Doomed Confessionary: Daniele Bicego (Brain Pain)
Brain Pain is a four-piece grunge/heavy rock band from Vicenza, Italy.
What sound do your thoughts taste like? Have you ever listened to an Apricot? That’s what Brain Pain have been synthesizing since 2021, in their secret laboratory in the middle of the woods. It all came together in their first work »The Magazine« (Argonauta Records, 2024), a four wheels journey through the multiverse of thoughts, a trip that released a soundscape which crosses musical boundaries while still maintaining a common heavy path.
A healing process that has just begun to free da brain from a di pain. Taking inspiration from musical goliaths such as Alice In Chains, Tool, Bob Marley, Faith No More and System Of A Down, they bring their heavier thoughts into music, in a relationship of reflection between the listener and themselves. They think so you can think too.
This loud machine is driven by Daniele Bicego (lead vocals, guitar), Alex Besco (bass), Giorgio Lovato (drums, special FX) and Antonio Zordan (lead guitar, backing vocals).
Can you say a few words about your band?
The best way to summarize us is by saying that we still believe. We still believe in music and its power of changing the world around us. We also still believe in humans, everything in our album is in fact entirely done by humans, from music to lyrics to graphics. It’s weird but we live in a time where it’s not obvious anymore.
What was the biggest challenge for the band?
We all come from different musical backgrounds so putting all of that together in a coherent way is the most difficult thing, as we try to squeeze the best out of everyone in a juicy cocktail.
What can you be most proud of so far?
Of ourselves really. Seeing where we started from, and realizing that we Actually produced a full-fledged album, and we even have the physical copy! It’s a dream come true.
What was your biggest regret?
Maybe spending more on certain stuff. We definitely had to cut some corners here and there because, now more than ever, money is getting tighter by the day. However, we’re really proud of what we accomplished with the means we had.
What was the best concert/tour so far and why?
It would be probably our first Brainfest, it’s a small festival we organise every year with local original bands in our town. It’s special because it’s Our own festival, and it had a way greater affluence of people than we expected, we’re really proud of creating our own small reality. We played the 2nd edition this year, even if plagued by bad weather, and we’ll go on with the third next year, hoping to make it even bigger.
What was the biggest surprise on the music scene for you?
Personally, I’d say A Forest Mighty Black, it’s a band we know from Vicenza, near us. They quickly became one of my top 3 favourite stoner bands, go check them out, you won’t be dissatisfied.
What is currently in your heavy musical rotation?
I try to listen to as much music as possible every day, so the genre rotation is pretty wide, I go from Slayer to Fatboy Slim to Vivaldi in the same day so there’s not really a focus. The most recent ones I’ve been diving deeper into would be Lorna Shore, King Buffalo and Soundgarden.
What was the best advice you’ve ever been given as a musician?
Don’t be afraid. Fear gives you restrictions and limits your sight. If you are not afraid anymore your abilities and creativity are the only limits left.
What are your guilty pleasures?
Without any doubt it’s cheese. When I’m sad, happy or medium cheese is the biggest joy. It’s the greatest achievement in mankind’s history, and I’m deeply sorry for the lactose intolerants.
Can you say something more about current music scene in Vicenza / northeast Italy?
It’s not absent, but we have a tough battle against countless bars and pubs that only employ cover bands. And it’s a losing battle because from their perspective it’s obviously more convenient to call cover and tribute bands, they bring more people and more money. We too had to start playing mixed shows just to be able to go around, otherwise many places don’t even respond to your messages if you play only original music. It’s disheartening and we sincerely hope this will slowly change in the future. We see however some smaller realities really pushing for original content and original music so that restores our hope just a bit.
Where can we see you live this year (concerts/tours)?
We’ve been doing some shows to promote our first album all around our region, and even in other regions but as said above it’s super tough to compete against Fucking cover bands. We’ll have a couple of other concerts before the end of the year all in Vicenza’s province and then we’ll focus on the birth of our second album. You can see all our tour updates on our Instagram page!
What are your plans for the future as a band?
The plans cannot be fully revealed yet but there will be a continuative story across our first three albums. It will focus on ever bigger perspectives on life in general, starting from the first album which is about more personal matters, our own problems and struggles; the second will be more generally about the problems everyone faces, and the third even larger, it will be about the problems of our society, our planet and our future. It will be reflected also in the album covers but I’ll leave it at that. We also hope to be able to play even more shows and grow our music organically.
How can people best support your band?
We have our physical copies of the album on preorder by dm on our Instagram page, otherwise you can buy the digital via our Bandcamp page. For all links we have the Linktree. Money aside, the best support you could give us is by listening and sharing our music. We really worked hard to bring everything together, there are many genres, subjects and even languages (I spent over a month researching Lakota language just for the song »Icahipi«).
Do you have any message for your listeners?
Always choose the creative way, don’t settle for easy things and research the beauty in your life. Creating something and putting everything you have inside it is the greatest feeling in the world, with all the pain and joy the comes with it, like giving birth in a sense. As a great rally driver once said “If the tires hold up, I win the race, if the tires don’t hold up I end up like a bomb inside the mountain”.
Thanks so much guys for the interview! Keep it on!
Bojan Bidovc // music enthusiast, promoter, misanthrop and sometimes a journalist as well