Italian catchy pop punk rockers from TRASH’N’CLEAN (est. 2014) recently released their 2nd EP “Wetness Delivery” and are currently working on writing new music and planning on releasing a full length sometime next year. We caught up with the band to learn some details on their new music, inspirations and the mission to become 100% committed to music and making TRASH’N’CLEAN their day job. See the full interview below.
TRASH’N’CLEAN is vocalist Fabio, lead guitarist Danny, rhythm guitarist Mark, bassist and back up vocalist Marchino, and drummer Mario.
Hi guys! First off, congratulations on your new EP! Pease tell me a bit about yourself and what led you to forming this band.
Hey guys, thanks for having us here, it’s an honour!
We’ve been playing together since school. Initially, it was just Mark (rhythm guitar), Danny (lead guitar) and Mario (drums) playing covers and having some fun. Fabio (vocals) and Marchino (bass) came later in the project when stuff got a bit more serious. It all started just for fun, as a group of friends.
Them we noticed people were getting something more at our live shows: huge hype was usually created in the crowd… so we decided to start writing our own music. We started writing our first EP in December 2014, and that’s what we think is the real beginning of TRASH’N’CLEAN as it is now.
What do you hope listeners take away from your new EP?
“Wetness Delivery” is the result of our participation in Emergenza Festival. After performing at the national final at the Alcatraz in Milan, we won the second prize, which was the production of a brand new EP.
If you gave it a listen you probably noticed that all the tracks sound rather different in terms of intent and in terms of topics. In fact, we see “Wetness Delivery” as a collection of our tracks more than as a well defined EP with a reason and a message behind it. It was a choice, you know? We wanted to give people an idea of who we are. TRASH’N’CLEAN right? We are “trashy”, dumb and we know how to have fun, but we are also five clever boys who can treat a variety of serious topics as well (if needed).
What we wanted to create with this EP was a solid base to create hype for the next release. People should start to get to know us through this EP, so that they can trust us releasing something really good on the next record. They won’t be disappointed.
One of the most shocking things I’ve read about you was your 100% involvement in the band! Not many of young bands have left their day jobs and followed their dream of running a band full time. What prompted you to follow this path?
Having two parallel lives and always hoping to be on the music path only is not something we were happy to do anymore. Also, keeping on hoping for fortune on the music path while each of us dedicate 80% of their time and energies on other jobs… doesn’t really make sense, doesn’t it? If you want to do something you can’t just hope for the best. Get your ass working on it.
Given that you won’t give up, how do you plan to accomplish that goal? Have you already registered a company called ‘TRASH’N’CLEAN’, ready to generate some income and pay taxes?
Mate, we are far from being at that level so far. But we are ready to experience how it feels to live under a bridge for a while… you see what I mean (laughs).
We’ll record new material soon. And we promise you this production will be something from another level, something we have never done before. Our new music is 10 steps above the previous work. After that, we’ll invest in new videos and loads of live shows. We plan on touring outside of Italy as well.
Haha, do you have a deadline, some kind of a break-even point when you’ll know this band can pay your bills? :)
We have given ourselves a year time starting from now. Then we’ll analyse the situation and see how far we have travelled. Paying bills will be important only then… we’ve worked hard enough in the previous years so we have some money aside to invest in the band and to live off for a little bit.
Photo by Lorenzo Desiati.
Ok guys, let’s get philosophical for a moment :) Where do you think punk rock sit in terms of modern culture? Do you think it’s still able to compete with modern technologies, games, social media, etc.?
I think I have never been asked a question that is so deep and philosophical in any interview before…
I think the real question is: what is punk rock then? You’ll receive millions of different answers on this one, so I’m gonna give you our own view on this. Punk rock is not only a music genre, but is something that goes beyond. It is an attitude, it is a state of mind, it is a force of union between the people. In a world where there is still violence, injustice, discrimination, lack of dignity and the system is in the hand of a few millionaires… how could punk rock be dead? Punk is the essence of consciousness of all of this… and it’s a unified stand up of the people against it. This creates cohesion, brotherhood and a big loving community.
I think in modern culture the spirit of punk has changed from the 70s and it took the form of other musical genres, artists and behaviours, first of all through hip-hop. It even moved away from politics that much since then. The essence hasn’t changed though. It has simply developed according to the change in time. Modern technologies, games, social media… yeah, there is definitely still a need for punk, maybe even more than ever before. People want it more than ever and kids feel the need for it. It’s just not fashionable and common as it used to be, so it’s the form, the way to reach the people… that has changed.
We believe that form is just whatever the trends bring… so one year something will be more common than the other, and the next year maybe the roles might be switched. We’ll continue to do our thing the way we feel we can communicate to the people at our best, whether this means making completely new unheard music or sticking to our beloved 90s punk rock – which we won’t do (laughs).
So how are you inspired for your next recording? How do you maintain inspiration and not just get bored with this relatively generic genre?
Writing new music is the most fun activity, but at the same time is the most tiring. We try to find inspiration in different ways and we all contribute individually to the song-writing process. Some of us like to find inspiration through the outside world, by sitting down on a bench at night and writing new lyrics or discovering some vocal melodies. Others like to write elaborate music initially in their rooms. Our drummer loves jamming in the practice room with us and finding new beats and fills. We usually start from individual ideas and then work together as a group to conclude each track, so it can be finally called a song.
Specifically for the new recordings, I think most of the inspiration comes from our choice of quitting our jobs for the band. This gave a whole new incredible atmosphere to every single day we lived in the past month. And… we also think this atmosphere is represented very well in the music itself. It is something quite different from what we did in the past.
OK guys, lastly, what do you find most rewarding about running this band?
The crowd. Without a doubt. Seeing even only one dickhead you have never seen before bouncing his head up and down at your live shows is what keeps us going. When you see you have reached someone’s heart through your music, you know you can do that to a lot of other people… and it simply feels so right. Our band is about the spirit and good times together.
Thanks so much for your time and good luck with your quest!
Ciao!!!
