The Challenges of Making Music in Covid-19 times, Interview with The Spins

 Interesting interview with The Spins, who explain how they are managing during the current state of lockdown for the Coronavirus. 

On Easter premier of our new video Sunday Morning https://t.co/tgAzLYI5TE @NinoFiretto @DrJimmyStar @scottborchetta @BigIndieGiant @BigBlue9ation @PaulDraper @247publicity @KawaiPianos @Camelot_Records @ChrisCaggs @SimonCocking @TheLuxeWorld @nilslofgren @GongleShanks

— The Spins (@therealspins) April 11, 2020

What is your own background briefly?

SILVIA: I started singing when I was 15 years old, being a member of the school choir. it was the fundamental experience to win the stage fear. To make a long story short, at the age of 16 I started taking my first singing lessons, throwing myself into the world of bands and live music. As I was performing, my passion and also the possibility of meeting fans or people who worked in this field increased by building a network of important friendships and collaborations.

There are so many things to say, so many experiences to quote. In 2017, surely another fundamental step was the participation in a television talent that took away all doubts making me understand what kind of artist I wanted to become.

ALESSIA: I started playing drums when I was 13, after having watched on TV the videoclip of Toto’s Africa. Despite I’ve been raised in a family with very low interest for music, I soon became passionate about drumming and began to study the style of great drummers like Simon Phillips, Terry Bozzio and Dave Weckl, which led me to listen and being inspirated by music with a high rate of technical skills (Frank Zappa, Chick Corea, Protocol, Toto).

MARCELLO: My father was a Conservatory graduated amateur pianist, my mother an opera fan, so I grew listening classical music until my auntie Elsa gave me The Beatles’ 45 Strawberry Fields/Penny Lane, pushing me to explore the world of English pop/rock. Since then I found noone able to make me change my taste in music, and even today, when I write a song, my role models are The Beatles, The Who, Deep Purple, Pink Floyd, with an eye toward the rules of composition I learned studying at the Conservatory.

MARCO: I was born when the “guitar heroes” dominated the scene of rock music, so when I began studying guitar at 12 my aim was to acquire the technical skills of such incredible guitarist like Steve Vai, Joe Satriani or Yngwie Malmsteen.

Does it seem like a logical background to what you do now?

ALESSIA: No, I admit that, especially after having married Marcello and having started immersing myself in the knowledge of musical genres I never gave the attention they deserve, I realized that a solid technical training is fundamental for any session man worthy of the name but to make great music doesn’t mean making always show of one’s technical abilities. So when I play I try to use the exact quantity of skills sufficient to provide maximum thrills to the listener.

SILVIA: I tasted as much as I could, I tried to get rid of all the curiosity that came to my mind. I experimented and I jumped (and I haven’t finished yet), so to date I would say that it was not so much the most logical background, as the most useful and right for me

MARCELLO: I think yes. I agree in full with Keith Richard’s dislike for rap music and moreover I’m not so young anymore to think that hip hop, Youtubers and social networks are things that you have inescapably to consider when making music. So, even if it may be a choice probably not so commercially rewarding, I’m in a band that tries always to make music in its most common and “old-fashioned” meaning, so I think that my background is essential for composing music for such a band.

MARCO: First of all, you have to consider that I’m the one in the band who’s not a professional musician. Moreover I have a very limited experience of being the lead guitarist in a professional setting. My technical skill enables me to play whatever I may be asked to, my lack of experience makes it essential that the rest of the band tell me what is the best tuneful choice in that particular song.

How was the last 12 months? What were your big wins?

SILVIA: In the last year there have been many small, personal victories. The most significant ones are undoubtedly having the chance to be noticed by a group like The Spins; secondly, admission to the conservatory; third, the imprinting that I finally managed to give even to a solo project

ALESSIA: On the one hand, a big win has been that I’ve been able to consolidate my drum school despite the economically strained times that we are experiencing. On the other hand, it seems that rock is not dead yet, so it’s possible that there’s enough space for us to do something relevant in the music business. Last but not least, having asked Silvia to join the band.

