There is a leitmotif that connects the past and the future, and that connects together also the songs by Prim, nickname and project-with-band of the Italian songwriter Irene Pignatti. The debut album when monday comes is out today January 14th, 2022 on CD, vinyl and digital via We Were Never Being Boring Collective.
According to Prim, “The album was written in this pandemic period, which deprived us of physical and social contacts, leaving us waiting for a better future. And the leitmotif of the songs is precisely the wait: waiting for someone, waiting for something, waiting for a moment. The title of the album, taken from the song of the same title, is symbolic and underlines the fact that, after Sunday, there will always be another week and accordingly another day, another tomorrow. The songs alternate past experiences, which are left behind, and experiences just undertaken, after which there is an unknown destiny“.
But the wait is over for Prim, now at the turning point of their first album, with an old photo found in the basement chosen as cover image, to reaffirm the nice short circuit between yesterday and today. The band from Modena is completed by Matteo Mugoni, Davide Severi and Diego Davolio, who met in 2019 with the purpose of achieve the songs written by Pignatti, author of almost all the music and of all the lyrics. when monday comes follows the EP Before You Leave of 2020. Pignatti says that “The creative process starts with me. I write the words and the melodies, and I prepare a first version of the song with guitar or ukulele. The other guys contribute then to the song with their ideas. All four of us discuss the direction of every song, looking for the sounds that best suit its mood“.
The new nine songs blend alt-folk intimacy and indie pop vividness, the warmth of the acoustic chords and cheeky synth lines, analog tradition and modern sound. The band has let itself go to experimentation as never before, touching various musical genres, and at the same time has worked for a long time on the arrangements. From the shyness of their guitar-and-voice genesis, the songs present currently a precious yet solid texture, through which you can enjoy many details. With a strong personality despite her young age, and passionate about music since childhood, Pignatti drew inspiration from eclectic names such as Clairo, Daughter, Fenne Lily, Maggie Rogers, Taylor Swift – in particular, that of Folklore and Evermore – and The 1975. Her crystalline voice is often intertwined in choirs that instead look both at Tom Odell and at the timeless lesson of the Beatles. The lyrics are just as crystal clear, and reflect personal experiences and feelings with great immediacy: phobias and loneliness, faith and skepticism, friendship and romantic relationships. “The lyrics are a collection of stories that make up my daily life. For me, it is important that they are able to convey a direct message“.
A perfect example of this approach is the first, intense single bathtub. “It is a song born after two weeks of night songwriting, I don’t know why, and the funniest aspect is that I finished it at three in the morning in the shower, the most isolated spot in my house. bathtub is the love song on the record, the most sincere one. It talks about the fear of being abandoned and forgotten“. Quoting the refrain: «But don’t let me sit in the dust like a broken record / I wanna live forever in your head». The second synthpop single citylights, with a videoclip directed by Federico Sigillo, unlocks a contagious catchiness: “The text collects various ‘abandoned’ lyrics, which I put together like many pieces of a puzzle. The lights of the city refer to the London scenery, where I spent a couple of summers. On two different occasions I went to Soho with some friends and both nights were unforgettable, and it is exactly the desire that something nice will never end that marks this song – «the night won’t last for long but I don’t wanna see the dawn»“.
when monday comes was recorded at Monolith Studio in Brescia by Alessandro Paderno and Michele Marelli, produced by Paderno, mixed by Lorenzo Caperchi and Paderno, mastered by Giovanni Versari at La Maestà. Other surprises, continuing to listen to the album, are the atypical solutions of the title track, from loops to vocals in reverse. On the one hand there are farewell songs (ireland), existential introspections (roots) and pure and simple reflections (thank you for the flowers); on the other we find flashes of ironic joy (she, she, she), playfulness applied to the universal trouble of catcalling (i love cats) and lightheartedness in contrast to the fear of death (thanatophobia, with reference to the poem I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud by William Wordsworth). when monday comes is “now”, and it’s finally here.
