Black Widow Records
Printed From: Progarchives.com
Category: Progressive Music Lounges
Forum Name: Interviews
Forum Description: Original interviews with Prog artists (which are exclusive to Prog Archives)
URL: http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=73058
Printed Date: November 28 2024 at 17:24
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Topic: Black Widow Records
Posted By: toroddfuglesteg
Subject: Black Widow Records
Date Posted: November 10 2010 at 13:49
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When and why did you start Black Widow Records ? Please tell us the history of the Genoa store and how you began the business. I think our readers would like to see the interior and exterior of your store. Can you give us a couple of photos so we can "see" this legendary store ? Hello
everyone, the history of BLACK WIDOW RECORDS officially begins in
1990 but really in my mind it had already begun many years before we
can say that inside me I always knew that sooner or later I would
have done something important for rock music.
I
worked for 16 years as a designer in a big company then I realized it
was time to open my shop in town but they were several years that I
went to England to retrieve records that could not be found in Italy,
I bought them for me and friends and increased demands more and more
so in the end I decided to make one of my greatest passions in a job.
It was easy I would say that it was a natural and logical thing for
me.
We are in 4 people now, me , Pino, Alberto and my wife Laura but we have some very important collaborators like Enrico and Carlo. What is the craziest thing ever to happen in your store? In
a store like ours crazy things happen, sometimes funny and sometimes
embarrassing.
Do
you remember the movie High Fidelity?
Here
are the situations are the same, it's amazing how the director has
captured the true spirit that lives in shops like ours.
A
nice thing I remember with pleasure that Sunday was where I was in
the store to do some work and suddenly came the HAWKWIND, was a
surprise also incredible because HAWKWIND are one of my favorite 5
bands of all the time.
One
hour after the store was full of friends who had taken the disks to
be signed by Dave Brock and Alan Davey.
It
was very fun, even when the components of the English groups Poisoned
ELECTRIC HEADS, after a concert with RUNAWAY TOTEM, came into the
store with their masks by aliens ... even the police intervened
because the people were scared .... crazy stuff. What
is the most common age of people who come into your store to buy
Italian Prog? Fortunately,
our clients are of all ages, from boy of 15-16 years old to man or
woman aged to 60-70 years.
This
is very interesting for us that we can understand the thoughts and
moods of the people of all ages. These days, the supposed sages of all-things music tell us that "Brick and Mortar" stores cannot make it, that CDs are over, and that only downloads will survive. Yet BWR seems to thrive offering high quality traditional formats (CD/vinyl) presented in lovely packaging & operating a Brick and Mortar store. What do you say to the naysayers who say your business model cannot continue? Never
give heed to the rules of the market and the mode would be the end of
all major art forms.
From
30 years we hear that "Rock is Dead", but we saw him turn
and be born a thousand times louder.
How
many times have cried out that the vinyl was finished and passed, but
now is back and many people have finally realized that vinyl is the
best medium for listening and enjoy the potential of rock music.
But
you want to compare the covers on vinyl with those of the compact
disc?
You
can not do a comparison.
Great
artists have designed graphical masterpiece to accompany the music of
our heroes, these graphic works were made to be admired while you
listen to the music you love, more and more people have restarted to
buy vinyl, go ahead and make haste.
Of
course, we also print the CD, try to do the best we can and we do not
care for those who download the music, they spend the money on
anything, throw away the money believed to be smart and save money
instead of simply buying nothing and nothing will ever find
themselves in, this is not culture, but stupidity. Black Widow seems to find outstanding new artists (Il Bacio della Medusa, Il Tempio delle Clessidra, Three Monks) and veteran artists alike. How do you go about scouting talent and deciding what to sign? Certainly
we have our personal preferences that help us choose which groups to
invest our time and money but I think that sometimes is something
magical to join a group rather than another. You know, we receive hundreds of demos each month, but all we hear are very few groups that manage to impress us. It also happens that there is a group recommended by a friend, as in the case of Jim Russell, who advised me to listen to THREE MONKS, now signed for us. Sometimes you go to a concert and you are struck by a group rather than another, ... contact with the right group for us to be born in a thousand different ways. Black Widow are the purveyors of "dark prog" and "dark rock." Can you describe what "dark music" means to yourself and the bands? What is attractive about it to its fans? Is
easy to see that one of my favorite bands are the BLACK WIDOW.
This
band has everything I like in rock music, a powerful and hypnotic
sound, gothic themes, a dark graphyc and charming stage presence
unique and spectacular.
