The name of the band translates to “House of Spirits,” is that what you hope to project to the audience when you are playing live?
Precisely the
name of the band translates to “House of Myrtle”, Myrtle is a plant that grows
up in Sardinia and, of course, it is used to made liquors... so in a certain way you’re right! We just want
that our audience enjoys listening to our live show dancing and having a lot of
love, and of course it is even better if people have a bit of “Spirits” in
their veins. And sure, in ours too!
Hailing from the North of Italy, the sound of the band reminds me of
summers in the southern part of the country on the beaches and discothèques.
How much has all of Italy influenced your work?
Yes, our sound
is not what you expected from a band that comes from the North, buried in the
snow; but our sound comes out from our childhood memories, from our wishes, from
the colours of the past. We’ve always been addicted to the sea and everything
related to it, so there’s a lot of Italy in our work but not too much, our
sound is not related to where we are but it’s related to where we would like to
be, without borders.
Your new album is called “Still,” doing a dance-pop band, that is not
something you want the audience to be! What does the title signify?
Who comes to
listen to us has to move his ass! :)
“Still” is the
state of mind we were into when we were recording the album, it represents the
mood and the feeling of that moment. Still, like a quiet moment before the
storm or a quiet moment soon after the storm. We were coming from a strange
period and we needed to set up our lives. We still don’t know exactly if the
storm has already passed away or if it’s still to come. It’s the same for the
cover of the album: is the girl emerging from the sea or is she drowning? Up to
you!
What did you do on this record that you have not done before?
In “Still” for the first time we put the voice and the
melody more in evidence. In the previous works we used to hide them into the
instrumental mix. We took our time to record the album, the “official” one is
the fourth version of it; we’ve done a lot of research for the right sound and
the right arrangement to catch the atmosphere we wanted for “Still”
The sound of the band was influenced by 90’s house and dance music, who
were the artists that inspired you to start a band?
Underworld, Massive Attack, My Bloody Valentine and
Radiohead.
When you hear your music, what do you think?
We usually think that the next time we should do a better
job! We have mixed feeling about it, a little bit ashamed and a little bit
proud, it changes by the mood of the day; our mood is like a wave, always
changeling.
How would you describe your sound to someone who has not heard of you
before?
Our sound is like a cocktail full of different emotions
shaked in to an electronic way. Music that doesn’t need to scream because it is
already inside your heart and your soul.
What has been the best thing about being in this band?
A lot of things, the most important is that we reached a
sort of brotherhood and every member of the band became a part of a family.
Being in Casa del Mirto and playing the music we love is like a therapy, a
medicine that we use to understand ourselves and our feelings.
When can we expect to see you in America?
We’re working
on it and we’d love to come to America but there are a lot of thing to manage
and we need someone who’d help us in it, ‘cause we are too much scatterbrained!