Andrea Pomini
5 Questions To

"Pinterism" is that theatrical, emphatic attitude that underscores the importance of the situation. Yes, it's named after Harold Pinter, the Nobel laureate (2005) in literature. That one.

When in 2004, my group and I, pedantic and clumsy musicians always keen to remind everyone how fake the mainstream was, practiced in the damp cellars of old Cuneo, we were tormented and tortured trying to figure out how we could give expression to our pieces. How many chemicals would we still have to consume, how many ruinous love stories to live, how many sustained notes would we yet need to stretch to reach the zenith? Like all enthusiastic but inexperienced amateurs though, we ended up mistaking the finger for the moon. We thought it was enough to add to the end of our songs: faded notes, marathon-like distortions, silences during which we would stare at each other. In short, Pinterism. We thought those things were enough to deliver emotional charge and pathos. That with them, we could communicate how we felt inside. Poor deluded souls.

We wanted to be great, and all the greats make use, willingly or not, of Pinterisms. All. From Velvet Underground to Pink Floyd, Wilco, Radiohead. All of them know how to handle what Pierpaolo Capovilla precisely calls "narrative silences". The band stretches tension and emotions to the maximum, then leaves you there, mouth agape, chasing them in the smoky curls of the instruments. A sound effect that has its graphic counterpart on the cover of "Nowhere" by Ride.

Massimo Volume, blessed them, know how to use "narrative silences". They also know how to write pieces that describe the senseless circularity of life and at the same time rise vertically, depicting universal human conditions. Their stories are authentic, never as clumsy as the ones we wrote. When Emidio sings: "I would never have gone back home", you feel as if you're behind a Swedish restaurant, apron dirty in hand and enough willpower to set the whole city on fire. My group and I, "my" used without much cause, have always envied and idolized them, naturally. And why not?

They were one of the best Italian bands of the nineties, in terms of quality and sophistication. 

Minimalism and poetry, worthy of the musical Arcadia that was shining from North America in those years.

Now, eight years after disbanding, after the reunion in 2008, they have released a new album: "Bad Habits". Collaterally, "All Here" (Arcana, 18.50 euros) the biography of the group, written by Andrea Pomini, eclectic jack-of-all-trades of the Italian independent music scene: journalist (writes for Rumore), musician (with Disco Drive), founder of the label "Love Boat" (for which Altro, Giardini di Mirò, and Fragments published). In short words, he's one of those people you-thank-for-being-there. Here's a short interview.

So, Massimo Volume officially debuted with "Rooms" in 1993. How would you describe the Italian musical culture of that time?

First and foremost, those were the years of Italian rap. A communicative explosion - especially in hindsight - perhaps confused and very (too?) tied to the moment, but urgent like nothing had been for a long time. Words were central again, spoken in the same language as the listener and bearers of content. Much like in the Italian hardcore punk of the '80s (not by chance, many rap scene protagonists came from there), but with an unprecedented musical accessibility. In the realm of rock, however, singing in Italian by the Afterhours, Marlene Kuntz, Casino Royale, Dischi del Mulo, Consorzio, Mescal and a thousand others had yet to arrive, or were just beginning to sprout underground. The CCCP had used speech previously, as did the Starfuckers in "Broth of bitches" strategic, a fundamental group and album for the birth and early footsteps of Massimo Volume. They surely started influenced by that atmosphere, but with clear ideas from the start about what their path should be, a unique and very personal journey of those driven, above all, by a strong communicative need. One that transcends any musical, stylistic, technical discourse. Always.

When was the first time you heard them? What struck you about them?

I first heard them at the old premises of Radio Black Out, the self-managed Turin station where I broadcasted at the time. I had read something about them in "Rumore", but had never heard them. A copy of Rooms arrived on vinyl in the newsroom, and the effect was explosive. What struck me more than anything else were the words, naturally: it felt like opening a window onto the unknown and the depths of ourselves, simultaneously; they were like things we felt we had inside but had never found a way to express. The music accompanied them perfectly, hard and instinctive, yet calculated to the millimeter, nothing out of place.

In your opinion, what is Massimo Volume's strength?

Exactly that. I think it doesn't do an injustice to the other group members to say that the words are the crown jewel of Massimo Volume. Dario Parisini, for a short period a guitarist for the group, explains it excellently in the book: "I adore Mimì's lyrics, I think that along with Lindo Ferretti and Franco Battiato, he is the lyricist who most has found words for many people. To translate into words what people think, what they feel but cannot express concretely: I believe this is the duty of an artist. Whether with music, film, however they damn please. Emidio's are words you feel on your skin, like a symptom. He is the doctor who comes and gives you the diagnosis: this is what you have, this is what you wanted to say”. Egle, Vittoria, and the others have put him in the position to maximize those words, multiplying their power.

