Initially coming into focus back in 2009, Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats have been at the forefront of modern Heavy Rock movement with a plausible old school Doom Rock esthetic. Something that proudly unites darker and brighter elements of melody and harmony, from their 2010 debut album Volume 1, leading into 2018’s Wasteland, they have earned universal acclaim. Possessing a sound that appeals to a broad age range of Rock-n-Roll lovers, Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats may keep a relatively low profile, but they still possess a large sound.
Open to try new things and not keep rehashing the same material over and over, in 2024 they are now set to put out a very eccentric new album called Nell’ Ora Blu. Something of a cinematic audio adventure, band leader Kevin Starrs took cues from his love for ’70s Italian Horror to write a script, and create an original soundtrack all his own. Void of actual imagery, Nell’ Ora Blu utilizes a soundscape matched with dialogue spoken by famous Italian actors such as Edwige Fenech and Franco Nero to create its mood. Truly something different, Kevin Starrs recently took some time to chat about the vision behind Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats, the work put into Nell’ Ora Blu, future plans, plus more.
Cryptic Rock – You have been going strong now with Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats for over 15 years. Not only have you released a list of albums, but you have also done extensive touring through the years. Before we go any further, how would you describe the journey that you and the band have been on?
Kevin Starrs – Just sort of unexpected, really. I never thought it would get further than just a studio project. I was surprised that people were interested in what I was doing. Everything took off. Once we got our good live band together and we started touring, we haven’t really stopped. We’ve just kept going.
Cryptic Rock – It has been a pretty incredible run. As mentioned, you released quite a few records over the last decade. Including the forthcoming Nell’ Ora Blu, you will have released six studio albums since 2010. Each album is really a little bit different than the other too.
Kevin Starrs – Yeah. I like to have different concepts for each album and different stories that I can work on. I guess musically, I would like to think they’re all quite different as well. They all have different influences. Each one seems to be a natural progression from the last one.
Cryptic Rock – Most certainly. Beyond the actual songs themselves being different, they also have a little bit of a sonic quality as well. Is that something that is intended?
Kevin Starrs – Yeah, definitely. We’ve always tried different studio techniques. In the beginning, it was a lot of just, “Let’s distort everything.” Everything was fully up to the red. Then we’ve tried a bit less of that. We’ve used tape. We’ve used digital. We’ve used modern, old, and all kinds of equipment. It’s just sort of experimenting each time you go in and trying something a little bit different.
Cryptic Rock – Well, it definitely keeps things interesting from album to album. Obviously, the band’s sound is influenced by cinema, by older techniques, as well as older styles in Rock-n-Roll and Metal. This in mind, what really inspired the formation of Uncle Acid & Deadbeats and the direction you have decided to take the music over time?
Kevin Starrs – It’s kind of difficult, really. I’ve always liked the idea of mixing something heavy and dark with something light and melodic. I like the sort of light and shade of that.
The lyrics are not very pleasant a lot of the time. The general stories that we have in the albums are quite violent and quite dark. At the same time, there’s two, three-part harmonies. There’s Pop melodies in there. Everything’s very melodic. That was from day one. That was the idea to have the Electric Everly Brothers; just have these two-part harmonies and then this darkness with it as well.
Cryptic Rock – It makes for a great combination. Let’s fast-forward now to this new record, Nell’ Ora Blu, which is a bit different from anything you have done prior. This album is more like a soundtrack or a soundscape, and pays homage to Italian Giallo films of the past. So, what inspired you to put this album together?
Kevin Starrs – I just felt like doing something completely different. I think too many bands like to play it safe, and everything’s the same. I just got sick of all that kind of thing. I just thought, “Let’s just go completely nuts and do something that hasn’t really been done before.” It’s kind of a soundtrack, but it goes beyond that; because it’s got all the sound effects, it’s got the dialogue, things that you wouldn’t normally have on a soundtrack release. It’s kind of like an audio film in some way. Everything’s scripted. The actors are all acting these parts out. It just seemed like an interesting thing to do, really, to try and attempt.
Cryptic Rock – It is very interesting. For someone who is a fan of that period of cinema, it really reflects. It is really a great mirror image of the Italian Horror films during the ’70s and early ’80s. Fans of those types of films are really going to appreciate this.
Kevin Starrs – Yeah, I hope so. It’s quite niche, really. It’s not going to appeal to everybody. That’s just the way it goes.
Cryptic Rock – Right. Well, like you said, it is about not playing it safe and doing something different. You mentioned there were actors/actresses who act out parts, and they are speaking in Italian too. What was it like connecting with these individuals and bringing them on to be part Nell’ Ora Blu?
