Massimo Volume
5 Questions To Emidio 'Mimì' Clementi

It is a beautiful day by the lake. Lugano is a very calm yet intense and vibrant city. I'm quite excited, it had been over 12 years since I'd been waiting to once again savor the notes of Massimo Volume in a live setting, since that distant April 25, 1997, at the Maffia in Reggio Emilia. Many things have changed, I have changed first and foremost, but my love for this band has never wavered. As I said, I'm excited and watching the soundcheck (damned whistling redundant microphone), seeing with how much care and devotion they prepare for this evening and being able to chat with Emidio, Vittoria, and Egle as if with friends at a bar brings me an almost magical serenity and inner peace. After returning from dinner, I sit on the comfortable backstage sofa of the Living Room next to Emidio, light a cigarette and my old tape recorder... what follows is an account of the conversation (more than a true interview) with Emidio "Mimì" Clementi, whom I thank for his willingness and kindness.

Maybe a little predictable as a start, but customary, even for those who don't know her... can you tell us the story of Massimo Volume?

The original nucleus formed in Bologna in 1991, although then effectively the first LP "Stanze" was released in 1993. In the meantime, we had recorded a demo tape with 4 tracks that was very well received by specialized magazines and this gave us the opportunity to make ourselves known and to play live. "Stanze" is a half self-produced record, given the limited resources of Underground Records, so much so that this led us to move to WEA. Taking advantage of the big explosion of Nirvana, record companies expected something similar to happen in Italy and signed several bands including us. With them, we released "Lungo I Bordi"... but the WEA experience wasn't very happy... because, for reasons that can be understood, we were fish out of water in that world and they, on the other hand, didn't know how to manage a reality like ours, they didn't know the scene we came from. In the meantime, we had taken on Mescal as management, which was not yet a record label, but when it became one, we didn't think twice about moving with them permanently. For us, that was a very beautiful period, with Mescal we published both "Da Qui" and "Club Privè," which remains to this day the last "official" Massimo Volume record... sure then the soundtrack of "Almost Blue" was released (a 2000 film by Roman director Alex Infascelli), although this was already another matter, as it was also released with Cecchi Gori...

And from 2002...

... from 2002 there was this period of pause... this long 6-year pause. The reasons are basically the usual ones why a band separates, we were together many years, years lived intensely, where Massimo Volume was the center of our existence and we all felt the need to take a break. During this period, however, we remained very active, I staged readings of my books, collaborated with Manuel Agnelli (of Afterhours), made a record with El Muniria, Vittoria played with Franklin Delano, Egle released two solo albums... and then even getting back together was a bit casual, in the sense that we had this proposal from the Turin Museum of Cinema, for the re-scoring of "The Fall of the House of Usher," a silent film by Jean Epstein from 1928, among other things a very beautiful film, and shortly after the request to participate in the Traffic Festival (also in Turin in July 2008). Until the night we played, even in the following days, we believed this was an impromptu evening, that it would be our only appearance, but afterwards, we were offered Urbino and we accepted as it's a festival we are particularly fond of, having played there on several previous occasions... and from there we got the desire to take the discussion forward.

Let's go back a moment, often among your influences Slint have been mentioned... or anyway the then nascent "post-rock" scene, is it true...?

Slint were certainly a model, but perhaps more for Egle, my influences are more literary, like Jim Carroll... a lot of American literature. Musically at the time, we listened to quite a bit of minimal music, which helped us a lot in constructing our songs, then over time, it has become increasingly difficult to understand what settles inside you from listening, because in the end, you have your own style which sometimes also becomes a limit, you have a footprint which you find it increasingly harder to escape from. Without wanting to be presumptuous, with many American bands that at the time we didn't know, we were in... harmony, certainly without them knowing us (laughs). It was nonetheless nice to discover that there was a world that more or less thought like us. In our influences, there was rock, but there were also other very different listens that we liked (and still do) to incorporate into our works, always keeping in mind everything in terms of... in a purely rock situation, so bass, guitars, and drums.

American literature, you said, I and I think many others like me, thanks to your song "Il Primo Dio" (opening song of the album "Lungo I Bordi") we got to know Emanuel Carnevali, for which, personally, I thank you immensely.

