Kodaclips started in the usual romantic way, which is to say nobody really planned it.

Lorenzo had a song he wanted to try, a few musicians met in the studio, and the idea was simply to record one track for fun. One afternoon later, they had something much better: a band.

Their new single, ‘Pirouette,’ shows a softer, more inward side of them. It’s not really about missing a person, or even missing the past. It’s about missing a feeling, which is harder to shake and harder to explain. Sonny Sbrighi says the song grew from emotions that sit in the background until they become part of your mind. Linda Capuano’s video gets it exactly right. She used early 1900s ballet footage, projected it onto glass and filmed it with lights behind it. The dancers look blurred and ghost-like, as if an old memory has come back, but not quite in one piece.

Kodaclips have already moved some distance from where they began, through the wider, more atmospheric sound of ‘Gone Is The Day’ and now into ‘Pirouette’. They have played with A Place To Bury Strangers and shared bills with Slowdive… A new record is already taking shape, with fresh songs being tested live. ‘Pirouette’ suggests they are still changing. Good. They sound better for it.

“There was something words simply couldn’t express anymore.”

We’d love it if you could tell us how you originally came together and what the main idea behind your music is.

Sonny Sbrighi: We originally met up while playing with other local acts. Lorenzo had a track he wanted to work on and a specific artistic direction in mind, so we met in the studio.
At the beginning, the idea was just to record one song in our free time for fun.
After the first afternoon playing together we decided we totally needed to become a band and write much more than just one song because we felt completely aligned.

That feeling in ‘Pirouette’ where you can’t tell if you miss a person or just who you were back then… it’s kind of intense… Did that come from a specific event, or was it something that crept up on you over time?

Sonny Sbrighi: It’s actually neither of those, it’s mostly about missing the feelings, not a past self or someone else. Events sometimes linger quietly in the background and become part of the furniture of our minds, and it’s exactly what happened to the feelings that permeate this track, they just grew over time. Many times, the people we remember are just remodeled according to our own idea of them. This applies to both ourselves and to others. The feeling of missing something, in this case, is twice as tough because you can’t replace something that was never really there. Accepting this adds another layer of difficulty, because there’s truly nothing you can do about it, you just have to live with it.

The vocals start so bare and fragile, and then at some point words just drop out altogether. Was there a point where you thought, “okay, language is actually getting in the way here”?

Sonny Sbrighi: We felt that the second section of the track was expressive enough on its own. The final guitar riff/solo somehow speaks its own language, and we wanted to bring it to the forefront.
We also loved how the vocals, right after the drums drop, kind of melt into the guitar, it almost feels as if the singing never really stops. At that point, there was something words simply couldn’t express anymore.

Tell us the story behind writing this song… were you more interested in letting it almost slip through your hands?

Sonny Sbrighi: The song blossomed from the main guitar verse and was built around it. It always felt somehow “strong” and I think the lyrics that came out of it are also a powerful representation of that feeling.

The video has those layered ballet figures that feel kind of haunted, like movement stuck in a loop. When you first saw it, did it line up with what the song felt like to you, or did it show you something new about it?

Linda Capuano: I’ll take this one!
I directed this video with the help of two very dear friends, Martina and Leonardo, who were essential throughout the process, both behind the camera and in shaping the cinematography. When it came time to edit it, Sam, our guitarist, helped me with selecting the best clips (I hate seeing myself in pictures and videos, I’m much more used to being behind the camera). My first idea was to overlay shadows and silhouettes onto the video, but after a couple of days of experimenting, the result just didn’t feel right to me. At the time, I was also preparing for my final university exam, and I happened to come across some early 1900s ballet footage. Then it clicked. I’ve always had an almost obsessive fascination with ballet, even though I wouldn’t be able to dance to save my life. I can’t help but find those figures hauntingly beautiful. I also loved the idea of playing with the song title, Pirouette. So I manipulated the footage by projecting it onto glass and filming it with lights placed behind it, making the outlines of the dancers softer and less defined, almost ghost-like. Then I layered the clips onto the video, synced to the music but occasionally delayed by a few milliseconds, to create the feeling of a faded memory resurfacing. I’m really happy with how it turned out!

You’ve gone from playing with bands like A Place to Bury Strangers to sharing bills with Slowdive, and now this track feels more inward, less about impact and more about atmosphere. Do you ever think about how these newer songs will translate live, or do you just figure that out on stage?

Sonny Sbrighi: We knew the song could feel different from the others and that’s one of the sides of it we liked the most. We prioritize writing a good song rather than a “fitting” song since the latter could lead to a stall in growth. We truly enjoy pushing our musical boundaries as it happened transitioning from our first album’s sounds to ‘Gone Is The Day,’ and it seems like it’s happening again. It was also a time of changes in our lives and I think that all transposed into our music, this is probably the simplest yet most true explanation!

Are you already deep into a new record, or is it still a bit undefined?

Sonny Sbrighi: Our next record is growing and developing its own identity. We’re deep into writing sessions (while we keep playing live shows, we never really “stop”) and we’re very satisfied with the results so far.
It’s still too early to say which aspects of our sound will be most prominent in this record, but one thing is certain: we are really proud of the work we’ve done up to this point.

When you think about the next album, do you imagine pushing even further into this deconstructed, almost abstract space, or do you feel a pull back toward something more direct?

Sonny Sbrighi: Why not both? One of our main goals is making sure the tracks fit together cohesively, so it’s probably still a bit too early to say which of those characteristics will end up prevailing. Right now, though, we’re really happy with the new material (we’ve even been testing some of it live with great results). I think, in the end, the music itself will naturally choose a direction more than it will “allow” us to choose one for it.

After everything that’s happened so far, ESNS, touring, new lineup, does the idea of “what’s next” feel exciting or a bit heavy right now?

Sonny Sbrighi: It feels incredibly exciting! It’s hard for us to stop, we always kept moving forward, so new music and new musicians are the best fuel we could ask for. The only thing that feels heavy is the world around us right now, but we are lucky to be the team we are, because it brings so much lightness and the will to keep going, both musically and on the road.

Klemen Breznikar

Kodaclips Facebook / Instagram / Bandcamp