It was the lock-down that led to the formation of the alternative rock group Bar Italia.
“Yeah, we’re a pandi-band,” quips Jezmi Fehmi, a singer and guitarist who first worked with band mate Sam Fenton in a two-man group called Double Virgo.
Combining forces with Rome-born lo-fi artist Nina Cristante, the trio has cut four records in as many years, including two well-received albums for Matador, a well-known supporter of hot indie acts.
Fehmi continues on the band’s formation: “Yeah, I think when we were starting we definitely weren’t thinking about playing gigs. It was much more hanging out and playing music together. Then that became a really exciting proposition, the idea that we could play live. It’s kinda the best thing in the world.”
The London-based act has only started to tip their toe in the North American waters, and only made their Texas debut this month. “We actually had our first time at Texas at South by South West,” says Fehmi. “We all loved it. And we may be more referencing the city than the actual event.”
Yet, Cristante has been to Houston prior to their scheduled stop on March 28 at Secret Group. She tells the tale with a slight whisper of fear: “I had really big ribs and I went to a strip club.”
Fenton sneaks in a joke: “Your ribs aren’t that big!”
Cristante offers a laugh, and clarifies: “I’ve got on my body small ribs, but I ate very big ribs. They almost made me pass out because there was so much barbecue sauce on them. Then I went to see Cardi B play. It’s quite amazing, actually.”
The trio is joined on tour by bassist Emilie Palmelund and new drummer Liam Toon. Toon responses, “That sounds like an iconic night.”
On the band’s new found explorations, Fehmi is upbeat. “We’re super excited. We’re in Richmond, Virginia right now. And personally, I don’t think many of us have seen much of the South, or as much of the West Coast. I’m just an LA person. This side is like, it feels like we’re in a film.” Fenton adds, “And tonight is a really DIY venue,” with Cristante finishing his thought: “It has mostly hardcore gigs, the guy was saying.”
Fehmi explains some of the American South’s appeal in this day-and-age. “I think its really cool for like a British perspective,” he says, “to go to various places and have amazing gigs for people who really represent their local places really well. It used to be a thing in England, with much more university towns. Now it’s so much more London, Manchester and Glasgow. My favorite shows have been in America.”
Other write-ups on Bar Italia have highlighted an indefinable ‘mysterious’ quality about the group. From the low-key start, to a brief and charming appearance on comedian Tim Heidecker’s YouTube series Office Hours Live, it seems like the group was hard to know for some fans.
However, in their casual hang before the next gig – the group seems open and generous with a laugh.
“We’re mates with our fans,” Fenton posits at a question on how the group likes to interact with their audiences.
Fehmi picks up that thread. “That’s the best part,” he says. “I think it’s really weird when people are actually pop stars and act like pop stars. Yeah, you can have a photo – why do you want a photo? I don’t understand that personally. I just saw a video of someone taking a photo with someone else and this person wasn’t a very successful musician particularly. And this person was acting like a pop star. That freaks me out.”
Perhaps acknowledging some expectations, Cristante distinguishes between a face-to-face interaction and one behind a phone screen. “I think we’re a better us in real life than online. Maybe online we’re a bit more reserved. But then when people come to the shows it’s really warm and connected.”
For a group that made their origins from the world’s interior moment, getting out of the house to play music in person has been a big deal for Bar Italia. Compared to the sound on their recordings, Fenton says the live experience is more. “It explodes live, it gets way bigger,” he hypes.
Fehmi adds, “Then there are parts of it that are expanded, and there are parts of it that are wholesale quite different.”
Part of that expansive sound can be credited to beefing up the group with Palmelund and Toon adding to the fullness of Bar Italia’s live performance. “We’ve just like been rehearsing like, for three weeks,” Cristante says. “And Emilia has been with us for quite some time. But Liam is like a new drummer, so it has been quite something. Like Liam has been listening to the songs again, but like, the recordings, and he came to the rehearsal suggesting a few bits that we had forgotten that were in the live recordings. So we keep changing little things like that. I do think it’s quite nice like that going a bit faithful, or sometimes going away from it. Because it’s kind of the second tour with the same two albums. It’s been quite nice to refresh a little bit, some songs, or bring back some songs because now they work better because we figured something out.”
Surprisingly, some songs in the band’s catalogue may be even more malleable than audiences might think. “We even change lyrics sometimes,” Cristante adds. “Because some things get old. We want to figure something else out.”
Fenton explains how: “Like if you sing a line that’s rather quite low in your range, for example, and it sounds good on the recording, but doesn’t come through on the mix live. That’s an easy example. So you maybe transpose it for live.”
Citing a recent example, Fehmi adds a bit of ownership to the process of creating music for their audiences. “I really like that, when Kanye West did Life of Pablo, he put out one version out and then immediately called it back and changed it. I think that sometimes you can get quite attached as a listener of music, that it is yours. But it’s not really. Its done when you says it’s done: it’s nice to remember that.”
Bar Italia’s performance is scheduled for 8 p.m. Thursday, March 28 at The Secret Group, 2101 Polk. For more information, call 832-898-1088 or visit thesecretgrouphtx.com. $18-20
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2024.
