean in everyday life? I used to get drunk a lot and I was obsessed with things like the darkest folk, a certain kind of cinema, a certain kind of reading, and then I stayed home…

So you were a student?

Simone: I was a student for many years, but I did a lot of things because I worked, studied, did a bit of everything. Then I also had some more metal-oriented bands, but at the same time I was nurturing this passion for more folk and industrial stuff, until I told myself "let me try doing something of my own", and from there, little by little, step by step…

And step by step you rounded up some friends to put a band together?

Simone: "Friends" is a big word (laughs). No, well, I brought in people I started collaborating with. Him, for instance (points to Andrea, the drummer) is the one who's been there since the beginning. Then other people came and went, but this — let's say — is the lineup, the more or less definitive one. Were you expecting cooler answers, I've been a bit boring (laughs)?

Worst case, when I transcribe the interview I can add some of my own flair…

Simone: Something exciting (laughs).

Your music, on the other hand, is often labelled "nihilist suicide pop", but if you go on Google and quickly search nihilist+suicide+pop, you find nothing except links that lead right back to you. So, as the founding fathers and custodians of this genre, can you shed some light on it?

Simone: Well, I mostly use "suicide pop", there's "nihilist folk" and "suicide pop". And yes, it's also true that we used to always put the word "nihilist" on our t-shirts, which is really about this punk approach to nihilism, meaning the rejection of pre-established truths, and so "nihilist" alludes a bit to that.

So is it a distinction that's only conceptual, or musical as well?

Simone: More on a conceptual level. Although "suicide pop" maybe leans more towards the musical side, which is the "pop" part. But even with "suicide" there's a contrast: "suicide" is something radical, definitive, and pop…

And is pop maybe something more commercial?

Simone: No, popular, because commercial is different. Because even Slayer are commercial, even Marilyn Manson are commercial: in the sense that they sell, they play a lot of shows, which doesn't mean being pop. You can be pop and be a shit band, not commercial, that's a contrast too.

So are you a non-commercial pop band?

Simone: Shitty pop (laughs).

I didn't say anything!

Simone: But you thought it. This pop thing is always a very open-to-interpretation concept.

And anyway you're the one who came up with this definition first, I mean it came out of your mouth…

Simone: Yes, yes, because "suicide pop" gives the idea, gives the sense of a pop that's a bit off-kilter, a bit dark, but if you don't like it I'll change it (laughs)

But it would be nice to have a more generic definition that could also be applied to other bands.

Andrea: But that's actually the great thing about it, the fact that it's tied only to us and not to other bands.

Federico: You could sum it up as "suicide catch ballads for heartbreakers nihilist youth…" (laughs)

Simone: No, but look, "suicide pop", you can think of it as a "pop" that deals with slightly more decadent themes, a "decadent pop", a "negative pop".

And still on the subject of genres, do you think it's possible to attribute a kind of strength, virility, masculinity to your sound, or is that just an impression?

Simone: Yes, and in our music there are also nods to a certain kind of virile cinema.

Federico: We play macho (laughs).

Simone: Sensual, there's an over-the-top sensuality to it.

Federico: Also because our music is played live, and that makes a big difference. Simone: Our references are all masculine, anyway.

"Open Wounds" is instead the name of your latest album, released in a limited edition (only 2000 copies worldwide!)

Simone: Yes, because it's a rather special box set...

...where you offer a revisitation of some of your most celebrated tracks, plus one unreleased song...

Simone: "Celebrated" is a nice word, I wish they were celebrated (laughs).

But what led you to conceive this new work?

Simone: Over all these years people often asked me to reissue the old records, but I actually hated the old records, in terms of production, artwork, arrangements, labels: it was really like an "open wound" that I wanted to close and stop talking about. So in the end, since it happened that some things got reissued without my consent, I told myself: "why reissue this old stuff I don't even like? We could try re-recording it more arranged, more legible, more understandable."

And also recently on YouTube your new video for "Song For The Old Man" was released. A sort of spaghetti western, featuring, among others, Gianni Garko. Why this setting?

Simone: Actually, the funny thing is that we're also quite into westerns, especially Italian ones, and with this video we didn't want to make a costume western set in the 19th century, but rather evoke that kind of western you can still find today if you go to certain parts of the United States. In cinema, on the other hand, the spaghetti western was a very important genre, which did follow in the footsteps of the American western but did so in an even more interesting, more exciting way, even better than some American westerns. So much so that later westerns, those of the '60s and '70s, drew directly on Italian westerns. But what did you ask me, I forgot (laughs)?

Simone: Because, actually, I happened to meet Garko through some interviews I did with him for my thesis, back when I was at university, and I stayed in touch with him and pitched him this video. So I decided to make the video, the song lent itself to it, I asked him if he wanted to take part, and so we came up with a story that could go in a proto-western, new-western direction. Garko agreed and wanted to get involved in the script and rework the whole thing a bit, so the video ended up being tailored somewhat around his character. In any case we were happy about it, because he's a kind of legend of the Italian western, and he agreed to work with us, so we were absolutely thrilled and we went in the direction he shaped, which drew well on this figure of the old man.

And so how did this track turn out? Who is this "old man" really?

