Ozzo
oZZo was created by Ivano “ozzoHc” Tomba, musician and art director who has been involved in a number of projects since the mid-'90s (PHP – Audrey – Mellowtoy).
The constant quest for new artistic and human stimuli leads him to the decide to make an EP album which deals with obsession about time passing. The first two tracks “As fast as you can” and “Nothing but you” open a lasting partnership with the singer Alessio Corrado (Jellygoat – Mighty Dogs), who joins the project permanently. Pretty soon, the other four songs come out to complete the ep #pastislost, where we can find oZZo’s musical roots: rock, British electronic music and dubstep
LISTEN THE BEST OZZO SONGS IN STREAMING
Special contents
Pic of Ozzo's interview, emerging band of electro rock
2023-01-20
A dive into Italian electro rock with oZZo - part 2
The first part of te interview can be found at this link: electro rock
Experimenting seems to be fundamental in your projects, and change is an essential topic in the lyrics of #pastislost. Which is the relation between these two elements in your way of making music and art?
Even now you are right (hey you have listened a lot to my EP, haven’t you? ;) ). #pastislost is definitely a concept album even if it’s an EP; I needed to come back and play loud on stage because it had been 2 years since last time, but I wanted to write and play what I really loved with no compromises. So the first step was looking for and finding a new producer not so closely involved in rock/alternative rock. I met Jacopo Festa (I mean he is a friend of mine but he used to work mainly in dance project). I showed him my promo written with Alessio and Matteo Magni (the producer of Audrey) and started together looking for new sounds. So we started together to create a new workflow to make music our workflow. I left behind “growl and scream” and with the help of Alessio, we started writing new harmonies and lyrics, and thanks to Marika Lanzalaco aka Marikey DJ (a great Italian DJ) I mixed up my 2 years’ experience in DJ setting with my longer musician experience. I developed a project that summed up my two faces, the DJ and the musician. So I stole drops from dubstep and samples from trap; guitar sounds from nu metal and vocals from 90’s grunge (it’s Alessio’s fault). I don’t believe in coincidences and I think this workflow depends on my work (designer and photographer): “look – kill – rise again” So #pastislost is my “spilling my guts”.
In your songs, dubstep is mixed with nu metal; how did you get to this combination?
You got it right! 3 or 4 years ago I and Breg (Audrey’s singer) wrote The Black Lodge. At that time, Skryllex was on the edge as dubstep DJ/producer (only few people know he’s “from first to last” singer too); so we mixed up dubstep drops in metal core. At that time, we just explored the music world we loved. Now I’m alone and completely free to write and play whatever I want and to search for inspiration from my old loves as Ronnie Size, DJ Shadow, and Cristal Method. Wait, I’m not telling you I’m a DJ who composes jungle or hip-hop beats; no, I’m just saying I’m not shy to tap into other music worlds far from alternative rock music. In songs like Change you can find my nu metal attitude too, (listen to the drop B tuning like Korn’s eheh), but I’m pretty sure music taste is my peculiarity, driving my songs to a different target too. I think this is the real meaning of crossover. Some time ago, I had a chat with my cousin (do you know that kind of cousin everyone wants to have? The one who hits the ground before you, who plays the music you love before you, who has an open-minded attitude in music? Ok I have it!!!). We were talking about the drum beats and loops I wrote for my EP. I said they were trap style but Iarvo - my cousin who was a DJ long before I was (I remember him many years ago here in Milan on stage with Psycho Realms) - told me my loop were too “complex” to be trap style. This is just an example to tell you that I know sometimes I hit paths with rules I don’t know very well but I can tell you that after 20 years of music my only rules are “dance and have fun”.
You and Alessio defined Nothing But You your Sad But True – The Picture of Dorian Gray. Are you afraid of looking at yourself in the mirror?
You got it half! Metallica’s Sad But True tells about drugs and addiction to something, The Picture of Dorian Gray (one of my favorite books) is about the fear of getting older and to be judged by yourself (ok the book isn’t only about this). I’m pretty sure it could be the next song title. So read the chorus: “Now it's time to face your fear again
time has come and you are all alone
make a move before your chance has gone
don't look back cause all the past is lost
Is it too late? Blame your god
Is it too dark my face to behold?”
Alessio wrote the lyrics of this song but it seems as he opened my brain and soul to look into.
We know that you are also a photographer and a designer. How do these visual arts influence your music?
I don’t know if you are a musician or not but I’d like to make you a question. Do you realize how cool is reaching your audience with visual art pieces as video clip, pictures and art covers made by yourself? If music it’s not enough, then I can do it with something else. Writing a song means playing a soundtrack of a feeling; it’s a trip into my fears. As Fast As You Can is an ADV soundtrack and I think it’s not a coincidence and even Nothing But You (my first single) is a soundtrack of a TV ad. If you are at Firenze Rock (look at the mega screen ;) )
Would you like to give a date to Staimusic’s friends?
