SubsOnicA

Competence level and description

He is the band guitarist, pruducer and ideologist. He is the author of the nearly whole of the music and of some lyrics. He also deals with the making of videos, the relationships with journalists, promoters, record label, and so on..

Previous experiences

He had his first approach with music when he decided to stop using his mother's record player (with records on it) as a swing platform for his toy soldiers. For the first time he let the needle down.

From that moment he started listening to Burt Bacarach, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd and Suzi Quatro. They became his principle daily occupation as well as the first strummings.

Two years later he began to attend, at the same time, the Lotta Continua club, a political movement, and the district church recreation centre. The only reason he attended the second one was the rehearsals hall.

Even if he spent a brief period of jazz studies, he later preferred an empirical approach both to the guitar and to the other instruments.

As he was too young for punk ( even if he used to wear a black coat and a safety pin on a lip), he was overwhelmed by new-wave (Tuxedo Moon, Talking Heads, Siouxse, Residents).

When he was 17 years old, after a cover show at Turin reformatory Ferrante Aporti he was taken on as electric guitar teacher.

At the age of 18 he was contacted by Carmody, the former Teknospray, one of the first italian new wave bands. It seems he was involved in their project due to his look more than due to any kind of competence. In their little studio, in a basement, he had the possibility to get the hang of recording techniques, sequencers, electronic drums and arrangement.

Aged 22 he played as bass player in Defear, leading group of the early 80s dark music scene of Turin.

He was called to record the guitar in a Suicide Dada song (electro-dark style). Their singer was a strange character, a lanky and back-combed boy who used to wear studs, army-issue rubber boots, skirt and fishnet stockings! They became close friends. Afterwards they join in a band called A Mad in Prague (Sister of Mercy style). Ten years later that singer assumed the pseudonym of Madasky.

As he passed his A-Level in photography, he began to work as assistant in his father's film studio (the current Casasonica).

After he saved enough money to buy a 8-track recorder, he turned the dubbing area into a little recording studio. There he began to compose music for documentaries, contemporary dance and theatre. In 1996 he wrote the soundtrack for his father's release Il giardino degli inganni. For that occasion he learned to play the lute and the classic guitar. During a neo-psychedelic period he played in the Misfits. With their leader Gigi Restagno (a talented author of pop songs recently departed), he adapted the band's repertory in a soft version for an hardcore movie soundtrack. Compliments arrived by Tracy Adams in person!

In 1987 he teamed up with The Difference (a Captain Beef Heart style band). The band received excellent reviews. It was led by Mixo ( a TMC2 vj) and Marziano Fontana, a brilliant producer that with Max realised his first production: Vegetable Man.

In the same period Toast Record published two tracks signed by Massimiliano Casacci in a compilation album. The first one is an ethereal and acid Ticket to Ride cover, the second one, Cellophane, is the signature tune of a broadcast programme.

He also worked under the stage and behind the mixer with Afterhours, Loschi Dezi, Fratelli di Soledad and Africa Unite.

With Africa Unite the cooperation went on also in the recording studio for the People Pie album production. A regular activity on stage, that lasted six years, as guitarist, author and composer followed. The band crossed the borders playing all around Europe, in Jamaica, Palestine and Iraq.

At the same time he went on with the activity of artistic producer, working with Loschi Dezi, Mau Mau, Fratelli di Soledad, Mao e la rivoluzione, Mambassa, Dottor Livingstone. Casasonica (a name translatable as Sonic House) became a landmark for the sounds of the 90s in Turin.

In january 1996 he suddenly broke the joint effort with Africa Unite. He got in touch with Samuel to work on an hypothesis for an experimental project, entirely studio-based. Subsequently he was convinced by Samuel and Boosta to set out again a band project for the umpteenth time and from the very beginning.

Specifical personality characteristics

He sometimes tells someone off just in order not to get out of the habit. Occasionally his well-tested central control system is susceptible of fast and unexpected crashes. His leadership style could be labelled as paternalistic-enlightened.