Nude – The Highwire Daze Legacy Interviews

Nude: Crucial Tunes for a World Gone Plastic

Imagine a grand and wondrous amalgamation of New Order, The Cult, and Him, and you are just beginning to conceive the dark and intriguing sonic artistry of a compelling entity who goes by the moniker of Nude. Based out of Italy, this indie electro gothic outfit features members of the heavy metal collective Heimdall.  The band now unleashes Plastic Planet via My Kingdom Music…

Editor’s Note in 2020:  Nude is very different from Heimdall obviously – dark alternative rock brilliantly conceived by heavy metal musicians.  Plastic Planet was a follow up to their equally impressive debut Cities and Faces.  It’s been some time since we’ve heard from Nude (or even Heimdall for that matter),  but they’ve certainly left us with two amazing albums well worth revisiting. Here is an interview I conducted with vocalist Tommy Box back in 2013…

Introduce yourself, tell me what you do in Nude, and how long the band has been together.
Well, my name is Tommy Box and I am the lead singer in the band. I also write the lyrics and take part in the writing of the songs…  We started off in the year 2000 and are still going.

Where is Nude based out of and what is your local music scene like there? Are there any local bands you could recommend?
Me and the guys all live in Salerno, a town in the south of Italy. At the moment there is lots of rap and hip-hop going around… especially among youngsters. We really like a rock pop band called The Citizen, they are making and creating a very charming sound! https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Citizen/228706507224235

Is there any story or concept behind the CD title Plastic Planet?
Well…the title track is about drugs…it’s the story of a couple. They were both junkies. The girl in the story was a friend of mine and together with her boyfriend, after having injected themselves with heroin, used their dirty syringes to spray a world shape chandelier with as many colors as they could imagine… this thing made them feel like creative artists … furthermore, it is about modern everyday life… In fact, the picture on the front cover is a factory in our town that went mysteriously bankrupt some time ago… leaving many people without work and money…

Select two songs from Plastic Planet and what inspired the lyrics.
One I feel rather connected with is “Old Fashion Doors”. The song is about a man that returned to his old neighborhood and as soon as he got back he started to remember the old days when he was young and naïve and this really shakes his world. This may seem trivial, but nostalgia increases with age, acquiring an important meaning … memories … melancholy. The other song I’m thinking about is “My World Today”. It’s based on a true story, like many of the songs on the record. It’s about a couple I used to know way back in the day…they used to do all sorts of things –most illegal, even prostitution- to find the money for their daily fix…and in all this mayhem, they had a baby boy who they used to leave, all by himself, next to a tree in a pram… but nonetheless, they seemed happy and this struck me…I was a teenager and took this all in and after so many years it came out, don’t ask me how, as the lyrics to a song.

With Cities And Faces coming out in 2001, what took so long for second Nude album to surface?
We started the album a few years ago. The band was in a static condition. We had lost our record deal and we weren’t all in the same band anymore. In fact me and the guys were all involved in different musical projects. In the meantime, we were waiting for a record label to help us release “Plastic Planet” because we didn’t want to sell a self-produced album; and finally My Kingdom Music came along and decided to publish it and save it from an obscure end!

When you look back on your work on Cities And Faces, what do you think of it now?
Well, looking back in time, I get the impression that it all still sounds rather up-to-date… the choice of the overall sound surprises me… I am still fond and proud of what we achieved and, I know I may seem biased, but I believe that the record should have achieved more than it did… Well, after all, it is my “little baby” . You should listen to it.

Several of your members are in the power metal band Heimdall. Would Heimdall and Nude ever want to perform a show or tour together? Stranger things have happened.
I must be honest here…I don’t think it could ever happen… we have two different styles and I don’t think it would work…both very good bands but different…

If Nude could open up for any band either now or from the past, what band would that be and why?
One of our dreams is to open a concert by “The Cult” … it would be really fantastic!!! Why? Because they were able to breathe life into guitar rock when everybody was playing poppy synthesizers…in fact, the scene had rapidly changed and become too poppy, but nonetheless they released two incredible albums completely innovative and brought guitars back… the albums I am on about are: “LOVE” and “ELECTRIC”.

If Nude were invited to participate on a New Order tribute album, what song would you cover by them and why?
AH…that’s easy.. “Doubts Even Here”. Why? For a number of reasons… It’s the first album by New Order after the death of Ian Curtis… and because the sound of the song is cold and dark as if recorded in a freezing, damp room…very 80’s post – punk.

What is a live Nude show like for those of us who have yet to see you play.
It’s energetic, honest and aesthetic. You should really come to see us play live… or better still… organise us a few gigs

What musical ventures has Tommy Box been involved with in between the two Nude albums.
I started up an electronic band, well a duo, with a friend of mine, Mauss, called Costume. And as a matter of fact, the album, “COSTUME” will be released shortly. I play synthesizer and sing while Mauss does the programming and groove box. In the album there are a few songs made with a singer from New York, Donna Destri, very close to the Bowery scene (the CBGB and Maxim clubs) and an English singer called Steven Jones.

Will we have to wait another decade for the next Nude album?
Who knows…? We hope not, but only time will tell. In the meantime…let’s hope to sell a million records and keep on gigging as we are at the moment.

Any final words of wisdom?
Don’t like to preach… but believe in what is singular and original and keep away from what seems hip… most of the time it’s “laboratory – created” … be yourselves not what someone else wants you to be.

Thank you for taking the time to answer these questions! Such a fantastic album!
Thanks for the interview and please forgive me for having had you wait so long… but rehearsing has been our sole activity lately. All the best and keep the music going!

Originally posted: September 29, 2013

Band Members
Fabio Calluori: Guitars
Antonio Pucciarelli: bass
Tommy Box: Vocals
Valeria Zevolino: Keys
Nicolas Calluori: Drums

(Interview by Ken Morton)

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