Interview: Ufomammut
We just wanted to play what we were feeling, no rules or genres to follow. It’s a real rebirth, also in terms of sound.
Ufomammut have made a welcome return with their new album, the aptly titled Fenice. The band’s sound has developed with this album and the resulting songs in Fenice are really immense. Gavin Brown talked to all three members of Ufomammut in guitarist Poia, vocalist/bassist Urlo and drummer Levre about their new album, new sound and what it means for Ufomammut to be back making and releasing music again.
E&D: Your new album Fenice is out soon. How does it feel to be releasing new music again after taking a bit of a hiatus?
Urlo: I feel good, even if a little stressed because of a lot of things being changed but this new record is very important for so many reasons for me, it represents a rebirth and the will of creating music, that is the main force moving my life.
Poia: It’s a nice new / old feeling. Creating music is the reason why we play, after all.
Levre: As the new drummer of the band, I’m over the moon that Ufomammut are back on track. It has been a very distressing period, I mean the last two years with the pandemic etc, so releasing new music it’s like a breath of oxygen.
E&D: Can you tell us a bit about that hiatus and why you wanted to rise again with this album?
Urlo: When Vita left the band, Poia and I were sure we wanted to keep Ufomammut alive, even if we knew it would have been something different and I’m very happy, and proud, we took that decision. We have played music together for about 30 years, it was just time for a change, to follow a new sonic path in our life.
Poia: We knew that the band had to continue its story, despite everything. We knew that that was temporary, even if critic stop. We decided to put the band in a different perspective, but we always knew it was like that. Ufomammut is more a living entity and not only a bunch of people playing together.
E&D: The albums titles means Phoenix in Italian, do you feel that this is a new beginning and fresh start for the band?
Urlo: It is. Even if Poia and me have been in Ufomammut for ages, we feel like it’s something new, a very new adventure with Levre behind the drumkit. We feel free to experiment more, follow new ways of doing music, being more free than before. There’s a great alchemy in this new trio, we’ve learnt a lot from the past, from our mistakes and we want to grow together as friends and as a band.
Poia: I think that our attitude is now different, is more a transformation of something we had in the past, for something new. Actually it cannot and should not be a fresh start because there’s a story behind that led us here.
Levre: I personally can feel a deep change in our mind as musicians, surely caused by the band’s hiatus but also caused by the forced stop determined by the Covid-19. All these factors brought a very natural mind’s liberation for the composition process of this album.
E&D: Fenice sees Ufomammut taking in new elements to your sound, did you feel that this was crucial in the bands rebirth?
Urlo: It’s true. We just wanted to play what we were feeling, no rules or genres to follow. It’s a real rebirth, also in terms of sound.
Poia: The presence of Levre is surely the major change for the band. Playing with a different musician gave us a new perspective for our music for sure and this transformed our sound in many ways.
Levre: To tell the truth we didn’t want to change the Ufomammut sound at all costs and was not a prerogative for us, but it came very naturally to explore different paths. For example, the use of a very raw drum machine and a more scratchy synth sound bring the entire work into something else, in a world maybe never discovered by Ufomammut. I really hope this can be relevant to the listener’s ears.
E&D: How has the new lineup been working out with the addition of Levre on drums?
Urlo: It was a natural process. We’ve been friends with Levre for years, he joined us as a merch guy, then as a backliner and Poia and I had a side project with him. We have always considered Ufomammut as a family. So, when Vita left the band, it was obvious to us that we needed to keep the family alive and Levre was the natural choice for us.
Levre: Since the first period in which we started to rehearse I must say that I felt a particular feeling with Poia and Urlo. As Urlo said, we had a side project parallel to Ufomammut already since 2016, and therefore it was not difficult to acclimatise to this new lineup but the pandemic did not help us because of a long stop regarding the rehearsals and the Fenice composition.
E&D: There are sound effects and synths again in the music on this album especially on songs like ‘Metamorphoenix’, can you tell us about these and what they being to the album?
Urlo: I think there are less synths and effects compared to the previous albums. I think the difference is that they’re more focused. We already worked on drone and electronic parts in albums like ‘Lucifer Songs’, for example but with Fenice we worked in a different way, we created something that had to be simple but very present at the same time.
Poia: That synth and electronic side has always been present in Ufomammut, but this time they reach the surface in a different way.
Levre: As I mentioned before, the addition of scratchy and noisy synth parts, drum machine patterns (we mainly used the DFAM from Moog) helped a lot to have a kind of homogeneity in the album and between the tracks. Actually the addition of all those synths parts came after the album pre-production, so it has been a process we made only after the songs composition and not during the rehearsals.
E&D: Did you change the way you write and record for this record as things have changed this time around?
Urlo: Well, we’re a different band, playing in a different way for sure. Poia and I “used to play” in a way, so we had to change a little the way we do things for sure and it’s good. I think You can hear from the album there’s a different urge and a different way of doing music.
Levre: We wrote Fenice starting from a simple guitar riff (that is in the song ‘Metamorphoenix’) and we composed all the rest around that riff; we always meant this album as a one-long-track divided in 6 movements. We recorded Fenice in 3 days maximum and did it at Flat Scenario studio near our hometowns, playing it live together at the same time as Ufomammut did for 8 album. I think this old-school technique brings something different and maybe special to the album’s sonority.
E&D: What has the reaction to the new material been like so far?
Urlo: I’m very happy how the people reacted so far. It’s been a warm reaction I must say!
Levre: I can see that our fanbase is, we just wanted to play what we were feeling, no rules or genres to follow. It’s a real rebirth, also in terms of sound, we’re really hyped about this new album and we have great feedback from all the insiders in the music business, PRs and journalists that already listened to the entire album. So I’m already very happy about this!
