The B-Back were born in October 2003 when Madison Wheeler (drums and vocals) dropped his previous band, Ray Daytona & The Googobombos. Madison, thanks to his talent as a songwriter (Pikes in Panic - I Barbieri) wrote five songs and asked to Frank Croco (guitarist in the garage band The Gloves) to arrange them. Frank accepted and brought some more 60s style songs. Three months later John Amato (guitarist from The Quarrymen) joined the band along with Paul "The Muppets" as bass player. Eight months later the B-Back recorded their debut album "IN TIME!" with Area Pirata label, followed by "SECOND HAND" in december 2006. During this time they had many gigs in Italy and abroad. On Summer 2008 Paul Muppet left the band and Zara Thustra (bass player in Skum) joined the B-Back.
The new line up worked out well from the beginning: in October the band had two gigs in Berlin and in December they recorded the third album "EXPERIMENT IN COLOUR", out on February 2009.
Congratulations for your new record. Would you like to talk about it? Can you talk a bit about your personnel changes?
Thanks a lot, it’s passed a long time since we record our last work; the songs were ready for a long time, and, with the entrance of Zara trhusta (new bass player), in december ’08 we went in studio and in a few days we recorded “Experiment in colour” , and we love it!
The first album called “In Time” sounds more direct, I mean “rough” almost “a live set” .
In “ Second Hand” the second album, we hear a psychedelic vain, with a lot of beat colours.
Can you talk a bit about your personnel changes?
Here we have a more edited sound.
In “Experiment in colour” we can hear much more garage/punk sound and a much more thick sound.
Regarding the composition of the songs, we like to think that we have the same inspiration from the ‘60s and ’80s garage, beat, rock n roll, blues root.....
You share the lead vocals duties. Why is that?
We all love to sing (eh eh)
What's your relationship with Area Pirata like?
They are our producers and distributors. They are the first who believe in us, almost blindly!!!
What's your view on the Garage scene nowdays?
There are a lot of new garage bands grown in the last years.
The problem is that in Italy a lot of live set directors don’t wont to invest in the “new” scenes and prefer to hire a “guns ‘n’ roses cover band (or tribute band, you know)”
You seem to prefer vintage instruments. Are they essential for a Garage band? Are you collectors of vintage instruments? What are some of your prized pieces?
We don’t think they are essential; is not essential to have EVERYTHING of the last 40 years (even if it could be fantastic)…. A lot of the new things sounds good…
We discovered the vintage instruments because they sound better , and at the time we bought them they cost less than the new ones. They sound better, more loud than new ones, but they obviously give more problems.....No, not collectors, we need them!!! (smile)
You still maintain a 60's look. Is a vintage image important for you and for all Garage bands?
We don’t know if it’s important, we go to work with the same “orizontal stripes shirt” and haircut that we use on stage (smile)
Do you have any plans for the future?
We have some shows this summer in Italy and 4/5 new songs. We intend to go back in studio no later than 2010.
There’s a lot of people who listen to what the TV and radios broadcasts. We hope that sometimes, someone choose what he want to hear.
Interview by Tolis Ap.
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