JoyCut Wicked Spins Radio Interview

Joycut come from Italy and weave pictures of urban landscapes through their wonderful dark-wave sound. They are extremely well established in Europe and are about to tour the USA with their third album PiecesOfUsWereLeftOnTheGround. Wicked Spins Radio got chance to catch up with Joycut and here is how it went.

WSR – Thank you so much for giving Wicked Spins Radio this interview, can you tell our readers a little bit about yourselves?

JoyCut – JoyCut takes the name from the conceptual conjunction between the song ‘Joey’ from Nick Drake and Pink Floyd’s The Final Cut. We are a difficult band to define if one considers how we love to grow into different expressive modes. Our sound has very deep roots, certainly dating to the 80’s dark-wave scene. We weave powerful sonic moments using electronic melodies and industrial percussion with sounds from objects found in the urban landscape. We are now going to present live in the U.S. our brand new third release called “PiecesOfUsWereLeftOnTheGround”. It’s often experimental but always accessible. We have already found a loyal fan base in Italy where we come from and the UK as well as most of Europe and we hope to do the same in the US. We opened and toured with such bands as Modest Mouse, Sebadoh, Arcade Fire, Editors and Art Brut. We have currently been selected by the SXSW and we can’t wait to play in the U.S. in the near future.

We also manage a gigantic campaign called “Ghost Trees Forest” which pays careful attention to our sustainable future. In recognition of this our albums use cellophane tape from 100% biodegradable material and both the CD and booklet are made from recycled products. That’s the reason why we strongly started to record our works in solar powered recording studios.

WSR – Your new album PiecesOfUsWereLeftOnTheGround was recorded in some odd locations, can you tell us the story about recording it?

JoyCut – It is a simple story. We have been travelling during these years without thinking about making a new album. So two years and a half passed by and we noticed we were collecting loads of sound experiences and self recordings throughout that period.

The name of the Album is “PiecesOfUWereLeftOnTheGround” because we wanted to underline how we experienced and expanded our mood in relation to different places we visited, daily existential transformations and intimate personal evolutions. Then we recorded in Bologna and Rubiera, Italy; Sarajevo and Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina; Düsseldorf and Berlin, Germany; NewYork, U.S.; finalizing some of the main mixing processes in Bologna and Düsseldorf.

WSR – You embark on a world tour in April, are there any places that you revisit from the recording of PiecesOfUsWereLeftOnTheGround?

JoyCut – We actually started the [Italian] tour from Bologna at Estragon Club. That was the release party date on September [19th]. We flew to NewYork [City] playing at Pianos on October [4th] and later, once in Europe, we enjoyed The Monarch in Berlin on October 25.

WSR – What does it feel like to be playing America for the first time?

JoyCut – It is unbelievable. It’s amazing. Travelling is a metaphor for life. So when one has the opportunity to share his point of you with another culture, what that gives back is priceless in terms of cultural and personal growth. The US, as a whole is so unique and leaves us full of imagination. We studied at school the importance of Independence Day, we learned through music and movies the values of freedom many Americans fight for and hold dearly in their hearts. But who knows what the reality is. Coming over and just breathing the air is a huge privilege, coming over and sharing the arts is a daydream. But technically speaking when one is performing is not certainly thinking about the place where is at. He is more concerned of playing at his best, maybe intensely concentrated on transmitting energy and music to people in front of him.

WSR – What was the reason for you being able to play America, has your fan base over there grown or something?

JoyCut – We have to thank this super guy, DJ Mojo who discovered our music, a couple of years ago, through the net. We do not know how that happened, maybe by chance; anyway he wrote us on Facebook in order to inform us that a JoyCut track from that period album was on this “BTR” BreakThru Radio podcast. He did it again, several times, and we felt like someone else from afar had the sensitivity to understand our voice. So we started thinking about this seriously. Years later we have written our third album “PiecesOfUsWereLeftOnTheGround”, we have signed for IRMA records and our work has received loads of approvals, all of them underlining our international makings. Then we contacted promoters and venues, we asked for a P-1 Visa, and we came over to test the waters”. During the Brooklyn show held at “Matchless”, where DJ Mojo plays his A&R part, we met Mr. Andrew Miller on behalf of Amp Events and we decided to work hard on JoyCut with the prospect of a real and intense U.S. Tour. Then we received the invitation from the SXSW to attend a showcase over there, representing Italian bands, so destiny is calling. We are now going to tour north America and hope to increase our fan base and satisfy all the people who will come to watch our shows.

WSR – 2013 for the majority of people I speak to was a very bad year and 2014 seems to be the year that puts right all the wrongs of 2013, on a personal level 2014 has started of in a superb way. What were the good and bad points of 2013 for you and how has 2014 started?

