A deep, sustained bass note vibrates through the air, as if rising from the earth. Diego leans against a huge amplifier, his fingers brushing the thick strings of a dark, worn bass. He seems calm, almost unshakeable, like someone who knows he is holding up the whole building.
Diego, finally we meet Volcren’s ‘engine’. Paul told us you ‘love with the bass’. What exactly does he mean?
(His voice is deep and warm, resonating in the chest.) Paul is right. In this project, bass isn’t an accessory filling empty space. It is the main character, or at least our second voice. If Jimmy’s guitars create the space, I guide the groove and the song’s memory. My job is to turn emotion into something physical that you feel in your stomach, bringing the main melodic hook onto my strings.
A ‘prominent and melodic’ bass is often mentioned as part of your signature sound. How would you describe your sonic identity?
It is a mix of post-punk tension and dark lines. I like moving as if I were a voice singing alongside Paul, especially in the more immersive songs, where the tempo slows and my rhythm becomes hypnotic. In our Suno Bible, Paolo Righini is very clear: it must be ‘bass-forward’, always in the foreground, providing the visceral drive that keeps the music from turning into a simple singsong.
Is there a particular song where your bass best expresses the Volcren universe?
I would say San Francisco Bay: the bass has to ‘shake the harbour waters’, a low, dirty bass repeated almost obsessively. Or think of Serenade on Two Wheels, where my pulsating bass creates the continuous movement of a motorcycle ride towards awareness. In Woman in Jail the sound becomes full and heavy, reflecting the lyrics’ imprisonment and torment. And don’t forget my bass solo in Wave Calling, where melody steps away from rhythm to speak directly to the sea.
What philosophical meaning do you give your low frequencies?
Bass is naked truth. You can lie with words or hide behind a wall of distortion, but low frequencies never lie: they are either there or they aren’t. In Archemondo, I represent the heartbeat of the modern world, that ‘fluido ipnotico’ pulsing beneath the city’s asphalt. I am the one who ‘batto il tempo’ while the world turns dark, trying to give chaos an almost cosmic order.
Diego, a final message for the people listening to your lines?
(He plucks a string hard and lets the vibration fade.) Don’t just listen to the melody on the surface. Go down to where the sound is dense and dark. That is where you will find Volcren’s true strength, between mud and stars. (He puts his headphones back on and starts a circular, hypnotic riff.) As we say: ‘We grow in the sound, we love with the bass’.
English translation of the official Volcren interview.
Read the original interviews in Italian (PDF) ↗