Simone: But actually I wrote it thinking about my grandfather, though underneath there's the concept - which then keeps recurring in all the Spiritual Front lyrics - of this bond, this conflict between parent and child, authority, citizen, the conflict between lovers... There's always someone who wants to instil knowledge in you, to teach you something, there's always this lesson that keeps coming back.

So the "old man" in the end is?

Simone: A generational reference and a cultural reference. It's fairly clear in the video: it's basically the Oedipal concept, which then also ties back into the whole discourse on nihilism: the destruction of the model that precedes you, the cultural model that created you, this cycle of destruction and re-creation.

Browsing your Facebook page, aside from the numerous "merchandising pics" - photos of your fans all over the world in Spiritual Front-branded t-shirts, CDs and so on - you also come across some more intimate and intriguing performances by Simone (like the one last April, open to just 50 people in the Borromeo crypt in the heart of Rome). What's that about? What is this curious relationship with the Church?

Federico: Actually we had to pay for the record, and admission was 350 euros a head (laughs).

Simone: But really, if you make a certain kind of music, it's natural that certain locations suit it better, so whoever organized it figured those were the right settings for Spiritual Front.

Your collaborations with Death in June and Ordo Rosarius Equilibrio are well known by now. Do you have more planned for the future, or is Spiritual Front now just Spiritual Front on its own?

Federico: We've actually got one coming up next with Beyoncé (laughs).

Simone: No, nothing's been planned at the moment.

Andrea: It's often not that easy to organize. For instance Tomas (Tomas Pettersson, leader of Ordo Rosarius Equilibrio, ed.) asked many times to play with them, but actually we only did it once, at the festival in Leipzig, we put together a couple of songs with Simone and them.

Simone: We did a "swap" (laughs). We're supposed to do "Satyriasis 2", another split, we've talked about it, but who knows when: it's one thing to say it, another to do it.

And don't you ever get tired of always playing suicide pop? Joking aside, when you're not playing your own music, what do you listen to?

Federico: Well, for the next record we thought about turning "suicide pop" into "suicide girls", which really suits the virility we were talking about earlier (laughs). No, actually, when we're not playing and we listen to other music, we only listen to our own records!

Giorgio: I don't think any of us listens to Spiritual Front at home.

Simone: I do.

Federico: Just Spiritual Front and 80s metal for me.

Andrea: And then our listening habits are really almost 360 degrees.

Simone: Apart from crap like hip pop, rap, which none of us listen to.

Federico: Also because you'll take in just about anything.

Giorgio: It also depends on the moment: sometimes you feel like listening to one thing, sometimes to something else.

Federico: Then it also depends on what instrument you're studying.

Andrea: Just think how awful it'd be to only listen to one genre...

Simone: It's like always making love in the same position. Look, we've all got a shared taste for alternative rock, new wave.

Andrea: Honestly, you can't ask us what we listen to, because we'd never stop talking.

Since you're an Italian band and everyone already knows all too well the problems and downsides tied to our Belpaese, let's try for once to focus on the positives: how much does your “made in Italy” identity matter to you?

Federico: What problems? (ironic tone).

Simone: I can tell you one thing right away, can I be honest? In all these years hanging around venues, musicians, etc., I've heard everyone complain, but really there aren't, or rather there are very few, people who actually do something concrete to change the situation. Everyone says Italy is a shitty country, but then when it's their turn: “No, I can't play today because I have to go out with my girlfriend”, “Today I have to go play five-a-side football”, that's the attitude, you get it? So either keep quiet or what's the point of complaining? They complain that nothing happens in Italy, but then when there's a show, they don't go because they'd have to drive, it costs 10 euros, and so on...

We play a lot abroad, if they call me to play a show in Russia, I go, in Mexico, I go, but I'm also realistic and I know I can't make a living off my music, it's not like I can buy myself a car or a house with it. The thing is, one year you might play 300 shows and sell more records, and then the next year you might only have three dates: so you need to be prudent, put money aside, and find some kind of work that lets you keep playing, because very few people manage to live on music alone. I've always taken crappy jobs that let me go and play.

But is your Italian background important to your music or not?

Simone: It's hugely important, it's fundamental. And I'll tell you something else. We play a lot abroad precisely because of that Italian element, call it a stereotype if you like: sharp suits, certain nods to Italian popular music, but I think Andrea could say something about this too (ironic tone), right, Andrea?

Andrea: You've already said it all (laughs).

Simone: In the sense that if you play at being American, nobody believes you, it doesn't work, it's not yours, you know? We sing in English because it's a kind of code, an international language that lets us be understood and also work abroad.

And how do you view the Italian music scene?

Andrea: I think the Italian scene is more than solid, there's a lot of interesting stuff.

Simone: Which then ends up scattered, though, because there's no consistency in the work, no seriousness.

And to finish, a quick-fire question: which song do you identify with most?

Giorgio: "Cruisin".

Andrea: One I really like a lot is "Bare Knuckle Boy".

Federico: For me it's two tangos: "Cold Love In A Cold Coffin" and "Bastard Angel".

Simone: For me, recorded, on record, "Hey Boy" and "Soul Gambler".

And to play live?

Andrea: I have a lot of fun with "Darkroom".

Simone: Ah, "Darckroom Friendship". I have fun with all of them, but live I probably like "Bastard Angel" more.

(Rome 31/05/2013)