The Baustelle return with their new album “El Galactico”, an album that re-reads the atmospheres of Californian folk-rock of the 60s with a lucid look at the present.
A disc born from a night vision in Milan, between neon and psychedelic suggestions, which becomes the pretext for exploring time, nostalgia and musical reinvention.
In this interview, Francesco Bianconi, Rachele Bastreghi and Claudio Brasini tell us about the genesis of the project, the meaning behind the songs, their relationship with the past and the challenges of the future, between a festival that bears their name and a tour in the buildings to celebrate a quarter of a century of career.
The interview
The disc is full of 60s sounds. Why did you decide to follow that line?
The 60s are characterizing years, it is an iconic period, especially the three-year period 65-67. The sound of those years has always passionate about me and perhaps has never entered a massive way inside a baustelle album that have always been influenced more since the 70s.
It seemed right to me to draw from there because beyond the love for that sound, it seemed to me well good as a contrast with the themes of the “youth”, of the poisoning.It is the sound of “everything that is about to begin”. The most difficult thing was to transpose those sounds in the present.
I was interested in taking the historical and anchored sound in the past and re -proposing it in the present but there had to be someone else to do it with me and that someone was Federico Nardelli. I believe that the songs must speak of the present but the goal is that they can also last: they must talk about now but they must be able to be able to be able to also be valid.
Let's talk about the themes of the disc: can we say that there is a sort of nostalgia that looks to the future?
The texts were written in a very concentrated period of time. First we composed the music, then it is the story that the texts wrote with a certain homogeneity. Every day, striking facts happen, from films, so I don't say that they are written on their own but with a little sensitivity you can.
Each disc naturally adds songs to the repertoire. What relationship do you have with old records? Do you happen to give life to songs from the past?
I recently happened to listen to “love and violence” (volumes 1 and 2). I was particularly affected by volume 2, among all the pieces above all to “lose Giovanna” and “love is negative”. Sometimes I happen to say: “Ah the hell, this was good” and to find current something that willingly listen to.
The advantage of doing concerts is that you can recover things that were a little dusty by giving them an opportunity to bring them back to light, giving them a new dress but also not. I also want to mention “The mystics of the West” which is our most electronic album, more Jingle-Jangle and then “Sergio” from “La Malavita”.
Song “Philosophy of Moana”: are you talking about it?
It is the world as if it were seen by Moana. Imagine it as if she were talking about the bed while she is dying. Moana is the symbol of beauty in the era of commodification by force corrupt. He is an incredible character, he is the only heroine in the squalid world of porn and has an image and elegance that if you look at it even in the worst of the possible paintings it is both there but also from another part. With all due respect, I don't catch this thing in other colleagues like Ilona Staller, for example. He has the charm of the Mona Lisa, of Mona Lisa in the world of porn. In the song he talks about the world that judges her and condemn her, a world that is perhaps more pornographic than her, more hypocritical, because she does what she does in the sunlight.
Song: “Lanzarote”: do you tell us more about this song that perhaps differs a little from the others?
Yes, it is different, it has a Californian sound. I imagined a sort of distance between two lovers, situation deserted city in summer. Someone who remains alone while the other half is elsewhere on vacation.
Song: “It's not an end”. Instrumental trace: unusual choice.
It's a sort of game, I liked the double ending. The disc ends with a relaxing scene, the ballad “La fog” that seems the ending but in reality it is not. For this we have decided to close with “It is not an end” that offers an alternative version of the end. It is a very Baustelle instrumental of the early days.
We are talking about the visual part, the graphics, this cover and these photos where the overlap of the flash is seen among other things.
All theArt Work is the work of Gianluca Fracassi, ours art directorbut I also like to put beak. We liked that after Elvis, who was black and white, stripped, there was a more chaotic and more psychedelic guise that would also get along with the type of sound.
We have reworked many photographs, developed almost 3000. I have been to Mexico, I had 3 machines and various roller with me. Then also to the Canaries: the cover depicts a volcano off of Fuerteventura and we made it burned, colorful, acid, in a desert world that could be a psychedelic planet that is not necessarily the planet Earth “.
Do you imagine the festival as an opportunity for artists with precise characteristics or as a forge of emerging artists?
I am interested in being a festival made of people who place themselves in an alternative way to rock. I like that it is as open as possible, without gates and limits of all kinds.
In the passage “The art of letting go” hits the phrase “perhaps true love is this volunteer shipwreck in reality”.
In my world view, reality is terrible so you have to assume something above.
