In this interview spotlight, we chat with members of Black Flowers Cafe to discuss influences, their latest project, challenges of an indie musician and more.
Full Q&A along with links and streams below.
Where are you from and what style of music do you create? (In your own words, not necessarily in marketing terms or by popular genre classifications.)
(Angelo) We come from Italy and try to do pop music, in this period we’re in love with afropop, listening to a lot of world-music records. We’re taking so much inspiration from them!
What led you down this path of music and what motivates you to stay the course?
(Gaetano) We spent a lot of time in finding our real dimension and now that we’ve found it we are writing a lot of songs, it’s a very inspirational period of the band.
How is your new release different than previous ones? Did you set out to accomplish anything specific?
(Antonio) Like Gaetano said, we are working on new sounds. We started from an indie-rock landscape and now a little bit of those influences are still in our music, we discovered a great passion for the world music and a long period of “study” gave us the keys to open the doors to this wonderful world. The same process influenced Fernando and his lyrics.
Do you face challenges as an indie musician in a digital age? How has technology helped you (assuming it helps)?
(Fernando) Yeah, we know that music and its use have changed a lot. We use our socials and the streaming platforms but our focus is on having a physical copy of our album. It’s a way of stopping time, just something that will last. Maybe it’s a little bit romantic but we try to mix this attitude with the technological one.
Where can we connect with you online and discover more music?
(Gaetano) There our social channels such as Facebook or Twitter, the website of our label Ghost Records and all the platforms on the web where you can stream or download our last Ep Islands.
Anything else before we sign off?
(Fernando) We’re working hard for this autumn and just released a single, called Caribe. We are really proud of it because it’s a polaroid of our changing sound. We’ll play at FRAC Festival here in Italy, a great venue and a beautiful line-up. Well, can’t wait for you guys to hear the new stuff!
