Fakir Thongs
Lupex

The story I'm about to tell you was a long and difficult birth. Five questions sent to Alex, the band's bassist living just a few dozen meters from my house, and he took a few weeks to reply. Adding his responses to those of his colleagues Alessio, the singer and guitarist, and Bruno the drummer.

A nice "chat" with particular reference to Lupex, the band's new album, released at the beginning of 2018.

Here is the full account.

1) Hello Alex and welcome to Debaser; to break the ice I ask you as a first question for a brief summary regarding the birth and history of the band, the curious choice of the name, and also the musical background of you and your colleagues.

Alex: Hi Lorenzo, in 2000 Alessio and I started a band called KING OF TRASH in honor of the destructive New Year 2000; tracks from the band can still be heard on Myspace today. In 2006, we disbanded and in 2011 we decided to form a new stoner rock band; we were indecisive about the name, so Alessio used Google to anagram the old band's name "KING OF TRASH" and among the various proposals there was indeed the name "FAKIR THONGS"; we liked the name immediately and have kept it to this day; so we can say that the origin of the name comes from New Year's 2000 and from a Google anagram in 2011. Regarding my musical background, I don’t listen to pop, and I like music from the 70s and 90s, I’ll name a few bands I adore and listen to often: Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Tool, Mudvaine, A Perfect Circle, Foo Fighters. I also like Mastodon.

Alessio: Hi Lorenzo. The Fakir Thongs were born in 2011, from some acoustic sessions by me and Alex in my living room. Within a few months, our longtime friend Bruno joined the team. The name is an anagram of "King Of Trash," in turn, the name of a band in which Alex and I played. My reference genres? 70s progressive rock, space rock, and, of course, stoner.

BRUNO: I had known Alex and Alessio for several years and had seen them many times with their previous projects (particularly King of Trash and Donkey Breeder). At the end of 2011, they told me about Fakir and asked me to try out... And from there many more followed. Influences: grunge, stoner, post rock and sludge, math rock, alternative.

2) "Lupex" is the second work you've published; compared to "Habanero" I noticed, from the very first listen, a significant growth in the level of the proposed sound. From a much more direct and linear debut, which moved almost exclusively within Hard - Stoner territories, you have moved to a real explosion of genres and references in the new album. You move, with total ease, between Space Rock, hints of Blues, Psychedelia, Progressive influences, without forgetting the Stoner which remains a firm point of your sound.

Alex: Lupex represents our natural evolution in which we range between more genres. The pieces are more complex also in terms of composition because we have dedicated more time and effort especially in the construction of the individual riffs.

Alessio: I'm pleased that such evolution is evident and I thank you for the flattering comment. I would say that, in this album and never like before, the influences of all the members have emerged and it is a more nuanced, on one hand, but also more complete work. We could say that, in Lupex, the Fakir Thongs are stripped bare, it's a more faithful testimony of our true sound.

BRUNO: Yes, I agree, in Lupex we have allowed our various influences to flow very freely and variedly, while maintaining a fairly solid stoner base.

3) Despite the amount of genres you put on the field, I find it difficult to find a precise placement of the band: you are Hard but I don't think it's possible to consider you Metal; you have obvious Blues influences but you can't belong only to this musical movement. That said, I add that listening to the disc is not simple given the infinity of content that can be derived from an attentive listening. I have no trouble telling you that in some instrumental passages, in particular where you can hear your thick bass, I associated you with my beloved Primus. I believe you can confirm this perhaps complicated reasoning of mine.

Alex: Yes, we put many genres in the field and often, when I'm asked what kind of music we play, I reply that our genre is FAKIR THONGS which contains precisely many genres where moreover each song differs from the others present in our albums. I believe that this is a characteristic that very few groups have. One of our goals was precisely to offer a musical product where the songs did not seem a copy of the others. As for Primus, I like them and in the past I have listened to them a lot; that you find a bit of Primus in the Fakir Thongs makes me very happy, since I play the bass I see it as a compliment, although I do not consider myself in any way the level of Les Claypool.

Alessio: No, metal doesn't belong to me in the strict sense, I agree with you. I am a listener but hardly bring it to the rehearsal room. The blues, however, has always been in my ears, ever since, as a child, my father introduced me to Muddy Waters, B.B. King, John Lee Hooker, Ry Cooder, and other greats of the genre.

BRUNO: Yes, personally I have never been a great listener of metal in the strict sense, nor have I often played it. The blues is already more in my strings, although not being a great connoisseur like Alessio. I had never thought of the similarity with Primus, but the comparison makes me very happy, being a group I have always greatly appreciated, especially for the rhythm section!

4) In my opinion, you give your best in the tracks with the longest duration such as "State of Grace" or the concluding instrumental "Luxia Rajosa": you let yourselves go, untie the moorings and go off on a tangent. Free to play what you want, to continuously vary tones and register; a very free spirit where you can breathe a 70s, psychedelic air. And in these sumptuous auditory moments, your excellent technical qualities come to the surface, but without overdoing it and, above all, without boring.

Alex: As far as I'm concerned in the long and instrumental pieces we want to take the listener with us into sonic atmospheres that rise and fall to then bring them back in front of the stage once the journey is over. Often these pieces are born from jam sessions we do during rehearsals free from schemes and structures.

Alessio: "Stage of Grace" is one of my favorite pieces, I'm glad you like it. And thanks for the comment on our technical skills. To tell the truth, we don't "overdo" because we can't do more than this, ahahahah!!

BRUNO: "State of Grace" was one of the pieces we worked the most on and we are most satisfied with; we have modified and refined it several times and I think it fully reflects us. "Luxia Rajosa" came out on the fly, it started from a very spontaneous rhythmic session between me and Alex and from there Alessio got creative with his guitar plots, the final result seems quite original and psychedelic to me.

5) Finally I saved the question about the lyrics that you also included in the inner booklet; unfortunately, my very poor familiarity with English forces me to ask if you maintained a common thread in the sequence of the songs on the album. In other words, can we talk about a concept or is each song a story in itself regarding the themes addressed? And finally, did someone who is a native English speaker help you in the writing?

Alex: The writing of the lyrics is done exclusively by our singer and guitarist Alessio Cortelloni who can answer exhaustively.

Alessio: The album was not conceived as a concept but, in the end, it became one, especially in the title. The lyrics talk about different themes. There is talk of broken hearts, meeting the wrong women, unspeakable secrets, false messiahs, pointless revenge, stories of sailors who never reach a shore. In essence, we talk about how small and defenseless we are, but also about hope and restarts. Now that I think about it, these are very blues themes...

BRUNO: see Alessio's answer.

I have concluded this interesting interview; I have nothing left to do but thank the Fakir Thongs for the time they were willing to dedicate to me.

And my advice is definitely to listen to Lupex because it is a deserving work...NO TEARS...

Ad Maiora.