Dead Cat in a Bag is a folk band.
The group began their activity in 2011 with the album "Lost Bags" (Viceversa Records/Halidon), produced by Marcello Caudullo, which featured the participation of Liam McKahey of CousteauX, Massimo Ferrarotto (Feldman, Cesare Basile), and Ivan Bert (Dark Magus Orchestra). The album was presented on national radio, on Radio Due, from the stage of the Turin Book Fair, and the band promoted the album with their own concerts and as openers for acts such as Hugo Race, Bonnie Prince Billy, Dad Horse Experience, Fatalists, at festivals such as Collisioni and Strade Blu. The album was nominated for the Fuori dal Mucchio award and received excellent critical acclaim: "They were a post-folk duo, today they are an expanded ensemble that spins off Waits, Cohen, Lanegan, Tindersticks, French chanson, and German theater, Tex-Mex, and the Balkans. They sing gypsy dreams without ever being pretentious. This is one of the few CDs that I never tire of listening to." (Massimo Cotto, Max)
With Late for a Song (Viceversa/Audioglobe, 2014), the sound evolves: "Neither traditionalists nor experimentalists, Dead Cat In A Bag make music that seems to exhale from hidden wounds, forgotten alleys, and dives you wouldn't enter. (...) Their journey is becoming very interesting" (Stefano Solventi, Sentireascoltare). Guests on the album include Fabrizio Rat Ferrero (La Machina), Simone Arloiro, Valerio Corzani (Mau Mau, Interiors), Enrico Farnedi (Goodfellas), and Vito Miccolis. The album is presented live on Radio Svizzera Italiana and is included in several end-of-year lists of the best albums of the year, both Italian and non-Italian.
Other songs from the period appeared on compilations by 42 Records, Viceversa, and Sonofmarketing. Their live performances, ranging from eight to three members on stage, are sometimes even playful and often entertaining: "The sea shanties, the more intimate songs, and the noisier ones have created a completely unique atmosphere, capable of taking listeners far away, from the Pogues' Ireland to the claustrophobic existentialism of early Nick Cave, passing through Gypsy caravans, always with an absolutely personal (and suffering) stylistic touch." (Gianpaolo Iacobone, Outsiders).
The third album, Sad Dolls And Furious Flowers, released by the prestigious Gustaff Records, radicalizes the eclectic and experimental tendency, also embracing jazz ballads and an ethno-folk blended with electronics and industrial sounds. Consistency with the nomadic vocation and an international outlook lead the band to sing in English, French, Spanish, while maintaining the centrality of the lyrics typical of songwriting. The most frequent definition is that of folk noir.
The collaborators include Mattia Barbieri (Mau Mau, Richard Galliano), Thomas Guiducci, Elia Lasorsa (Accordi Disaccordi), Stefano Risso (Edna, Lalli, Barbermouse), Luca Biggio (MultiKulti Orkestra), and Carlo Barbagallo, who co-produces the record.
"Dead Cat In A Bag lead us towards an endless nightmare, veiled with the sadness that never abandons the lyrics, shining through the sounds (in minor) and tearing at the listener's heart. Around the corner, we imagine the figure of Jason Molina, for the painful approach and fierce impatience, consuming even the last breath of oxygen [...]. Capable of strange genetic mutations, never predictable, they often shuffle the cards on the table [...]."
"Sad Dolls And Furious Flowers will be remembered as one of the most intense Italian records of the year - yes, it is an Italian record - it will be salt on your scars." (Claudio Lancia, Ondarock).
The album was named album of the year on Sentireascoltare, in the ranking of Valerio Di Marco and on TomTomRock. The band ranks third among the ten most noteworthy Italian artists according to Classic Rock, after Giorgio Canali and Calibro 35. The songs are selected for broadcasts on Rai 3, Rai 2 and for the musical programming of the Turin metropolitan subway system. The live presentation takes place on Radio Popolare.
The Polish presentation tour records a good number of sold-out shows.
The live show features a theater-song performance, managed as a trio, with space dedicated to fun moments, monologues, and projections.
"The versatility and multi-instrumental ability of the band members allow them to express a full-bodied sound worthy of groups with a much larger number of elements. Luca Swanz Andriolo, an histrionic frontman, fills the stage with his very unique voice, alternating between banjo and electric guitar with some harmonica interventions. Andrea Bertola confirms himself as an excellent violinist, also finding the time to take care of the electronic drums and of a general, discreet yet attentive 'direction'. Scardanelli, for his part, presents himself as an authentic one-man band, with a backpack drum, mainly focusing on his accordion, but not disdaining interventions on the guitar. He also unveils an unexpected and pleasant singing voice in the counterpoints. But a Dead Cat concert is not just something exclusively musical, but rather a performance in a more extended sense, in which the band members reveal their connections to other artistic forms, primarily the theatrical one." (Renzo Nelli, TomTomRock).
Swanz, founder and frontman of the band, writes soundtracks for theater shows and appears as a musician and actor in performances by Michela Lucenti/Balletto Civile, Valter Malosti/Teatro di Dioniso, Kulturscio’k, Cie La Bagarre, EgriBianco Danza, Gabrielli e Migliora, Alessandra Dell’Atti, both nationally and internationally. With the Electro Strings project, he has worked for public and private events and TV shows (Audi, Swiss TV). Under the name Swanz The Lonely Cat, he recorded Covers On My Bed, Stones On My Pillow (Desvelos/Audioglobe, 2017), praised by critics and often compared to Johnny Cash's American Recordings or Leonard Cohen's last production. One of the songs is featured on the Woody Guthrie compilation by the APARTE magazine. He also works as a session musician in the studio and on stage, with Gianni Maroccolo (Litfiba, CCCP, CSI), Midnight Scavengers, Silent Carnival, Gentless3, Federico Sirianni, Guignol, Thomas Guiducci, Davide Tosches, Andrea Tarquini, Ho.Bo. He is currently working on a collaborative project with Stella Burns (Lonesome Rabbits, Hollowblue) and a solo project that explores harsh noise, drone music, and elements of concrete music.
Scardanelli, a multi-instrumentalist, has a solo project under his own name, with which he released "Il buonsenso spiegato al mio cane" in 2011, for Snowdonia Records. For years, he has been one of the most singular one-man bands of the busker scene, thanks to his expertise and versatility in playing the accordion, backpack-drum, trumpet, musical saw, guitar, banjo-ukulele. He has taken part in shows by Tekhneteatro, Barbara Altissimo, Kulturscio'k. He has also composed the soundtrack for Alice Rohrwacher's film "Le meraviglie" (Grand Prix du Jury at Cannes in 2014). Under a false identity, he is the YouTuber who created the phenomenon of Fandoniah, made completely independently.
The violinist, percussionist, and arranger Andrea Bertola works as a videomaker, camera operator, editor, and director for internationally renowned advertising agencies and is responsible for the visual part (together with Swanz, photography), creating the band's videos and projections. Since 2016 he teaches motion graphics, shooting techniques, and video events at IED in Turin.
VIDEOS
