#i just think it's a funny detail and clarifies that i mean the studio album recording

[kaurwreck]

If ever my thoughts become too idle, the chorus of Touch Your Heart by Fahrenheit (as released on March 4, 2009) plays incessantly in my head, occasionally while chaotically layered over its own opening chords, which are strikingly similar to the opening chords of Rockin' the Suburbs by Ben Folds (as released on 9/11), which my mind often then also plays, not in place of, but simultaneously with Touch Your Heart. So, you can imagine the stress I am under.

[doomedandstoned]

Atomic Mold Speaks... And The Universe Listens

~By Mari Knox~

At the New Year dawned, Doomed & Stoned gave you another listen into the always fascinating rumblings of the Italian heavy underground, debuting a new music video by Italian psychedelics ATOMIC MOLD. Their new album, 'Hybrid Slow Flood' (2018), as it just so happens, was just released today via Electric Valley Records. It's time, readers, to enter Atomic Mold's trippy world of sight, sound, and substance, with our embedded scene reporter, Mari Knox. Check it out... (Billy)

HYBRID SLOW FLOOD by ATOMIC MOLD

Let's start with the classic introduction. Who are Atomic Mold and what is your origin story?

Atomic Mold is: Fila Marco on drums, Marotta Davide on guitars, and Bonizzato Antonio on bass and vocals. The project started at the end of 2013, after the stoner band in which Marco and I played split up. After two months of testing drums and bass together, we had already written the pieces that would later make up our first album, issued in January of 2014. Massella Luca joined us and, in October 2014, we recorded the first self-titled LP.

In March 2015, we recorded a 12" split LP shared with German band Mount Hush for the Electric Valley Records label. That same month, Luca left the band and we played live in the bass and drums version for a whole year all around Italy. Exactly one year later, in March of 2016, Luca re-joined the band and live shows, which have often been abroad, giving us great satisfaction. During the long absences of Luca, Marco and I wrote the tracks that make up Hybrid Slow Flood. In January, we started recording that same album and Luca decided to leave the band permanently. Immediately after that, Davide Marotta came forward, a guitar player with whom there was a very good feeling, since that first jam in June 2016 and we went back to the studio to finish the recordings.

Each of you has his own interesting musical background. Toni and Marco played with the hardcore punk band Reset Clan and Davide had his own stoner rock project, Holy Fuzz. Tell us about your personal influences and how these affect the Atomic Mold sound.

Marco: My influences come certainly from black metal, death metal, and drindcore -- genres that I've always listened to, probably the reason for the energetic feel with which I beat the skins!

Toni: Marco and I have been playing together since 2005 in various projects and genres, very different from each other -- from stoner to hardcore punk. Musically, we have grown a lot together. "Yellow Crocodile" definitely makes us feel that we have hardcore influences. Every now and then in the rehearsal room, the vein gets closed -- we go totally ham -- and the bpm start to get crazy!

Davide: My musical influences are tied to the blues from the very beginning. For me, it has always been key to my way of conceiving and playing music. Throughout the years, I have developed an affinity for particular sounds like Hawkwind, Can, Jimi Hendrix, and so on. Growing up, I have undertaken darker and heavier sounds, first of all Black Sabbath, then Electric Wizard, Conan, and so on. I always try to capture details that are always distinct and different to add and blend into the composition and my way of playing, influenced by all the genres that distinguish my musical background.

'Hybrid Slow Flood' marks your musical return to the scene after two years. We can feel a little twist about your sound now -- it's tougher and strongly lysergic. What do you think has changed in your music and what kind of expectations do you have about the new record?

Marco: In the periods of time in which we played as a power duo, just drums and bass, we have experimented a lot with our sounds and I think that even if they were difficult times they helped us to grow. With the arrival of David, we have made our sound more complete and consistent.

Let's talk about the topics of the disc: from the title to the four tracks which comprise it, tell us how 'Hybrid Slow Flood' was born and what meaning we can find here.