Their
debut album SACRIFICE is one of the greatest masterpieces of prog
music of all time, an album that is a must in any collection of prog
fans.
DARK
PROG is the music created by Black Widow, but there are other great
groups such as the immense HIGH TIDE, the COVEN, ATOMIC ROOSTER,
STILL LIFE, Quatermass, INDIAN SUMMER, Beggars Opera, Comus, and
Jacula, ANTONIUS REX , Goblin ... this is the DARK PROG.
But
we like very much groups that have nothing to do with DARK PROG, for
example, I love Tyrannosaurus Rex of the genius Marc Bolan, Black
Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Uriah Heep, but also bands that have nothing
to do with the PROG such as the Misfits, the MC 5, CHROME, The
Damned, The Stooges, Alice Cooper, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Neil Young, Thin
Lizzy, Blue Oyster Cult ... the music rock is a huge universe and
it's nice to live in it. Does it work well to be involved in both "progressive" music and metal music? Is there ever any friendly competition between the two different styles within your ranks of friends and customers? A
decade ago there was a big competition between the fans of prog and
metal and even the gothic rock, but now it has changed a lot, at
least in our place. We say that the majority of our customers in Italy and around the world listen to seamlessly DELIRIUM and L'IMPERO DELLE OMBRE, BLACK SABBATH and GRYPHON, IL BACIO DELLA MEDUSA and ANTONIUS REX There are those who buy only the Italian prog, those who prefer to listen to only the groups more hard rock like WICKED MINDS and Witch's Brew, but we always try to make everyone understand that music is a world cut off and try to know as much as possibile in its thousands of variables without posing limitations, can be very interesting and rewarding for your body and mind. In America and Britain, some prog or prog-related bands have slowly seeped into the mainstream and are viewed with some level of national pride. Has that happened in Italy to any extent? Do bands like Le Orme or PFM or Delirium get any status as a national treasure beyond the prog scene? Do average Italians know who these groups are? You
mean bands like Kansas, Styx, the SAGA, perhaps even the JOURNEY,
England's YES, GENESIS, ELP ....
In
Italy, groups such as the PFM, LE ORME, the DELIRIUM have sold
millions of records reaching a huge popularity especially in the
70's.
This
was mainly for the sellings of the singles, such as "Jesahel"
and " Canto di Osanna" of Delirium have been ahead of all
the charts for a long time and this also helped the album sell many
copies, the same thing was for "Impressioni di Settembre"
of PFM and "Gioco di bimba" and "Amico di Ieri"
of LE ORME, "Miniera" and "Quella carezza della sera"
for NEW TROLLS.
Although
these songs are so beautiful to more mainstream also be accepted by
the lovers of prog and certainly have contributed to the
popularity of these groups in Italy and worldwide.
Is
a very positive thing. When BW decides to reissue an old classic prog album, what is the process? Do you have to contact old band members and get permission? Search for the masters? What kind of hurdles are there to reissuing long out of print albums? To
reprint an old album, or at least any of the albums already released
by a label, it is absolutely necessary to find who owns the rights to
this album.
We
tried to get in touch with the musicians and ask them if they agree
to a future reissue, we ask if they know who owns the master and try
to contact him.
If
the search is successful then we proceed with the reprint, if there
are unsolvable problems then we are forced to let go even though we
may regret it very much.
Unfortunately
it is not always possible to find a positive solution for these
things, especially for older albums of the 70s, today's environment
record is very complicated but then it was even worse. What is the approx sales figures for your albums ? We
usually start with a print run of 1000-1500 copies, and in almost all
cases, then we do a reprint of another 500 or 1000 copies.
We
now have some our albums that have sold 4000-5000 and more copies,
others are yet to come in 2000 and also someone who has not yet sold
1000 copies but they are thankfully few.
A
label like ours can not afford to invest time and money in
transactions that do not extend to 1000 copies, each of our
investment should pay dividends that are immediately reinvest in new
productions.
