In his interview feature, we get to know the most radicalist up and coming stars on the planet.

This time we caught up with London-via-Bologna trio Husky Loops.

After scoring a hattrick of List Picks with singles ‘Let Go For Nothing’, ‘Everyone Is Having Fun Fun Fun But Me’ and ‘I Think You’re Wonderful’, the Italian band (vocalist and guitarist Danio Forni, bassist Tommaso Medica and drummer Pietro Garrone) have released their landmark debut album, I CAN’T EVEN SPEAK ENGLISH, and so of course we invited the Loops’ front man Danio to have a little chat about the record. It’s been a great year for the band so far, being picked up on radio and online, connecting with fans who love their alternative, ever-expanding sound, putting out music through Danger Mouse’s increasingly iconic 30th Century Records and now they’ve announced an extensive October tour.

The record is a dystopian delight that touches on political unrest, social disconnection, mental health, relationships, the music industry, and all the other little bits that make life up into one great, chaotic whole. Do yourself a favour, make I CAN’T EVEN SPEAK ENGLISH your very own record of the day.

TMR: Hey Husky Loops, how’s it going? Your debut album is out today, with its striking title, I CAN’T EVEN SPEAK ENGLISH. What’s the story behind this name?

Hi, this is Danio typing from the dungeon. I’m good, how are you? Right now I’m in a very nice cafe in East Dulwich and I’m replying to this interview. Makes me feel famous. Coffee isn’t great, but to be honest, is coffee even that good? I don’t think it is. It’s probably the most fucking overrated thing EVER. I fucking love coffee. If you listen to this M.I.A. track called ‘Warriors’, she says “Top dog even though I didn't speak no English.” I found that quite swaggy and cool, and I was listening to that song on my way to the studio where we were recording the album. I was looking for a title and “I CAN’T EVEN SPEAK ENGLISH” came to mind straight away after listening to that song. It’s everything I wanted from a title, it’s perfect. It tells a story (we’re Italians), it represents the political times we’re going through right now (Brexit and all of that), and it connects quite well to the running themes of the album which are relationships, communication and intimacy. 

TMR: Has your Italian heritage been important to the album? Whether that’s in relation to identity, sounds, lyrics etc.?

Italian music is still a massive part of my musical taste / heritage. I would easily say, my lyrics have been influenced a lot by the ton of italian music I’ve been listening to through the years. Italian lyrics are my favourite, I like listening to Italian lyrics more than English. My favourite artists are Lucio Battisti, Luigi Tenco and Lucio Dalla. Not so much the sound, I’ve been concentrating and working a lot with hip hop artists and grime (and I’m not saying this to sound cool like most white people today, I actually do work with grime artists ‘cause I love it and understand the genre) and that was my main influence for sound and arrangements, also Afro Beat and Fela Kuti is an artist I basically deeply studied for the past two years. So no, Italy isn’t really in the sound of Husky Loops at all, I would say. But lyrics, hell yeah! Ride on. 

TMR: Are there any emerging bands back in Bologna that we should be keeping an eye on?

Bologna is good for punk music. This band called Mt Zuma is cool. They’re my mates. 

TMR: Arguably your music has quite a Britsh sound, is this something you grew up listening to or discovered later?

We all grew up loving and listening to UK stuff yeah. UK is the shit man… Love to this day. Sometimes I walk around London and think to myself “wow SO MUCH stuff was made here it’s actually MENTAL.” Of all sorts of great music, not only indie but also the classics, obviously… and grime, UK hip hop, I was listening to Roots Manuva loads. My dad was feeding me Pink Floyd since an early age and Tom is obsessed with the Beatles (rightly so) and Pietro loves Brian Eno and listens to him since the age of 3. We all love David Bowie deeply. We moved to the UK ‘cause we loved British music so much. Such a shame now your government is trying to kick us all out! :( Not your fault obviously. Well unless you voted Tory. Anyway yeah, I used to be a little 60’s kid dressed up with all the vintage clothes and loving Syd Barrett and The Kinks and just praising all of that between 16-19 years old. 

TMR: What drew you to living in London? And what made you stay?

I absolutely love spending money and being broke at all times. Also the music industry is AMAZING for my mental health. Jammer (from BBK) is the reason why I want to stay right now, he’s fucking amazing. And my friend Joy Anonymous makes me feel happy. 

TMR: In July, you were picked up by BBC Radio 1’s Annie Mac for the Hottest Record in the World, which must have felt epic. What other highlights have you had this year?

Yeah, it was great…we love Annie and Hottest Record felt so great. Uuhm.. I’d say working with a lot of the artists that we love and listen to was a big achievement for us. Can’t say much yet but we’ve been in pretty amazing situations. And some great studios around the world. Also I’ve produced and written music with Kari Faux, and that was extremely exciting for me. We made special, special music. Can’t say much, again, but stay tuned. 

TMR: Here at TMR, we’ve featured your tracks ‘I Think You’re Wonderful’, ‘Everyone Is Having Fun Fun Fun But Me’ and ‘Let Go For Nothing’, but what is your favourite song from the record? And why?

I think me and the guys would agree that ‘Temporary Volcano’ is our favourite. We find it the most contemporary sounding track in the record and the most relevant to modern times. I hope people can relate to it. It’s a song that talks about streaming platform and following trends really... It’s also the track I would genuinely listen to the most if I wasn’t in the project and it’s the track I like playing live the most. There’s a “one note” guitar solo at the end which is actually so so SO fun to play. 

TMR: We can’t wait to pick up our physical copy of the album it’s totally customisable cover. Who came up with the idea?

I came up with it, but we were all looking for an idea that could make the fans really involved in the process. Living in an oversaturated age where images are posted online every second, we wanted to do something different with our debut album. If one image can’t be strong enough in a sea of content, then what about no image? Or better, what if YOU design your own artwork? And that’s how the idea came about… in total honesty we didn’t have a clue of which image to choose anyway, and that helped. We came up with something that could expand the concept of album artwork in 2019.  Sounds a bit pretentious but I mean it, we really are making this for others. If there’s something of extreme importance today; it's interaction and human contact. Make people active. Make people involved, you know? Make them be themselves, give everyone a chance to be creative. I like the idea of buying something that you can customise. 

TMR: What do you hope that people will find by listening to the album?

I want people to be inspired. Inspiration.

TMR: How are you going to celebrate the album release?

I’m gonna keep working.

by Hannah Thacker