A music writer is often able to spot whether there is a real connection between an audience and a music artist.
Said connection can be felt on and off the stage, especially when talking to fans before and after a live show, telling you about the joy and enthusiasm they felt during said show or the amount of miles they covered to come and see the artist in question.
This is, unmistakably, the feeling felt by our website when going to see one of the most loved, exciting and widely appreciated Soul/Gospel/Blues/Funk/Rock/R&B bands around, The Cinelli Brothers, performing live in the town of Newbury, UK, as part of a Never-ending Tour in support of their latest album, called Almost Exactly.
The collective, formed by brothers Marco (guitarist and lead singer) and Alessandro (drummer) from Italy, the British guitarist, singer and Harmonica player Tom Julian-Jones and French bass guitarist Stephen Giry has been and still is, one of the few refreshing and talented realities of the contemporary music establishment worldwide and our website was truly delighted to discuss with three of the band members, Marco, Alessandro and Tom, the story behind the making of Almost Exactly and the impact that music made and still makes in their daily lives as musicians and human beings
BR - Good afternoon, gentlemen, how the Tour in support of your latest album is going so far?
AC - Very well, thanks. We are performing almost every day, perhaps apart of Mondays, which seem to be our day off, for a series of coincidences. Despite the long journeys from venue to venue, to play live is such a wonderful feeling that makes us easily forget the long hours spent on the Tour bus.
BR - Almost Exactly, your 2024's 4th album, has consecrated the band as one of the most loved and respected across two continents, Europe and USA. How do you all emotionally respond to what must be, we imagine, an overwhelming feeling?
AC - We are extremely happy. The actual recording process of Almost Exactly was kind of extraordinary, in a way, because we met our producer Rich Pagano in New York, one day, we had lunch together and we didn't even talk about the record, we just talked about music stuff in general. Rich is an incredible drummer too, therefore you can imagine for me, being a drummer, how many questions I had for him (smiles). I guess that we just clicked with him, not only on a musical level but also on a human one. We then booked the Applehead Studios in Woodstock, in upstate New York, locked ourselves into the studios for about 8-10 days and then, perhaps in a magical way, something happened, because the studios where we set, the gears we were using, the great sound engineer work, Rich's presence there, it all helped to jell together all those different songs we already had, all conceived in different styles, like Gospel, Country, Rock etcetera. The album title gets the nod from that experience, the fact of being able to create a sort of "Transitional Record" between our previous one (2022's No Country For Bluesmen) and from what we used to do and what we are now aiming to do. The response we received from the crowds, about our latest album, was and still is, just mind blowing; it got us a nomination for the Blues Awards, which we did not win but having the nomination itself was a very proud moment for all of us.
TJJ - I think many people tries to pigeonhole genres, in music, because it is perhaps easier for them to identify a band and link them to a specific genre. We receive, on a daily basis and after our shows, a lot of genuine compliment from our audiences, because they are really surprised to hear us playing such an eclectic palette of music on stage. Then, of course, the risk might be that people may either not like that kind of sonic eclecticism on stage or, as it fortunately happens in our case, would accept and appreciate what we play at face value, seeing what we do as a sort of project. Which, in some ways, is what we aim to do through our music.
BR - Marco, Alessandro, how did the current line-up of the band got together in the first place, back in 2018, after the band was born as a trio, then evolved in a quintet, until you shaped the current line-up with Tom Julian-Jones and Stephen Giry?
AC - The band, at the beginning, it was just an idea coming from myself and my brother, where one day we said to each other " Why don't we have some fun and do a Blues record together?" That was the original idea. My brother Marco brought some songs in, then we booked some studio time in London for 3 days, but when the time came to record the whole lot of songs, we started wondering who we could call in, to lend us a hand recording those songs. So Marco and I started saying to each other "I know a guy that plays bass" or "I know another one that can play piano" or "I know someone else able to play harmonica" and so we called, in the end, those three guys (Alberto Manuzzi, Enzo Strano and Rollo Markee) and one of the songs we recorded got picked up from radio stations and all started. Positive reviews and live dates following the debut album were starting coming in from the media, so we were on a roll. Then, we wanted to try to have somebody that could bring something unique, not only as a guitar player but also as a singer and that was when we decided to ask Tom Julian-Jones to join us. We met him while doing a jam session in London, more than ten years ago and for myself and Marco, when we were auditioning to try and recruit the musician we were looking for, thinking of Tom was the most obvious decision and, once we tested together with him a rendition of (I'm The) King Bee, everything fitted into place like a glove and the rest is history (smiles). The process kept on going, the band kept on evolving, also for what concerns band members coming and going, we did more auditions for bass players and found Stephen (Giry, bass guitar), the final piece of The Cinelli Brothers' jigsaw.
