When Mills from Six Red Carpets got in touch I thought someone was trying to sell us carpets! On closer inspection, I discovered a superb inaugural album called, “Nightmares + Lullabies” written and produced by a young group of musicians from Milan, Italy. Mills, Majlco, Leaf and Fly are the “Six Red Carpets”. After listening to their music and watching their videos I wanted to interview them…
1. Tell us about yourselves and your group, Six Red Carpets?
MILLS: Mills is the name I have always used when I have to write something. And I have to. About the band, Six Red Carpets is the title of a poem I wrote some years ago, when I was in NYC with Leaf. In that period we used to dream about making a brand new band to play together. When we met Majlco, our dream became true, and we decided to call that dream Six Red Carpets. Since then, for years we played with many drummers but they all sucked. So we decided to record our first album by ourselves. When we were finishing to mix it, we met Fly. Damn him. We love him, he’s our drummer and now we’re ready to rule the universe.
MAJLCO: Six Red Carpets…This band is my favourite nightmare. A blend of emotions that mess up my life, but in the meantime, keep me alive. About me, I can only say that I do not even know if I exist for real!
LEAF: Me, myself and my group. My name is Leaf because I love to think that we are destined to fall, as the leaves in Autumn. Just to remember. In my opinion Six Red Carpets is me + Mills + Majlco and, recently, + Fly. It sounds obvious, but this means that Six Red Carpets is not a mix of four people and their lives, it is not a cooking thing with ingredients and so on. It is something about maths. And you know, Mathematics is an exact science…
FLY: I’m the “new entry” of the group. I met the band while they were mixing the album’s songs, so my artistic contribution is present only in one of the tracks. Six Red Carpets music is the best way to express myself as I was bored to death with the music I was playing before.
2. Tell us about your new album, Nightmares + Lullabies.
MILLS: Nightmares + Lullabies is a concept album built on 13 psychedelic, rock and whatever-you-want songs. It has been played by ourselves, sung by ourselves, cried by ourselves, laughed by ourselves, recorded by ourselves, mixed by ourselves, mastered by ourselves, feared by ourselves. It is our first album ever, it’s our first important work as a band. Nightmares + Lullabies is an album for everyone who lost his/her heart on the clouds or in the depth of the sea.
MAJLCO: It’s a never ending dream…
LEAF: Nightmare + Lullabies is something we wanted badly. It is about our lives and our friends. It is about death and love, dreams and routine. From my point of view, without the nights out with Mills, it could not be possible.
FLY: In “Nightmares+Lullabies” there’s something that reminds me of those concept albums produced during the ’70s. In fact, the tracks of the album make up a story. It is a story about dreams and journeys, and like in every journey, you can find faster or slower stretches. In dreams everything is possible, and in “Nightmares + Lullabies” out comings are well balanced.
3. What are your funniest and worst experiences performing in front of an audience?
MILLS: The worst experience was performing in front of Leaf while he wasn’t playing his bass on the stage with me, on the right side.
The funniest experience was to get on the stage after Juliette Lewis & The Licks. I really like her.
MAJLCO: The worst experience was when I broke the string of my guitar during the main riff of the first song.
The funniest experience was when I crashed my guitar at the end of a live performance.
LEAF: The funniest and the worst experience is the same: years ago, before Six Red Carpets, Mills and I played in a power-trio called Shaw. During a gig, we started to play our first song but my bass didn’t work. No sound from my damned bass. So I ran out searching for someone to ask for a bass. When I finally found a bass, I jumped on-stage, and our drummer (Ale, the one the Album is dedicated to) was entertaining the audience telling jokes in duet with Mills. Our first song started, but after a few minutes they told us to go away because our time was finished. What a gig!
FLY: I have had lots of live experiences during these years, and many memories connected to them; it would be impossible to select just one…I love to “think ahead” and set my mind on the next gig, trying to make it the funniest and the best ever. That’s why I love to play live, and I always want to do my best.
4. What’s your favourite type of events that you play at?
MILLS: I love the small clubs and the arenas and the big festivals.
But they have never called me. So I made an album and now I’m ready to kick their asses…
MAJLCO: I don’t mind if I play in big or small gigs, the important thing is stage diving!
LEAF: I’d like to play at sunset, with the sky over my head, in front of many people. Or in a small club, with the fans all around us.
FLY: I think I’d prefer to play in a little club full of my friends than in a great gig full of strangers…but if you ask me again in the next future, I’ll probably answer this question in another way!
