Dear readers, we are pleased to offer you in this article an interview with an Italian band that plays multifaceted Experimental music. We welcome Gotho.
Hi, it’s a pleasure to have you among our pages, how are you?
“Hi, we’re fine thanks. Very happy for this interview.“
The band formed recently, how did the project and the choice of the name Gotho come about?
“Andrea and I live in two different regions of Italy with two different dialects. Once I asked Andrea to give me the “gottoā, wich is āglassā in the dialect spoken where I come from.
He asked me āwhatās gotto?ā
My answer was ā the name of our bandā.“
You offer Experimental music with Ktautrock, Prog, Psychedelia contaminations, how would you describe your sound and what are your sources of inspiration in this regard?
“We did Gotho just to write music in total freedom, without having to obey any musical genreās rule. I would define the sound that came up as a sort of intricate progressive rock with a strong punk attitude. We find a lot of inspirations from bands like Gentle Giant, Magma, King Crimsonā¦. But also Nofx, Bad Religion, Convergeā¦..“
The new album āGothron Versus Fartarkā was released in November 2024, enriched by fantastic settings, how would you describe this work?
“We used a lot of instruments to record it. 6 keyboards, a lot of guitar effects on them, a trumpet and a giant drumset.
We had a lot of colours, and the risult is intricate, rich and very progressive. A crazy thing about this album is that it’s a live recording with no overdubs. The reason we did it in this way was keeping the punk attitude of the band in the recording.“
What themes does this new album deal with?
“The album is basically the soundtrack of a crazy sci-fiction saga. There are musical themes that appear many times with different arrangiaments, according with what happens in the story in that moment. For example thereās a five notes theme every time the main character take place, or a disco beat melody everytime thereās a fight in Planet Disco Danceā¦“
Elaborate and experimental tracks, how does the creative process of your music take place?
“Mostly we write individually some musical idea and send it to the other. The other answer with some arrangements or modifications or other ideas and so onā¦ The 80% or maybe more of our music is on our whatsapp.“
I have always been impressed by your instrumentation, what equipment did you use to make this work?
“We have different live sets and recording sets according with needs and possibilities. To record the album we used a Respighi drumset with 4 snares, rototoms, a lot of cymbals, percussions, An old trumpet, a lot of amplificators for all the keyboards, A Rodhes piano, a Korg Monologue, Yamaha mx49, Waldorf STVC, Novation ultranova, and a little monophonic Moog.“
This is your second studio album, how has your sound evolved since the previous one?
“Our first one is a bit more āpunk attitudeāand āfunnyā than this. The sound of the band is now more organic, with more identity and complexity . But I think that you can find all the seeds of what Gotho is now in Mindbowling.“
Being a duo, is this a studio-only project or will there be a chance to hear your music live in the near future?
“Weāre a live band before being a studio band. Weāre making a lot of concerts in Italy,hoping to play in other countries as soon as possibile.“
Italy is a country rich in culture, how do you see today’s music scene in our country?
“Touring in Italy we always discover many talented musicians and interesting projects. Iāll say the obvious, but I think weāre lucky. I mean, there are countries with more possibilities fo bands to work well; but not so many full of talent and culture and sources of inspiration.“
What advice would you give to young artists approaching music in a more sophisticated genre such as yours?
“To never forget that tecniche and skills in general have sense only if used to say something. Doing music just to show them is doing empty music.“
Do you have other activities or artistic passions outside of music?
“We love movies and art in general.“
“I read a lot of sci-fiction booksā¦. But honestly our lives have always been in music.“
I thank the band for the interview and wish them all the best for the continuation of their artistic career.
“Thank you too, it was a pleasure.“
Purchase the new albumon Bandcamp: https://gothoband.bandcamp.com/album/gothron-versus-fartark
Read our Review of their new album here: [Review] Gotho ā Gothron Versus Fartark