Perhaps a possible solution is to abandon itself to horror as a voluntary act not as an object brought by the current. Perhaps true love is this.
Did the idea of the album or the festival first born?
Certainly “El Galactico” was born first as the name of the disc. At the festival we thought then, being directors of a festival is a beautiful thing that is no longer done. Inside there are young people that we estimate, who are disappointed to offer beautiful and unusual music and who believe in alternative forms of promotion.
We are talking about the buildings scheduled for the end of the year.
There is little to say. We turn 25 this year and then in December we turn off 25 candles. 25 years are many and we are happy that after 25 years there are still new records, without getting rebounds, nostalgia or revival: we still have many things to say.
We celebrate the first 25 and inaugurate the next 125. The two dates are in themselves compared to “El Galactico”. It could be time to remove things that we haven't played for a while from the napholin.
What is the secret of your longevity?
It is enriching, without a job it does not last anything, for inertia or only for talent it does not last anything. All these things alone are not enough.
There is a need for a job, of cultivation of time that as far as I'm concerned it is the desire to feed on external things. We artists are eco-maneic and what can help you is to move away from this conception and learn from the world that changes, from young people, from external stimuli.
Without this open mentality it does not last over time. But I also wanted to say that it is not necessary to last 25 years but if you ask me how we did this: I'm glad to make records as if it were still the first or second disc. Don't be perceived as boiled meat, this is satisfaction.
Solist projects, write for others. There is also this in your career.
It is right to do when you have things in your hands. The collaboration with Patty Pravo, for example, came from his request. I wrote it as if I had to write for me. He is very good, a legendary artist, he is an honor for me, I wanted to do it since I started writing songs. She is happy, she told me, I am happy like a child, also because the song seems to me to sound true, it is a dress that is fine.
The disc
Baustelle_el_galactico_alt__digital_album-2025.
1. Pesaro
2. Strip me
3. Green song, toxic love
4. Philosophy of Moana
5. A story
6. The imitation of love
7. The art of letting go
8. Forever
9. Giulia how are you
10. Lanzarote
11. The fog
12. It's not an end
Instore
To celebrate the release of El Galactico, the Baustelle will meet their audience during the Instore in April in the Feltrinelli bookstores of: Milan (03.04 – Feltrinelli Piazza Piemonte), Turin (04.04 – Feltrinelli Edit @ Porto Urbano), Bologna (07.04 – Feltrinelli Ravegnana Acquaderni), Florence (08.04 – Feltrinelli of the Republic), Rome (09.04 – Feltrinelli via Appia) and Naples (10.04 – Feltrinelli Piazza dei Martiri).
The Festival
On the occasion of the celebration of the 25 years of career, the Baustelle organized El Galactico Festivalthe first festival conceived, written and directed by the band.
Lineup El Galactic Festival
June 1, 2025
Baustelle
Emma Nolde
Neoprimitive
Matteo Bordone & Daniela Collu (Live Chat)
Pierpaolo de Sanctis (Four Furs Records DJ Set)
June 2, 2025
Baustelle
Marta del Great
Delicacies
Stefano Nazzi (investigations)
Bassolino (DJ set)
The tour
Date – El Galactico Summer Live
Tuesday 24 June 2025 – Bologna @ Sequoie Music Park c/o Rosso barracks park
Wednesday 2 July 2025 – Perugia @ Umbria who breaks c/o Gardens of the Frontone
Friday 4 July 2025 – Genoa @ Balena Festival c/o Arena del Mare Porto Antico
Sunday 6 July 2025 – Sesto al Reghena (PN) @ Sexto 'nplugged c/o piazza Castello
Tuesday 8 July 2025 – Collegno (TO) @ Flowers Festival c/o Park of the Certosa
Friday 18 July 2025 – Sarzana (SP) @ Moonland Festival c/o Piazza Matteotti
Sunday 10 August 2025 – Locorotondo (BA) @ Locus Festival c/o Masseria Ferragnano
Tuesday 12 August 2025 – Roccella Jonica (RC) @ Teatro al Castello
Saturday 16 August 2025 – Palermo @ Dream Pop Fest c/o Teatro di vegetables
Friday 5 September 2025 – Bellaria Igea Marina (RN) @ Beky Bay
Friday 5 December 2025 – Rome @ Palazzo dello Sport
Friday 12 December 2025 – Assago (MI) @ Unipol Forum
Dates – Baustelle Pala 25
Friday 5 December 2025 – Rome @ Palazzo dello Sport
Friday 12 December 2025 – Assago (MI) @ Unipol Forum
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Web & Social
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