Replacing Whiskeytown on Moodfood Records and being backed by Richmond Fontaine.
Stiv Cantarelli has been able to carve out a musical career based on punk rock and his love of American roots music. This is all the more surprising when you realise that when he created his own version of Americana with Satellite Inn in the ‘90s there was no market in Italy for Americana, it is even more surprising then that North Carolina’s Moodfood Records signed them as a replacement for Ryan Adam’s Whiskeytown when Geffen signed Adams and Co. The American Dream didn’t last for the band who subsequently disbanded after issues at Moodfood, but they have released a new eponymous album, their first in 25 years. Americana UK’s Martin Johnson caught up with Stiv Cantarelli to discuss why now is the time to release a new album and get a view of the current state of Americana in Italy. He also shares stories of how Richmond Fontaine backed him on his 2012 solo album “Innerstate”. It is clear that Stiv Cantarelli’s punk roots are still alive and well as he explains his love of analogue live recording, and why the band had their new album mastered in Wales.
How are you where are you?
I’m good. I’ve just come home from work, and it is always a good afternoon when you’ve finished work.
Why is now the time to relaunch Satellite Inn, particularly as you’ve had other bands since the original band disbanded?
The truth is it wasn’t really planned. Like everything with Satellite Inn, it is just something that happened by chance. During the pandemic, I was all alone at home and I was a bit stuck with what I was writing at the time, and I felt I couldn’t go any further, so I started writing songs like I used to do, but with no plans to do anything with them. That’s just how it happened, I needed to write but it was never planned.
What makes this band different from the 1997 band?
The main difference is that at the time we considered ourselves a punk band, and like every punk band we were on stage just to smash everything up, and now we just want to write good songs. Writing good songs has always been my goal since I started writing, but we had a different approach to songwriting at the time, we weren’t thinking about what to do and how to do it. Today, it is a lot more planned, we’ve been through a lot of other projects, and other bands, a lot of time has passed, and you’ve been through different eras in music because everything has changed since the late ‘90s. It’s more planned because you now know what to do, if you want to do something a particular way you have the tools to do it.
You were in at the ground level of alt-country in the US with Moodfood Records in 1997. You had a few years of increasing success before the label went bankrupt. Do you feel any bitterness about that period?
I’m so happy to have had the chance that I had at the time. It was very hard for me because when we started everything was fresh and new, and we enjoyed every moment, but at one point I had to decide whether I wanted to pursue my career full-time or take a more amateurish approach. That’s why I moved to the United States, but the life there wasn’t very easy, so when everything fell apart I wouldn’t say I was relieved, but I thought I got my chance and I enjoyed it while it lasted. I came back to new projects at home. So, I enjoyed it while it lasted, but I don’t really have any regrets.
Where is home these days?
At the moment, home is Florence, Italy. It’s kind of strange because the music we played from the very beginning we were outcasts in our own country because nobody was playing that music, and also there was no booking agency, there were no labels, there were no clubs, there was nothing, really. So, we were a local band when we played, we played bars, and when I had to explain to everybody the kind of music we played, it was very difficult. To try and avoid that, we played our music in countries where they knew what it was. We’ve played a lot in the United States and the UK, so much so people ask me whether I live in London, and I’m like, no, but some years we played something like 30 gigs just in London. It’s like I lived there for a while in some way.
What’s the americana scene like in Italy these days?
Things have changed a lot. Twenty-five years ago the americana movement wasn’t that big outside the United States, though there was quite a bit in the UK, but right now there are a lot more people following americana, and there are a lot more bands. It is easier for us to get some recognition in our country, and the situation is definitely a lot better and there are more bands playing americana in Italy who also tour abroad. The availability of music on the internet has helped because back then you had to go to record stores and sometimes buy the records straight from the United States.
The Delines are more popular in the UK and Europe than they are in the US. You had a solo album on Willy Vlautin’s label backed by Richmond Fontaine. What was that like?
It was great. I met the guys in Richmond Fontaine in 2001 when we played America’s West Coast. I was already a fan. And as it happened we had the same booking agent who was also friendly with Willy, Sean, and Dave, and she put us together for some gigs in 2001. The first gig was in a club in Portland, and I’d just finished the soundcheck and I went backstage shaking like a fan meeting their idols. After that we became friends, I think we played four times together on that tour, and we opened their gigs when they came to Europe and Italy. Dave Harding is a friend of mine, he visits me every two or three years, Willy visits as well when he is in Italy promoting his literary career.
