Giack Bazz (born Federico Giacobazzi) writes his first song in 2008. In 2015 his bandmates encourage him to release a solo album. Thanks to a successful crowdfunding, he releases “Childhood Dream”, his way of overcoming the traumas of his infancy. The album is well received and later brought on stage as a rock opera thanks to the Arts Council of his region. Giack went on in 2018 to make a double-7” 33 rpm vinyl with his second album: ’Giack Bazz Is Not Famous’. This album had a more light-hearted, yet angsty indie rock tone which featured more full band arrangements compared to his first. He records the album in a secluded recording studio with just him and the engineer on location.
By Kamil Bobin
Discovered via Musosoup
Kamil) Hey Giack Bazz, super nice to have the chance to chat with you. What first got you into music?
I believe my father put me on the piano stool when I was hardly 1 year old, there’s a photo in the family album. I was hooked, nothing I could do. The magic that “this key makes a sound and that one makes a different one” got me good. The Christmas after my mother passed away I was gifted one of those “Amp and Squier Strat” sets and I started picking apart Green Day and Death Cab For Cutie tunes until at 15 I was able to devise my own compositions. All uphill from then on, and here we are.
How do you balance your time in the studio with other commitments such as a part-time job, family, admin?
Luckily I pay my bills as a live sound engineer, which usually grants me the luxury of waking up late and spending the rest of the day making music and rehearsing, before going off to make music happen in nice clubs, staying up very late packing down, and repeat. I’ve been in a relationship for a long time and we had pets, It was much harder then to find some time to make music, now I breathe it 24/7 and it feels good again.
Your latest release is 'Just a Little Bit More Famous'. Can you tell us more about the making of it and if there were any unusual things happening during the process?
Just like most artists, I’ve been sitting on the masters of this album for a long time so it almost feels like a distant memory to recall specific events. I remember we used an Akai 1/4” tape machine for bouncing. Another fun fact is that the percussions on “Indie Love Song” are simply broomsticks on the back of a Merlin dulcimer. What else, “Oh No” is a one-take, we just added the processed Merlin solo, but the guitar and vocals are live-tracked. “Through With Sick and Sacred Stuff” was written in 2019 between the 366 songs of “Impression A.I.” at the end of a session where we recorded something like 12 songs I came up with the progression and the opening line and thought I’d better set it aside for later.
Where did you get the inspiration for this EP?
I’m a firm believer that when writing material for an album an artist should not consume any music. Of course, art does not exist in a vacuum so inspiration comes and goes like waves and sometimes we need a hand rowing the waters of our craft. Months before starting to work on the album I had devoured “Ram” by Paul McCartney (that my partner of the time hated because she thought it sounded like “carnival music”) also Kevin Morby’s “Oh My God” played a fundamental part, together with my usual “let’s listen to Figure 8 on repeat” Elliott Smith phase. Sprinkle a bit of Jamie T over the mixes, 180° in the oven for six months, dish out and garnish with freshly sourced Polaroid film and a drizzle of that deglazed Fuzzy sauce, et voilà.
How long did you work on the 'Just a Little Bit More Famous'? Was it an easy process for you?
Being in the middle of lockdown it was a constant process. Wake up, go to the living room home studio (it’s not a fancy name of a fancy studio, it is my actual living room) work on it until we basically couldn’t stand each other or the music anymore, decompress watching a movie, pass out on the couch, 2 AM sleepwalking exodus to the bedroom, repeat. We sent the instrumental tracks to Sebastian (our Italian-based drummer) who would send us guides recorded with his Roland V-drums in his attic, we’d re-track the final stringed instruments, re-amp through effects, and wait for him to track the final acoustic drums at Agro Beat Studios near Cento, Italy. It was certainly not a linear process but I do smile when thinking about those days, we didn’t know if we would ever get back to normal or if the album would ever see the light of day.
How do you know when a work is finished?
I am the opposite of a perfectionist. I believe too many artists live their lives as if they’ll never die, eventually dying and leaving a small body of work and their fanbase fantasising “if only they had more time, oh the wonders they could have created!”. Well, they did have time, they simply thought something wasn’t ready yet. spending years on a single to me sounds like you value the audience's judgement too much to me. Does it sound good to you? Does it give you goosebumps and make you headbang like an idiot while listening to it on the tube? Then it’s ready. Anyone telling you “it sounds too lo-fi” or “it’s a bit off here and there” just tell them “do you realise you and I will be dead someday and all that will be left is our art for future generations to acknowledge? I am making the best of my human experience, are you?”.
Can you write what was your best performance in your career? How do you remember it?
Well, my best performance is the next one. Tag along and you’ll see it. Jokes aside, a couple of my best performances are on YouTube, it was so much fun.
How do you find yourself in the music business? When you started out in music, did you know it would be like this?
When I started my musical journey, making it to the iTunes top 10 was one of the biggest achievements. Nowadays it takes what, 200 downloads? The industry has changed a lot and it is going to change again soon with the lack of boundaries we are placing around AI. I believe we’ll soon be out of work, we’ll be attending holographic performances of long-dead artists, and salt will be spread on the grassroots of today’s emerging artists. If it was difficult then, It will be impossible soon. But let’s keep stuffing our cheeks at the consumerism buffet. History taught us that our species doesn’t care about what lies outside our lawn.
Who is your favourite musician?
Conor Oberst. Goddamn genius, if I had the honour to be the opening act for Bright Eyes I would die happy.
What are your plans for the future?
Haven’t you seen it on my IG? @giackbazz is where you can see me cook some top-notch tunes for the buffet. Buckle up and dig in! It’s only the start.