Last fall, Italian dream pop quartet Six Impossible Things booked studio time to record “Nevermore / Eight and a Half,” a double single released on September 24 via the shoegaze label Dear Gear Records (we covered it here).
Drums were tracked at Elfo Studio in Piacenza with engineer Daniele Mandelli, and the songs were mixed and mastered by Maurizio Baggio, whose credits include The Soft Moon, Messa, and Boy Harsher. Singer and keyboardist Nicky Fodritto and guitarist and singer Lorenzo Di Girolamo started the sessions alongside bassist Enrico Tosti—also frontman of the shoegaze outfit Noday—and new drummer Emanuele Corbellini.
Lorenzo describes the group as “a band full of contradictions. We’re hardcore kids playing dream pop, we have messy personalities with an acute eye for artistic detail. Our paths to this place in life have been long and bumpy. As kids, we all found salvation in the city’s hardcore scene; we all came from previous punk bands, except for Nicky who used to play country music.”
Originally a duo formed by Nicky and Lorenzo, Six Impossible Things gradually evolved into a full band over the past few years. The shift brought a richer dynamic to their writing and sound, marking a natural step from the intimate tone of their early releases toward the layered, immersive textures heard on “Nevermore / Eight and a Half.”
The sessions were deliberately spread across multiple locations. “We tracked at three different places,” Lorenzo explains. “We laid down all the drums and piano parts at Elfo Studio, then came back to my house to record guitars, bass and keys. In the end we went to Vicenza at La Distilleria to meet Maurizio, who did a terrific job with vocal production. Though the two tracks all rush forward in confident bursts of power and distortions, a closer listen reveals numerous intriguing melodies and catchy parts.”
For the band, the studio remains a place of shared ritual. “One of the many things we love about being in the studio are these weird things, like old equipment, amps, pedals, wasting hours trying to capture the right guitar feedback and being able to spend time concentrating almost entirely on making music,” they said. “It always feels fucking good to be in the studio with your friends and producers you love, recording a record, having fun, eating and drinking.”
They’ve also turned that process into a film. “Nevermore / Eight and a Half: The Movie” documents their time recording, blending footage of quiet reflection and creative focus. “We’ve watched hundreds of music documentaries over the years, and we’ve always found it fascinating when artists let you in on the recording process,” says Nicky. “I remember seeing a video of Lana Del Rey recording ‘Beautiful People Beautiful Problems’ where she placed a sheet of paper between her mouth and the microphone, and I couldn’t wait to try it myself.”
The band handled direction and editing themselves. “It’s a short documentary that captures behind-the-scenes moments from our time in the studio, an intimate look at some of our favourite memories as a band,” they wrote. “Over the years, we’ve put a lot of attention into building a strong visual aesthetic. We’re ‘90s kids, and we love adding a sense of nostalgia into everything we do. We usually shoot our videos on my little handycam but, for this project, I used my Fujifilm X-H2, and I love how it turned out.”
“Nevermore” sits at the emotional core of the release—a song stretched between recollection and immediacy. “We were in the middle of the pandemic and I spent months alone in my bedroom reading books and listening to music,” Lorenzo recalls. “I was still living in my parents’ house at the time and I had a lot of free time because, obviously, we weren’t allowed to work. I came up with a bunch of ideas in that period and ‘Nevermore’ was the one that has been stuck in my head all this time. So we decided to start working on it in the summer of 2024 and now it is finally out in the world. I think the best way to describe the mood of this song is: dream pop for those currently having some very dark dreams.”
That phrase fits. The lyrics trace the shape of quiet despair: I’m in a bad place, days are passing me by. I thought I didn’t deserve this. I’m scared I’m running out of time. Then comes the soft admission—sleep is the only solace I can find. The song’s sound contrasts the words: gentle guitars drift in layers, drums guide rather than strike, the voice floats like an afterthought, faint but steady. It feels both weightless and heavy, the kind of melancholy that hums instead of breaks.
The accompanying video, directed by the band, carries a different air—sunlight, open skies, shared glances. Friendship in motion. It’s a quiet answer to the song’s solitude, a reminder that even the darkest dreams can produce connection.
“Nevermore / Eight and a Half” shows Six Impossible Things folding memory, isolation, and collaboration into a single frame—music that looks inward yet drifts outward, always searching for light inside the noise.
Can’t wait to hear more from these two creative minds.
