Meet … Since Torino
On inspiration, trust, finding their feet and new single Snow.
Image credit: @sincetorino
The last time I stumbled upon the soothing sounds of Since Torino, it was in a particularly clickbaity article featuring three rising Sheffield talents. And with latest single Snow, the band have taken another step towards shoring up their alluring identity.
On Snow …
“The bulk of Snow was written almost a year ago, now,” frontman Ben explains. “I guess I tend to draw inspiration from whatever I’m reading, watching and listening to at the time: which happened to be a lot of John Cheever and David Foster Wallace.
“I’ve always been more attracted to narrative songs – whether they’re straightforward or more fractured – and that’s really what I’ve tried to do here. The main part of the song is a pretty linear story, and then the spoken part in the middle is a bit more muddled, a series of images that feel to me a bit like a dream sequence.”
Even a cursory listen to Snow will summon a vivid realisation of that description. What struck me from the song’s opening was a sense of place; call it a presumption of my imagination, but track’s title fits effortlessly with a bright but restrained introduction – bells, a plodding guitar and touches of reverb throughout.
But what’s more striking is that much of the imagery conjured in the track is entirely fictitious: “the actual content of a song will be made up - names, places, probably events too, but I always try for emotional honesty and realism.”
On growing together …
For what my opinion is worth – the band have shown a tremendous potential for growth over their last two EPs.
Previous offering I’m Not There gave us a sound that was clear and accessible, but with well-produced and with a clear vision – paired a sparse sprinkle of instrumentation with a clear, simple and crisp vocal delivery. In contrast, Snow proves that the group is truly finding its stride. And a big part of that is thanks to establishing trust – and with a solid foundation of drums, too.
When asked where they think they’ve grown the most: “The big one is our drummer, Alex. We all really click as a musical unit, we all trust each others’ judgement and just enjoy playing together. Being able to spend months playing a song, seeing which parts we want to develop and where to pull back has been great – and it let us go into the studio with a pretty solid idea of what we wanted.
“That’s the other thing – going from home recordings into a real recording studio. We’re all into lo-fi and DIY genres though, so we made sure we weren’t coming out with something that was too polished.”
On the future …
“The ultimate aim is to make some records, but that’s a long way off. Until we can hunker down in the studio for three solid months and tear our hair out, we’re just focussing on writing and playing.”
Until then, keep an eye out for new music from Since Torino in January, along with a handful of shows across the country and – hopefully – an EP in the following months. If you’re a Simpsons fan, rejoice: they’ll also be dropping a cover on a Simpsons compilation EP in December.