Will ‘Shostakovich’s Nightmare’ finally come true? | Antonio Tufigno

We seem to be living in an age of great musical comebacks. First, Black Sabbath reunited for a world tour; then AC/DC recorded its first studio album in decades. And now, Shostakovich’s Nightmare is reuniting for a charity concert. So let me start with this: is this gig the beginning of a more permanent comeback for the band? Or is it just a one-off performance?

I certainly hope it’s not just a ‘one-off’; because we’ve been playing together again for around two or three years now: these days, on a weekly basis.  So hopefully it will be a permanent thing: in the sense that we’ll keep on gigging, and playing live regularly. Because that’s what I really miss: playing live.

The last time we did a live gig was in 2009: we were one of the supporting bands, alongside Areola Treat, when Therapy? performed at Sky Club. That was 13 years ago; and since then… well, my other bandmates might not miss it, as much as I do. But I really do miss live performances: where I can make a fool of myself, and cavort around the stage in front of an audience… my ‘silly antics on stage’, basically. I miss that, a lot…

Are you working on any new material, though? Can we expect a new Shostakovich’s Nightmare album, any time soon?

We’re not ‘recording’ anything, at the moment; but we are working on a few new songs. Even because, at first, there was a bit of resistance to just playing the old ones. But also because… it’s very strange, actually. 

One thing you realise, playing the same songs for so many years, is that… some of them may have remained more or less ‘valid’, and ‘interesting’, to this day. But then, there are others – especially the ones that we ourselves thought were ‘good’, at the time (in all humility, and within our limitations as musicians, etc.) – which have now grown ‘dated’, in a very drastic way. Almost to the point that they’ve become something completely different, to the songs we had originally composed…

A lot has in fact changed, since your band started up in the 1990s. Not least, the sort of audience you will now be playing for… some of which will be composed of an older generation, to whom the name ‘Shostakovich’s Nightmare’ evokes certain memories; but some will be youngsters, who might never have heard it at all…

I hope so…

Are you concerned about it, though? Not to jinx you, or anything: but just as your audience’s age has changed, so has their taste in music…

Perhaps, but that only makes it more interesting. In fact, I’m very happy that some of my younger friends, who never watched us before, will finally get to see what we’re like. And I keep telling them, ‘Listen: don’t raise your expectations too high. You might be disappointed!’

Because I imagine a lot of people will probably end up saying: “Ah, OK: they’re not as good as older people thought they were, back in the 1990s; but then again, they were the only thing around back then; so there was nothing to really compare them to…”

But the way I see it: that makes us lucky, in that we have history on our side. Because we’re ‘very old’ – relatively speaking, anyway: I’m turning 48, myself. But I’ve always been something of a ‘Peter Pan’, really – but because we were around in the early 1990s: at a time when, let’s face it, there weren’t THAT many bands in Malta; and even fewer that played what was considered ‘weird’, ‘obscure’ music… 

Anyway: because of all that, people tend to look at us like we were some kind of ‘seminal’ band, in the annals of Maltese rock. But at the same time: if you compare us, back then, to the sort of bands that exist nowadays; and the sort of stuff they do… the truth is that we were probably very amateur, at the end of the day.

And we are, in fact, amateurs. Of the entire band, I’d say only one – Matthew, our guitarist – can really claim to be a good musician. The rest of us just try and keep up, as best we can…

But that’s what I meant. Aren’t you the least bit nervous about your first gig in 13 years?

Not really, because I’m not normally the type to get nervous about things, anyway. As far as I’m concerned: it will be fun to finally get to see whether we really were ‘completely shit’… or whether there was really something interesting about us, after all.

And part of what it makes it fun is that: we were always an eminently ‘live band’. If we were known for anything, all those years ago… it was not because we were the ‘best musicians in the world’; but because we have always really loved playing live.  We always gave it everything we’d got, on stage.

So I’m really happy to be recapturing that lost territory, after so many years…

Nonetheless, the music scene you are returning to is not the same as the one you started out in. You said it yourself: in the 1990s, there were nowhere near as many bands as today; which also means that it would arguably be much harder for a band like SN to start out today, than in yesterday’s less competitive environment…

Not ‘much harder’, no. Because at least, today there is a scene for ‘indie, alternative’ music. There are lots of very, very valid bands, which play music that is not generally regarded as ‘mainstream’; and there’s also a very exciting atmosphere, where bands collaborate with each other, and intermingle in a way that didn’t really use to happen, back in the old days.

And even what we understand as ‘indie’ or ‘alternative’ music has changed. When we started off in the early 1990s, the ‘mainstream’ was very different to what it is today. Now, music that would previously have been considered ‘alternative’ or ‘indie’, has seeped into the mainstream; it has become more acceptable…

Another thing that has really changed is the attitude towards original music. Back when we started, we never used to do ‘cover versions’; we always wanted to play our own stuff. But when we performed in bars like The Alley in Paceville, for instance… there was a rule that half of all sets had to be cover versions: ‘Bil-fors. Inkella, you don’t play’.

Now: we used to get around that, by performing cover versions of bands that were arguably even more obscure than we were – like ‘The Pixies’, for instance. But still: there was a deep mistrust of anyone trying to do things differently. The idea was that, to be ‘interesting’, bands had to play music that people already knew.

That is something you don’t really encounter, nowadays. And besides: today it’s much easier to record; there are more opportunities; and there is certainly more of a scene for live alternative music; with venues such as Hole In the Wall in Sliema; the Garage in Zebbug; and so many more.