Poia: Yes, but we’ll appreciate the actual response once the record will be out.
E&D: Did you always want to introduce the new album with a stirring and epic song in ‘Psychostasia’?
Urlo: It was the best choice, it’s a very good “discover” song.
Levre: Yes, because I think that ‘Psychostasia’ track reflects a lot the mood of Fenice.
E&D: You have just released the track ‘Pyramind’ from the album. It is a heavier song than ‘Psychostasia’, did you want to showcase different elements of your new sound with what you have released so far?
Urlo: Fenice is a very long single track for us, divided in six movements. Some of them are surely more representative as single tracks than others.
Levre: Yes, ‘Pyramind’ is a heavier track compared to ‘Psychostasia’ and we have chosen it to showcase the different facets of this album.
E&D: The video for ‘Pyramind’ is a stunning piece of work. Can you tell us about the video and how you made it?
Urlo: We’ve always worked on our visuals with Malleus (that is the artistic collective of Poia and me, together with Lu). Since the beginning of the band we worked on visuals and videos. So, this is just the new stuff. We put together the idea of the ascending from ashes, the elements mixing together to enter a new path and we put out this video.
E&D: Do you feel that the visual representation is still an important part for the music of Ufomammut?
Urlo: A lot, because they give a different impact to the music. The album becomes something involving another sense. It’s a psychedelic trip!
Poia: Taking care of this aspect it’s always been a part of what we do. Not only the visuals but also the graphic of the records and everything concerns the band.
Levre: As Urlo said, if I think to Ufomammut live shows I always think about massive sound impact combined to big-scaled trippy visuals, so I would not to do without the visual representation
E&D: Do you feel like you are exploring even more expansive musical plateaus with this new material?
Urlo: I hope so. I never loved the idea of “genres”. I’ve always tried to be free while doing music and this new album is something different for us, in terms of composition and freedom.
Levre: I hope too and I felt very mentally free while we were composing this work, and I think this freedom of expression is the real essence of the art of music.
E&D: This is your ninth album, how do you feel you have evolved as a band since you began?
Urlo: I hope we evolved, but it’s not something I’ve to tell. It’s up to the people listening to our albums.
Poia: I’d like to change something every time we compose new music, seen from the inside this is an evolutionary process.
E&D: Have you had any ideas yet about where your music will go in the future?
Urlo: We’ve some new songs written, some skeletons. We are happy about them and we just want to keep the freedom to do whatever we feel. Hoping we’ll be able to go beyond genres and create what we like.
E&D: What was the feeling like when you first signed to Neurot Records?
Urlo: It was cool, but something very relaxed. We met Steve Von Till years ago and we felt very comfortable with him, I think we’re on the same path and entering Neurot was just like expanding our family.
Poia: it was a natural choice, because entering a label of people that are musicians and know how to play on the road, it’s something special and put everybody “on the same boat”.
E&D: What are some do your favourite ever Neurot albums?
Urlo: Well, I liked Deafkids a lot, Dark Buddha Rising, Neurosis and SVT of course, Harvestman, Grails and many more. They have such a great catalogue!
Poia: I will put Neurosis A Sun That Never Sets at the top of the list.
Levre: I love all the Neurosis albums (especially Fire Within Fires) but also Amenra’s Mass V and Yob’s Clearing The Path To Ascend.
E&D: What is your touring schedule like once the new album comes out?
Urlo: We’ll tour Europe and we’ll play some festivals this year. The important thing is to start again, after the pandemic and this hiatus.
E&D: What are some of your favourite festival memories and favourites to play at?
Urlo: We’ll be playing at some festivals this summer: 17 years of Sound Of Liberation in Germany, Desert Fox and Frantic festivals in Italy and Hellfest in France. It’s a good way to restart!
What have been some of your order most memorable live shows and what made them so memorable?
Urlo: We had some very cool moments on the road, but it’s more than twenty years we’re around, so I probably would never finish to tell you!
Poia: Not an easy question for sure, but these list would involve shows in small clubs with a bunch of people and gigs with big crowd during a festival.
E&D: There have always been elements of psychedelia in your music, is this still an important part of Ufomammut?
Urlo: Yes, it’s very important. Psychedelia is the way of seeing the world through the eyes of a child. It’s a way of keeping ourselves young… ahaha.
Poia: Psychedelia represents the explorative part of our music, that is able to add different details and colours to the music.
E&D: What are the most important documents of psychedelia in music in your opinion?
Urlo: Many. Probably too much. Lots of music can be considered psychedelic, from classical music to heavy stuff. Everything that has the capacity of keeping us in a different world is psychedelic, also Pantera can be.
E&D: Who have been the biggest influence on the sound of Ufomammut throughout the evolution of the band?
Urlo: Personally I never tried to imitate other bands, I searched for my own sound. I use a 4×15 cab of which I’m very happy and a distortion that comes from an Italian old pedal called “Ufo Octafuzz” that T Pedals rebuilt for me. Then I try to have my sound with whatever configuration and backline I need to use. I think it’s all a question of touch, of the way each of us play.
Poia: I think the artists we love have in some way forged our sound. That happened before playing in Ufomammut. Personally I am speaking about the classics (like Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd, .and all the names you can think about coming from that golden era of rock) and then more bands impressed us in the nineties, like Sleep, The Melvins, Motorpsycho, The God Machine, Snail, Monster Magnet.Then of course we discovered more and more music during these years that gave other inputs but we have always tried to learn from all these artists how to personal and create our own Ufomammut distinctive sound.
