- Interview - October 2005
(c) Mary @ Sugarcult Italian Team
Answers by: Marko 72 (Sugarcult guitarist)
1- Sugarcult is now recording a new studio album. What should we expect from it?
To be honest we have yet to press the "record" button, so anything is
still possible. We have more than enough songs written, but we're
keeping the creative floodgates open for as long as possible; you never
know what ideas you might wake up to each day. I can tell you that we
plan on making a record that takes more chances than our previous
records. We are proud of the work we've done in the past, but we don't
want to copy ourselves and fall into a rut where we just travel down
paved and familiar roads; in order for our music to be important to us
and to the fans it has to keep moving forward and breaking new ground. There are a lot of harder rock songs coming out, also some more experimental songs so we'll see what happens.
2- Italian fans are curious to know about your italian roots. Can you tell us about it?
My father is a native Roman, he still lives there right by the Forum;
when he was a boy, he and his brothers would play soccer (football) and
hide and seek around the ruins. My mom is American and met my dad
while she was working over there. I lived in Rome until I was 3 years
old, then we moved to California, but I try and get over there as often
as I can. I love Italy, it is my favorite country in Europe; the best
food, awesome architecture, fashion, pretty girls, cool cars, glorious
big cities and rustic little villages; it's all good. Me and my wife
got engaged in front of the Fontana di Trevi a few years ago. That's
the other thing, being Italian is a great way to meet girls; American
girls love Italian boys! Sugarcult's singer (Tim Pagnotta) is half
Italian as well, his family is a few generations deep Italian-American.
I want to get one of those T-shirts like Madonna used to wear:
"Italians Do it Better".
3- Sugarcult did a lot of tours with different bands and in many different countries. Got any random story from the road to share? And what band was the best to tour with?
We recently did US and Japan tours supporting Green Day on their
"American Idiot' album. They are an amazing band to be out with, I
watched them play every night and they never had a bad show; once I was
down by the side of the stage drinking a bottle of wine and Billie Joe
ran over in the middle of a song motioned to me, so I threw the bottle
up to him, he guzzled some wine and then threw it back to me and
finished the song. There bassist Mike Dirnt was in a music store with
me in Canada, I showed him a vintage drum machine that he really liked,
and he saw that I was interested in this old guitar amp; he threw down
his credit card and bought both things. He said he bought me the amp
as a thank you for showing him the drum machine! Those guys are really
nice people and are very deserving of their success. When we were in
Japan, with Green Day, I was getting drunk at a bar in Tokyo with Tim
(our singer) after a show; the bar manager found me and told me to call
home immediately: my pregnant wife had gone into labor 3 weeks early,
so our baby was going to be born; I had to drop my drink and catch the
next flight home to meet my baby boy (this story is documented on our
new DVD "Back to the Disaster").
4- What is/are your favorite songs to play live and why?
I always love to play the song "Pretty Girl (the Way)", it's one of my
all time favorite Sugarcult songs and it's really fun for me to play
guitar on because there are two sections of the song where I get to do
what we call a "noise solo", where I can really improvise and feed on
the energy of the moment; sometimes I'll play my guitar with a
microphone stand, the other night I smashed a wine glass on my guitar
and played with broken glass. "Bouncing Off the Walls" and "Memory"
are fun because the audience always sings along really loud; that's the
best feeling ever!
5- Who are your musical influences? And what music, books, and movies is on your current playlist?
I'm fascinated with the arts, ideas and culture and my work becomes
the product of all that I take in, filtered through my interpretation
of it as it applies to what I'm doing. I love all kinds of music; but
Sugarcult is a rock band, which is rooted in some kind of craft and
tradition, so I'm not going to bring my jazz and electronica records
into the mix; I'm going to think about the rock bands that I grew up
loving like Cheap Trick, Nirvana, the Clash, Guns n Roses, the Ramones,
U2, Green Day, Foo Fighters, Smashing Pumpkins, The Replacements, etc.
I always like to check out new music too and learn from it: bands
like Queens of the Stoneage, IMA Robot, Hot Hot Heat, Death Cab for
Cutie, The Libertines, Motion City Soundtrack. I just got the new book
by Richard Hell, his last book "Go Now" was a great read; I love
reading about the history of other bands; I spend a lot of money on
expensive British magazines like Mojo, Word and Uncut. Movies: City
of God, Ramones End of the Century, Dig!, Dogtown and Z Boys, Michael
Moore's movies too; I'm really into documentaries right now. I also
liked the remake of Willy Wonka/Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and
that recent Star Wars movie.
6- Would you like to leave a message to Sugarcult's italian fans and the team?
Keep spreading the word about us, we really want to get over to Italy
and play some shows, so if all goes as planned: we'll see you in 2006!
Check out our new DVD/Live CD "Back to the Disaster" that comes out in Europe on November 14.
Ciao Italy...