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| MSJ: Can you give our readers a look at the history of your group and your involvement in music? |
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Emilio Zucca: I've been into music for a long time (just like the other members) and at some point I had the urge to create some good music without the barriers imposed by musical genres. I also needed to do this with somebody else's influence. I never wanted to be a one-man band. So, after recording tons of demos by myself I talked Luigi into this. We already played together in another band and already knew each other very well musically speaking, so he accepted my invitation and shortly after we found Roberto thanks to some common friends. We found ourselves pretty much on the same wavelength, in terms of musical taste and musical goals, even though we came from different backgrounds. So the beginning was quite straightforward. When you reach a certain point in age I believe there's some sort of musical maturity involved, where you tend to merging and mature forms of music even if you come from different places.
And here we are, 3 musicians who really couldn't live without making music. |
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| MSJ: Where does the name Odder Than 3 come from? Is there some significance to it? |
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| Luigi Piscopo: Odder Than 3 starts from number 3, which is the 3 of us. It's about our way of being not conventional and a bit "odd", just like the "oddest" number 3. "Odder" because we wanted to underline something more, the personal contributions from each of us. |
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| MSJ: If you weren't involved in music, what do you think you'd be doing? |
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Emilio Zucca: Sound engineering?
Luigi Piscopo: I'd be a talent scout.
Roberto Brunelli: Chill out! |
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| MSJ: How would you describe the sound of Odder Than 3? |
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| Emilio Zucca: Odder Than 3 is about breaking standards and putting things out of place if necessary. I would describe our sound as a very personal merging of various sounds like post-rock, prog-rock, dark, electronica - with one rule: no rules. We do what we like without caring too much about "what can be done" according to common standards. That is why if you listen to our music you will find traces of our wide-range influences like Pink Floyd, The Cure, Porcupine Tree, Depeche Mode, classical music... you name it. |
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| MSJ: What's ahead for you? |
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| Emilio Zucca: A lot of music! We have loads of rough material to work on and we hope to finish it up soon so that we can come out with our first full-length album, which we hope many many people will have the chance to listen. We also hope to carry on some other special art projects we have in mind but I don't want to spoil surprises. |
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| MSJ: Are there musicians you'd like to play with in the future? |
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| Emilio Zucca: Definitely Steven Wilson from Porcupine Tree or Mr. Robert Smith from The Cure. I would also love to have Mr. David Gilmour write a guitar line for one of our songs... |
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| MSJ: Do you think that downloading of music is a help or hindrance to the careers of musicians? It's been said by the major labels that it's essentially the heart of all the problems they are having in terms of lower sales - would you agree? |
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| Emilio Zucca: I definitely do not agree with what major labels say about this, and numbers justify this. Major labels know it very well, but every download is a lost revenue for them, and from a basic business point of view they are right, but in business you need to think and act long term as well. So my point of view is: yes, long life to downloads, even if we still have a lot to learn about how to use the internet efficiently. |
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| MSJ: In a related question how do you feel about fans recording shows and trading them? |
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| Roberto Brunelli: It sure doesn't bother us. We are happy that fans appreciate our music so much to the point that they feel the need to record bootlegs and trade them. It's a manifestation of appreciation I believe, which is good. |
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| MSJ: If you were a superhero, what music person would be your arch-nemesis and why? |
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Emilio Zucca: Frank Zappa because he was too much of a genius!
Luigi Piscopo: Robbie Williams! Because he is handsome and makes the girls scream. We ain't that fit and are only successful with old people. |
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| MSJ: If you were to put together your ultimate band, who would be in it? |
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| Emilio Zucca: Nice question... I'd place Gavin Harrison (Porcupine Tree) on drums, Steve Harris (Iron Maiden) on bass, David Gilmour and Porl Thompson on guitars, The Pet Shop boys and Brian Eno on keyboards and programming, Morgan (an italian artist) on piano, and Tarja Turunen on backing vocals. Obviously me sitting in the audience! |
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| MSJ: If you were in charge of assembling a music festival and wanted it to be the ultimate one from your point of view, who would be playing? |
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| Emilio Zucca: This is a very difficult question... Let's see.. Here's a list: God is an Astronaut, Sigur Ros, Porcupine Tree, Morgan (italian artist), Depeche Mode, The Cure, Roger Waters, Keith Emerson, David Gilmour, David Bowie, Alan Parsons, Duran Duran, Bill Evans, Mostly Autumn, Marillion ... please stop me! |
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| MSJ: What was the last CD you bought, or what have you been listening to lately? |
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| Emilio Zucca: I recently bought a George Gershwin CD, Bill Evans, and I'm listening to God is an Astronaut, Marillion, Frank Zappa, Porcupine Tree Also some emerging acts like Nosound, Stefano Panunzi. |
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| MSJ: What about the last concert you attended for your enjoyment? |
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Emilio Zucca: My friends from Odder Than 3 bought me a Porcupine Tree concert ticket for my birthday and we all attended. Tt was a great show!
Roberto Brunelli: Definitely agree with Emilio, it was the first time I saw Porcupine Tree live and they got me completely! |
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| MSJ: What has been your biggest Spinal Tap moment? |
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Luigi Piscopo: During a gig, the organizers tried to ask Emilio to perform some more songs, extending the scheduled length of the concert due to the success the band was having with the audience. Emilio was performing and misinterpreted the invitation to play more with "Get the hell out of here quickly". The result was we quickly ended the gig and the organizers thought we were a bit "too full of ourselves"!
Roberto Brunelli: Yes, that was it. I'd just like to point out that behind drums I didn't realize anything! I just got told later. |
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| MSJ: Finally, are there any closing thoughts you'd like to get out there? |
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Emilio Zucca: There's so much beautiful music floating in the air ready for us to catch it and synthesize it. We hope musicians and people will start to understand that music is not about barriers and taxonomies, but it is about feelings, about beauty, about love and hate, rage and relax, fear and bravery. We hope people will get more interested into real music and not only into catchy shallow tunes: that'd make us more happy to express our feelings into music and share.
We'd also like to invite you all to become part of our community by becoming our fans on Facebook or joining us on myspace. We always have special surprises for our Facebook and Myspace fans. Also you may want to stay tuned for updates on live dates and the forthcoming full length album.
Finally, our special thanks to Gary of Music Street Journal! |
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| MSJ: This interview is available in book format (hardcover and paperback) in Music Street Journal: 2010 Volume 1 at lulu.com/strangesound. |
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