As the needle drops on SACROFUOCO’s latest record, “Anni Luce,” there’s a palpable shift in the atmosphere, a sense of veering into uncharted auditory realms far removed from their former identity as ONE DYING WISH. It’s as if the band has measured the distance of their journey not in miles, but in light-years, navigating through the self-imposed solitude that’s both isolated them and illuminated their path forward.
The metamorphosis of ONE DYING WISH into SACROFUOCO is not simply a rebranding, but a rebirth that reflects a deeper evolution within the quartet’s collective psyche.
After questioning their creative trajectory at the waning of summer 2022, the band found themselves at a crossroads, grasping for a language that could encapsulate their newfound truths. The recording of “Anni Luce” became a sacred fire that rekindled their creative spirit amid a period of reflection and uncertainty.
In this auditory odyssey, SACROFUOCO has not abandoned the foundations laid by ONE DYING WISH but has built upon them, adding layers of complexity with a willingness to embrace instruments beyond the standard guitar-bass-drums. This evolution of sound is influenced by their collaboration with jazz-oriented producer Manuel Volpe, whose penchant for improvisation and emphasis on performance breathes a unique life into the record, ensuring that “Anni Luce” resonates with an aura that diverges from genre conventions.
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The philosophical undertone of “Anni Luce” draws from the intimate and political, weaving personal narratives with a broader call to action—a nod to the dialectics of Karl Marx. SACROFUOCO confronts the digitization of consciousness in songs like “Replica,” exploring how social media and technology recalibrate our thought processes.
Yet, it is the embrace of vulnerability and the acknowledgement of failure that imbue SACROFUOCO’s lyrics with a gritty realism, capturing the essence of trying, of a burning passion reignited.
The band’s journey is complemented by an eclectic range of influences, from the industrial metal of Strapping Young Lad to the Italian hardcore lyricism of Negazione and Nerorgasmo. Yet, they remain tethered to the vibrant and eclectic Turin music scene, drawing inspiration from local acts like Rhabdomantic Orchestra, Vibrisse, and DAT.
With “Anni Luce,” SACROFUOCO heralds a new era, not just for themselves, but for the listeners they aim to connect with. The record is an invitation to journey alongside the band, to witness the sacred fire within them and perhaps ignite one’s own.
“Anni Luce” is out soon via @recordsshove @i.corrupt.records @weareripcord @friendlyotterdiy. For fans of: Birds in Row, City of Caterpillar, Circle Takes The Square.
See our full interview with SACROFUOCO below.
What sparked the decision to transition from One Dying Wish to Sacrofuoco, and how has this change influenced your music’s direction?
As you may easily guess, we initially chose the name One dying wish as a tribute and as a reference to a band, a genre, a way of playing music, in which we believed. In the beginning we thought that this could be a statement but then we realized you shouldn’t link your identity to no one else’s, you shouldn’t define the borders of yourself on paper. On the other hand, we wanted to enhance the political side of our project, which was already evident in songs like “Mediterraneo” from the Origami LP.
We’ve always asked ourselves many questions, perhaps too many, and at a certain point, at the end of summer 2022, we realized that we no longer had all the answers, that we were no longer completely comfortable with the language and the spaces that we were used to be part of as a band. We lost passion for what we were doing but we found it again in this new direction. The name Sacrofuoco, which in italian can be literally translated to “sacred fire” but has a figurative meaning of “burning passion”, refers to the process of finding the will to play music again.
In crafting “Anni Luce,” how did you blend new elements with your established sound, and what challenges did this fusion present?
We feel like Sacrofuoco leans its foundations on the heavier side of what One dying wish was but we also naturally started experimenting with other instruments than the usual guitar-bass-drums setting.
We didn’t plan to reach a certain sound but we love what we accomplished on “Anni Luce”, even if we feel we only started evolving. COVID also had its role in this process, because we shared less rehearsal time, and we worked or by adding sounds to songs already written by one of us or by writing all together from scratch at rehearsals, following our instincts and getting to new places. It’s not easy but it’s exciting as it sounds!
Working with Manuel Volpe again on “Anni Luce,” how did his background in jazz influence the album’s production and sound?
