When did Black Rainbows originally start and has the line-up remained the same since the beginning?
Well we were born in 2006, initially as all the bands we liked to go in rehearsals to make some jams, some tunes to have fun but after we recorded our first album we were picked up by a French label called Longfellowdeeds Records. We released with them 2 CD's and 2 vinyl albums (when vinyl was not so trendy!), Twilight in the Desert in 2007 and Carmina Diabolo in 2009.
Than we started touring all around Europe, especially in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Belgium, The Netherlands, sharing the stage with bands like Airbourne, Nebula, Karma to Burn, Saviours, Jucifer, Farflung, Naam, Ancestors, Entrance Band, Fatso Jetson, Witchcraft, Dead Meadow, Black Mountain, Los Natas, White Hills, Micheal Davis from MC5.
We’ve played in 2008 at the “Stoned from the Underground Festival” in Germany, than I started to run my own label called “Heavy Psych Sounds Records” releasing many cool records for other well known bands. For Black Rainbows I released a split with space kings Farflung, the 3rd full length and very well acclaimed “Supermothafuzzalicious!!” in 2011 , that an EP called “Holy Moon” in 2013 and last spring an awesome 4 way split with Naam,White Hills, The Flying Eyes.
We've also been invited at the Desert Fest Berlin and London last year, and now we have a new album ready which is probably the best in the story of the band.
Line up changed once slowly in the years, Daniele went out when we started touring hard, and Alberto was the replacement for the tours, (on drums), so slowly he took his place cause Daniele started also having a full time job and family, and same happened with Marco that was replaced with Dario two years ago... By the ay, we are all friends and still continue to visit each other!
How would you describe your music to someone who has never heard you before?
Our music is a fusion between Lysergic tunes, mixed with a wall-of-fuzz in you face! We have hard rock pieces, fast tempo, and slow psychedelic songs, sometimes more into stoner rock sometimes more melt-space-open-lysergic stuff.
Please let us know some of your favorite bands that have maybe influenced you.
I think our band is a good mixture of the vintage, heavy, fuzzy, psychedelic tunes of the 70’s like Black Sabbath, Blue Cheer, MC5, Hawkwind with 90’s stoner rock as Kyuss, Fu Manchu, Nebula, Monster Magnet.
Personally I was 12 years old in ‘92 when Kyuss released “Blues for the Red Sun” and I got it immediately. I saw them live in Rome when I was 14!, “Superjudge” by Monster Magnet was one of my favourite records , I bought it on vinyl and I think I've listened to it like million times! Then I started to discover all the late 60’s – early 70’s rock with bands like Cactus, Captain Beyond, Can, Free, Steppenwolf and the other thousands of great rock bands of that age!
For this particular record I think the sound can remind a perfect mix among MONSTER MAGNET, FU MANCHU and HAWKWIND we absolutely have our sound, but you find songs more direct and aggressive, as you find some lysergic passages more quiet, and long fuzz suites like the title track Hawkdope!
We’ve also been influenced by Pink Floyd, Hendrix, Cream, Sabbath, Zeppelin, Mountain, Thin Lizzy, UFO, MC5, The Stooges, Blue Cheer, Brainticket, ZZ Top, Caravan, CACTUS, CAPTAIN BEYOND, GONG, KING CRIMSON, FREE, FACES and many many many more!
I really like your split LP with Farflung. How did that happen and what do you think of them?
We were supposed to make a tour with them in 2010, but that time we had to pass, one year later we had the chance to repeat this occasion and we jumped on tour with them... Some months before I asked if they wanted to make a picture of this upcoming tour together, so we made it!
We're big friends with each of them… Unfortunately they are not playing so much lately, but Mike the guitarist, former band is living in our Italy so we meet sometimes, we still keep in touch with all of them. Not that often but once every 2-3 months we write a line!
Do you listen to modern music? Three best albums released in 2014?
…What do you mean by modern? Recent?
Mount Carmel - Get Pure
Radio Moscow - Magical Dirt
Yob
A space cowboy has a day off and orders a drink called Black Rainbow on some dirty, illegal space station bar far from here. What are the ingredients of the drink and how is it served?
Kahlua-vodka-and some special tropical fruit in a big coloured glass!
Do you have any special memories from the road when touring?
Well we’re often on the road and you see many funny things… Our first time at the SFTU fest in 2008 was thrilling in front of 1000 people playing…and also last year in Desert Fest Berlin and London was very exciting!
Your new album Hawkdope is released soon. Can you tell us something about the album and what does the title mean?
