Mentioned in our last feature for the amazing Vicenza screamo band DECACY, Turin based emotional screamo / post hardcore band ONE DYING WISH (featuring vocalist Francesco and guitarist Zefiro, who run Longrail Records, featured in our recent mega feature on the Covid-19 pandemic in Italy) have recently released their new amazing LP called “Origami”, recorded in November 2019 with Manuel Volpe at Rubedo Recordings. Today, we’re giving a nod with a special feature including track by track rundown, the band’s commentary on the lyrics, their local scene, Coronavirus situation and, as usual, other bands worth a check.
This is our first full length but to us it feels like a compilation of songs from the last two years: every song had a different origin, ideas came from both me and Zefiro, the other guitarist in the band. The arrangements have been modified tons of times during those two years, some of these songs have been βdisassembledβ and βre-assembledβ many times before they reached their final form.
Lyrics, which have been written and reviewed many times too, donβt have a common thread, if not compassion, fit of comprehension and sharing othersβ feelings.
What all these songs have in common has to do more with the process than it has with the product, the work of writing and changing them carefully. We choose βOrigamiβ as a title for this records because it recalls both this process and the feeling of fragility and vulnerability that pushes us to write songs.
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Few weeks before entering the studio to record βOrigamiβ we recorded a cover of βCuramiβ by CCCP, an influential Italian post-punk band: this cover will be part of a compilation of bands from our area to celebrate the ten years of activity of Tanto di Cappello Records, a small label run by amazing friends of ours. We are also working on three-four new tracks, some faster, some more melodical stuff, and we really hope not to wait another two years to record them.
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Two of us, Francesco and Zefiro, have been running a small label, Longrail records, since 2015 and they also organize concerts, and thatβs how our band came together: in 2016, Longrail records was supposed to host We had a deal and Filippo went to see the show. Unfortunately the band had to cancel the show but that night, probably the second time we met, we decided to start the band. We recorded our first ep βPaura di farcelaβ as a trio.
In late 2018 Longrail hosted ThΓΈrn, Andreaβs other band, for a show. At that time we were thinking about adding a second guitar to our sound and since Zefiro, who had been playing drums for the first two years, is mainly a guitar player, we asked Andrea, with whom we shared the stage before, to join the band. He was the perfect fit for us, it is hard to find such a good drummer with such taste in music as him.
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“Il male minore” is a reflection on becoming adults, on choices, on responsibilities, on the fear of not knowing how to manage them and the negative effects this has on mood, well-being and Self-perception.
βContagioβ is a song about the feeling of anthropological and cultural superiority that pervades many βwell-educatedβ people when they fac e those they define βignorantβ. We think that the anger and the violence they express comes out of the same inner place from which comes the hate that some of those who they define as βignorantβ throw against immigrants: it is the fear of becoming like the one they hate, to lose their privilege.
“Torna da me” is a song about love that ends. Much more trivially and dramatically than how one can learn from fiction (literature, cinema, television), which very often constitutes the only source of sentimental education, love can end even without trauma, simply because the two people involved are no longer lined up on that feeling. In the absence of a clear break, everything is nuanced and difficult to understand and elaborate, to overcome.
We have asked ourselves several times what we will tell our children about these years when the death of human beings at sea is daily news: we are afraid to find ourselves answering the question “why did you do nothing?”, “where were you?”. “Mediterraneo” is about the anger and the shame of living here, on the shore, to be safe and dry and seeing so many deaths to become almost insensitive, losing your humanity.
“La strada di casa” is a love song, intending love as a daily commitment to understanding and intertwining the needs of the other with one’s own, as part of a common project.
“Come origami” tells of loneliness and the absence of love, the idealization of this feeling.
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We are lucky enough to live in a really fertile area, between Cuneo and Torino, where many great bands have set an high standard in the past (Negazione, Nerorgasmo, Fluxus, Dead Elephant to name a few), and many new others are trying to keep the flame alive.
