AFTERHOURS GIG ON FABCHANNEL

Afterhours are playing the 24th at the Amsterdam Paradiso as part of their European tour. Watch them live for free on Fabchannel. Just click here.

With endorsement from the likes of REM and Mercury Rev, it is easy to see why Afterhours are set to become Italy’s biggest export.

Over the last decade, Afterhours’ loyalty to emotionally driven performances and powerful song writing has won them the respect of critics and audiences alike. Afterhours began with strong word of mouth following, though soon started to attract the attention and acclaim of the music industry. A slew of awards and accolades followed - notably in 1997, when their second album was included in influential Italian music magazine Mucchio Selvaggio’s ‘Top 10 Italian Albums Of All Time’, and later in 2002 as they took the prestigious Italian Music Award’s prize for best song writing. Remarkably however, while their reputation became established and their shows began to sell out, Afterhours always retained a close relationship to their craft, concentrating evermore on their impassioned blend of music, never afraid to return to and reinvent their own unique approach to song writing.
Central to this approach is front man Manuel Agnelli’s presence not only as a musician, but also as a respected writer and producer in Italy. Agnelli’s involvement with both music and literary festivals throughout the country has earned him high regard as a valued member of the Italian artistic community. He constantly engages himself with the works of others – John Parish (PJ Harvey’s writing partner) and Hugo Race (Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds), to name two among many. It is within this artistic need for exchange and influence that Afterhours’ innovative sound finds its place.
Probably the most important of Agnelli’s collaborative partnerships came early in 2004 when Greg Dulli’s The Twilight Singers joined Afterhours in Italy for a five-date co-headline tour. The concerts sparked a relationship which over the next year saw the two contributing greatly to each others work, with Agnelli playing guitar on The Twilight Singers’ esteemed 2004 album ‘She Loves You’ and Dulli acting as a catalyst for new Afterhours material written around the same time. What began as a relationship based on a mutual belief in music reached full maturity in early 2005 when One Little Indian Records (home of The Twilight Singers) took them under their wing.
After five critically acclaimed albums in their native language, ‘Ballads For Little Hyenas’ became their first release to encompass English lyrics, and was released to great acclaim in late 2006. It tells a story of absence and loss; “Wrap your arms around the one thing you can never touch” sings Manuel Agnelli in the album’s title track, but always it seems, with a hold on what remains and where that leads: “Soon you’ll fade away/ Life has just begun for you”. ‘Ballads…’ searches for and implores understanding, but never acceptance.