It’s been great, and like everything else, so totally unexpected, I was opening their show in Europe as an acoustic performer, I didn’t even have a project to promote or even a band, and the last gig was in Barcelona and after the gig, Sean and I went to a bar for a drink. He then suggested I make a solo record with Richmond Fontaine as a backing band. I was like, that’s great for me if you guys want to do it. Then it just happened, and it doesn’t take much when you’re playing with your friends, and that’s something I always did. I’d much rather play with friends than people you just know but who aren’t your friends.
You recorded the new record “Satellite Inn” in Italy, how easy was that?
On a previous project, we were lucky enough to be able to record in a London studio. The studio was so good that a friend who was playing with me at the time decided to build his own replica of that studio. So, we have this beautiful studio in the town that I grew up in. It is an old analogue studio where you can not only record, but play live like you are on a gig, and you are much freer to do the things you want to do, instead of stop-start and doing overdubs and stuff like that. We just played, and that came out very good. This is the best studio we have in Italy at the moment, I’m sure there are very good studios that are as good but that one is run by my friend.
How old are the songs on the record?
I don’t usually like to write in the studio because I do many revisions of my stuff, music and lyrics before I enter the studio. I do like to change stuff when I’m there, lyrics and music especially, if something doesn’t fit or I feel it should be something else. So, yeah, the record was written before we went into the studio, and I’d never tried writing the lyrics this way. When I started I just wanted to write stories, following people like Willy and the guys in Uncle Tupelo, but right now I wanted to experiment. I’ve been listening to a lot of ‘70s Bob Dylan lately, and I wanted to try something similar which is kind of a cut-up. It is made up of pieces of a story I wrote and cut up in a way that made sense musically for the song. I found out at the end that everything was back together and it made some sense. That’s something I never tried, and I’m very happy with it.
You mastered the record in the UK, Wales. What was behind that?
Chris, the guy who owned the mastering studio is a long-time friend of mine. We played in Wales many times at the beginning of another project I had, and we met the guys at the studio in 2006 or 2007. He knows about our music, and we like the way he thinks about the final cut which has a live feel to it. That’s his approach and we like it a lot.
Who are your prime musical influences?
I’ve always been into English music, I’d say. I started with punk rock, but at some point, rockabilly took the best of me, and since the mid ‘80s I started to mix punk, blues, rockabilly, Bakersfield country and everything in between. It’s kind of strange, my parents didn’t really listen to Italian music at the time, my mum was a big Beatles fan and my dad was a fan of an Italian Elvis impersonator, Adriano Celentano. That’s probably why I never listened to Italian music from the very beginning.
Any plans to tour the UK and America?
At the start, our plans were only to put the name back together and put it into the map of the music scene, get the music out and get it played on the right channels. The scene now is very different from the past where everything alternative was dumped into the same scene and it was very difficult to get noticed, but today people who follow americana are more into that, so it’s easier for us to find a market for the record. We were thinking about coming to tour the UK around the end of the year, we are checking whether the old places we used to play will have us back. We have a new video coming out, and we are going to use that to promote the record. So, yeah, we would like to come back and tour, but we don’t have any firm plans right now. It’s different this time, in the past Satellite Inn made records to play live, but this time we just wanted to make the record, to have a brand new record without any plans to tour. We’ll be happy to do it, but we will have to wait and see what happens.
Any thoughts on touring other parts of Europe, the Netherlands for instance?
We were thinking about that. At the moment it’s not in the plans, but we still have friends in Northern Europe, especially in Belgium and the Netherlands, those parts where we used to play. We actually started touring in Northern Europe before we came to the UK, so we should try and put the record out there as well, and places like Spain where we never played but americana is very popular. We’ll try to get to those places, but as I said, the main thing is to get the record out so that people who like americana can listen to it.
At AUK, we like to share music with our readers. What are three of your favourite tracks, albums or artists on your playlists?
I don’t really do playlists. I’m a fan of old albums, so when I get a new album and I’m on tour, I just listen to it over and over again. Lately, I’ve been listening to an old favourite, Uncle Tupelo, and also some new bands that I found out about through Americana UK, like the Hanging Stars and Brown Horse. Brown Horse are one of my favourite listening experiences right now, maybe because they are really young and they remind me of when I started. Their record is really good, and you need some time to really get into it because the vocals are very particular, but it is really, really good, particularly when you think it’s made by people who weren’t even born when I started. The Hanging Stars are great as well, it’s a bit more like laidback Laurel Canyon stuff, and their last album is really great. Uncle Tupelo is always in my thoughts and if I want to remind myself how to play americana I just put them on and it reminds me why I did it.
Finally, do you want to say anything to our UK readers?
Thank you for the interview. It is a while since I did a live interview, and I don’t get a lot of chances to speak English here in Florence, though it is always full of tourists. Thanks to all the Americana UK community for giving support to artists in the scene, allowing them to put records out and giving them an audience.