What groups would you cite to summarize Massimo Volume's background? And what about their, let's say, "disciples"?

Regarding the background, it depends on the individuals and the time they are taken. Each of them in the book recounts in detail their passions, not just musical ones, and not all are passions that can be found in the group's sound, at least not obviously. What you see, initially, is the search for their own path between English post-punk and American post-hardcore, with a look at minimalism and psychedelia growing stronger as time goes on, as the noise and fury of the beginnings diminish. Regarding the true or presumed disciples, instead, I will repeat what I write in the introduction: Massimo Volume created a genre and at the same time killed it. Before, there was nothing like it, after everything similar inevitably became "Massimo Volume style". Both the somewhat clumsy attempts to imitate them, and the sincere pushes by those who saw a previously closed door open and followed their example, and the songs of those who have almost nothing to do with them except for the superficial analogy of the spoken word but are still labeled as a clone, without deserving it.
Another thing is to try to investigate who today might have the impact Massimo Volume had then on the music and youth of our country. Their role, their strength, their ability to mark the lives of listeners and divide the audience in two. In this sense, I see nothing at the moment comparable to them and what they represented.

Talking about the book, when and why did you decide to make it? How did you proceed?

I was asked by the publishing house, quite simply. One of my all-time favorite bands and a historic mark of Italian musical (and not only) publishing: an offer I could not refuse! From the start, I decided it wouldn’t be a classic biography, narrated by me drawing on already existing bibliographical sources and adding some critical analysis. Both because the bibliography on Massimo Volume was very scarce - no books, some old interviews in 90s magazines, some partial and fictional mentions in Emidio Clementi's books - and because, materially, when those things happened, I wasn’t there. I wasn’t their manager, sound engineer, roadie, or whatever. I would still have had to have them tell me things, so I thought of setting it all up as an oral history where only the various protagonists speak, following the example of a fundamental book like "Please Kill Me" by Gillian McCain and Legs McNeil. I thought they deserved it, and I thought that on some fundamental twists of the group's history it would be impossible (as well as useless and much less interesting) to have only one version of the facts. So there are two, three or four, and somehow this enriches the narrative and the definition of the various characters involved. The only possible way and the only way that interested me coincided, in short. So I extensively interviewed, and almost always in person, all nine present and past members of the group, and nine people who actively dealt with Massimo Volume: album producers, collaborators, record executives, managers. Everyone was extremely available and told their stories in-depth, more in-depth than I imagined and hoped. I then transcribed and organized every interview, and then fit together the various testimonies within each other, trying to follow a chronological order as much as possible and managing (I didn’t dare hope...) not to intervene in first person with connections, data, dates. A long and tiring work, but much more interesting, for me and I hope for the readers.

How would you rate the new album "Bad Habits"?

As I reviewed it (in the October Rolling Stone): excellent. One of their best albums. Very classic yet new, fresh. With excellent lyrics and equally vital music, thanks also to the addition to the lineup of a talented and creative guitarist like Stefano Pilia. And with some of their best songs ever, Lithium above all.

Can you summarize your journey through fanzines, labels, and radio? A chronology, let's say.

I started writing very young, around the age of 14, with the chronicles of the basketball matches for the local weekly. Then I created a fanzine, “abBestia!”, which ran for seven issues and sold around a thousand copies and more. In 2002, I started writing for "Rumore", and today this passion has become one of my jobs: I also collaborate with "Il Giornale della Musica", "DJ Mag Italia" and "La Repubblica", and occasionally write for various other publications. And I’ve written the book we’re discussing, of course! I also have a blog called Soul Food. For a few years, I also had a small independent label, "Love Boat Records & Buttons". Thirteen releases in total between 1997 and 2004, albums by Altro, Giardini di Mirò, Deep End, A Modern Safari, Diana Darby, By All Means and Fragments among others.

Disco Drive, DJ sets, tell us about your experiences in the music field.

Over the years I have played in various groups: I Fichissimi, Encore Fou, and especially Disco Drive. The first was a group active around the mid-90s, combining melodic pop-punk in the style of Ramones/Screeching Weasel/Queers with Italian lyrics trying to be a little more meaningful than the genre average. The second played hard and dark, between screamo and crust, also with Italian lyrics; the third wanted to unite black rhythms, punk energy, and pop melodies and are among the three, the band with which I toured the most in Italy and Europe. I Fichissimi released a 7” and unreleased tracks on three compilations; Encore Fou a CD; Disco Drive two 7”, an album, and a mini-album with me, and another album after my exit. Subsequently, I produced tracks on my own under the name Repeater, one of which was released on a compilation by the Berlin-based Duplikat, and I started doing DJ sets regularly. Either alone or paired with my friend and colleague Giorgio Valletta as Computer Says No.