PINHDAR

PINHDAR is the art rock/trip-hop project by Cecilia Miradoli and Max Tarenzi. Their debut album was released in 2019 driven by the single “Toy”. In 2020 Pinhdar wrote “Parallel” and recorded it entirely during lockdown in their Milan based studio alongside Scottish producer Howie B.

Jason Barnard finds out more from Cecilia and Max about the ambitious, salient and dazzlingly inventive “Parallel”.

PINHDAR

What are the themes of “Parallel” and its key tracks?

We can say “Parallel” is a trip to Hades planned to get rid of the demons who’ve taken over in these very difficult times. “Anacreonte” is the first song on the album and leads to a personal and introspective descent into hell. As the eight tracks unfold, this descent involves fears, frailties, personal demons and of humanity in general, and then rises towards the light in a journey that is literally a Pindaric flight, up to the last song “The Hour Of Now ”, which, not surprisingly, closes the album without putting an end to it, with a dystopian outro full of hope.

How did you get in touch with Howie B and how has it been like working with him?

Once we finished our recordings, we spent some time listening to the rough mixes and wondered how we could make them shine at their best. We played them to our closest artist friends and, in some of our conversations, the name of Howie B came out as the “dream producer”. At first, it seemed like something out of our reach for us, but we decided to try that anyway because we wanted the best for this record, considering how much it had cost us in emotional terms.

So we simply emailed his manager and it all happened quickly. Howie listened to the songs and immediately let us know he was thrilled to work on them. The first video calls on Skype were incredible for us, as much as they were fun: you don’t happen to see Howie B dancing to your songs that often!

It was a wonderful experience, physical distance was never a barrier because we intensely communicated by chats and video calls and we soon reached a musical consistency and human connection. He proved to be what we already knew: an accomplished artist, very sensitive and respectful of our work. His contribution is on different levels: he not only gave his signature to the sound of the mixes but also worked within the layers of the arrangements, often in a subliminal way, that overall made our album more cohesive and coherent with the vibe that we were looking for.

What was the writing/production process for the album?

We recorded in our own home studio in Milan, entirely during the first hard lockdown in March/April 2020. The process was pretty suffering and intense: we were feeling the tension and fear of the moment until tragedy hit us straight making things even worse and without being able to do anything more than translating our wounded emotions into music.

We were never satisfied with the results and went through a very frustrating process of throwing things away starting from scratch multiple times. We can now say we were unintentionally revisiting our approach to our music and pushing it to the next level, undressing it of everything that wasn’t essential and straight to the point.

How long have you collaborated on music?

Wow, that’s a lot of time because we’ve been making music together forever. We started our previous band Nomoredolls in the early 2000s and have never stopped since. We also founded an independent music festival in 2012 that has become a reference here in Italy and ranked as one of the most fascinating locations to attend a live show.

Can you tell me about Nomoredolls?

Nomoredolls were a 4 piece rock band with a powerful live nature. We played hundreds of shows in our own Country and, after releasing our full length in 2005, the band started to gain recognition in the USA. Which led us to tour the West Coast on a regular basis for some years, growing our fan base over there gig by gig. We are still proud of what we achieved as an independent band from overseas playing all those legendary clubs which seemed like a myth to us, like CBGB’s, The Knitting Factory and many others in the NYC area.

How does your new album compare to your debut album in PINHDAR?

Our debut as PINHDAR was a way to get back to music as performers and to prove ourselves we could do something good as a duo, without the inevitable compromises that a more structured band require. We still like it but somehow feel like “Parallel” is our real start, while “PINHDAR”, the album, is a sort of a warm-up.

How has Kris Needs helped you?

Kris’s appreciation definitely added credibility to our project towards UK Press. He’s also played a key role in our connection with Fruits de Mer Records so that we quickly came to a vinyl distribution agreement with them when our own release was already set up. Kris and Keith Jones himself (who is in charge of Fruits de Mer) are truly passionate people, devoted to music, we feel very connected with them because of this. Also, a good review by Kris Needs is a big confidence boost for us!

Where are you from and has that influenced you?

We are both born and raised in Milan. Musicwise, that’s not been an influence at all, because the music we listen to and have grown up with, comes mainly from the UK. Maybe an English or American who listens to our music could find some kind of exotic ingredient in it because of our Italian heritage we’re not conscious about?

What’s the music scene there?

Live music is suffering a lot from the pandemic and we still don’t know how and when we’ll be able to start again. Aside from this, there’s a lot of good music but we’re not sure we can speak of a real “scene”. What we really don’t like here is the habit to follow trends so that nowadays electronic music (say the “producers” thing ) is taking over while many more traditional line ups and talented bands find fewer spots.

What do you do outside of music?

Not so much left aside from managing our project and the festival, which all require full dedication. We try to run our lives in these difficult times.

What impact has the pandemic had on you?

It totally changed our habits and literally stopped our normal activities as musicians. It’s been tough. As artists, it forced us to dig deeper to the core of our craft and the real motivations we do it for.

Do you have any plans for the rest of this year?

We hope to be able to play live shows again gradually. We’ll be also playing live streaming while waiting to be back on stage in front of real people.

How do people find out more about PINHDAR?