My Awesome Mixtape
Bologna, Emilia-Romagna, Italy | INDIE
Music
Press
Can you tell me something about the beginning of My Awesome Mixtape?
Maolo:
It basically started as a solo project based on my own and then it becomes like a real band because I met all the other guys and they played with me. I knew them playing live all over Italy. And the others came from other cities around Bologna and we met each other playing in bands and started My Awesome Mixtape.
What is your inspiration?
Maolo:
For me personally I started listening to Why, an artist who releases for a really huge independent label in America called „Anticon“. They also release other characters such as Sole, 13 & God.
I also like The Notwist (because they are German). Also the parallel project of that man from The Notwist together with Themselves; the 13 & God released their album on „Anticon“.
And basically all that stuff around „Anticon“ I really like and they inspire me a lot. And also other stuff like soul music or modern classic or also Amy Winehouse.
What is the idea of your bandname?
Maolo:
It is basically a frame of the movie called Boogie Nights. In that frame there is a mixtape with the title „My Awesome Mixtape 6“ and it was a summer night and I said „Wow! That’s a nice name for a band“.
Why do your songs have English lyrics instead of Italian ones?
Maolo:
Italian is a really really immusical language …
What are your future plans like?
Maolo:
Oh, I don’t know. I am really uncertain for the future. I am only like 22 years old, so I’m quite young and I don’t really know what to do in my life. Surely, in Italy it’s really really hard becoming famous with a project like that and I think that for an Italian band it’s really hard to become famous all over Europe, too, because of a lot of things; Italy is a really retro nation and I think they’re really never minded and the music sounds special.
So, I don’t really know about my plans for the future. Probably I will start cooking because before I was starting My Awesome Mixtape I worked in a restaurant for a few months and I always loved cooking. So, probably I will cook then for the rest of my life. At the time, because I’m young I take just a few times to do that and then what’s next … I don’t know.
What was your worst concert?
Maolo:
That was in Europe in a German city called Chemnitz. We basically played in front of five guys who didn’t give a fuck about us! It was not so funny but it was one of 21 tour gigs; it could have been more upset sometimes. It also was a Monday night …
And in Italy it depends on the season because if you played during the summer in the seldom part of Italy, you will always find a really huge audience in a warm mood. But if you played in the summer part of Italy during the winter, the audience will be really calm because all the guys from the south come to the north to study.
- Verein Ehemaliger Nachbarn
Do you like drum computers, intensive refrains, electronic instruments and vocals? Yeah?!? Than My Awesome Mixtape is the right band for you. They please us with pop-flavoured electronic music. Somehow every song sounds personal and invites us to sit down in their rehearsal room and have a listen.
My Awesome Mixtape is that type of indie-band that sound personally, a little bit trashy and full of fun. Each song makes us feel slightlymelancholic but gives us hope with a fine groove and nice vocals.
- My Awesome Mixtape - “Songs of Sadness, Songs of Happiness”
Discography
Songs of Sadness- Songs of Happiness - Kirsten's Postcard - EP - 2007
My Lonely And Sad Waterloo - My Honey Records / I dischi dell'amico immaginario - LP - 2007
Other Houses - 42 Records - EP - 2009
Photos
Bio
My Awesome Mixtape’s story starts, like that of many other bands, in their bedroom.
That’s where, at the tail end of 2006, Maolo, Checco and Bebo – three spritely Bolognese regaz – half-jokingly start making music. Mixing and matching their favourite styles, they end up generating an original mix of indie rock, hip hop and electronica, the kind you cannot fail to dance to.
In the space of a few months, the band’s first songs become the talk of the town, and soon enough they are hailed everywhere as Italy’s next big thing.
At that point, leaving the bedroom to go out and play with the big kids is almost mandatory. After a few changes in line-up and solo experiments, My Awesome Mixtape become a fivesome: Maolo Torreggiani, Andrea Mancin, Andrea Sologni, Alessandro Scagliarini and Federico Spadoni. Their first album, titled "My Lonely and Sad Waterloo", is published as a co-production between Italian labels My Honey Records and I dischi dell'amico immaginario, on September 8th 2007.
Upon the album’s release, the band has already played in half the country’s live venues, and tries successfully to go abroad and export their music in the rest of Europe.
At the end of 2008, MAM’s “Neverending Tour” will have lined up a smashing 158 live gigs, and gained the band an award as Best Live Band of the season at the annual Meeting of Independent Labels in Faenza.
That’s not the end of it. MAM’s participation in a compilation sponsored by Mercedes-Benz, the special guest appearance in the ensemble video for La nuova musica italiana by Italian hardcore sensations Linea77, and the re-release of “My Lonely And Sad Waterloo” in Germany through Rewika Records, and in Japan through P-Vine Records, start paving the way for a new album, scheduled for release in the fall of 2009.
“How Could a Village Turn Into a Town” will be released in Italy through 42 Records (also home of Gatto Ciliegia Contro Il Grande Freddo, Kobenhavn Store and Fake P) and in Germany, Austria and Switzerland through Rewika Records.
Recorded by Bruno Germano of Settlefish, the album marks a new progression in My Awesome Mixtape’s artistic growth. Composed, arranged and played as a team effort, “How Could a Village Turn Into a Town” matches its predecessor’s freshness with a newfound maturity and awareness in handling and shaping sound.
The album will be preceded before the summer by the “Other Houses” EP, issued by 42 Records in double format, digital and coloured cassette tape (for a total of 150 numbered copies). The EP will be accompanied by two live videos, made by Opificio Ciclope for Italian web TV Pronti al peggio, and will contain three new songs (two of which will not be made available anywhere else), as well as two remixes by hot items of the Italian club scene Congorock and Peluche (Dariella of hip hop band Amari and Matteo Lavagna of Disco Drive).
With a new and improved line-up, once again a five-piece but without guitars, (its members are Maolo Torreggiani, Andrea Mancin, Andrea Suriani, Alessandro Scagliarini and Federico Spadoni), My Awesome Mixtape are about to make their comeback on the Italian stage, before they move on to their next European tour, scheduled for September 2009, when the album is set to be released.
"How Could A Village Turn Into A Town", will be released on September 2009.
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