What The Sound welcomes The Quincey, a psychedelic rock band hailing from Milan, Italy. The music video for their most recent single “Look Up To The Sky” caught our eye, it was filmed around Alberto Burri’s massive land-art installation in a remote part of Sicily. That track comes from their upcoming full-length which will be released at the end of November via Bad Panda Records. Prior to that video, the sextet has released visuals for two other music videos, “Oh No!” and “Make It Right”, both successfully highlighting their trippy atmosphere. Below, read our conversation with The Quincey and get to know their music, plans for the future, and major influences.
What The Sound: What 3 words best describe The Quincey?
The Quincey: Whiskey, Freedom, Love.
WTS: Can you introduce your band? Who plays what? Names?
The Quincey is an Italian psych pop band that loves the verse chorus format of a good pop songs, especially when played around with and embellished with drones, space organs and echo feedback.
Benjamin - Bass
Pony - Drums
Luca - Organ
Silvia - Guitar
Massimiliano - Guitar
Manu - Vocals, guitar and percussion
WTS: Where are you all from?
Pontus (Pony) is from Sweden, Benjamin is half Polish and half Italian, the other four are from Reggio Emilia, a region an hour south of Milan.
WTS: What’s the Milan music scene like? Any overruling genre?
It’s getting better, but it’s still not very great. Milan is ruled by fashion, and the fashion industry is not interested in bands, so we have suffer a lot from bad house music. To combat this we throw a party every two weeks in a small bar with a dance-floor, playing all kinds of strange stuff like Afro Funk, Psych, Disco, Cumbia, Funana, Calypso. Not so much psych rock stuff since it’s hard to dance to.
WTS: How did you choose the name, “The Quincey”?
After the English writer Thomas De Quincey
WTS: You released your self-titled EP in 2014, and you’re soon to release your first full-length album?
Yes, we’re releasing our first album, Look Up To The Sky on Bad Panda Records real soon. We’re talking to pressing plants right now to print the vinyl, it’s not easy, we want the LP to sound and look great and it seems like most pressing plants just aren’t up to standard.
It’s scheduled for release at the end of November digitally, the vinyl comes out in time for Christmas so you can give it to all your loved ones.
WTS: Any released in-between?
No, it took a while to record the LP, we tried different studios, recording different songs with different producers, etc. We’ve made songs for a couple of commercials in between, and played concerts and organized our party.
WTS: The LP is called Look Up To The Sky. What’s different about this album compared to the rest of the material that you’ve released?
To us, making good music is always a matter of searching and experimenting. We tried to write and record in different ways before finding a sound and way of working we liked.
I think control is a big part of it, we simply can’t trust anyone enough to mix or record our record and get what we want, so we had to do it yourself. The album is much more lush than the EP, without giving into noodling or solos or anything, it’s still pop.
WTS: We love your music video for that single. Where was it filmed?
We filmed in in Sicilia, on the site of Alberto Burri’s massive land art installation Cretto di Burri. It was built on top of a town that was razed by an earthquake in the 60’s as a commemoration. It’s a truly surreal art piece, hard to tell if it’s beautiful or ugly, I think that might be part of it’s charm in fact. It’s hard to get to, no bus lines, the roads are in bad condition as well. They don’t do guided tours, which is great for shooting - no one to get in your shot, but sad since it’s truly a strange site that deserves more attention.
WTS: Who are your biggest influences? Are those the same for lyrical and instrumental?
We write lyrics in pairs usually, just various things going through our head, it has to have relevance to our everyday life. I can’t think of anyone we’re inspired by lyrically.
Musically it’s tons of stuff, right now we’re listening to a weird record called “101 Strings - Astro Sounds Beyond The Year 2000”. Otherwise stuff like Puccio Roelens, Index, Human Expression, Bulimundo, Alice Coltrane, all across the board including a lot of South and Latin American folk and rock from the 60’s and 70’s, stuff like Arco Iris, Congregacion, Litto Nebbia, Antonio Smith, El Kinto, Som Imaginario. The list goes on…
WTS: Any overarching influence, that’s not a musician?
Alejandro Jodorowsky - filmmaker, Pasolini - filmmaker, Dadamaino - artist, Superstudio - design group, James Turrell - artist, Alberto Burri - artist.
WTS: Any one band that you really like from the States?
Many, mostly old stuff: Index, Human Expression, Shuggie Otis.
New ones are tougher, we like Mac Demarco, Allah-Las, Chris Cohen, Keath Mead, Money Mark to name a few.
WTS: How are your live shows? Do you have a cool visual set up?
We’ve been trying to give our concerts a visual impact lately by projecting graphics and animations onto the stage. We have two designers and a videomaker in the band so there’s plenty of material to choose from. We try to dress in bright color clothes to reflect as much as possible. We only use vintage gear to keep with the sound of the recordings as much as possible, old amps, pedals, etc.
WTS: Have you toured outside of Italy? Plans of going overseas or to any particular country/city in the near future?
Not yet, we’ve talked to venues in Paris, but nothing yet. We’re starting working with a new booking agent soon, that should change things.
WTS: What’s your relationship with Dumbo Gets Mad? Member overlap?
He’s a guy from Reggio as well and he helped us out a lot in the beginning. He’s in Milan now, so we hang often. He has a great new album out in just a week or so, called “Thank You, Neil’, after Neil deGrasse Tyson, the Cosmos TV show host.
WTS: Vinyl Williams created your music video for “Make It Right”. How did you make that connection?
It was Benjamin, our bass player who knew him a little. Lionel (Vinyl) is an awesome and really talented guy, plays every instrument possible. And he’s John Williams’ (composer) grandson.
WTS: Any city or festival anywhere in the world that you hope to play in the next year?
Realistically:
Paris, Berlin, Warsaw, Lisbon, London.
Unrealistically:
Mexico City, Oaxaca City, Sao Paolo, Rio and Los Angeles.
Stay up to date with The Quincey via their Facebook, Twitter, and Soundcloud!