God of the Basement are the Italian band comprised of Tommaso Tiranno (vocals), Enrico Giannini (guitar and sampling), Rebecca Lena (bass and visual art) and Alessio Giusti (drums). Their music is inspired by artists such as Talking Heads, Gorillaz, TV On The Radio and St. Vincent.
They have announced the release of a new album called Bobby Is Dead which will be out on June 25th via Stock-a Production. Eleven tracks which are a refined mix of rough melodies, soul shades and hip-hop groove and rhythms. Today we have the pleasure to share a new track called “Six Six Cigarettes“. Listen below and check our chat with the band who detail the new album, their passion for sci-fi world and more.
“Bobby Is Dead” is your new album. It’s a kind of profane odyssey, right? What are your first vivid memories of this new work and what was the main inspiration?
Rebecca: Actually it all started with a costume I built for the video of our previous single (a single named “Bobby Bones”, strongly connected to the new album as you can tell by the title). The idea for the making of these costumes comes from a scene of the movie “Back to the Future”, where Marty Mcfly crashes into a barn and then comes out with a radiation suit. Starting from that visual universe we began working on the whole concept for “Bobby is Dead”, a storytelling about the experience on earth of these two strange characters we made up.
Today we introduce the new single “Six Six Cigarettes”. Tell us more about this track.
Rebecca: It’s a track we like to define as a “pop hit for weirdos”. It was the first song we wrote for this album and it kind of led the way into the creative process. Groovy beat, soul music sample and tons of falsetto.
Tom: Something more I can tell on “Six Six Cigarettes” is about that day we wrote this song. I was driving on the freeway toward Enrico’s house, 15 minutes away, he sent me an audio file with a sample. He said “wooo, I’ve just found this and it’s so damn groovy, this will be our next single!”. Once I got there we started working on the beat, couple of hours later (and a few drinks later) the track was done.
The sci-fi world seems to have a huge impact on your music. What is it about this “universe” that you like so much?
Enrico: Science fiction is something really fun to talk about. We, as a band, love to hang out a lot together and chat about crazy stuff, getting inspired by this topic has been just a natural consequence. We like it because it’s surreal and, most of all, you don’t have to take it too seriously, like epic 80s movies, “Rick & Morty”, which has a quote on the album, and “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” by Douglas Adams, just to name a few.
This project was born in places like East London and Tuscany. I’m really interested in the connection between the places we live over the years, our roots and the art. How do you feel these themes connect to your music and your way of thinking music? What are your favourite places which have inspired you the most?
Tom: Luckily we had the opportunity to visit different countries in our lives and that’s a good way to open your mind and improve knowledge. The inspiration that comes when you connect with new places is always fascinating and influences every different aspects of our music. Like sponges we absorb everything about the culture and the habits of the people, then we take it back home and blend it with what comes from our roots. These experiences changed our way of thinking music and let us improve creativity and imagination. Personally the place that inspired me the most is L.A..
Let’s talk about the current situation. How are you living these strange times and what are the main concerns as an artist?
Enrico: Not being able to spread and perform music to a public is something that of course puts you down, so we spent most of this whole year realizing what is really important to us artistically. We consider ourselves optimistic and, even if the situation is tough for everyone, the least we can do is to be responsible and work together to make everything better and start again as soon as possible.
Tom: Surely this is the hardest time in the recent history of humankind, we all are involved in this, no one excluded. As an artist I’m trying to focus on developing new ideas, keep on working despite everything. From bad times like this we have the chance to understand more about ourselves and the world we’re living in.
Ritual question. Have you seen or heard anything good recently?
Enrico: First of all we have to mention Paul McCartney featuring Beck “Find My Way (Visualizer)”, then “Pay your Way in Pain” by St. Vincent, an artist we particularly love. Honorable mention for black midi’s latest single “John L”, that is pretty sick.