What drives four guys to lock themselves in a bedroom, pick up instruments and found one of the most coherent and long-lived bands of Italian independent rock? Often the answer lies in a handful of songs discovered at the exact moment you need to hear them; that fraction of a second in which the music stops being a simple background and becomes real sliding door existential.
On the occasion of their whirlwind 2026 summer tour, we asked the Vintage Violence (Nicolò Caldirola, Rocco Arienti, Roberto Galli and Beniamino Cefalù) to choose the five songs that have redefined their musical DNA. One song each, plus a collective manifesto that united them inextricably.
ROCCO ARIENTI:
The Clash – Clash City Rockers
I chose this piece because it was the first real punk piece I ever consciously listened to, even though I would only understand its historical and cultural location later by reading a book on the English link of '77: it was love at first chord, without even understanding the lyrics!
NICOLÒ CALDIROLA:
Tears for Fears – Shout
It was the summer of 1989, I was 5 and a half years old and I was in a white Fiat Uno Sing. I was traveling along the SS1 Aurelia road, heading south, towards the Maremma, where I would spend the holidays with my family. This song was playing on the cassette player.
BENIAMINO CEFALÙ:
Afterhours – Male di Miele
I chose this piece because it was my musical sliding door: literally like waking up from a long sleep and finding a whole new universe to discover.
ROBERTO GALLI:
The strokes – Is this it
I chose this piece because with its raw but elegant sound, attentive to detail, it opened up a universe to me. He taught me the importance of dynamics and that you don't need a thousand superstructures: sometimes just the essentials are enough.
VINTAGE VIOLENCE:
The Stooges – I Wanna be your Dog
It is the manifesto song of one of the groups that most inspired us and led us to play punk rock together. We lived immersed in our adolescent alienation, rehearsing in Rocco's bedroom: a Canta Tu as the vocal system, a red and white layer and, as drums, roll+charly… and that was it.
A SENTIMENT since 2001.
After the release of their latest acclaimed EP on January 9th “A Sentimento” (five tracks born with such aesthetic coherence that they were destined for a special reissue on remastered vinyl to restore the same color as live), Vintage Violence started touring again for the summer of 2026.
The dates of the 2026 Summer Tour:
JUNE 26 FONTANELICE (BO) @ DIVINE RIVER
JUNE 27 LAINATE (MI) @ FESTIVAL PARTIZTIKA
JULY 2 MONTE MARENZO (LC) @ SAN PAOL IN FEST
JULY 4 ALLERONA (TR) @ HAPPY PARTY + Sick Drum
JULY 18 AREZZO @ MENGO FESTIVAL
JULY 21 TREVISO @BRAND SOUNDS + Zen Circus
JULY 24 DESIUM @ TITTONI PARK
AUGUST 2 CASSINE (AL) @ INDEPENDENCE FESTIVAL
Daniel D`Amico for SANREMO.FM
