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Rating: It’s now official: I have a crazy crush on King Bong.
There are three of them, they come from Milan, and on their myspace you can download their first album "How I Learnerd To Stop Worrying and Love The Bong" for free: four improvised instrumental jams recorded live in one single "take" that mixes everything I love... Stoner, doom, and a lot, a whole lot of psychedelia. But also odd times, funky, heavy guitars, and an "intermezzo" of pure blues "in an advanced stage of decomposition".
Moral of the story: a week went by, and I was already their biggest listener on Lastfm.
While waiting to completely lose my mind and start graffitiing the walls of Abbiategrasso with the phrase: "You and me, three meters above the Bong", I asked them to answer the debaserian Faiv Questions.
Luckily, they turned out to be understanding enough to overlook my total inability to formulate questions that are even vaguely intelligent-interesting.
It's really true that love is a wonderful thing...
1) Necessary question: "who are you?" in the sense of: where do you come from, how long have you been playing together, previous musical experiences, previous criminal records, etc., etc...
"So, let's see. We are three friends who like Black Sabbath. And a lot of other bands that have listened to Black Sabbath.
The thing started out not so seriously, then little by little we saw it was working. Already after the first jams, we were amazed that everything went so smoothly and we got stubborn about moving forward.
We've been playing together for a year and a half, since the spring of 2008. In the past, there had already been opportunities to collaborate, but they were sporadic. Andrea is also the guitarist for Suburban Base, Teo plays in several bands including Drunk Monkeys Hospital and Sandmen, Alberto plays in Bones & Comfort. Basically, we could almost say this is a side project, like real musicians! Actually, each of us believes a lot in this group and all the ones we play in; music is always our top priority.
Ah, of course, we are also devotees of King Bong, substances that allow us to reach extreme heights, and we strive to honor our faith."
2) I read that your album is the result of a single recording session... basically 4 improvised "Take ones". Given that your album remains a massive hit, tell me: is that really how it went?
I really struggle to imagine you meeting on Saturday afternoons in the rehearsal room and leaving after 3/4 of an hour with "How I Learnerd..." under your arm... Tell us a bit about how it happened.
"Eheh, that's how it went, and it was indeed a Saturday afternoon!
Apart from Zomblues, which was recorded separately, the three "main" tracks are single takes, recorded live. There are no overdubs, what you hear on the album is what you'll get at one of our concerts. The fact that we improvise a lot makes it impossible to record separately, we can only do it like this and we actually think it's the best way.
Zomblues, on the other hand, was a later addition, to give listeners a breather. And we liked the idea of zombies sitting around the fire playing the blues, but poorly since their fingers are falling off..."
3) Your album can be downloaded for free from your myspace. Was this a necessary choice (like, due to difficulty finding a distributor...) or was it a "sought and desired" choice from the beginning?
"So, actually, it’s half and half. Let's say the discussion is broader: none of the three of us delude ourselves about making money with a group like King Bong. Our goal is to be heard by as many people as possible because receiving comments, critiques, compliments, and panties by mail is the best thing. We thought that the best way to reach the audience was to sell the CD at a reasonable price but in a nice package and to make it downloadable from our site.
This is our simple philosophy, which doesn't mean we're not looking for a label: having one behind us would mean being able to record our music better and get it to more people. If we ever manage to find one interested in us, we'll still try to offer free jams and live recordings."
4) Again about your album being downloadable for free from your myspace. ...take what I'm about to say more as a reflection than as an outright question. I think the internet and new technologies have, in some ways, given new life to the DIY discussion: today, more or less every band has the chance to self-promote and make themselves known without needing a contract or relying on a distributor-label, etc. The lack of a "physical format" needed for music distribution has done/will do the rest. The downside, though, is that fewer and fewer people are willing to "pay" for the music. Albums aren’t selling anymore, and even die-hard fans are starting to turn up their noses at the astronomical ticket prices of certain big names... In your opinion, is there something good in this situation, or does the fact that making music is no longer considered a "job to be (rightfully) paid for" represent a threat?
"Urgh, here we risk opening a floodgate of discussion!
So, the Internet has changed the music world: it might be liked, it might not, but anyway, it’s there. Has it raised the level by making valid underground bands visible? Has it lowered it, by giving a platform also to the worst? Yes to both: the result is a fragmentation of the landscape and a new way to enjoy music.
Probably for now, this revolution is still settling, so we’ll answer diplomatically that we don’t know shit and anything could happen. There, we covered ourselves.
In reality, there’s one thing we know: whether because it’s difficult to break out with this music or because the audience is no longer used to paying for music, we know we will never support ourselves as King Bong. We pay for the albums out of our own pockets, the equipment too, and thousands of musicians do the same. We don’t think things will change, so we’d say we’ve adapted and are trying to exploit the situation as best as we can, accepting the problems of the Internet and leveraging it and its resources to reach a broader audience."
5) Maybe I'm wrong, but the Italian heavy-psych scene isn’t doing so badly... Among Ufomammut, El Thule, L'Ira del Baccano, Zippo, Lento... (the first ones that come to mind...). What do you think of the Italian scene — are you in contact with any other bands?
"We think very well of it: there's a lot of activity, we’re on great terms with a few bands, like Midryasi and Three Steps To The Ocean, and the scene is truly prolific. This spring at Mi Odi we got to see how Italy is rich in heavy, distorted, and innovative sounds and also an audience interested in them. During summer you can’t count the number of festivals throughout the country offering space to emerging or more established bands, whether they are stoner, doom, psychedelic, magutti, semeiuti, rautiti... The success of bands like Zu, El Thule, or Ufomammut can only be a pleasure because it means that, despite all the criticisms, the love for music in this country is still alive. We just have to try to defend it, strengthen it, and bring more and more people to the concerts!"
Thanks a lot to Alberto for the patience and availability.
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