We’ve already recorded our previous Lp with Manuel and we established a great connection with him, so the choice was obvious for the new one. The thing that we appreciate more of his workflow is the artistic and creative approach to the recording session, there’s alway space for some kind of experimentation with an emphasis on the performance and feeling rather than on the sound itself. Long story short: the process is more important than the result itself. His Jazz background surely makes everything sound a bit different from the “standards” of the music genre and we love it!
The concept behind “Anni Luce” seems deeply introspective. Can you share how personal experiences or philosophical ideas shaped this album?
Everything we ever wrote was deeply personal and the inspiration for the lyrics has always come from personal experiences but this time we tried to link the personal side to a political concept.
The lyrics to the first three songs, which were written as an unicum divided in three parts, are a good representation of this ambivalence: they start from an interpersonal setting to get to a political “call to action”: if we reach full consciousness of our needs we can change things for real.
We don’t feel entitled to mention him because we have the utmost respect for what his thoughts represented but the most obvious referent here is Karl Marx.
Another lyric which arises from personal experience but try to reflect on a political subject is the one for the song “Replica”: the use of social media and electronic devices in general is shaping our way of thinking and feeling and we are giving control over our choices and abilities to various kinds of machines and electronic devices.
You’ve mentioned embracing vulnerability and the possibility of failure in your thematic content. How does this philosophy manifest in your songwriting and performance?
First of all, thank you for really taking the time to try to understand the message behind our songs.
Failure has always been a constant throughout our musical path. In one of the songs from One dying wish’s first EP, “Almeno il tuo sguardo”, we asked ourselves “what meaning can we give to failure?”.
Now we grew older and start understanding that the fear of failure can stop you from even try to do something (as told in the lyrics of “Parole d’amore” from “Anni Luce”) and we need to avoid this trap. Another hero of ours many years ago wrote “you tell me that I make no difference, at least I’m fucking trying”.
That’s exactly our mindset at the moment, we are trying!
Your music releases span multiple international labels. How do these collaborations affect the distribution and reception of your music globally?
We think that if it wasn’t for our beloved Ingo at I.corrupt records (GER) and Manu at Shove (ITA), One dying wish’s “Origami” wouldn’t have been so appreciated. This time with “Anni Luce” we got immediately back to them and than added the contribution of Olin at Friendly Otter (USA) and Charlene at Ripcord (UK), which we immediately fell in love with.
We hope that this international network can help us spread our message!
The Turin music scene is vibrant yet eclectic. How has it influenced Sacrofuoco’s sound, and which local artists or bands do you believe deserve more attention?
Being from a city with a huge importance on the italian punk scene is sometimes hard, there’s a high standard to respect (ahah). At the same time it’s comforting because the path we’re walking on has been already traced and the audience is very conscious. At the moment, after the COVID years, we are witnessing some kind of renaissance, with lots of young people coming to shows.
Local artists you definitely need to check out are Rhabdomantic Orchestra, which is an open collective of musicians led by the aforementioned composer and producer Manuel Volpe playing a blend of jazzy cumbia and other rhythms from the world, Vibrisse, which is a duo of techno djs which share our musical background and our political views, DAT, kind of emo-trap duo which will soon come back with new music.
We have our roots in the Turin hardcore sound of the 80s and 90s but we believe that these other projects have now an influence on us too.
Given the profound thematic elements in “Anni Luce,” how do you
translate these concepts into your live performances?
We’ll try to keep them the most intense and honest possible.
Our goal is always to play what we are and be what we play. Due to all those recent addition to our sound we spent some time to figure out how to recreate the same sound live, without giving up on any element.
Our live setting now include a synthethizer and a drum pad, plus some more tricks with like broken drumsticks.
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Discovering new music is a constant journey. Which artists or bands have you come across in 2023 that have inspired you, and why?
You have to consider that “Anni Luce” was recorded during the summer of 2022. At the time we were listening to a lot of music with industrial influences, link Strapping Young Lad and Fear Factory on the metal side, or like Cop Shoot Cop on the noise one.
Loma Prieta is also a clear influence when it comes to sound. The way we write lyrics has always been influenced by Italian hardcore bands, again we feel a bit shy mentioning them, Negazione, Nerorgasmo, Kina or the more recent Skruigners.
About 2023 we can tell you the recent bands we listened to the most: High Vis, No Pressure, Militarie Gun, Slow Fire Pistol.
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