Q: Hey, can you tell us a bit about where you come from, and what made you want to start a career in music?
A: I‘m born in Naples (IT), and I have been traveling for most of my life before relocating to London (UK) and later to Berlin (DE). I started playing the first gigs and making recordings as a teenager, driven by the urge to express myself and overcome my shyness and insecurity.
Q: And what other artists have you found yourself listening to lately?
A: I recently went to a gig of Duman in Berlin. It’s a very established rock band from Turkey. I found it brilliant how they mix rock and post-punk music with more traditional Turkish influences. I hope to get to know them in the future and maybe collaborate with some of the musicians from the band.
Q: Who were your first and strongest musical influences, and why the name ‘Lolita Terrorist Sounds’?
A: Miles Davis’s album “Bitches Brew”, John Coltrane’s “A love supreme”, Stooges, Velvet Underground, and lots of post-punk, classic music, folk, and traditional music from South Italy and Eastern Europe. The name of the band is a provocative combination of Nabokov’s novel title “Lolita”, and adds the challenging perception of the word “Terrorist”. Both were generated using the W. Burroughs cut-up technique and adding to it the word “Sounds” to best describe the groundbreaking nature of the band’s compositions and performances.
Q: You have just released your new single, ‘Curse’. Is there a story behind it?
A: It came up as an experiment. “Curse” started as a Cappella song with tribal drums and shamanic vocals. There are also many astrological elements and powerful symbolism in the lyrics, together with a decent amount of humour when I sing: “Prosperity, money to me, glory to me”. It portrays the obsessive and compulsive habits of relying on money and materialistic values typical of our times.
Q: Can we expect a new EP or even an album from you in the near future?
A: “St. Lola” our debut studio album, will be released in the upcoming months. It will contain the four singles we have put out this year and more unreleased music. The album will include a cast of international musicians and collaborators such as Kristof Hahn (Swans, Pere Ubu), NU Unruh (Einstürzende Neubauten), Bob Rutman, Roderick Miller, Thomas Stern (Nick Cave), Goldkin (Hugo Race and The True Spirits, Nina Hagen).
Q: What do you feel are the key elements in your music that should resonate with listeners, and how would you personally describe your sound?
A: Lolita Terrorist Sounds is a blend of genres and cultural inheritance. Our music is mostly labeled as post-punk, industrial, and dark. I like to highlight that there is a lot more behind it. Our sound comes from listening to and experiencing lots of not westernised music such as South Italian and East European folk music, Moroccan Gnawa, Senegalese Sabbar, Cuban Yoruba ceremonial music, and more. Albums such as “Bitches Brew” by Miles Davis and “A Love Supreme” by John Coltrane have been highly influential too. Lolita Terrorist Sounds integrates many shamanic and ceremonial elements into the performance, both live and in the recording studio.
Q: Do you feel that your music is giving you back just as much fulfillment as the amount of work you are putting into it, or are you expecting something more?
A: It has been a rewarding time. Lolita Terrorist Sounds music is gaining more interest and attention every year and with every release. It’s a long process, and I like to focus on producing inspiring and always surprising music. Expectations are sometimes a mood killer for an artist because the most rewarding experiences come when you don’t expect them.
Q: Could you describe your creative processes? How do usually start, and go about shaping ideas into a completed song?
A: I follow a different composing path for each song. Rather than a conventional songwriting process, I compose following unpredictable routes. “Curse” as mentioned in the previous answer, came from a drum beat. Other songs came from a guitar riff, a bass line written on piano, or from a previously prepared loop. More unconventional techniques are detuning and changing the speed of the existing demo version to achieve even more unpredictable results. Sometimes the lyrics come first, and the music second. I enjoy not having to follow a routine in composing.
Q: What has been the most difficult thing you’ve had to endure in your life or music career so far?
A: I had to leave my long-time recording studio and living space in Berlin in the middle of the pandemic. The facilities hosting the studio and a big garden were destroyed to be replaced by one of the modern block houses real estate projects financed by investors. This uncontrolled development is sadly leading Berlin and many other cities in the world to lose all its affordable places for artists and creatives. On top of that, the band’s album release was put on hold by a label that promised a good amount of money for releasing it. The record company stepped back just before entering the manufacturing process, leaving us alone with the bills of the mastering and mixing process to pay and a two years delay on the album release. Persistence and hard work lead the story to a happy ending, finding a new space for the band’s studio and developing a completely independent model
to release our music.
Q: On the contrary, what would you consider a successful, proud or significant point in your life or music career so far?
A: Being able to release the band’s music and produce other independent artists on regular bases, touring the world, and get to know lots of beautiful creative souls out there.
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