Italian
Folk Rock trio, The Ghibertins, have just released their new single, 'Breathe
For Me’ on the 26th May via Mob Sound Records. We spoke to Alessio Hofmann
about the song and began by asking him to describe the track.
The
song talks about the moment when you realise that you love someone so much and
your love is so strong and rooted it leaves you powerless and defenceless. Breathing
is extremely easy. When I ask myself ‘breathe for me’ I’m asking ‘are you going
to be you there for me’, even when I struggle and when I really need you, just
breathe for me. I don’t need you to do anything else, I just want you to stay
close to me. The problem is that the main character doesn’t know if this love
is reciprocated, so he keeps asking this question obsessively, and the more you
ask this question the more the song’s rhythm increases, as the doubt increases,
which is why the song starts extremely slow and becomes more powerful and full
of energy. As I ask the question to myself, the more I have the doubts that my
love is not being reciprocated.
Did you enjoy that way of
balancing the lyrical style with the changing production?
I
really enjoyed how this song came about. For this song I had something in my
mind which was very precise. I had in my mind to keep it very folk-ish, to have
just acoustic guitar and then I went away for a weekend – I don’t remember when
– and my band went away to rehearse without me and they came out with this new
arrangement with the strong bass and drums, so the first time in the band’s
life I appreciated that the band understood what I wanted to say and transmit
from the song, so it was great.
You released your debut
single ‘Round Trip’ in 2016; has your sound changed?
Our
previous work was completely different. It was recorded with just two acoustic
guitars and a bass, and we used as percussion the guitar case, so it was a
softer, minimalist sound. What we wanted from this album was to see where we
could get to, and wanted to do something more complicated and explore new
sounds, so a lot of work has been done between ‘Round Trip and ‘Breathe For Me’.
I think the sounds are totally different. Even the lyrics and the arrangement
[have] something more.
Have you got plans for a
video for ‘Breathe For Me’?
Actually
the video [premiered this week]. We have a simple video that reflects the
lyrics of the song. It’s in black and white; there’s a girl and boy running,
and you can’t tell if they’re running towards each other or away from each
other, so it reflects the lyrics.
You have your album – ‘The
Less I Know The Better’ – coming out later this year. What was that like to
record?
It
was an adventure! We had so many musicians on this album as there were ten, playing
the strings, brass [and] piano. It was a lot of fun but it was quite a lot more
difficult considering that the previous EP was recorded just with three of us.
Even writing the lyrics of this new album was difficult. I always love to talk
about love and hate as these are the feelings that make the world go round. Considering
what’s happened lately, I also wanted to say something more. I’m talking about
Kabul and Manchester. I didn’t just want to talk about this. I wrote three
songs that I was particularly proud of lyrically. The [album] title comes from
this feeling. Especially here in Italy, we are bombarded with news of refugees
crossing the Mediterranean Sea; every day people dying. I sometimes feel people
to prefer not to see what’s happening and live their life happily ever after,
so that’s where the title ‘The Less I Know The Better’ came from.
How would you describe your
live sound?
We
like to keep our live sound the same as the album because when you are an
emerging band I think the expectation of the audience is to hear what they hear
on the album. They don’t care if you are an emerging artist or a top artist,
and you have to prove that you are able to recreate what you can do in the
studio. As soon as we reached the studio that’s what we said: we wanted to
create an album that we could easily replicate during our gigs, no matter
whether we play in front of ten people or a thousand people. We have to do
that!
We
also recorded, last month, a live video [of four tracks] inside a marble cave.
It was tough, as there was mud everywhere and we had all our equipment, but I
think the result is great!
Do you have any plans to
come over to the UK?
That’s
a dream actually. We never succeeding in playing outside of our country, and
that’s a pity because when you speak in English it’s always better to have an
audience in front who actually understand what you are saying, so we’ll [be]
coming to the UK as soon as we can. It’s more than a dream; in a few months it
will become a reality!
Finally what are big
ambitions for the rest of the year?
Talking
about myself and the other band members, it would be the opening act to one of
our favourite bands. In my case it would be Mumford and Sons, or John Mayer, or
Ryan Adams. That’s a dream but we’ll see what the future has [in store] for us!
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