5. What’s your greatest achievements to-date? And, what dreams or goals would you like to fulfill?
MILLS: I’d love to make another album, I’d love to leave everything behind and to think about planets and scars.
MAJLCO: It’s been making our album “Nightmares + Lullabies”. The main dream is making music my only occupation.
LEAF: Well, about the first thing, Nightmares + Lullabies for sure! My dream and my goal is to be a musician full time.
FLY: I don’t want to be famous, or a rock star (do they still exist?). I don’t care about that. I simply want to have the possibility to create, to play and to show our music. I want to feel good with myself and keep my life balanced…I feel happy when I play. My goal is to have the possibility of playing as much as I can.
6. What’s the best and worst advice you have ever been given? And did you follow it?
MILLS: The best advice from the dead. And I followed it. It was about playing. I got back. The worst? Uh!
MAJLCO: The worst advice has been: “Why do you still play guitar? It is better for you to get a real job!” and I haven’t followed it… The best: “Never stop dreaming” and I always try to follow it.
LEAF: In this case too, the best and the worst advice is the same: “do not stop playing”. It has been the best advice ever (from my girlfriend Serena) because when I was depressed I wanted to give up playing the bass, this thing took me back on the right way. It has been the worst advice ever (from the one who was teaching me the double bass) because it caused me a bad tendinitis of the wrist.
FLY: The best pieces of advice are probably the ones that sound like these: “try to play less, because less is more” and “never take yourself too serious when you play”. I try to follow these gifts everyday and I want to forget all the worst pieces of advice…I don’t give a damn about them!
7. Which three famous people would you invite to dinner and why?
MILLS: Dave Grohl for the fun, Rufus Wainwright for the voice and David Lynch for the view. But they would never eat something together.
MAJLCO: I’d like to have dinner with:
Dave Grohl – He can’t be left out if you are going out for a drinking dinner! Tim Burton – I’ve got tons of ideas in my mind. I’d like to talk with him about these ideas to find out if he can use some of them in one of his movies. Matt Groening – Holy shit! He’s the creator of The Simpson and Futurama!!!
LEAF: Well, at the moment, I would like to have dinner with Juan Abreu because I wrote a dissertation on one of his books and it gave me a lot. So, I’d like to meet him to speak about art, literature, music and so on. Then, I’d like to dine with Flea because – even if I play a different kind of music – he had been an inspiration while I was learning to play. At last, but not at least, I’d like to invite to dinner Takeshi Kitano because I would like to ask him to teach me how to become a movie director.
FLY:
- Nelson Mandela, because I would like to understand what is the true and deep meaning of freedom.
- Paul McCartney, because I’d like to understand his genius. I would also like to ask him if he really died in 1966.
- Gavin Harrison, my favourite drummer ever, to stole some of his tricks!
8. What is the best book or books you have read and why?
MILLS: Due ciambelle senza il buco by Majlco…no, just joking. I had to love that Wilde’s Mr. Gray.
MAJLCO: Les Fleurs du Mal by Baudelaire. In my opinion, it’s the best poetry book ever.
LEAF: Well, it is difficult to make a choice…Ficciones by Borges; A Room of One’s Own by Woolf; Garbageland by Abreu; Le Horla by Maupassant; Petits Poèmes en Prose by Baudelaire; Cien Años de Soledad by García Marquez, Hombres de Maíz by Asturias, Fosca by Tarchetti, Poe, Aira, Arguedas, T.S.Eliot…and so on.
FLY: I can tell you two titles: Il nome della rosa (The Name of the Rose) by Umberto Eco, because of the mystery and the erudition, and Cent’anni di solitudine (One Hundred Years of Solitude) by Gabriel García Marquez, because that book really abducts me.
9. Tell us 6 interesting and unknown facts about Six Red Carpets?
MILLS: MAJLCO: LEAF: FLY:
1. Our first release was the “Upon, a Ring” EP.
2. We love Lynch’s and Burton’s movies.
3. We hate Juventus F.C. and we all love Inter (well, except Majlco who loves another undefined team ‘round here…).
4. Someone asked us to make a video of a song from the Album.
5. We are going to make a series of short movies called “Heads”.
6. We don’t sell carpets!
10. If you could change one thing about the world what would it be?
MILLS: I want everyone to have the same possibilities. And I want all the f***ing spiders dead.
MAJLCO: The Human Race!
LEAF: I don’t know if it would be better to change people’s minds or if it is my mind that needs a fixing.
FLY: I would like to change a lot of things all over the world. If I had to choose one thing it would be taking away the weapons from kids in every country, not just in Africa, but in Italy as well…Let them play!
