Baby Schillaci burst onto Amplify The Noise’s music radar with their debut single, “Radical” in February this year, and they have not stopped kicking out killer song after killer song.
The so great bass in “So Bad” still haunts our dreams and their latest single, “Dead Wrestlers” melds all the most wonderful components of “Radical” and “So Bad” into one infectious in your face rocker.
Baby Schillaci continues to impress me with their hard work, tenacity, and their f’n talent. They are master crafters in their lyricism and musicality. Their ability to challenge the thoughts of those who listen with hard driving infectious rockers is no easy feat. To be able to convey a message while kicking one in the aural senses takes talent. A lot of bands can do one or the other but not both at the same time and the gents Baby Schillaci, Tom Richards (guitar/vocals), Richie Lewis (guitar/vocal), Andrew Evans (bass) and Tom Williams (drums) have nailed it every single time with their three singles from their debut EP, Physical Only.
If I am being honest, being able to snag time with Baby Schillaci for a conversation on their beginnings, inspirations, and more is an absolute highlight for 2023.
Without further ado…our conversation with Baby Schillaci.
ATN: For new fans, is there a story behind the band’s name?
Tom: Why look for the perfect name when you can have a name no-one can pronounce? Plus, Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci was taken.
ATN: How did the band come together?
Richie: We’re born of the pandemic. Tom and I had been exchanging ideas and indulging in pub talk throughout and we both wanted to do something that was not your ten-a-penny, same old same old rock band.
Eight months later, here we are, 4 white men, older than they want to admit to themselves, who want to be heard…
Tom: In the best possible way I might add.
ATN: Who inspired the young members of Baby Schillaci to enter the music world?
Richie: The many classic rock and revivalist bands that are ten-a-penny….but also, everything. Hip-Hop, Dub, electronica, anyone who’s doing anything remotely interesting right now seems to be non-guitar based so it’s always interesting trying to bring those elements in.
ATN: Who inspires you now?
Richie: The entire career of Nick Cave, Warren Ellis, Tom Waits, Kendrick Lamar, Gilla Band.
ATN: Your 3rd single, “Dead Wrestlers” came out on June 2nd, what are you willing to share, if anything, about it with the readers?
Tom: The title came to me and I thought it appeared very visually to me. It could have been a film, a t-shirt, a shit-hole pub somewhere but it eventually became the song itself.
The intention was to take a scatterbrained approach, with a hodge podge of ideas, none of which really connected to each other or to a theme.
It starts as a rebuttal to Baz Luhrmann’s” Everybody’s Free,” in the mind’s eye of a late 80’s wrestler and ends with me being the union leader of the wrestling world. ‘Solidarity Brothers’ is a great tag-team name by the way.
ATN: The first 3 singles of Physical Only have been spectacular, each one progressively getting better than its predecessor. Is there such a thing as a “formula for writing a great song”?
Tom: That’s very kind. There’s no formula in this band. We’re conscious of falling into writing ‘habits’ I guess you could say.
It all too quickly can lead to a familiar way of working that isn’t challenging or pushing against your own boundaries and gets stale very quickly.
Richie: We keep reminding ourselves as a group to always be interested in the interesting so in some respects, even though we’re proud of the EP, we don’t want to dwell on it and pat ourselves on the back.
Tom: It was actually recorded before our first gig and we’re already a different band, I think. Some of the songs, we’ll officially kill off, some we won’t ever release on any other format than that limited run CD.
We still believe in the magic of physically releasing music, but you have to do something a little different to make it special to everyone else.
Richie: I think it’s far more interesting that there are only 100 CD’s out there where you could hear these songs. I think it adds more value to the whole process and a way of connecting with people.
ATN: What is the creative process within the band?
Richie: We’re still fleshing that out. We’ve done a lot in a short space of time. The 2nd EP is already 75% done and it was a collaborative effort – much more so than the first EP.
We’re interested only in pushing beyond what our own particular limits are. When we started this, the only rule was that we would never shy away from an interesting idea because it ‘wasn’t us.’ Who wants to make the same thing over and over again? People see through it eventually. It’s not genuine.
Tom: That’s Richie’s Platonic way of saying we’re only trying to create things that are exciting to us…
ATN: What’s the hardest thing about being an independent band?
Tom: You have to work so hard, sometimes to the detriment of other things. It’s not just the nuts and bolts (writing, recording and performing). It’s a game of numbers. There are a lot of non-responses and auto-replies…
ATN: What’s the best thing about being an independent band?
Richie: Whatever we do, we’re in complete control over. The music, artwork, how we release our music, ticket prices.
Tom: We live in a time where it is possible to have full autonomy of your output. We take great pride in making our own music, designs, videos etc.
It’s not something we really spoke about at the beginning, but it is now a core part of who we are. We put a lot of effort into it because we believe in it.
ATN: Was there a song that was particularly hard or easy to record for Physical Only?
Richie: It was genuinely easy. It’s the most free and creative I think any of us have ever felt in that setting. Throw away the ego and capture a vibe rather than a perfect performance. Once that mindset was there, it displayed in the songs. It becomes easier when you’re no longer worried about making a mistake.
ATN: What made you decide to have two songs that were only physically available? Was it always the plan when creating Physical Only?
Richie: We wanted to give ourselves a reason for putting a physical EP out there. It seems trite in the age of streaming to release something physical and make it just as freely available to anyone on a streaming service.
Doing it this way means that both we, and anyone who owns ‘Physical Only’ knows that they have something that was actually worth having.
Tom: I think it’s something we may well do more of. There’s some magic lost in translation when songs are at your disposal at any time. All of the records we love, the physical nature of them is a vital part of that.
Get your physical copy of Physical Only.
ATN: Can you tell readers anything about those two songs only available on Physical Only?
Tom: They are genuinely the two best songs ever and you’ll never hear them unless you own the CD.
ATN: What song from Physical Only has the band enjoyed playing live the most?
Richie: For me, it’s “So Bad”. I don’t have to play much guitar in that one!
ATN: Which songs are getting the most reaction from fans at live shows?
Richie: The stuff you haven’t heard yet…
ATN: What can fans expect from Baby Schillaci for the rest of 2023?
Tom: Phase 2. A step up from what we’ve done so far.
SAME 3 QUESTIONS WE ALWAYS ASK
ATN: Artist / band that you feel is the most underrated and why?
Baby Schillaci: Gilla Band – The band that every punk or post-punk band is pinching from and not telling anyone about it.
ATN: Artist / band that you would like to collaborate with?
Baby Schillaci: Nick Cave/Warren Ellis & Kendrick Lamar
ATN: Artist / band that you would like to tour with and why?
Baby Schillaci: Fugazi – just to see how it should be done, every night.
Watch the videos for “So Bad” and “Radical” below
Discover Gilla Band
Discover Nick Cave and Warren Ellis
Discover Kendrick Lamar
Discover Fugazi
