KODACLIPS: “We found a common love for shoegaze” |CVLTARTES

Kodaclips is a shoegaze / alternative band founded in 2021, heavily influenced by the second wave of shoegaze, especially by the italogaze scene.

They released “Glances”, their debut album with Overdub Recordings on September 23rd. On September 6th 2024 their second album “Gone Is The Day” was released on Sister9 Recordings. On their latest album and recent European tour, we talked with the band.

I’m sure fans would be interested in knowing more about your backstory. How did you start the band?

The band was first started by Lorenzo (Guitar) and Sonny (Bass). We just wanted to get our influences of psychedelic music and punk together. We started writing stuff without a goal in mind, then when the band got all its members, we decided to take it seriously and we found a common love for shoegaze.

What are the elevator pitches for your music that’ll make people have to listen?

It’s all about feelings: car trips during rainy days, that movie that haunts you, a sense of nostalgia for something you’ve never known about, missing someone, missing yourself, feeling crushed by the weight of it all. Our music has dreams and nightmares about these feelings.

For newcomers to your music, if you had to pick one track that shows people who you are as an artist, which one would it be?

Maybe it would be “Viola”, as it has both post-punk and shoegaze vibes in it.

What do you hope listeners take away from “Gone Is The Day”?

We hope they’ll like the melodies and the mood. Our hope is that someone can understand a deep, little part of us even without knowing us.

Please tell us a bit more about your release, “Gone Is The Day”. What is the message you’re trying to convey with this release?

It’s not just one message, it’s more like our own way of being humans and musicians, knowing that pain exists without ignoring it.

Take me through your sound design process. Does the conception come first or do the songs evolve naturally – do you have a clear idea of what it will be before you start to make it?

We often play a lot on a single melodic idea, then we develop its mood and sounds, then ideas start to flow. We write music together, so each member has its own way of seeing the song, sometimes we immediately agree, sometimes we don’t!

You are currently on your first European tour? How do you find it here? And what should we expect for the remaining concerts?

Our first European tour was a great experience for us, we can’t wait to play the remaining gigs and then start over again. We encountered awesome people, great venues and cool musicians. It’s really something that every band should try in its lifetime. Regarding the remaining concerts, we’ll keep on playing our new album together with some songs from “Glances” that we still like.

There are many descriptions of the ideal state of mind for being creative. What is it like for you? What supports this ideal state of mind and what are distractions? Are there strategies to enter into this state more easily?

We don’t really have a proper strategy about being creative. It’s probably more about how you feel, and what you can do about it. Writing music it’s either a way to exorcise what’s inside you or a way to tell your story, so if nothing touches you on the inside, then probably nothing is gonna come out

How do you know when a track is ready? Does it ever become difficult to refine ideas or stop perfecting?

We always say that you never finish a song, you choose to abandon it at one point. When we feel it’s good enough, we now that’s part of the moment that will always live with each song. When you record a song, you give it a time and a space that will always be with the track. The final steps are just part of it.

Do you have certain rituals to get you into the right mindset for creating? What role do certain foods or stimulants like coffee, lighting, scents, exercise, or reading poetry play?

When composing, we like to get inspired by other bands, books or movies. And we drink tons of coffee.

Guilty pleasure time. What would you say are some of your current most guilty pleasures? All is fair game-food, books, video games, whatever floats your boat. Let us have it.

We’re gear addict and we like modding stuff, sometimes we buy more gear that we can afford and some mods are cool too have but almost useless. Being Italians, we also LOVE food.

To wrap it up, what do you hope to do with your art in the future? I mean, do you have any crazy goals?

We want to bring our music to as many places as possible, we love touring and we hope to do it for many years.