There's no need, it's a pleasure... Carnevali was one of the most cursed writers of the early last century, a character with a life as intense and fascinating as it was difficult and hard. He was and still is little known in his country, a little better in America, also because he wrote in English and was very reluctant to translate into Italian just as his half-sister was after his death, since he spoke very badly about his father's figure, but who nonetheless curated the collection and publication of his writings in Italy, precisely under the title "Il Primo Dio."

And moving from Carnevali, we come to your activity as a writer... or rather say novelist.

I recently published the novel "Matilde e i Suoi Tre Padri," which in the end is the fourth novel I write, the fifth book overall (after the debut "Gara Di Resistenza" from 1997 which is a collection of his stories). I see the two things (writer and musician) fitting well together, they go well together, then it's true that moving from one to the other... if I'm writing a novel switching to writing lyrics isn't that simple, because there’s a different kind of breathing and it's usually always complex, but in the end, I would like to continue carrying it forward, also because I realize when I am too dedicated to one of the two activities, I miss the other and also for a purely economic discourse, you have to do things to be able to get by... pure hobby doesn't feed you...

Speaking of this, how do you find the Italian music situation?

I tell you... for this our comeback, we were also a bit privileged because it had been a long time since we played and people wanted to hear us again, so we didn't perceive much of a crisis, which nevertheless came and came well before the economic crisis, but actually, from what one hears, the situation is difficult, fees have dropped, there are far fewer opportunities to play and then there is the purely discographic discourse... I mean, I don't regret the end of the contracts with the big labels, it's understood that the future will be more and more through the internet, although in reality no one has yet understood how this can allow you to carry forward the discourse... real life... we'll see. Then it’s also fascinating this moment of great transformation, of the whole musical reality, which then every transformation coincides with moments of great crisis, I believe... it seems to me that the desire to listen to music has not passed, nor diminished. Now everything is more complicated, before it was quite clear the path you had to take, I mean even a band like ours never earned much from records, but making records allowed you to have a live activity and thus more remunerative. Now, however, I see that even fees are really low, so it's difficult to keep up... it becomes almost a hobby thing, as it was said before, I mean if someone gets money from elsewhere fine... otherwise it's really complex.

Always staying on the Italian music scene, making a more purely artistic discourse, what can you tell us?

In Italy, there hasn't been a great generational turnover, I mean there are new realities, I think for example of Le Luci Della Centrale Elettrica... if you want they are there, but in other historical periods, it has happened that the previous generation was swept away, at least for a period, even if then it recovered. Instead, lately, there has been a kind of continuity with the past, which if you want is good for us and for everyone else... so even the new generation has grown up listening to our records, so we have a mixed audience, people of our age but also young people. Perhaps compared to our generation today there is a little less courage... I don't know... seen in perspective, because at the time I didn't realize it, so much so that the 90s were a nice moment, everyone had their own idea and carried it forward, I mean it seems to me that it was a really nice period. Now I don't know, I mean... I don't even want to play the old wise man who spits on new generations, because it would disgust me, but it seems they are technically more prepared today but as I said courage is a bit lacking... there are nice things, others leave me completely indifferent.

It's almost time to take the stage... what can you tell us about the (near) future of Massimo Volume?

The fact is that... now we are preparing a new record that we hope will be released in the next season, then as always the times are a bit uncertain and therefore I believe it will be talked about in 2010. Tonight, however, we present a new piece that we brought for the occasion... for this foreign date in Lugano, which is the first of a mini-series, since we will also play in Luxembourg and Belgium. This summer we will be around for about fifteen dates and we will publish a live record with Unhip Records, and in the meantime, we will still spend some time on the new record...

...

And it's time for Emidio, Egle, Vittoria and the new guitarist Stefano Pilia to take the stage, from which they will come down after about an hour and a half of wonderful and intense emotions.

It only remains for me to thank Fabio (my travel companion) and Gabriella, Tibe, Luca and the organization of the Living Room in Lugano (to whom I extend my compliments for the magnificent place they manage), for the opportunity they have given me.