Kevin Starrs – It was amazing. I thought I may as well try and get the people that I really want. If it doesn’t happen, then I’ll look for maybe some lesser names. Franco Nero and Edwige Fenech were the first two that I looked at. I found Franco’s agent and sent her an email telling her this general idea. I was surprised that she got back to me straight away and she said, “Yeah, I’m going to call Franco tonight. I’m going to put the idea to him, and I’ll let you know tomorrow.” It just took off. He was into it. He liked the idea. It was something different for him.
Once I got Franco involved, then that made it a lot easier for the other actors because, obviously, he’s a legendary actor. If he’s given it his seal of approval, then it makes it easier for other people to sign on. It all took off from there really.
Cryptic Rock – That is great. You also had Giovanni Lombardo Radice involved; another highly accomplished Italian actor. He recently passed on sadly in April of 2023, but it is great to see he was involved in this too.
Kevin Starrs – Yeah. He was one of the last people that I recorded. He was really cool. Unfortunately, he passed away just a couple of months after we recorded, which is a real shame.
Cryptic Rock – Yes, it is sad. Speaking of these types of performers in general, it is all kind of niche as you said. Their work is very compartmentalized to European audiences, or people that enjoy these types of films. However, they deserve much more credit as very talented actors and actresses.
Kevin Starrs – Absolutely. I think they’re, in some ways, a little bit underrated, as is the whole of that scene, in my opinion. A lot of the Giallo and Poliziotteschi films, even in Italy, were sort of looked down upon as not being very artistic.
Italians like to talk about Federico Fellini and all these obviously great directors, but they sometimes forget about people like Sergio Martino, Dario Argento, or Lucio Fulci, among others and the films that they made; because they’re all great as well. They’re not as sort of high-class as some of the other stuff.
Cryptic Rock – Exactly. That is an interesting point… because many of the films we are referencing are highly artistic. From the filming style, to the use of color, to the color palette in general, they are by and large quite beautiful.
Kevin Starrs – Absolutely. It’s quite unique. When you compare it to a lot of American cinema at the time, it’s quite different to what Americans were doing.
Cryptic Rock – Agreed. Looking at Nell’ Ora Blu, you are right, this is very much a movie without images. This all considered, what was it like creating the storyline for Nell’ Ora Blu?
Kevin Starrs – I just wrote a really quick story and knocked out some quick dialogue. I didn’t really want to spend too much time on it; because I thought, back then, a lot of these film studios, that’s what they were doing. They were just knocking out movies. It would take six weeks to do a whole movie, and then move on to the next one. They were just churning out, they were film factories.
I thought about doing the same for this and just not spending too much time on it; just trying to get the dialogue as authentic as possible. I wrote the script, obviously in English, but I had a professional Italian translator. She worked on it, and she gave me a few tips on things that would have been said, phrases that were not quite right, and things like that. It turned out pretty well.
Cryptic Rock – Wow. It truly is an ambitious, different project. Considering it is strictly audio, have you considered maybe making a supplemental video to go along with Nell’ Ora Blu? Is that something you are going to have with you for live performances?
Kevin Starrs – I would love to. Obviously, trying to get the actors involved would be quite expensive. I guess you could do it with other actors, but it wouldn’t be quite the same as having Franco and all the rest of them. We’ve got some footage of various things, that if we do perform it live, we will be using certain footage. That sort of thing takes a while to put together.
Cryptic Rock – Of course. There are a lot of moving parts and it could get expensive. With this Nell’ Ora Blu set to come out on Friday, May 10th, will you have some touring coming up in support of it?
Kevin Starrs – No. We’re just going to release it. Initially, the plan was to do a regular tour, the regular cycle of how things are always done. You do a couple of songs from the album, and then a couple of old songs and all that kind of thing. It just didn’t seem interesting to me though. It just seemed it wasn’t the right thing to do with an album like this. You can’t really just play any songs in isolation. It has to be the whole thing. The plan would be to do a few shows of just playing the whole album from start to finish. We would do it in small theatres where people could sit, rather than at a Rock club where everybody’s standing around drinking. I think the ambience would be important. It would need to be in theatres. We’re working on it at the moment. It’s just trying to find the right venues and the right cities and things to play.
Cryptic Rock – That is something to look out for. As you say, this is not something you really can piece apart and play three, five or ten minutes here and there. It is something you need to sit and listen to for the duration.
Kevin Starrs – Yeah. Once we do it, maybe we’ll do five or six shows. I think that’ll be it. It’s not something that we’ll do again. Obviously, again, it’s going to involve a lot of different extra musicians, because there’s a lot of things going on. It’ll be different to how we normally approach a live show.
Cryptic Rock – Very cool. Well, it will be interesting to see when everything comes together. Being that it is different from the prior records you have released with the band, is this something you would say is like a palate cleanser. Is it something where you could pick up with your next material feeling refreshed because it breaks up the monotony?
