Biscotti | FReeZA Artist of the Month | Youth Central

Artist of the month Biscotti looking up through a car sunroof.
Artist of the month Biscotti looking up through a car sunroof.

Biscotti is a project lead by multi-instrumentalist and producer Carla Ori. With a bunch of exciting things happening in the New Year, the future is bright and The Push chats with Biscotti about plans for 2017 below.

You’ve been pretty busy this year already. Any other big plans for 2017?

Yes, 2016 has lapsed into 2017 without any holiday or break yet, it’s all been back to back. After the exhibition of the art work accompanying the album and the digital release I will be taking the band on a National tour with the vinyl release. I’m also scheming a series of film works which have already started to take form.

Please, tell us about your art collaboration with Alice Hutchison?

The concept for the album was that it is a soundtrack for a film that does not exist. I often have very strong visual associations with my music, so I wanted to bring them to life.  I had already thought about making a short film or a series or individual clips based on the songs. When it came to making the art work for the fist single I invited Alice because I had seen her still life photos and wanted to work with this approach to create a cinematic scene. I was so happy with the first image that we made that we decided to take on making an image for each song on the album. It has been a real pleasure working with Alice to materials my visions.

Who’s been some of your favourite acts to share the stage with so far?

There were some pretty killer acts that we played along side at Paradise Festival last year. Had most fun watching Lossless, Holy Balm, Miles Brown and Friendships.

Some of your favourite bands or influences in general?

Influences go on rotation for me, I was listening to a lot of Ennio Morricone and researching Italian cinema when I was making the album. Also on high rotation at the time was Lucio Battisti, Brian Eno, Suburban Lawns, The Boredoms, and Jorge Ben. Current obsessions are Soft Hair and William Onyeabor.

When you’re not playing music, what other things are you doing?

Food is a very important part of my life, I grew up in the back of a gourmet take away shop, both my parents are chefs. My family always had a vegetable patch at our house and in my teens we ran a vineyard and olive grove farm. I have been growing a pretty substantial vegetable garden at my current house and enjoying the summer harvest cook ups. When I’m not playing music I’m cooking or eating. A sensitive artist must be well fed and rested to keep up appearances.

What do you set out to achieve with your live performances and how do you feel when you’re performing on stage with a live audience?

I always hope that my shows are delivered with joy and not too much seriousness. With the current body of work I hope that the audience is taken on a bit of a journey through different worlds. Being on stage is when I get to forget about everything and just channel the music.

How do you come up with your material? Care to take us through a typical song writing process?

I find that most of my song writing come from experimenting with new sounds or techniques. I hear something new and it sparks an idea. Even sitting on a completely different instrument will help me to hear a character or personality that wants to come out.

I don’t have a typical song writing approach but I often use games on create limitation that will force me to work around them and think differently. Sometimes you have to trick yourself into being creative.

What kinds of things do you like writing songs about? What comes easiest to you?

I’ve always been more drawn to non fiction rather than fiction in books, I think this translates to my lyric writing. Most of the songs start with a personal feeling or experience which then gets decorated and embellished.

Where can people find out more about your upcoming gigs and tunes?

If you follow the Biscotti or Listen Records facebook page you are sure to hear about the gigs. For tunes check out both Biscotti or Listen Records bandcamp, spotify, and i-tunes.