So all in all, I would there’s a lot more exciting stuff happening, than when we started out…

Indeed there is: and some of that ‘exciting stuff’ has proven to be controversial, too. Apart from being SN’s frontman, you are also from Valletta…

[Nodding] Born, raised and lived there for 33 years…

May I ask you, then, for your own views about Valletta bars being allowed to play live music until 1.30am? As both a live performer, and a proud ‘Belti’… do have mixed feelings about it?

Well, let me put it this way. If it were just me, I wouldn’t be all that bothered. I like that sort of activity myself; and as I remember a time when Valletta was practically a Ghost Town, after 7pm – you could ‘commit a murder and bury the corpse’ [toqtol u tidfen], right in the middle of Republic Street - there is something to be said for the fact that people are now flocking back to their capital city in the evenings.

But that’s just me; and you do have to put it in context. Clearly, it is a problem for other residents. First of all, if you look at the population of Valletta, most residents are on the elderly side. And some of the places playing music at night – especially in Strait Street – are right under apartments where elderly people live. And let’s face it: it must be awful, for them, to have to put up with loud music until late at night… so even out of consideration for others, I’d say it wasn’t a very good idea.

What about the impact on the identity of Valletta itself? Do you agree that the capital may risk losing part of its character?

In a sense, yes. Because even if, in the 1980s and 1990s, Valletta was derelict and abandoned after 7 or 8pm… it was completely ‘mine’. It completely belonged to the people who lived in it. We could go for walks, late at night, through those empty streets; and the ‘monumentality’ of it all was really at its best, when the place was empty. (Interestingly enough, the same thing happened during COVID, too. The Valletta streets went back, for a time, to ‘belonging to Valletta residents’.)

Now, however, it’s a whole mix of things: some of which I do like, to be fair. I love Valletta so much, that I’m very happy to see that its popularity has grown so such an extent, in recent years (even among people who, a few years ago, wouldn’t even have dreamed of venturing into Valletta after nightfall…).

But at the same time, it does seem to be losing some of its character. I’m not overly ‘in love’, for instance, with the way things are developing in the streets: how bars and restaurants constantly take up more public space, at the expense of everyone else: the elderly, people in wheelchairs, people with push-chairs… 

It shouldn’t be that hard to find a way for everyone to co-exist, amicably, in a better-managed way.

The real problem, however, is that all these extensions into streets and pavements are objectively… UGLY. Why does everyone have to have white plastic chairs, for instance? Aesthetically, it hurts my eyes.  And the same goes for the music, too. It’s not just that bars are allowed to play live music until late; it’s that the music they are playing is – with some exceptions, to be fair – utter rubbish. The same old boring, repetitive mainstream music, that most bar-tenders think (wrongly) that everyone wants to hear….

Let’s turn to the ‘Rock For Richmond Concert’. There has long been a association between the Maltese rock scene, and some form of ‘social activism’. Shostakovich’s Nightmare might not, admittedly, be the best example: but bands such as Norm Rejection, Dripht, Brikkuni, Semplicament tat-Triq, etc., tend to often include social activism in their lyrics. Do you see yourself – and the rock scene in general – as being ‘socially committed’, in that sense?

We were never really an ‘activist band’, ourselves. And we were certainly never very ‘socially committed’ in our lyrics. Unlike Brikkuni, for instance - where Mario [Vella] writes very pointed lyrics, about contemporary issues as they happen: like the protests of 2019 - our own songs were always more surreal, and ‘all over the place’, in nature...

But even if we don’t write specific lyrics about social issues: we’ve always been very interested in these things. And we try to support, where we can – not, mind you, that our support ever amounts to very much: but still, we used to perform at activities organised by YMCA: that sort of thing.  We were always there, at the periphery of everything…

The Richmond Foundation itself is a charity which aims to ‘address mental health problems, and promote mental well-being’. Is that a cause you feel strongly about?

I wouldn’t say ‘strongly’. To tell you the truth, I would have been just as happy to support other charities; so long as I agree with the cause, and they do a good job of it. But I also know some of the people who work with [The Richmond Foundation]; and I know them to be genuine, and serious. And I also believe, very much, in the change they are trying to bring about.

Not that I’m an expert, mind you; but from the little I know, they are working on changing the perception that ‘mental health issues’ are to be treated as being somehow s’distinct’ from other health issues. Not like it was when you and I were children, for example. We were brought up to believe – well, maybe not everybody; my parents never taught me that, that’s for sure; but it was the culture, at the time, that if someone was slightly ‘off his rocker’… or ‘irregular’… then that person was automatically someone to be ‘scared of’. They became ‘outcasts’, for no reason…

If can add to that: we also believed there was nothing that could be done about it, either. Once you’re viewed as ‘having something wrong with your head’… that’s it. You’re beyond the reach of medical science…

Exactly. But to be fair, things have already come a long way, since then. And it’s partly thanks to institutions like Richmond, and others, which are successfully instilling a culture that… ‘Listen: this is a health problem.” Because somehow, we didn’t use to think of it like that, before. We never looked at it as a case of: ‘you can be physically injured; and you can also be mentally injured’.

But children, today, do understand this. The younger generation’s attitude to mental health has already changed a lot in that sense; and I think it’s really important. I think it’s one of the truly good developments we’ve seen, in this country… and let’s face it; there haven’t been all that many others.