JoyCut – 2014 has started great. We have to see what it’s gonna bring. But 2013 was crazy! Our album came out, we played at Botanique in Bruxelles with Sebadoh, one of the best venues ever! We were the headliner at the London Summer Jam, we played Berlin, Haarlem, all over Italy…

So, it’s good, except for our favourite Italian “soccer” team, Internazionale F.C.. This season Inter is playing crappy. It sucks.

WSR – The video to Wireless is stunning in both elements of visual and musical, what were the idea’s behind both the music of Wireless and the visual aspects of the video?

JoyCut – We used to project visual installations behind us on stage during our shows. We like to express how cultural poligamy is the key we believe in, in order to find a new way to interpret this dynamic and hard sea change concerning the human condition. Our new work is for the most part instrumental, this gives to our audience the chance to get shaken on the inside, to participate personally, to search for an intimate meaning. This is a sharing introspective activity. Music, visual and human being without any grammar code or language contents. No barriers. Wireless, the video, touches this idea. An invitation to “break the wires”. New York and Rorschach represent a couple. New York is “the” city par excellence, the place that everyone knows to the bone even without ever being there, Rorschach symbolizes the part of each of us that needs to be tested to interpret people and our contemporary ambiguity.

WSR – How hard was it to piece together both music and the stunning video for Wireless?

JoyCut – Very hard. We wanted to break the usual habit in making a video. At first writing a synopsis that told multiple stories. So we had these short pieces of images captured by the net, pieces of footages we filmed for the video itself, parts of self recording clips, scenes from our visuals, animation we designed on purpose. After choosing the “fil rouge”, we turned all the material in a common colour filter and we started to cut it up. At the end, once the final selection has been made we began to edit trying to unveil the intensive plot (following the music and its beats per minute).

WSR – What does your music mean to you?

JoyCut – Music reminds us of a period of childhood, when we could climb a tree and dream passionately about the future. It’s going beyond any perceptible limits. It is a perpetual peace and at the same time violation of equilibrium_

WSR – You have a new line of merchandise for 2014, is there any merchandise you would wear everyday?

JoyCut – We use the shopping bag tote every single day! We collected all of them since the first merchandise line we made. They are practicable, fresh, light and ecofriendly; they are made by organic cotton and water inks.

WSR – Can you describe a normal day for JoyCut?

JoyCut – Fruits for breakfast in the morning. Work. Nice lunch, fish and red wine even if the majority of people are used to couple glasses. We love salted toasted bread. Artsworld (is the brand name for a group of art-oriented television channels) on TV, soccer, either five a side or a proper size team with eleven players a side training, one of us prefers basketball. We go out at night, but everyone has different interests, we do not always hang out at the same place or with the same people.

WSR – You come from Europe, but what is the most magical and beautiful place in the whole of Europe for you?

JoyCut – We can tell we all love Norwegian fjords.

WSR – Is there one avenue of music you would like to explore that is not within the bounds of JoyCut?

JoyCut – How can we answer this? That’s not fair one. We would like to explore other avenues of art for sure. We love street art and we would like to get involved in it.

WSR – Thank you so much for giving Wicked Spins Radio this interview, is there anything you would like to add?

JoyCut – We thank you very much indeed! We’d like to take the chance to ask everyone to follow us on our official social media networks (facebook, twitter, instagram), just look for “joycutofficial”, we are also glad to present our upcoming U.S Tour, considering that more dates are still to come:

24,02 NEW YORK (NY) US – Mercury Lounge

25.02 PHILADELPHIA (PA) US – Johnny Brenda’s

26.02 BROOKLYN (NY) US – Glasslands

27.02 TRENTON (NJ) US – Mill Hill Basement

28.02 NEWARK (DE) US – Mojo Main

01.03 YORK (PA) US – The Depot

02.03 ASHEVILLE (NC) US – Emerald Lounge

03.03 ATHENS (GA) US – Caledonia

04.03 ATLANTA (GA) US – The Earl

05.03 PADUCAH (KY) US – Maiden Alley Cinema

06.03 NASHVILLE (TN) US – Rocketown

07.03 SAINT LOUIS (MO) US – The Demo

08.03 KANSAS CITY (MO) US – Record Bar

11-14.03 AUSTIN (TX) US – SXSW

16.03 MARFA (TX) US – El Cosmico

19.03 SCOTTSDALE (AZ) US – Rogue Bar

20.03 LOS ANGELES (CA) US – Los Globos

21.03 SAN FRANCISCO (CA) US – Hotel Utah

26.03 SEATTLE (WA) US – LoFi

30.03 CHICAGO (IL) US – Subterranean

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