Interview: NUDE

Living on a plastic planet...

"We recorded all our parts while sipping cappuccino and eating pizza capricciosa"

Italian born NUDE aren't your usual rock 'n' roll band. For them it really is all about the music, not Jack Daniels and groupies, and although the last album was released ten years ago they haven't lost their drive to create something people want to listen to. Frontman Tommy Box talks to Lenore about the trials of record labels and a band's desire to play live more than anything else.

IVM: Your last album was released more than ten years ago, why did it take so long to record and release Plastic Planet?
TommyBox: We started the album A few years ago. The band was in a static condition. We had lost our record deal and we weren't all in the same band anymore. In fact me and the guys were all involved in different musical projects. In the meantime, we were waiting for a record label to help us release “Plastic Planet” because we didn't want to sell a self-produced album; and finally My Kingdom Music came along, and decided to publish it and save it from an obscure end!


IVM: How has the band changed in the time and what have you all been doing in those years?
TB: The band only stopped for 5 years, actually. We did some gigs without publishing anything. Clearly we have grown up, our tastes have changed since then. During the time that we didn't play together, we were busy with other bands, working in the studio. For example, me (TommyBox, vocals) and Marco Mauss (Keys), created an electro-dandy duo called Costume and have recorded a couple of albums. One of them with an English producer Steven Jones and a New York singer Donna Destri (Blondie, Ramones), entitled Empire State Neon. On the other side, Fabio (guitar) with Nicolas (drums) restarted their power-metal band Heimdall and Antonio (bass) has, strongly, played on various hard-core bands.


IVM: Was it difficult returning to the studio?
TB: Not really! Fabio, the guitarist, has a fantastic recording studio called Sonic Temple, with all the things a band could ever want and need! Calmly we recorded all our parts while sipping cappuccino and eating pizza capricciosa. The studio is in the country side, on a hill so you have a beautiful landscape too... just at night it is a bit scary!

IVM: Do you find the industry and scene supportive in Italy to your style of music?
TB: Unfortunately the situation is not the best! I think it's like that everywhere, with the sales crisis. Record labels produce, exclusively, commercial music that gives safe and immediate gains.
But that does not stop us, to play and realize our music.


IVM: You said that the band really wanted to tour abroad after recording the first album, do you have plans to tour following Plastic Planet?
TB: We hope our new album will reach the sales of the first one ('Cities And Faces'), a work that has given us great satisfaction, especially on the North European market. We have cancelled so many foreign gigs in the past, due to problems inside the band. In fact, we didn't go on a US-Mexican tour. It was organized by our Mexican label, that released and distributed the album in the States. It caused us so many sorrows... but we hope this time things will be different!


IVM: You have some iconic bands listed as your influences, how do you look up to big bands and still retain your own sound when writing music?
TB: The musical influences are part of a musician's cultural baggage. The Nude experiences and tastes are metal too. We are all great listeners of power-metal, brutal-core ... and more! even punk, hardcore, electro and new wave. Although we feel inspired by certain groups who have made big these styles, while composing, we don't ever try to recreate their atmospheres. Inevitably a few chords and tunes could recall our teen passions but doesn't the same thing happen to Lady Gaga that reminds us of Missing Persons and Madonna or Coldplay that remind us of U2 and Modern English?


IVM: Are you surprised at the critic's reaction to Plastic Planet or did you always know the album was as good as they are all saying?
TB: What do you think about it? Does it sound good to you? Is there a song that grabbed your attention? I think the album is really glamorous. It is quality rock, stylish, played with love, spontaneous and without frills. When you listen to the CD carefully, it sounds energetic, not-artificial, even though full of electronic sounds. This is what I want and what people have to listen to nowadays, the right mix of rock, pop with a dash of dance!

IVM: Finally have you begun the follow up album?
TB: No, not yet ... too soon! ... all we want to do now is promote "Plastic Planet", trying to play live as much as possible ... would you like to let us play in your town? Visit our Facebook profile! www.facebook.com/plasticplanet2013

'Plastic Planet' is available now from My Kingdom Music. Read the review here. For more info visit the bands website

Posted in: interviews,my kingdom music,Nude,Plastic Planet