We
produce only bands that we like but we need to get the positive sales
results. Have you had any bad experiences of any kind ? Yes,
a few ....but we prefer don't talk about them! I guess you are very happy with the Black Widow roster as it is. But if given the chance in a perfect world, which non-Black Widow artist would you have loved to work with ? Good
question, congratulations! See the BLACK WIDOW is a dream come true that allows to realize other dreams, and dreams, nothing is impossible so why not dream one day to produce the album DARK PROG perfect? I believe that in the past we have gone by with the second album of MALOMBRA and the first of IL SEGNO DEL COMANDO, but now we are more mature, more professional, more prepared even in technical so if you ever find the right group we can really make a masterpiece ... but as I said before it takes the group to meet our thoughts. We think a band that manages to blend the best features of BLACK WIDOW, BLACK SABBATH, GOBLIN, BLUE OYSTER CULT, plus a very progressive touch type CRIMSON, SPRING or FANTASY. It is not an easy thing, but not impossible, if you know of a group with similar characteristics, put them in touch with us please. Who
is your five all time favorite artists and albums ? Too
many to mention...i can say these 10 at the moment....:
1-T.REX-Electric
Warrior
2-HIGH
TIDE-Sea Shanties
3-HAWKWIND-Warrior
on the edge of time
4-CAN-Monster
Movie
5-BLACK
SABBATH-same
6-BLACK
WIDOW-Sacrifice
7-KING
CRIMSON-In the court of...
8-LED
ZEPPELIN-III
9-AMON
DULL-Wolf City
10-ANGE-Au
de la du delire
Anything you want to add to this interview ? Thank
you for the great support you give to our label, we are very attached
to America because from 20 years people like Greg Walker, (who we met
in Milan for the prog festival with Locanda delle fate+ Garybaldi+
Alphataurus)
distributes
and sells our products. (THANKS GREG!!!)
We
love American prog bands like Yezda Urfa, Mirthrandir Pavlov's Dog,
Ethos, Pentwater ... and VICTOR PERAINO's KINGDOME COME-No man'a land
(we just repressed on Cd and vinyl)
We
hope that the organizers of the prog festivals in America decide to
invite our group to play.
The
legendary DELIRIUM, the young progsters of IL BACIO DELLA
MEDUSA, GOAD, G.C.NERI band, SOPHYA BACCINI GROUP, IL TEMPIO DELLE
CLESSIDRE, are interested in coming to America to pass along to you
some hours with the biggest music prog.
That's
if there's a message I want to launch is directed to the organizers
of the concerts and festivals Americans
"Ask
our groups to come and play for you and do not regret it!
While the readers of your website I would say that we can all do something for the great music prog. Think of a friend, choose with time and try to let him listen closer to prog maybe doing something just as good as the CAMEL or Supertramp. Maybe your friend after some time will fall in love with prog and in turn will speak to others and so on. It will be a satisfaction for you and a victory for progressive music and life. Long
live Prog.
All
the best
Massimo Thank you to Massimo for this interview Black Widow Records can be found http://www.blackwidow.it - |
Replies:
Posted By: Mellotron Storm
Date Posted: November 10 2010 at 14:28
Awesome !! 
Love his top ten too,he likes some variety. ------------- "The wind is slowly tearing her apart" "Sad Rain" ANEKDOTEN |
Posted By: Andrea Cortese
Date Posted: November 10 2010 at 16:10
| Really really awesome!!!! |
Posted By: Todd
Date Posted: November 10 2010 at 17:14
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Great interview! Great label! ------------- "I have seen the broken sky turn blue." http://gnosis2000.net/ratertodd.shtml" rel="nofollow - My Gnosis Ratings |
Posted By: memowakeman
Date Posted: November 10 2010 at 18:33
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Black Widow is one of my favorite prog labels, it was great to see you guys managed this excellent interview! ------------- Follow me on twitter @memowakeman |
Posted By: Finnforest
Date Posted: November 10 2010 at 18:47
Great answers guys, and many thanks for your passion and great roster of
artists. Hopefully one of the USA festivals will have the foresight to
bring Delirium and BDM to America in 2011.   |
Posted By: seventhsojourn
Date Posted: November 11 2010 at 13:53
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Superb!
Received my copy of the Il Tempio Delle Clessidre album direct from Pino a couple of days ago. Now I've got that double live Il Bacio Della Medusa to look forward to... anybody know when that one is due for release?
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Posted By: ver1musica
Date Posted: November 14 2010 at 05:16
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black widow: the italian label of prog.
what else to say ?
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Posted By: Gustavo Paiva
Date Posted: November 15 2010 at 23:40
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Hi guys, Fantastic label with a great variety of amazing bands! Congratulations for your excellent job, Massimo. Torodd in another great interview. All the best! Gustavo ------------- www.masquerecords.com |
Posted By: Man With Hat
Date Posted: November 22 2010 at 19:07
Good interview and fun read! ------------- Dig me...But don't...Bury me I'm running still, I shall until, one day, I hope that I'll arrive Warning: Listening to jazz excessively can cause a laxative effect. |