We are planning some gigs from October to December; check out our social, we could be around Europe, who knows!
Experimenting seems to be fundamental in your projects, and change is an essential topic in the lyrics of #pastislost. Which is the relation between these two elements in your way of making music and art?
Even now you are right (hey you have listened a lot to my EP, haven’t you? ;) ). #pastislost is definitely a concept album even if it’s an EP; I needed to come back and play loud on stage because it had been 2 years since last time, but I wanted to write and play what I really loved with no compromises. So the first step was looking for and finding a new producer not so closely involved in rock/alternative rock. I met Jacopo Festa (I mean he is a friend of mine but he used to work mainly in dance project). I showed him my promo written with Alessio and Matteo Magni (the producer of Audrey) and started together looking for new sounds. So we started together to create a new workflow to make music our workflow. I left behind “growl and scream” and with the help of Alessio, we started writing new harmonies and lyrics, and thanks to Marika Lanzalaco aka Marikey DJ (a great Italian DJ) I mixed up my 2 years’ experience in DJ setting with my longer musician experience. I developed a project that summed up my two faces, the DJ and the musician. So I stole drops from dubstep and samples from trap; guitar sounds from nu metal and vocals from 90’s grunge (it’s Alessio’s fault). I don’t believe in coincidences and I think this workflow depends on my work (designer and photographer): “look – kill – rise again” So #pastislost is my “spilling my guts”.
In your songs, dubstep is mixed with nu metal; how did you get to this combination?
You got it right! 3 or 4 years ago I and Breg (Audrey’s singer) wrote The Black Lodge. At that time, Skryllex was on the edge as dubstep DJ/producer (only few people know he’s “from first to last” singer too); so we mixed up dubstep drops in metal core. At that time, we just explored the music world we loved. Now I’m alone and completely free to write and play whatever I want and to search for inspiration from my old loves as Ronnie Size, DJ Shadow, and Cristal Method. Wait, I’m not telling you I’m a DJ who composes jungle or hip-hop beats; no, I’m just saying I’m not shy to tap into other music worlds far from alternative rock music. In songs like Change you can find my nu metal attitude too, (listen to the drop B tuning like Korn’s eheh), but I’m pretty sure music taste is my peculiarity, driving my songs to a different target too. I think this is the real meaning of crossover. Some time ago, I had a chat with my cousin (do you know that kind of cousin everyone wants to have? The one who hits the ground before you, who plays the music you love before you, who has an open-minded attitude in music? Ok I have it!!!). We were talking about the drum beats and loops I wrote for my EP. I said they were trap style but Iarvo - my cousin who was a DJ long before I was (I remember him many years ago here in Milan on stage with Psycho Realms) - told me my loop were too “complex” to be trap style. This is just an example to tell you that I know sometimes I hit paths with rules I don’t know very well but I can tell you that after 20 years of music my only rules are “dance and have fun”.
You and Alessio defined Nothing But You your Sad But True – The Picture of Dorian Gray. Are you afraid of looking at yourself in the mirror?
You got it half! Metallica’s Sad But True tells about drugs and addiction to something, The Picture of Dorian Gray (one of my favorite books) is about the fear of getting older and to be judged by yourself (ok the book isn’t only about this). I’m pretty sure it could be the next song title. So read the chorus: “Now it's time to face your fear again
time has come and you are all alone
make a move before your chance has gone
don't look back cause all the past is lost
Is it too late? Blame your god
Is it too dark my face to behold?”
Alessio wrote the lyrics of this song but it seems as he opened my brain and soul to look into.
We know that you are also a photographer and a designer. How do these visual arts influence your music?
I don’t know if you are a musician or not but I’d like to make you a question. Do you realize how cool is reaching your audience with visual art pieces as video clip, pictures and art covers made by yourself? If music it’s not enough, then I can do it with something else. Writing a song means playing a soundtrack of a feeling; it’s a trip into my fears. As Fast As You Can is an ADV soundtrack and I think it’s not a coincidence and even Nothing But You (my first single) is a soundtrack of a TV ad. If you are at Firenze Rock (look at the mega screen ;) )
Would you like to give a date to Staimusic’s friends?
We are planning some gigs from October to December; check out our social, we could be around Europe, who knows!
Tag: ozzo, electro rock, interview, new bands, italian bands, music contest, rock bands, new rock wave, electronic rock
SONGS OF OZZO - THE BEST SONGS OF THE ARTIST
1 - As fast as you can
2 - Nothing But You (Past Is Lost)
3 - Crazy