Interviews: IKITAN

On this new occasion, we have had the opportunity to interview the Post-Rock band, IKITAN from Italy. Check out the interview and follow the band on their FACEBOOK PAGE.

1.Introduce the band to the readers of Breathing The Core.

 

Hi folks, we’re the IKITAN, an instrumental trio from Genoa (Italy), and we play a genre that can be defined as heavy post-rock. 

The band was born in September 2019. We incorporate a lot of different influences in our music and we love to jam, that’s how our music sees the light. 

IKITAN is Luca Nash Nasciuti (guitars), Frik Et (bass) and Enrico Meloni (drums and cowbell). 

2.You just published your debut EP, do you wanna tell us more about it? 

We’re very proud about the release of “Twenty-Twenty”.

The EP has been entirely self-produced, we started working on it a bit more seriously in the Spring of 2020, when we had enough material to put together three different songs. These were somehow linked among them and at one point we thought “why don’t we just release it as one only song and debut with a one-track EP”? Eventually the song lasts 20 minutes and 20 seconds which is a bit of a coincidence… or is it not? 

We’re also very happy about the artwork of the album, which sees IKITAN, the god of the sound of the stones, smashing some rocks above his head. It was curated by Luca Marcenaro and we can’t thank him enough! 

To give the album and artwork justice, we released the EP in digipack and with a poster. Check it out! 

3.Where did you get the idea for the band name, did you plan it or did it come out just like that? 

Luca: I came across “IKITAN” by randomly surfing on the Internet, and I found it, from an uncertified source, as “The God of the sound coming from the stones”. I just fell in love with that name and it has been an inspiration for a while. 

As we put together the trio, “IKITAN” sounded just perfect for us. 

4.Why did you want to play this genre? 

We happen to play music that we can define as heavy post-rock music. We have different musical backgrounds, we only really share the love of a handful of bands (the most important one being Tool) and the first day we met in the rehearsal room we simply started jamming. The only rule is: there are no rules. Sounds cliché but that’s how we approach music. 

We have a strong desire to improvise and let the music guide us. There’s not a lot of planning in what we do. 

Sure, we do adjust and arrange the songs as we keep playing them, but really there’s a lot of jamming around, picking up ideas from each other, and… mistakes can become a great source of inspiration too! 

Considering the great variety of our sources of inspiration, IKITAN is our chance to experiment and go crazy with the music. 

In this project, we have put everything we like. 

We just want to experiment and try out new stuff we haven’t done before in our previous bands (we all have been playing since we were teenagers). Not having a singer also helps a lot in that sense as we’re not tied to a more classical composition approach. 

We’re having a lot of fun! 

5. Did you know each other before the band was formed?

 

Luca and Frik Et have been friends for over 15 years. They met Enrico, who was looking for a new band, thanks to an adv on a local Facebook group for musicians. This happened at the end of September 2019. 

Fun fact: we all played at a local venue in Genoa in 2010 on the same night but of course in two different bands! Luca and Frik Et were in the same band already back then. Enrico still has the cd their band was selling on that night. 

6.What is each band member's favourite band?

Luca: Yawning Man, If These Trees Could Talk, QOTSA, and an endless list of artists that can inspire me, even from a completely different universe of music, including something jazzier or pop, why not... 

Frik Et: Tool, Deftones, Kyuss, and a pinch of Biffy Clyro. Checkmate. 

Enrico: right now it could be Gentle Giant, or Holocaust, or Death. Difficult to pick one! Like my mates, I listen to a lot of different stuff, from funky to prog rock to grunge and black metal, and somehow it all gets mixed together in what we play. 

So one day I have a favorite band, the next day another from a completely different universe. 

7.Who or what inspires you to write songs? 

Luca: Usually we start jamming as we plug the instruments and we always record everything, we build our stuff from scratch so I guess the inspiration comes from what happened during the day, the feeling in that moment or if I ran out of fuel in the car on a rainy day. 

The cool thing is that we learned to listen carefully to what each of us has to communicate when we play. In this way we manage to sound consistent when we play together. 

8.Where was your last gig? 

No live gigs yet, we were imagining how to plan for our first shows right when bloody Covid-19 arrived to ruin the party. Maybe we’ll do some streaming sessions if it won't be possible to play live for a long time to come. 

9.Where would you like to act? 

We are at the very beginning of our journey so I guess we will try to play in any places all over Europe as soon as possible. And our city Genoa will be the first place we’ll play for sure too. 

Let’s all hope venues won’t die once for all thanks to this disastrous situation and we can pick up again once this nightmare will be over. 

10. Have any of you ever suffered from stage fright? Any tips for beginners on how to beat that? 

Luca: Usually I’m afraid of not being ready enough for the gig, in terms of sound flow, effects setting etc… so my advice is: just prepare for the show 1000%! 

Enrico: No stage fright itself, just the right emotional kick before we hit the stage. Haven’t had the chance to play live with IKITAN yet as Luca said, but I’m sure that will be a BIG moment for us. 

As with recommendations on how to beat stage fright, and in general “pre-concert” tips: don’t get drunk before you get on stage! I once ended up with my head in between the toms… It’s not very rock’n’roll to recommend not to drink before a show (one beer will be fine… maybe two… ), but it surely helps. 

11.What bands have inspired you the most? 

As a band, probably Tool. Sounds pretentious but as mentioned earlier, the first time we met something clicked when talking about the band. Also, we suddenly discovered we all were in Florence to see them in the Summer of 2019 (but we didn’t know each other). It was indeed a gig none of us will forget easily. 

12. How did you come up with the idea for the cover of your album? 

Frik Et: The idea came after a dream I had… and after many beers! Luca Marcenaro translated this crazy mental rave into a fantastic artwork. We’ll be covering some of the elements of the cover in some social media posts, check them out! 

13.What do you think of your fans? 

To be honest, considering we’re a young band coming out of nowhere (no social media presence before the album launch and no gigs), the response to the release of “Twenty-Twenty” has been fantastic and way more than we could hope for. So we love our fans. 

Thank each of you who invested 20 minutes and 20 seconds of his/her life to join our crazy journey! 

People (can we call them fans? I guess so!) are enjoying the variety of the album, where you can find post-rock, prog rock, some 90s sounding riffs, heavy metal, a bit of psych… all of the things we like are included in “Twenty-Twenty”. 

So yes, very glad we’re being able to reach people who are expressing an interest in what we do, and we can’t wait to meet them all in person someday at our concerts! 

14. What do you think of our site? 

The go-to website to find out about underground op-and-coming bands from all over the globe. The moment we saw it we dreamed about being included here, thank you so much for giving us this chance. 

15. Anything to add? 

Check out “Twenty-Twenty”, recently released also as a limited-edition (200 copies) digipack. It comes with a free poster which features the unbelievably cool artwork by Luca Marcenaro. 

And thanks for reaching this point, we hope to meet you somewhere out there when it will be possible again. Until then… find us on social media, let’s talk, stay safe and play it loud! 

Let’s connect: https://linktr.ee/ikitan