Kevin Starrs – It’s exactly that. This isn’t going to be a new direction. All our albums aren’t going to all of a sudden be like this. This is just a unique thing, as you say a palette cleanser. It just sort of clears the boards and allows us to do whatever we choose for the next album.
Cryptic Rock – That makes sense. As someone who appreciates Italian Horror films, what are some of your favorites?
Kevin Starrs – Things like Five Dolls for an August Moon (1970), The Fifth Cord (1971), and All the Colours of the Dark (1972) which is also another Edwige film. Almost Human (1974) is one of my all-time favorites. Calibro 9 (1972) is a good one too. There’s just so many. Blood and Black Lace (1964). You can go on and on, really.
Cryptic Rock – Those are a lot of great selections as well. There were so many great directors who came from that period including Argento and Fulci. Broadening it from the region of Italy, there are other directors from that period which should deserve credit too; for example, Spanish Filmmaker Jess Franco. That in mind, are types of films something that you grew up with and also part of what informed the direction of Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats?
Kevin Starrs – Yeah, I suppose. I grew up watching a lot of Horror. Once you start going through all the classics, you then look a little bit further afield and you start looking at foreign movies; Italian and as you say Spanish. There are a lot of good Spanish Horror movies. There’s something about Italian Horror that just appeals to me. It’s a lot of over-the-top violence. I think they’re just so good at what they do.
Cryptic Rock – Yes, and there was a period in the UK where a lot of these films were censored heavily, or banned altogether from distribution. This period is famously known as the video nasties.
Kevin Starrs – That’s right. Which is just crazy when you think about it. Even films like A Clockwork Orange (1971) was banned until the late ’90s or something like that… which is just completely insane.
Cryptic Rock – It is insane. It is compelling to study though. The list of films on this list in the UK was rather long.
Kevin Starrs – Yeah. I don’t know what they were thinking. There’s some strange people in the UK.
Cryptic Rock – Well, you can liken that whole period to what the parental advisory sticker in America did for music during the ‘90s. It just created more interest.
Kevin Starrs – Exactly. I’m sure people would seek out those movies maybe in a way that they wouldn’t have done if they hadn’t been banned. It just adds to their legacy, really.
Cryptic Rock – Very valid point. With this new record completed and coming out, do you have other songs you have been working on?
Kevin Starrs – Yep. I’ve got some material for the next album and for the following album after that as well; it just depends on which way we want to take things. There’s always songs ready to go.
Cryptic Rock – That is positive news to hear you have enough material to fill up not one, but two more albums. We do not want to give away too much, but what can we expect from the new songs that are still in the works?
Kevin Starrs – I imagine it will be more stripped back than what Nell’ Ora Blu is. But then who knows? More songs can be added… we’ll just have to see how it goes.
Cryptic Rock – We will just have to wait and see. You stated how you have tried different recording techniques through the years and experimented. What do you find the most interesting techniques that you enjoy working with? Do you enjoy working more with analog equipment versus digital, or vice versa?
Kevin Starrs – I kind of like them both equally. I prefer tracking everything to tape if we can; especially if we’re performing as a band. Normally we just go in as a band and record everything live – the drums, bass, all the guitars. Then I can add the vocals and stuff on top afterwards. When we do it like that, I prefer just to track everything to tape. It’s maybe only 5 or 10%, but things like that add up, and it’s worth the hassle of using tape. It’s worth it to me for the sonic benefits.
Cryptic Rock – Right. Sometimes the longer path is worth taking. It seems like we are living in a world where everyone wants to take shortcuts, which is fine to an extent, but sometimes taking a little extra time to do something differently is well worth it.
Kevin Starrs – Oh, yeah. Definitely. It’s the same with things like amplifiers and stuff. We all prefer the valve amplifiers, the old style. They’re unreliable sometimes and they can cause problems, but it’s all worth it for the end result.
Cryptic Rock – Yes, and there is also something to be said for recording live with everyone in one room. When you are together you play off one another and a mood is set.
Kevin Starrs – Yeah, exactly. All the mics pick up all the other instruments, it all bleeds into each other, and it just adds to it.
Cryptic Rock – That is what music is great. We spoke a little about some of your favorite Italian films, but what are some of your favorite Horror films in general?
Kevin Starrs – I really like The Shining (1980); it is probably one of my all-time favorite movies of any genre. It is a Horror, but I suppose it’s more of a Psychological Horror. There’s not a lot of blood and guts, but more about the story and atmosphere. I think that’s sort of a perfect movie, really.
Cryptic Rock – It is certainly a classic. The irony of that is that apparently Stephen King was not entirely happy with Stanley Kubrick’s interpretation of his novel for that film.
Kevin Starrs – If you’ve written something and you’ve got your own ideas in mind, and then somebody just takes it and puts their own spin on it, I can understand why he wouldn’t be happy about it. It’s such a good movie though and Kubrick had done such a good job on it.
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