It's called AND THEN WAKE UP EARLYthe first album by NERVESreleased by Pioggia Rossa Dischi on November 29th: an open, direct and reflective letter, which captures the essence of the contemporary generation, suspended between nostalgia, frustration and the search for authenticity, in a complex and contradictory world.
AND THEN WAKE UP EARLY is an urgent record, it talks about feeling uncomfortable and the need to abandon everything that is necessary to return to us, to live there. But the album happens a moment before, when we are still dazed by the noise (pun intended) and we need to clean ourselves up a bit. Can we say that AND THEN WAKE UP EARLY serves this purpose? To you, to do this operation, to us to feel how narrow the waist we wear is?
We must let emotions attack us when we are not ready. In a life studied in detail, we can experience the unexpected as the only opportunity for humanity. I believe in the power of deviations.
Records are not medicine, but we use them anyway. Often to recognize ourselves or to excite us. AND THEN WAKE UP EARLY what ingredients does it have (I also want the excipients) and what effects does it produce? And if it had any contraindications, what would they be?
I tried to write this album to give shape to something I couldn't understand and express about myself. When I finished, I realized that I still hadn't managed to translate anything that I considered “inexpressible”. Somehow, though, the process healed me: I got rid of the toxins. I hope it's healing for those who listen to it, embarrassing them. I would like him to feel naked, in this championship of emotions. And the contraindications lie precisely in this aspect: it is difficult to accept oneself naked, we all have our problems.
I have always seen boredom as the right space to activate a “Pandora's box” operation: that is, to make all the dirt flow away, to understand what remains at the bottom. What do you see in the vase after a Deadly Boredom?
I always liked looking out the window and watching people go by. As a child I spent half an hour there, now I give myself five minutes every now and then. I'm not interested in having the coordinates of those people's stories, I just need to see the nuances, the stretched faces, grasp something.
I'm not interested in the contaminations of this album. We look for too many references to cling to to catalog things. What are Nervi's ratings normally?
My big flaw, since I've been playing, has always been that of not having a “sound”. Every genre bores me, I like border artists. So it's a difficult answer.
It's impossible for a record to only have one flavor. AND THEN WAKE UP EARLY is definitely harsh and sometimes bitter. I could also say spicy, meaning “pungent”. Where's the sweet spot, from your point of view?
Themes can be biting, harsh and bitter, that's true. But I think the way you say things counts. The sweetness can sometimes lie in that. I wish I had created a confidential tone: is that sweet enough?
So many artists are obsessed with doing “something trendy” to get Spotify playlists. What was the sound of this album measured against?
It's an obsession of mine too: “wanting to make a record” in a world where too many are released every day and everyone repeats that there's no point in doing so. Two years ago I came very close to never publishing anything again, I liked writing but everything else was stressful. I had to deal with the fear of not being up to the emotions that lived within me. At a certain point I made peace with it, mainly when I accepted that it was difficult to understand those emotions, I also had to stop idealizing them.
You talk about loneliness, but it's still an inhabited album. There are figures (we won't tell you where, listen to the album) who, as you say, “aren't dead, but have survived”. You first. It's your survival record… for what?
The ones on the album are all stories of survivors. Everything undeniably ends, but I was interested in describing moments where “it could have ended, but it hasn't happened yet.” I think it could be objected that when I talk about love I talk about finished relationships, but often in reality I talk about feelings and we know that the times of love and the times of relationships may not coincide.
I am a survivor, I often feel like saying that I survived myself.
You have announced some live dates. What will we see that we can't hear in the audio tracks?
I'll try to do most of the live shows with a four-piece band besides myself. Andrea, Giulio, Elia and Tommaso are extraordinary musicians, for me it is an honor to play with them and it is very easy to do so, because they are first of all friends. I'm sure it will be shown live a band. I forget I'm a soloist when I'm with them. I was inspired by Motta's live performance of the first album tour The end of the twenties: that tour struck me and from there I decided to sing in Italian. I would like my singer-songwriter album to be perceived live as a band album.
and then wake up early tour
29/11 MILAN – Detune
06/12 FLORENCE – Exfila
12/13 BOLOGNA – Hephaestus
14/12 LIVORNO – The Cage Theatre
Daniel D`Amico for SANREMO.FM
