MELLOW MOOD
BIO
Italian reggae band Mellow Mood formed in Pordenone (North-East Italy) in 2005 while most of the members were attending high school together. Led by twins Jacopo and Lorenzo Garzia, the band soon started their partnership with producer Paolo Baldini, who was later to become their sound architect and dubmaster, and officially debuted in 2009 with “Move!”. The album was released without a label, distributor or PR agent, intending to be a first “move” on the Italian reggae scene, but gaining international recognition nonetheless. Thanks to their heartfelt live shows, Rototom Sunsplash named Mellow Mood the best Italian reggae band, and ranked them third at European level in the same year. The two singles “Only You” and “Dance Inna Babylon” now have more than fifty million views on YouTube.
Mellow Mood went back into the studio with Baldini to record “Well Well Well” and were signed by Italy’s most important independent label, La Tempesta, in 2012. Sailing through new-roots, rocksteady and tribal clubbing, Mellow Mood proved to be among the protagonists of a new generation of reggae artists hailing from all over the planet. A European tour followed and led the band to playing in 12 countries, and performing at important festivals like Rototom Sunsplash and Sziget Festival.
In 2013 the two singles “Dig Dig Dig” and “Extra Love” (the latter featuring dancehall legend Tanya Stephens) revealed that the band was ready to move forward and release new music. Going back to a more essential band line-up (without a horns section from now on), Mellow Mood coupled the rediscovery of roots music with a deeper knowledge of the most recent Jamaican sounds and released “Twinz” in 2014. The album was enriched by a number European collaborations (Portuguese Richie Campbell, Spanish Sr. Wilson and Italians Forelock and KG Man). In the same year the French powerhouse Dub Inc chose them as the opening act for a number of shows during their “Paradise (Diversité)” tour, including the renowned L’Olympia in Paris, further introducing the band to the French public.
Less than 10 months later, “Twinz” revealed its twin: “2 The World” bore witness to the band’s evolution and featured several Jamaican artists like Tanya Stephens, Jah9, Hempress Sativa, The Gideon & Selah. In late 2015 Mellow Mood also celebrated the birth of their own sub-label La Tempesta Dub (to release the band’s future works) with a touring mini-festival hosting international guests. After having assisted their producer Paolo Baldini in the making of “DubFiles at Song Embassy, Papine, Kingston 6” – a documentary about the hidden music talents of a Jamaican ghetto – the partnership with French reggae stars Dub Inc continued, as Mellow Mood were featured in Dub Inc’s record “So What”. Mellow Mood also joined forces with emerging reggae act Jahneration for yet another French tour and kept busy touring Europe and America intensively in 2016 and 2017, performing at many of the most important reggae festivals of both continents like Sierra Nevada World Music Festival (USA), Jamming Festival (Colombia), Siempre Vivo Reggae Festival (Chile), Eurockéennes de Belfort and Reggae Sun Ska (France), ViñaRock and Rototom Sunsplash (Spain).
After a short hiatus, the band announced that they would release new material in 2018. Entitled “Large”, the new record dropped in April 2018. At a time in which “tropical house” is climbing up pop charts worldwide, Mellow Mood decided to record a straightforward roots reggae album focusing on honest, heartfelt song-writing and heavyweight rhythms. The writing of the songs took place during the summer of 2017 and was characterized by a more “live” approach as it was mostly arranged by the band in their rehearsal room and recorded live in Baldini’s studio. The use of vintage instruments dating back to the ‘80s sets the sounds of the
album, which was mastered in Austin, TX by the renowned Chris Athens (Drake, Nas & Damian Marley, DJ Khaled). L.A.-based collage artist Dewey Saunders (who previously worked with Chronixx and Anderson .Paak) provided the artwork for the album. The main theme of the record is a criticism of today’s market economy, which is constantly pushing us to produce more, consume more and live “large” rather than nurturing human relations, taking care of each other and appreciating what we already have. Although Mellow Mood don’t sing strictly Rastafarian lyrics, their music is consistently conscious and positive. Music and spiritual awareness remain the “greatest weapons” to overcome tough times and keep walking on the right path.
At the end of 2018 Mellow Mood and Paolo Baldini jointly released “Large Dub”. The record, as the title itself reveals, is a collection of dub versions from the Italian reggae band’s latest album, “Large”. Paolo Baldini takes off his producer’s hat and sits behind the mixing desk like a real dubmaster delivering 12 authentic-sounding dub versions. The word “authentic” does not lack context here, since - just like the original production, which was characterized by a “live & direct” approach - Large Dub was made following the spirit of the founding fathers of this musical technique when they recorded their dub versions: tracks run separately through the desk’s channels and are orchestrated during one take only, from start to finish, in a purely analog way, with no overdubs or additional computer programming. Such operation, which transforms technique into art, was filmed and edited in order to create a proper documentary on the making of the album, which is entirely available on Mellow Mood’s YouTube channel.
At the end of 2019 Mellow Mood released the love ballad “One Night”, and its Spanish version “Una Noche” on 13th March 2020. Mellow Mood will release their latest single “Mr. Global” featuring Jamaican artist Kabaka Pyramid on October 2nd, 2020, via La Tempesta Dub, in conjunction with United States based label Ineffable Records.
Website: https://mellowmoodmusic.com/
IG: https://www.instagram.com/mellowmoodofficial/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mellowmood
Twitter: https://twitter.com/mellowmoodita
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