IN TIMES OF CHAOS
London-based bar italia finds the calm on tour, set to make ABQ debut
It’s another chaotic day for the members of bar italia. The London-based trio is in the United States for a national tour in support of its album, “The Twits.”
Arriving at the venue in Richmond, Virginia, there’s still soundcheck and more time needed to get ready for the show.
“We’ve just arrived and it’s definitely chaotic,” the band says.
The band is slated to make a stop Monday, April 1, at Sister in Downtown Albuquerque.
The band consists of Nina Cristante, Jezmi Tarik Fehmi and Sam Fenton.
Over the last two years bar italia has released two albums, an EP and several singles on Dean Blunt’s World Music label.
The band has found success at festivals with performances at Pitchfork Music Festival London, by:Larm, OUT.FEST, Le Guess Who?, and End Of The Road.
“The Twits” is the band’s most recent album that was recorded over eight weeks in February 2023 in a makeshift home studio in Mallorca, Spain.
It was mixed by Marta Salogni.
Fehmi says the band had about 40 songs going into the studio.
“It was quite a process,” he says. “We had to work out all of the songs together in the studio. Decisions were made in the studio on what each song would sound like. It was a quick recording process.”
Cristante says the current set list consists of about five songs from “The Twits.”
“We want to showcase the new material, but we also want to give audiences a complete show,” Cristante says.
The trio says recording in Mallorca, Spain, was an amazing experience because they were surrounded by beauty.
Yet there were some obstacles.
“Electricity was a bit inconsistent,” the band says. “We had to work at night. It really made the experience full of buzz because we didn’t know what was going to happen. We experienced that for about three months.”
Cristante says the first few shows on the tour were great, as bar italia played two gigs in New York and one in Baltimore, Maryland.
“Our van broke down and we had to get to the show and was able to have a short sound check,” she says. “The people were really nice to us.”
As bar italia heads out West with its tour, the trio is looking forward to seeing Route 66.
“The history intrigues us,” they say. “It’s going to be such a great show for us because this will be the first time we’ve played in Albuquerque. We plan our sets the same way. We want to give an explosive show and introduce communities to our sound.”