Interview: Ezio Lunedei

Northern Sky spoke to Ezio Lunedei backstage at The Duchess in York, whilst Mark 'Booga' Fowell looked after the concessions stall near the stage.

AW: We're backstage at The Duchess in York and I'm sitting here with Ezio Lunedei from the band Ezio, how are you doing, how are you finding York?

EL: Well I like York very much, I've been here several times and I do like it.

AW: Do you usually play at this venue?

EL: Well, we used to play next door at Fibbers but this is the second time we've played at this venue.

AW: Do you always play here as a duo?

EL: In York yes

AW: You've got the larger band but does that depend on the size of the venue?

EL: Well it just depends on how well known we are in any given area.. erm, that's not entirely true, it's really that we started to use the band less and less; we started off as a duo, and then we had the band so that people could understand what we're doing a bit more, it was more of a conventional presentation if you like, but also it's made it a bit more normal and we find that playing with two again is a bit more unique and a bit more special, so we're getting less and less with the band

AW: The thing is, with your duo, you have a big fat sound anyway and aren't the steel guitar etc. just trinkets on the top?

EL: It's a nice thing to have and I do miss it sometimes on certain songs but it's also nice to improvise a lot. When you're working a lot of new material in it's really nice as a duo because you're freer and there's less chance of it going wrong, we've worked together for so long it's really like second nature and then when things are really established then of course now and again we'll have the band and they're all good players so they can pick things up

AW: When did you meet Booga?

EL: Oh I've known him for a long time, twenty odd years, I'm considerably older than he is and I remember him as a kind of larger than life like fifteen year-old with a big afro and he used to come to my gigs, I was playing in a rock band then I was playing as a lead guitarist and he'd come and watch that and he was like a very precocious talented young player

AW: Well you do play off each other quite well, when I hear your voice and his guitar, I'm reminded of Lowell George and Paul Barrere, that kind of funky tightness, a very rhythmic sound

EL: Yeah, maybe, maybe

AW: Well, you've got a pretty loyal following, I've seen you in Cambridge, that's your own turf really isn't it?

EL: Yeah

AW: I've seen you at the folk festival there more than a couple of times and you always seem to draw this loyal following, they know all the lyrics of all the songs; is that rewarding when you hear them singing them back?

EL: We don't have.. we're just not trendy enough or good looking enough to have like casual fans; I think it's a bit of a committment, you have to struggle a bit to see us and so they're either people who are not interested or completely rabid about us and so when you do go into a new place, especially another country or perhaps a town you've never been to before and they sing all the words, then yes it is rewarding, it is

AW: I know a song like "Deeper" really does get that response where you can just about stop singing and let the audience do it all..

EL: Often I do (laughs)

AW: Do you find that when you're writing new songs and you're introducing new songs they need to be worn in a little more?

EL: Oh yeah, you don't get the same reaction, but it's important to keep doing it because otherwise you start turning into your own tribute band if you're not careful, just trotting out the same thing over and over again as we're all getting older, but you know I think it's important and vital to try and present new things; I'm trying to do that now really, I'm trying to ease stuff into the set and because it's not as slick and as played in and it's perhaps a bit more clumsy, in some ways, you know, although it doesn't get that euphoric thing, sometimes you really mean it when you do sing that kind of stuff and they're sometimes the best ever versions because you're kinda searching and actually thinking about them and not just on auto pilot doing something you've done thousands of times

AW: Do you have any plans of any new recordings of this new material?

EL: Well I need to really

AW: Wasn't 'Ten Thousand Bars' the last one?

EL: That was the last one..

AW: That's going back a couple of years

EL: Yeah it is, so it's time now to.. I've got like a back log of material, I've started.. there's a couple already recorded and I'm in pretty good shape to get something done

AW: Well I suppose touring gets in the way really, are you always on tour or do you schedule in certain times of the year?

EL: Well no, there's nothing as planned as that; the credit crunch is really erm... people now know what it's like to be us (laughs)

AW: (laughs) absolutely

EL: So we haven't got any support management, really no big record company so it's pretty much hand to mouth, we play to live, we support households, so we do a lot of gigging but we have to do a lot of gigging and by the same token it's not a factory and it's not an efficient process trying to be creative at the same time, so yeah

AW: well thank you for talking to me Ezio, I'm sure you're going to get a really good audience here in York

EL: Well this is the point, they haven't arrived yet and I've no idea how many people will be coming or how many tickets have been sold, it could be empty, I don't know. This is my panic moment, this is always when I go will anybody show up? If they do they do, whoever is there, we'll play for them.

AW: Well enjoy your gig

EL: Thank you


Ezio's most recent album is Ten Thousand Bars on the Tapte label.