WOASCHES: Interview with ROBERTO MAGGIONI (ETERNAL ZIO)

Which is the life philosophy of Eternal Zio if you have a common one ?

I don't think we have one. There are things we like doing together, there is a big empathy and sharing between us. Some of us lived together, and we know and see each other since long, but I don't think we can put all this in a common life philosophy. We could may be find ourselves around a common approach to things and life that we could define as punk. We like paradox and radical ideas.

What pushed you to make music and which are your inspirations?

We speak here only about Eternal Zio, otherwise everyone of us has his own history. Eternal Zio was born because three of us were living in the same home, Ca' Blasè, where we also made concerts. At one point we found at home a violin, a gurdy and some accordions. Playing these instruments we made a home concert under the name Eternal Trio. Then we were joined by a forth member and the name became Eternal Zio. We didn't have any idea of what we were doing and we didn't hear nothing similar to what we were playing. Then the line up changed and initial unawareness structured a bit , now Eternal Zio is one of the childs coming from that experience.

“Alternative” Italian music scene revealed lately important signs of reawaken do you feel part of that movement? Do you have any relationship with some of these musicians ?

Somebody spoke of “Italian occult psychedelia”, yes it's funny. It's normal to look for new labels, scenes, names, currents. Journalists need to create an history, a narration and musicians feel less isolated. Then sometimes you get it other times absolutely not. Scenes we have been knowing until 15 years ago don't exist anymore, the net exists. We have good relations with all those that we met during these last years. With someone we have even a close relationship for example with How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood? or with Above the Tree, Be My Delay, Donato Epiro, Lepers.

Do you feel more like being musicians or non musicians?

We simply like to play, and until now we couldn't do without. So yes, we feel a bit like musicians, but we are not musicians.

Which are the phases you go trough in order to create a new track of your music?

Improvisation. When we want to record we start improvising, recording, listening to recorded parts and cutting out what we prefer. Also live always are improvisations.

Can, Lard Free, LAFMS, Smegma, Faust, No Neck Blues Band, Pelt, Sunburned Hand of the Man Tasaday do you feel related to any of these groups?

Uhm , Pelt for example were a recent discovery, thanks to Gher of How much... and when we listened to them we thought “shit...but this is our music”. The one of the first Eternal Zio, those with violin and gurdy in evidence. We know the groups you mentioned, we like them, but they are not between the things we go mad for.

How are your live concerts?

As I told you 90% improvisation , that during the tours finds its own repetitiveness, still remaining improvisation. We like to be very close to our listeners. If we can choose we prefer to play a little bit altered rather than being totally sober.

Which is the best “live” situation you experienced?

All :)

But if we have to choose, at Cripta in Torino, at Torchiera in Milano,at Sinagoga in Ivrea, in Zurich, in a mountain festival in Rovereto… but also last concert some weeks ago in the occupied house of via Gorizia in Milano it was super. And then all the live by our brothers of Hybrida in and around Udine.

I read you manage Ca’ Blasé in deep Brianza can you tell me something about this experience? Did this help you from a musical point of view?

Ca' Blasè is not a club, it was our home. 3/4 of Eternal Zio was living there. We organized concerts at home, and it was a very open situation to the outside and to our friends.We had 5 fantastic years. But if you stop to much in one place you get killed, and so now we moved but we still organize concerts in Milano under the name Ca' Blasè: our house spread out everywhere.

Is Maurizio Abate a member of the group or just a friend collaborating from while to while?

He is a close friend and founder member of Eternal Zio. Now he is very busy on other projects and is not playing with us, but in the future who knows.

Do you have other intersts outside music?

Riot and parallel worlds.