Start Listening To: Italia 90

Italia 90 speak to us about their latest single and share details on their upcoming 7inch pressing.

For those unfamiliar with your music, can you tell us who you are, where you’re from, and a little bit about the music that you make? 

We are Italia 90, comprising J Dangerous (drums), Eccie Homo (guitar and SFX), Les Miserable (vocals) and Bobby Portrait (bass guitar). We all live in South East London and we make fragrant music for stinky people.

We love your new single! Can you tell us more about the lyrics in this track? 

It's about liberals (again)! The lyrics were inspired by a newspaper column comparing Trump and Bolsonaro to Blair and Obama and asking where it all went wrong, and we found the idea that everything had been going well up until now worth commenting on. 

What is your songwriting process like? 

The music mostly comes from improvisation, and the lyrics are molded to fit in around it. Les often reads out placeholder lyrics from random sources, such as daytime TV presenters, and then swaps in the angrier words if applicable. 

How did you produce your new single? 

With ease (and with special thanks to our producers Goody Swords). We recorded it the day after the last general election :(

How important are current political issues to your music? 

We don't actively target current events to talk about, but we use things happening around us as a gateway to discussing wider themes. We don't want to mention specific individuals or events, as these can lose their relevance and are less universal. It's no use being angry about a particular event if you aren't also angry about the ideologies and structures that led to it.

What was it like playing with Viagra Boys?

We've done it twice and the second time was even more arousing than the first. They offered us Viagra, but we politely declined due to the ample surplus we had at that time ;)

Which musicians do you admire?

We admire our friends Scrounge for releasing a 90 second single, Leaking Drains, recently. We admire artists who release the music they want to release and not what the 'suits' want.

How has it been adapting to not playing live? Do you have plans for future shows?

We've enjoyed the chance to concentrate on writing our debut album. We're looking forward to playing live again when we can, but we certainly won't be doing any socially distanced shows. 

What do you hate right now? 

We absolutely hate rats, but can't bring ourselves to hate mice. We also hate Robert Webb, and would love to smother the bastard.

What do you love right now?

Recently, we have loved the storied life of Thomas Cromwell, Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain, the film Long Day's Journey Into Night, Chess.com and pillowy mounds of mashed potato. 

Is there any new music from 2021 that you’re enjoying?

We've been enjoying new albums from Ana Roxanne, Claud, and Catarina Barbieri, as well as the new single from our friends Tarquin and Fake Laugh, So Good. We're looking forward to new albums from our friends Qlowski and Ghost Car this year too. 

What else can we expect from you in 2021? Any more releases planned?   

Our new single, Borderline, is coming out as a 7 inch in April, backed by another new track, Declare. We hope to have more new music out after that too. Also Eccie Homo is releasing a new solo album under the pseudonym Georgie McVicar.

Do you have any final life lessons or tips for our readers?

We swear by a beer in the bath (then bed) at the end of every day.