Three years have passed since we released our last full length "Supermothafuzzalicious!!" in December 2011, since that moment we made one long EP "Holy Moon“ and one split with Naam, White Hills,The Flying Eyes, during these years.
But we also wrote a lot a lot of new material, I have hundreds of new songs, parts of songs, ideas, riffs, recorded since that time. We use to rehearse at the HeavyPsychSoundsRecords studio, so we also have the chance to record professionally all the sessions, so when we need to record a rough idea we can do it.
It takes at least 2-3 years to come out… We want to make a good 4th full length, and it took time to collect all the right material, in that time as I said we did prefer to release the EP and the split 'cause we wanted to make something special for the 4th chapter!
The record is about 45 minutes total running , for 9 brand new tracks, one is acoustic, and another, the last one a bit more psych-space.
I think "Hawkdope" is a perfect fusion of the sound of bands as Monster Magnet, Hawkwind and FuManchu, with Heavy Psych-Stoner passages, Lysergic moments, Hard Rock oriented with Psychedelic shades!!
I can honestly say that this album is very very good, it's definitely the best album we ever did until we start playing!
This is he track list:
THE PROPHET
WOLF EYES
HAWKDOPE
NO FUEL NO FUN
HYPNOTIZE MY SOUL WITH ROCK N’ ROLL
WAITING FOR THE SUN
JESUSJUDGE
KILLER KILLER FUZZ
THE COSMIC PICKER
Initially it was a song title, the third of the record. I was writing down the lyrics, and it was about a space visionary flight in the deep space, so I thought about flying, a flying animal that travel through space, planets and so on… I mixed the name of the Hawk, with a psychedelic dope travel, a lysergic trip into the unknown space.
All this also reminds me of the name of one great band we love: HAWKWIND.
So it became a game between these two words, that sounds good in my ears…Hopefully also in the ears of the audience as well!
Are you going to play any cover songs on your European/UK tour or do you stick to your own originals?
Yeah the main concert is composed of original songs...but we have a special song you can also find in our latest EP Holy Moon, a revisited cover of the mighty MC5's Black to Comm, we made it 15 minutes long…super psychedelic…so if our set has to be longer we use to play this song as a final!
Anything you would like to add?
We will start touring a lot, and seems many people want us to play around, and we will see how this 4th full length will go! Always looking for a bigger label and bigger booking to grow the band, we hope there will be some hype around this record because we really believe it is a good one, then we would like to play as many festivals as possible, festivals are very important at this moment!
Here all the tour dates:
06/03/2015 It Rome-Init Club "Release Party" w/Wedge
18/03/2015 IT Bologna-Freak Out
19/03/2015 CH Luzern-Bruch Bros
20/03/2015 DE Augsburg-Bluebox Skate Park
21/03/2015 NL Nijmegen-Plufest
22/03/2015 FR Paris-Glazart
23/03/2015 DE Siegen-Vortex
24/03/2015 DE Erfurt-Cafè Tiko
25/03/2015 DE Leipzig-Sto
26/03/2015 DE Berlin-Dustown Fest
27/03/2015 CH Olten-Coq D’or
28/03/2015 CH Winterthur-Gaswerk
29/03/2015 IT Milano-Magnolia
10/04/2015 FI Helsinki- Galactus Fest
11/04/2015 EE Tallin-Woodsock/Rockstar´s
28/04/2015 IT North Italy
29/04/2015 DE
30/04/2015 DE Nurnberg
01/05/2015 IT Bozen-Sudwerk
02/05/2015 AU Salzburg-Rockhouse
03/05/2015 CH St Gallen-Rumpeltum
04/05/2015 AU Innsbruck-PMK
05/05/2015 AU Feldkirch-Graf Hugo
06/05/2015 IT Zerobranco-Altroquando
04/06/2015 UK Bristol-Stag & Hounds
05/06/2015 UK Northampton-The Labour Club
06/06/2015 UK Oxford-The Wheatsheaf
07/06/2015 UK Basingstoke-The Sanctuary
08/06/2015 UK London-The MACBETH
01/08/2015 GR Drama-Fuzztastic Fest
More cool shows tba!
www.theblackrainbows.com
Thank you very much for the answers Gabriele and see you at the Helsinki show where I will be spinning records!
Make sure you pre-order the limited edition vinyl album before it's too late since I can say that this new album is a bad motherfucker! Remember to catch the band live as well, they will blow your mind.
www.heavypsychsounds.com
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