Marco Cinelli
BR - Marco and Alessandro, you both come from Latina in Italy and grew up, musically, through the influence provided by the records of your father Domenico. How was the Blues and Soul scene in Italy, back when you were in your early 20's?
MC - I couldn't possibly give you a precise answer, to that, because I don't feel that both genres, although we love them, have been a massive influence to us. Perhaps because, at least back then, they were considered more as a sort of non-chart topping material, for true lovers and followers of the genres. For us, I guess it was more something that you could listen to while you are sitting in a pub with friends, for example. With time and then through the years, growing up and becoming adults, those genres have been absorbed in our musical DNA and to be honest with you, although our father is very keen to all music in general, he liked Blues but you wouldn't necessarily call him a fan. I guess that, for myself and Alessandro and especially for Blues, it was more about researching the roots of Rock And Roll, no matter whether it was American or British Rock and realizing that people like Eric Clapton or Stevie Ray Vaughan, just to mention a couple of our heroes, they were both coming from the Blues of Muddy Waters or Little Walter, something that pushed us even more to research Blues and its most famous torchbearers and enriching our interest and love for the genre.
BR - The band tours a lot. Does Marco write new songs, while you are On The Road or does he take some planned time off, so to allow him to start working on a new record?
MC - No, we all gather idea together whilst On The Road. We record collectively ideas on our portable devices, or ideas for lyrics, stuff like this. When we feel particularly inspired by an idea, we get our guitars and record a rough demo of said idea and present it to the rest of the band, that's the way it work for us. Then, as soon as I get home, I just do a demo with the drums, at times; if I want the rest of the band to bring their own things on the demo, I just do a demo with guitar and vocals and that's it, it then becomes the collective work of an ensemble. I feel though that, in comparison to a few years ago, it's much easier for us now to write songs. While in the past it was very hard for us to write songs in general, now I guess it's hard to keep on writing great songs. That's the challenge, you know.
BR - Marco, when writing songs, do you always start with a certain mindset, like, that you want to write great songs or you rather write songs more instinctively?
MC - No, we just write songs instinctively and we just discuss with each other whether a songs is deserving to be part of an album or not, when the time comes to enter the studio and record an album.
TJJ - I think writing songs is like throwing a lot of stuff to a wall and then you see what sticks to said wall and what doesn't.
Alessandro Cinelli
BR - You guys recorded Almost Exactly in New York and America has welcomed your sound and stage presence with open arms. How challenging is it, for a collective like yours that has not signed any contract with a record label, to work on the logistics involved not only in recording an album but also in promoting the album worldwide?
TJJ - Very good question. I think that Marco can tell you a lot more on this aspect, but it's incredibly hard, no doubts. There's a lot of work involved and the brothers, well, they work themselves to the bones, often, to promote everything... There is so many people involved, when you are not signed to a label, you need to make yourself a lot more connections within the music establishment, or, on a more personal basis, making friends, so you have this support network, especially in the US. That's kind of how it works, for us. We used people's kindness and generosity that we met at shows and other contacts, still within the industry, to help us to organise the first couple of tours, over there and help us with logistics. Yeah, when you don't have a label, or the money that they bring with and the support, although not all labels provide touring companies working with them, they still have people that you may call "Facilitators", for every aspect that you can think of and in absence of all that, we kind of having to arrange all by ourselves.
MC - Yes, just to reinstate what Tom just said, the whole operational plan, being a non-signed band, it's all left to a Do It Yourself level, essentially. You can make an amazing record but, you need to attract people to listen to it, because you are either forced to pay a lot of money to promote it properly, through medias such as radio stations, for example, or you are forced to do like we do, I.e. promoting our music and our records through live shows. The promotion of an artist, through radio stations, it is for me still a very determinant factor to the success of a band or of a record, because people can actually listen to what you do and decide whether they like your music and what you do. Yes, social networks can give you some visibility on the net, but will never be able to give the idea to a music fan of what the finished article of a band really is, unless you get to hear their songs through radio stations. In our case, the way to propel us as a band and our music to the audiences, it is to play our music to the hundreds of people that come to see our shows night after night, through a relentless amount of tour dates, like we are doing. We have worked out that our tour calendar includes almost 300 dates per year, which is a ridiculously big amount of dates.
