Interview with MAV
mail: mavband@katamail.com
Nattsol: Introduce the band members in few words, please. How did you meet each other? What references did you take when you started the band?
Francesco: I’m Francesco (synth player) and I met Federico 2 years ago by announcements, and 2 years after Federico met Dene (Tony) by a newspaper and we put together. There were no references but a lucky meeting in Modena.
We are all big fans of The Cure, (and you can understand that looking at Tony’s hair..) except Biagio who likes The Cure too but he’s in love with syntpop of the 80′s, Biagio is even a dj. Me and Francesco have a classical attitude in harmonizing sounds, because I studied classical piano, and I put it in an electronic way, but I can’t exclude nothing for the future. Tony, on the contrary, came from punk, exactly like someone we all know..he’s in love with Kraftwerk and Clan of Xymox. Federico likes a lot The Cure, Joy Division and classical postpunk bands , like me. I also like a bit of britpop like no more existing Catatonia
Nattsol: What music expiriences did the band members have before MAV?
Francesco: Tony (Deneb), the singer, played in some punk bands in Naples, where he lived before 2008, then he moved to Bologna and MAV has joined.
Francesco (me), the synth player began to study classical piano when I was 11 yo, and I got a good skill, playing classical piano competitions.. then I never played with a group first of MAV, from the beginning of Mav era I moved to electronic sounds and his classical background curiously helped me a lot..
Federico (guitarist) sometimes played with Francesco some Cure acoustic covers, Federico is the youngest of the group, we never found anyone who likes dark music in Modena, until May 2008…
Biagio is from Sicily, he studies in Bologna, he’s the drummer, he played with some metal bands, but never took a real part. Now, with Mav, he can express himself more and more.
Nattsol: Well, what does the name of the band mean?
Francesco: It means a neurological disease, in Italian way to say, it is arterio-venous malformation, a phatology of which Tony suffered in the past and which has been very dangerous for his life. Now he’s ok and we all hope that he’ll stay good for the rest of his life. Mav name is like a way to exorcize the past.
Nattsol: I see. And what does express this name in the band? I mean, how is it connected with your music?
Francesco: Because there are references of this problem which Tony has had in our lyrics.. In Vuoto ( in English – empty) he remembers what he felt after doctors ,when he was 20, tell him he will be dead up to 2 months. We’re not focused only on this, but for this first album we can say it’s a substantial part of the work especially because Tony wrote the lyrics, his past influenced him a lot. …for the past history and present it’s all..
Nattsol: Ok, did you have any records before ‘Enter’?
Francesco: No.. during the ‘Enter’s’ mixing we had recorded two Cure covers: The kiss and A Strange Day (absolutely my favourite song), you can listen to these covers at our myspace page (myspace.com/bandmav). And maybe we’ll play it live, we guess…
Nattsol: Well, now let’s talk about your ‘Enter’. First of all, why Enter?
Francesco: Enter is a strong and direct word which remind to put ideas in action, like press a pc’s key, this word reminds also to entry..to debut, to do something for the first time in a decisive way, like we want to do.
Nattsol: Fine. Could you represent this release to a reader? What he can find in it, in your opinion?
Francesco: In Enter you can find different kinds of music, like every good first album we haven’t focused on a precise genre of obscure music..and we are not sure we’ll never do it,maybe…, there is a bit of cold wave on this album (like diane’s dream,in which I put classical piano, from my background..), a bit of new wave (insana insonnia for example) and futurepop like Vuoto or something stronger like Akynetik… We are a meltin’ pot for now.. or for ever? who knows..In Enter you can also find feelings on a white page you’ll write while you listen to it.
Nattsol: How did you manage to get such a good quality in your first record?
Francesco: Because Tony worked some months in a recording studio,and he knows mixing very well.. Apart this, we learned to use digital music equipment in my basement,we work with logic, vst, especially for battery (which is very difficult to record) and a cardiod microphone, and everything is fine..
…in this underground period of Mav band we use a small basement to record..we hope to improve spaces very soon.
Nattsol: Did MAV have live shows? If yes, – tell me about them.
Francesco: Not yet, we’ll play on Febraury 14 in Padova (Italy), on March,3 near Reggio Emilia and on May, 9 near Bologna. Follow our myspace, we’ll post every date we book. Unfortunately it’s not so simple to play dark music in Italy, we’d like to play outside Italy, book us, you’ll be welcome!
Nattsol: Well, and what do you expect from your shows? Italy has realy rich history of post-punk with some wonderful and legendary bands. So which Italian bands would you like to share the stage with? And what about the world bands?
Francesco: Regarding to shows, at the moment we fly down because here in Italy people want at least indie rock, and we didn’t play in goth clubs yet…Our expectation is to play good, to test ourselvels live, and in the future to play outside Italy where surely more people will comprehend us. Naturally we like Italy, but we’re a bit angry with Italian management of clubs, they much more often call cover bands, we can understand that cover bands represents a sure gain.. but we don’t like this kind of approach. Anyway, we’ll give our best in these three Italian dates, but these clubs in which we’ll play are not appropriate for our genre, people there wants indie rock, so we’ll surely play «Insana insonnia»..they’ll like it.
I like apart from the classical 80’s gods some Italian bands like Spiritual Front and All My Faith Lost, which we’ll see this saturday night in Parma..
Even if its’ neofolk and is partly far from us, I think Italian neofolk is living a good time. Federico likes some indie bands of the UK, like Iliketrains, Tony likes Anima Virus (he will collaborate in anima virus next live shows) and Biagio likes something more electronic like vnv nation, e loves electronic drums..
Our dream is maybe to make a date together with some of these artists, or an opening act.. who knows..
Nattsol: Are there some musical experiments you’d like to try in MAV or apart from it?
Francesco: No, there aren’t, at least for me, Federico and Biagio… Tony cooperates with Anima Virus, something ebm-like… but just for live shows helps with programming I suppose.. I go on playing classical piano at home, but I don’t think I’ll record anything. I like playing togheter, alone I get bored.
Nattsol: What are the interests of the band members except music?
Francesco: I like poetry, I began to write in the last years and I obtained a prize here in Italy.. I think we’ll use some of my writings for the next album. Personal interests of the rest of MAV is a difficult question, I don’t know, it’s a presonal question, but we like going out in Bologna together at night and drink some beer, it’s entertaining, English style! or even «Russian style».
Nattsol: And your final words.
Francesco: It’s just a request which comes from Italian musical hell, and directed to managers of this musical field: «Book us for live shows in Italy, Europe or wherever you want, we’d love to play out in front of receptive public, give us a chance! “Enter” will be distribuited on next months by Danse Macabre Records in cd shops and online, follow us for some news. Thank you!». And thank you, Nattsol for the interview.
Questions: Pall ‘Nattsol’ Zarutskiy
“Grave Jibes Fanzine”