Toni: "Hybrid Slow Flood" represents the slow, yet constant load of traumas, painful experiences, and disappointments with which we fill our minds in everyday life. The topics of the lyrics inside the record (what little words there are) revolve around hallucinations and travels within one's self, journeys that often border on the absurd and touch extremely conflicting emotions. We composed the tracks of Hybrid Slow Flood in two times: during the first long absence of Luca and then during his leaves of absence once he was back in the band -- for all of us that was a difficult period to deal with and I think that this has forged the sound and lyrics of the tracks.

Since your previous release (the Mount Hush/Atomic Mold split) until today, you've always worked with the Sardinian label Electric Valley Records. Surely we can say you have a lovely relationship with them, right? How was this collaboration born?

Toni: Yes, with Electric Valley Records, we have a very good relationship. They contacted us during the release of our first album and we started working immediately after for the realization of the split with a good harmony. In October 2016, with the tour in Sardinia together with Fatso Jetson, we met Marco Nieddu who is a great man and really puts his heart in what he does. For this reason, we naturally decided to issue Hybrid Slow Flood on Electric Valley Records, as well.

Regarding the artwork, you've relied on the work of the artist Errecì, who is the same guy behind the cover of the previous release. I'm really curious to know what the 'Hybrid Slow Flood' artwork means, with all of its cosmic and mysterious vibes?

Toni: Well, we found ourselves really happy with the work he did for the split and we like very much the work that he often publishes on social media, so we decided to rely on him. We sent him some lyrics that I wrote, that will end up in the next effort we are working, to use as a track. They are about a person in contact with Mother Earth -- something increasingly rare for us human beings -- and the energy that it releases.

In my opinion, one of your strongest musical characteristics is truthfulness, authenticity. Let me clarify: listening to you both live and on record, I always get the feeling of attending a jam session. I’d like to know how you organize your musical compositions and arrangements and how it takes place during your days in the rehearsal room.

Marco: We spend a lot of time improvising in the rehearsal room, trying to create real sound-images. For example, the track "Wood Line" was first born from a jam and, often when we are on stage, we get carried away and we dilate it a lot while performing.

I know you really love playing live. Besides Italy, you have played several times in Germany, where I've heard the crowds are very enthusiastic. Can you confirm this? Where did you like to play more? Have you got some funny anecdotes to tell us about your live experiences?

Toni: We can confirm that abroad the public is very warm and, even though in Italy there are some wonderful situations, every time we have been abroad, there people are around the stage from the beginning of your set and when you finish your thing they still want more, again and again, and this happens with all the bands in the lineup. People go to concerts to have some real fun.

Davide: The last time we were in Rosenheim, we were going to sleep at the home of a guy who had offered to host us, supposedly. After the evening, we were all pretty high and when we loaded the van we started looking for this guy so we could sleep for the night. No one could be found for an hour and, in the end, we found him completely drunk, crashing on the backstage sofa without the slightest bit of strength to bring us home or tell us where his home was. At that point, we went to sleep in the van to minus-five degrees weather and it was snowing all around us! That was a crazy night for one of us -- you have to guess which one -- that in his drunk and ice-cold dream-sleep started barking!

What are you doing lately? Are you writing new tracks or did you prefer to focus on promoting and touring for the new record?

Davide: In addition to the promotion of Hybrid Slow Flood, we are arranging some brand new pieces, this time composed, worked through, and created in a three-member lineup. These we will soon record for the next project of Atomic Mold.

Let me ask you one last question: If you could bring back a past legend or choose a modern band, whoever you particularly like, which one would you take on stage with you?

A band that we would like to resurrect and be able to see on the beaches of Sardinia with us is Sungrazer!

Thank you, on behalf of Doomed & Stoned, for your time and for spending a few minutes with our readers.

Thank you so much, Mari, and thanks very much also to Doomed & Stoned for their support.

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