AC - I just would like to add, going back to your original question, that we have a lot of Guardian Angels that have helped us along the way, like this wonderful lady in New York called Sandra Warren, who so massively helped us to meet Rich Pagano and made possible to organise our very first tour in the United States. That happened because Sandra is a true Blues lover, saw a YouTube video of us performing live and that's how we met. That was such an incredible opportunity and I am personally very glad for the type of response we get from our audiences in the U.S. and I noticed that American people, once they get to know you and your music, they follow you around, which is something really big, if you think how vast are the United States. The stories I could tell you, about people driving sometimes something like 16 hours just to come and see us playing, is infinite. But this happens not only in US but also here in UK and the rest of Europe, fortunately for us. What a wonderful happy feeling that is!
BR - Every album of a solo artist or a band is a snapshot that depicts where an artist is, at that moment in time. How much do you feel your music has evolved and grown together with you as human beings, after the release of Almost Exactly?
MC - When we play the record to ourselves, sometimes we frame a moment, within the record. Sometimes it can be the work that took a long term on a specific song, sometimes it's the improvisational spin that we applied to a song, but the end result is the ultimate milestone and where you explore each other, within the record. That's what happened with Almost Exactly; before we started making records, we were barely playing the songs, in those records, we were just "doing" records for commercial purposes. If you think of an album like No Country For Bluesmen, we played 4 songs, on that record, you know. In that respect and compared to our previous studio album, Almost Exactly, as I said, was a milestone for us, for the amount of work we did in the studio.
TJJ - It was like the first time, as a band, that we have toured an album where there was a complete vocal and musical involvement from us.
MC - Basically, what you hear live, on stage, is what you hear on the studio album but with that added raw live emotion, because every night that we perform, it's a different emotion every night. In some respect, we never stick to a plan, when playing live; if you hear the songs included in Almost Exactly, after you saw us live, you may think "Wow, this sounds a little like an old-fashioned kind of arrangement". Every night, when we play, we feel that we get closer and closer as musicians and, perhaps unconsciously, getting to know us better not only as musicians but also as human beings, while exploring our musicality. This is the story of every band, you know, they want to play together and they lend an ear to each other to better understand what's going on on a stage. Like, if a song is going in a certain way, at some point, I know exactly where I have to go, to make the band happy and that happens only with time, by playing together every night.
Tom Julian-Jones
BR - You have recently released a couple of new tracks, the instrumental Pencil Pusher Doze, with that interesting sonic dualism suspended between Booker T & The M.G.'s and B B.King and a very charming and well crafted song called Dark Side Of The Road. Are both songs part of an album currently in the making?
(Collectively) We are not sure yet (they giggle in unison).
MC - We want to stay in line with the current times and for the moment, we are eager to let new stuff out as they come, just to keep the interest to run as strong as possible about us and our music. My original idea was to remix some of our songs that can work well together and do a record out of it, something uniform, because we don't really want to do such thing as a compilation of our songs. Another possibility, it is to do another album of originals.. I don't see any problem for both possible directions, to be honest. But for the time being, we just want to release songs as they come to us and keep people's interest high and to motivate them to go checking out any new material we put out.
BR - Marco, Alessandro, Tom, we know that you guys share a common love for the 80's movie The Blues Brothers with Belushi e Aykroyd. In that movie, there is a particular line from Aykroyd, about their music and "Being on a mission from God". For The Cinelli Brothers and their relationship with music, how much spirituality has got space in the compositional process of your songs and live performances and also, what is your personal mission, in the context of worldwide music?
TJJ - That's a very deep question; personally, I am not a religious person, but I do think that you can't really play music without finding inner meaning in yourself, whether that's spiritual or a wider life elsewhere in the universe. For what concerns being on a mission, I feel we are more on a mission on behalf of ourselves, in a way, like, to get what we want to get from our music and to hopefully conquer the world, through it. We want to take our music humbly to people and say "This is who we are". It's a little like baring your soul and opening yourself up to people, bringing our music to as many people as possible, hoping they appreciate what we do.
MC - We want to be, in a way, educative, because we are proud of what we do. I think we can all say that we try to raise an example for any young musician that come and see us and might say "You guys are cool, I wanna start playing this music like you do". There is always that young teenager guy, in us, that makes us remember why we do what we do, just because we were passionate about our music heroes and we aim to emulate their impact on stage. You feel that you are attracting people, when you are on stage. You can say whatever you think about the world, because in that moment, the limelight is on you, as a musician. I am 40 and I live with the teenager I had in me when I was young and I thrive to become someone that has a word, something to say about the world and the state of current affairs within it.
AC - It's about fulfilling your childhood dreams, it's like when someone sends you a video of a particularly talented artist and you exclaim "Wow", I want to be that guy! But it's also a form of growth, you know, not necessarily in a religious way... we play live almost every night and I feel like, there is some sort of energy that hits you just before you enter the stage and is sort of channelling something bigger than us, something that I feel as another evolution of myself that I had the opportunity to explore, thanks to the growth of the band.
