During a pretty fuzzy night out, a group of four friends came up with the name “Jaguero”, a crazy union between a wild animal and a football player. They immediately felt in love with that idea, imagining “Jaguero” as a lucha-libre fighter, that spends his life between darkness and glorious times.
This weird character has led them to create a new project, with the common aim to write some songs just for fun.
Jaguero is a band formed by Andrea Cichellero (guitar, voice), Guido Dal Prà (bass, voice), Matteo Marangoni (guitar, voice) and Andrea Campesato Segnini (drums).
Jaguero merges multiples tastes and music experiences: the hardcore sound of Slander (Matteo Marangoni), the indie-folk vibes of La Fortuna (Andrea Cichellero’s solo project) and the 90’s emo/punk rock atmosphere of Regarde (Guido Dal Prà, Andrea Campesato Segnini).
Their motto is pretty simple: have a lot of fun and zero stress. Speaking of their main projects, both Regarde and Andrea’s La Fortuna projects are still active, while Matteo is focusing completely on his tattoo artist career. Everyone in the band created his own life between work and other projects, so the idea of giving so much to another band can be pretty intense.
Ambient influences of Andrea La Fortuna’s solo project give to Jaguero small but important features that characterize the songs. His taste in music is extremely wide: from 50s jazz to modern punk rock, from italian traditional songs to hardcore, and more. Jaguero is where this range of listenings converge in an equilibrium between song’s characterization and aggressiveness.
While Matteo’s history with Slander needs no introduction, his old-school influences gives a sharp character to heavier sections of the songs, with particular attention to the lyrics: screams, massive riffing and direct sentences are present because of him.
Last but not leasts, Guido and Andrea define a strong rhythmic section of the songs: both of them focus their attention to small song details, not only about their own instrument but mostly about the general direction of the song. Meanwhile, Regarde are active with a solid background of eight years of live shows and different records: two full lengths, two EPs and a split. In a parallel road, with Jaguero project they both felt the urgency to go toward a more direct and punk atmosphere, writing fast songs that go straight into listener’s hear.
One of the most important role in new “Worst Weekend Ever” EP was covered by Maurizio Baggio, producer of La Distilleria recording studio in Bassano Del Grappa, where the band recorded all the songs.
His long and extraordinary experience as sound engineer (both studio and touring) helped the band to find its own authentic character: he suggested some unusual but functioning ideas about gear, for example an old Ampeg bass head for every single guitar tone, or a Juno synthetizer for some Twin Peaks-like leads. Also, he pushed the band to pursuit a two-faced Jaguero: a nicer and more emotional one, and a fast and loud one.
The recording process behind Worst Weekend Ever was very satisfying, but challenging during the vocals sessions: Guido and Andrea were struggling a little bit on some higher sections, spending more time than planned, but Matteo saved the day recording all his sections in one take at maximum power. For you to know, Maurizio named him “Jaguero’s Jewel” because of that.
In the current post-pandemic era, promoting music is very complex: labels can’t work in the same way as 5 years ago, and the obviously promotion of new music is crucial to reach more people, expecially for a new band and less live concerts.
In this difficult situation old time friend Gab De La Vega, head of Epidemic Records, is playing a central role in taking Jaguero throught the right channels. With no playlist focusing, no streams oriented, his approach to press-office operations accelerates the diffusion of Jaguero‘s cult, much faster and better.
Worst Weekend Ever is out now via Epidemic Records, produced by Maurizio Baggio and played by Jaguero.
This EP was born from an extreme urgency to play a bunch of songs as loud as possible, after a long break from live concerts.
Make live music great again, and we will speak more about concerts than digital albums.