In 2019 (and the first month of 2020 too) a ton of good new stuff came out of our area: Dogs for Breakfast, Threehorn, Flying Disk, Failure, The Glad Husbands, Low Standards, High Fives, Rope, O, Grotta di Pietroβ¦ You have everything from hardcore, post-hardcore, stoner, sludge, powerviolence to black metal on this listβ¦
Outside the βextremeβ kind of stuff weβd like to mention a few amazing projects. Seward, Alaska is Zefiroβs solo-songwriter project, really emotional and diverse stuff; DAT is trap-hardcore duo we shared the stage with once, the most interesting band around; Manuel Volpe, who recorded, mixed and masterd βOrigamiβ is involved in One Blood Family, a collective of refugees with whom he makes music; Paynomindtous, which organized our last concert before the lockdown, is a couple of friends of ours, focused on arts, experimental and dancefloor-oriented music: they are the most passionate and professional people to ever set up a show for us and we share the same musical roots.
However the environment around those bands and projects has never been friendly and we are reaching a low point, many venues are closing, and the others are not interested in live music, since they seem to earn more from DJ sets made up by the same songs every night. In such a situation, the coronavirus could be a deadly hit for many venues and music-related cultural activities.
Scatti Vorticosi, an hardcore punk label from Turin, has gathered many bands for a compilation, the proceeds of whom will go directly to the venues which promote live music and are facing a really hard time. βIl male minoreβ, the opener to βOrigamiβ, is featured in this compilation.
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As we said before, COVID-19 impact on our communities is huge. Our country has been the first european one to face the virus. We are exiting a long period of lockdown but the end of this pandemic seems still far away. Andrea, our drummer, is from one of the most affected cities in Italy. The last two months have been really hard with very few positive news. Among them, two projects by two favourite bands of ours: Storm{O} [GO HERE for an insightful interview for IDIOTEQ]Β has launched REBOOT SYSTEM – REBOUND COLLECTIVE, a project in which they uploaded a selection of 10 songs taken from their records in multitrack to encourage people to download, remix, remake and sample them to create something new. Theyβll print some ltd edition CDs w/a silkscreened poster by Serimal and donate all incomes to Covid19-Nessuna da sola-Sostieni le sexworker. They should have been touring the U.S. with Gillian Carter right now but they had to cancel all the shows, so we think they need and deserve your support right now.
SELF ISOLATION FAMILY PROJECT is a project launched by Ojne the product of which will not go under their monicker: they recorded a few guitar/bass tracks and asked anyone to contribute to them by recording their own instrument. The final results should be a bunch of screamo/emo/whatever tracks built by the collective effort of people from the whole world during these strange and scary times.
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We have to start with Decacy.
We got to know Alberto, the singer-guitarist of the band, because he included one of our songs in a compilation about italian screamo and some months later he set up a show for us in his hometown. His band, Decacy, opened the show and left us speachless. They are so young, so focused and they gave us a feeling of pureness, of truly sharing something real through their songs. Moreover they master their instrument and their music in a way you would not expect from teenagers. Their first record, which came out a few months ago, more than confirmed our good first impression, it sounds amazing!
Maremarcio, from Parma, have a new record out too. We got to know them a few months ago, when they hosted us for a show in their hometown, with our friends NenΓ¨ Azzura from Milano. They’re part of Collettivo La DefΓ¨nse, and they organize super cool diy concerts in a place called Saletta Adorno. If you love the most melodic side of screamo you have to check them!
Another band weβd like to recommend is ChivΓ la: they play a pretty unique blend of emotive post-hardcore and screamo. We know them because of Andrea, their drummer, and his label Upwind, which has produced many records that we love and which was the first label to help us out when we started out as Longrail Records.
Last summer we played two shows together, in our hometown and in Milano, along with Lytic (ex Saetia, Off-Minor) from New York, and it was awesome, beautiful people and great musicians, and the most intense live act too.
ChivΓ la released some split ep in the last year, including one with Suirami which has also been released for Longrail Records.