MARCELLO: Considering the unreal times in which we are living, perhaps the biggest win in the last 12 months has been the absolute normality of the life before Covid-19, or should I say that despite our former bassist Mai Leiszt quit to move to LA after the recording of an EP that had a very poor commercial success, I managed to convince the rest of the band that it was worth continuing on our way.

MARCO: Being asked to join The Spins for sure

What would you have done differently?

SILVIA: Everything is needed to be who we are today, even mistakes. I wouldn’t do anything different because today I’m proud of myself and I know that I have to thank every single step from my past for this

ALESSIA: Maybe 20 years ago I could have take my chance moving to UK or USA, the more I live in Italy the more I realize that here too many times I’ve been offered a job because I’m a cute female drummer and not because I’m a good drummer. Proof of this is that one of the highest points of my career (or the highest point until now) has been drumming for Jeff Beck in his Grammy winning 45 Hammerhead, in Italy no one ever considered me for a job at the same level, even if the opportunity I had to work for Jeff Beck shows I can measure up to any music job.

MARCELLO: Nothing, probably, because I think that the best thing I could do for the band and for my career in the music business has yet to come.

MARCO: Nothing, honestly, I don’t regret a single thing I did in my past

Tell us about the video – what inspired you to do it this way & what do you plan to do next in the same vein?

MARCELLO: when our manager Dean Hill sent me an e-mail asking me to make a video for Sunday Morning, my first reaction was to answer “ehm, I should be a wizard to make a videoclip during lockdown and as we are not working I don’t have money to hire one”. Then Alessia told me: “we could make like Queen did after Freddie has died, you could use our old videos to make a new one”. So I did. And I hope that this will be the only one thing we will do this way and in the same vein; otherwise it would mean that lockdown will last for months and I’m not sure I can take it for much longer…

Why do you think it is such a powerful idea / do you have other collaborations in mind?

MARCELLO: I think that this video shows that if you use your imagination you can bypass difficulties as big as the ones generated by all the restrictions of movement we are actually suffering during Covid-19 lockdown. Actually I have not other collaborations in mind, but we all would really love to start something new with musicians/artists worldwide

How can people find out more about you personally & your work?

MARCELLO: To know more and maybe contact us, everyone who has got a reliable internet provider can check our official site  http://www.thespins.biz, or find us on Twitter (https://twitter.com/therealspins), YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/c/Thespins) or Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/therealspins).
Silvia has also got an account on Instagram (@silviacs112)

Who and where do you get inspiration from? Who are you favourite musicians & why?

SILVIA: I seek inspiration from everything around me, both with regard to the words to choose, both with regard to what to describe, both with regard to the sounds. Not being born as a musician, but having only the vocal instrument, I have always been fascinated by the possibility of producing sounds with everything around us and also with vocal loops. There are many inspirations for me, mostly from ethnic and Nordic music such as Aurora, Susanne Sundfor, Agnes Obel or Florence and the machine. However, I do not deprive myself of listening to anything

MARCELLO: everything can inspire me, it could be a bass line played by my wife when she gets enough of playing drums, something I see, I hear or I read. My favourite musicians (in no particular order) are The Beatles, The Who, Mozart, J.S.Bach, Queen Deep Purple, Beethoven and (strange but true) Kraftwerk and Nik Kershaw, in different ways they all give sensations I don’t have from anyone else and in different ways they all wrote music I would like to be able to write myself

ALESSIA: I could be inspired by anything or anyone. Most of the time my inspiration let me write 8 bars of a melody or a groove, so transform it in a complete song is something I leave to Marcello and Silvia. Once upon a time I would have said that my inspirations were Toto, Chick Corea, Nik Kershaw and Michael Jackson, now you have to add everyone who is a reference for Marcello. Furthermore, the cook of the house is Marcello, so if I wanna have two decent meals a day I have to be a little bit compliant with his musical tastes…

MARCO: I don’t write music, so I only can say that I’m learning how to channel my passion for guitar heros into The Spins music

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