PREMIERE: Simone Sello – Where Crime Lives [Video]

On the OndaRock homepage is the video premiere of “Where Crime Lives” by Simone Sello. A dark, noir-tinged track built on shadowy guitar riffs, raw blues harmonies and a tense, dramatic atmosphere heightened by the use of harmonica. It's a song born from the meeting of music and social observation: the images accompanying “Where Crime Lives” were shot by Simone Sello during his visits to Skid Row, Los Angeles, one of the places that most starkly lays bare the contradictions of one of the richest cities in the world. Sound and vision intertwine in a raw, direct narrative, free of filters or artifice. The video for “Where Crime Lives” is conceived as a fragment of reality observed up close, without mediation or aesthetic embellishment. The direction takes a direct approach: faces, streets and urban details are shown in their essential rawness, leaving room for "visual silence" and the implicit tension of the scenes. There are no actors or staging: the video relies solely on the power of real places and the people who move through them. The editing follows the emotional structure of the track, creating a narrative that neither judges nor sensationalizes, but documents, leaving it to the viewer to confront reality. Taken as a whole, the video stands as a work suspended between music and urban reportage: a stark, unsettling portrait of the city's shadow zones, where image and sound become tools of testimony and awareness. The artist explains: "The video for 'Where Crime Lives' was born out of a documentary need. During some of my previous visits to Skid Row in Los Angeles, I felt the need to go back to film those images and translate my feelings into an artistic project. I got in the car armed with a camera and started filming the streets just as they were: dirty, forgotten and populated by people who were clearly disillusioned, in many cases desperate. During editing, I let those faces and places tell their own stories simply by unfolding on screen, without adding or removing other elements. The track was written and recorded with a choice of raw guitars and essential blues harmonies: few elements, but well-aimed. I wanted the music to have a limping, irregular gait, as if moving forward wounded but stubborn, observing without commenting. The song was co-written and sung by Ashley Bottorff, who left us prematurely right there in Los Angeles: her voice and presence remain a fundamental part of the song's soul and of my artistic journey." "Paparazzi, Izakayas and Cowboys" is instead Simone Sello's new project, blending Spaghetti Western atmospheres with rock/blues, surf and retro-futuristic electronica, enriched with Japanese suggestions. Each track is conceived as a chapter of an imaginary film, with the guitar guiding the listener through desert landscapes, neon-lit urban nights and surreal scenarios. The album is being released track by track, in a narrative journey that combines sonic exploration with cinematic vision. Live, the project transforms into a multimedia show with music and original projections in perfect sync.

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