Howlin Wuelf Media :: After Hours

Afterhours’ beginnings date back to 1989, when they released their debut EP All the Good Children Go to Hell; this mini album was chosen by the most influential Italian alternative music magazine Mucchio Selvaggio as one of the best 10 records of the 1980s. A year later independent label Vox Pop releases their first full length album During Christine Sleep which receives an ecstatic review in America’s Alternative Press magazine and Afterhours is invited to perform at prestigious music conferences in New York and Berlin.

In 1992 the band issues a second EP, once again “record of the month” for Alternative Press. They’re offered a worldwide deal with Interscope provided they sing in English, but Afterhours decide to focus on building up the alternative rock scene in its native land, and to write and sing exclusively in Italian. The group start booking their own shows, breaking new ground in venues throughout Italy and, helping establish a viable touring circuit for Italian independent groups.

Afterhours puts out their first album entirely sung in their mother-tongue, Germi in 1995. Music critics hail Germi as one of the finest ever examples of homemade Italian rock. A word-of-mouth reputation grows along with attendance at their gigs. Mina, Italy’s best and most celebrated female pop singer acknowledges them by covering their composition "Dentro Marilyn."

In 1997 the group sign a deal with Mescal, Italy’s strongest alternative label, releasing Hai Paura Del Buio? The album shows Afterhours searching for new and non-conventional sounds in rock. Over the course of 19 songs they express a fresh sense of identity in a mix of sensual ballads and hardcore screams, developing a unique writing style that breaks from rock conventions and morphs their mother-tongue into a shockingly novel mode of expression. This becomes a distinctive character of Afterhours music from thereon in. Mucchio Selvaggio included Afterhours Hai Paura Del Buio?" among the best 10 Italian albums of all times.

Meanwhile, Afterhours is involved in several literary and musical events in collaboration with other artists. The singer and guitarist of the band, Manuel Agnelli, starts producing other independent artists, some of the most innovative talents on the Italian peninsula. This includes the debut albums of Cristina Donà, Pitch, La Crus, Marco Parente, Scisma, the top sellers Prozac + and Verdena, and the experimental project Massimo Volume, with whom Manuel shares the stage for several readings and performances.

Their third album, Non è Per Sempre, issued in 1999, earns Afterhours still greater visibility, and, supported by heavy video and radio rotation, reaches the top ten on national sales charts. The band announce 113 headlining gigs in nine months all over Italy, and most of them quickly sell out. Afterhours end that summer tour on the 11th of July, sharing the stage with R.E.M. at Bologna’s major soccer stadium.

In February 2001 a double live album is released. It's called "Siam Tre Piccoli Porcellin" and includes acoustic and electric discs. The following tour will last for 87 gigs with most dates selling out.

Inspired by the incredible growth of the alternative rock audience and of powerful homegrown talent, Agnelli organizes the "Tora! Tora!" festival, a travelling arts circus featuring alternative musicians and visual artists. The overwhelming success of the “Tora! Tora!” tour leads to the festival becoming an annual event thereafter. That November, Italy’s independent record labels name "Tora! Tora!" Event of the Year. Four days later Manuel is named “Best Italian Producer” at the Italian Music Awards.

Afterhours' next album, Quello Che Non C'è, comes out in 2002, going straight to number four in national charts. In the same month, Afterhours share the stage with the American band Mercury Rev in an unforgettable co-headlining tour throughout Italy ending in Milan in front of an audience of 7000 people. At the 2002 Italian Music Awards, they win the award for “Best Lyrics.” Top selling Italian magazine Tutto Musica made the album its Best Italian Album of 2002.

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In February 2004 the band play their first shows Greg Dulli's Twilight Singers, a mini tour of Italy. Later in the year, Agnelli joins Dulli's band on keyboards for their American and European tour. Manuel also co-produces and plays guitar in "Summertime", closing track of the Twilight Singers’ She Loves You covers collections

Another collaboration Agnelli is involved with is Songs With Other Strangers, a creative encounter between a diverse group of unique performers: Manuel joins Marta Collica (Sepiatone), singer/songwriter Cesare Basile, John Parish, Hugo Race (founding member of the Bad Seeds),and Stef Kamil Carlens (co-founder of the Belgian group dEUS and leader of Zita Swoon), Giorgia Poli (Micevice, Scisma) and the drummer/percussionist Jean-Marc Butty (PJ Harvey, Venus). Songs with Other Strangers has evolved into a concert free of conventional line-up restrictions as the six singer/songwriters exchange roles and experiment with the arrangements of songs chosen from their own repertoires and a shifting array of cover versions drawn from writers including Leonard Cohen, Lou Reed, Bob Dylan and Michael Gira. The result is a musical journey through different moods, languages and songwriting approaches that explores the interplay between the various artists’ backgrounds and personal visions and results in a diverse and highly entertaining evening for the large crowds that turned out for their performances. Songs with other Strangers has proven to also be a voyage of discovery for the artists themselves.

Afterhours' subsequent album, Ballate Per Piccole Iene, is produced by Greg Dulli and mixed by Dulli and John Parish. Ballate Per Piccole Iene tells a story of loss and absence. Parish's collaboration with Afterhours follows the work of the English producer with PJ Harvey, Eels, Goldfrapp, Sparklehorse and Giant Sand. The album comes out via Mescal in April 2005 and quickly reaches the #2 slot on Italian sales charts, earning a gold record. The ensuing tour is entirely sold out. Ballads for little hyenas is the English language version of Ballate Per Piccole Iene, created specifically for released in the U.S. and U.K. on One Little Indian.

The collaboration with Dulli leads to Afterhours acting as accompanists for the first ever live show of the Gutter Twins, the duo comprising Greg and Mark Lanegan (Screaming Trees, Queens of The Stone Age) in front of an audience of 8000 people in Rome. Also, Agnelli co-authored two songs on the latest Twilight Singers’ album, Powder Burns, released in April 2006.

Following the release of Ballate Per Piccole Iene, Afterhours undertakes a series of European shows, starting with opening performance at the Eurosonic Festival in Groningen (Netherlands) in January 2006, followed by a 40 days tour with the Twilight Singers in the United States. Once again, Agnelli is the keyboard player for Dulli’s band in the U.S. and European tour. On returning from the second U.S. tour, Afterhours played in a series of selected shows, culminating with the appearance of the 1st of May in Rome, in front of an audience of 700.000 people.

The band signs a new record deal with Universal and the new album, I Milanesi Ammazzano Il Sabato is released in Italy on May 2nd 2008, entering the national sales charts at #3. Part of the record is co-produced by John Parish, appearing also as guest musician along with Greg Dulli, Stef Kamil Carlens, Brian Ritchie (Violent Femmes) and Cesare Malfatti (La Crus/Amout Fou). Meanwhile Virgin releases two top-selling double DVDs detailing the group’s history via documentary and live performance footage.

After a first, sold-out leg of the tour in celebration of I Milanesi Ammazzano Il Sabato, Dario Ciffo is replaced by Rodrigo D’Erasmo on violin and Afterhours flies back to North America, to appear at the North By North East Festival in Toronto and to play at the Mercury Lounge in New York (spending the night of the 2009 Presidential election in Philadelphia and taking part in the spontaneous celebrations on the streets of the City of Brotherly Love that night). Back from America, Afterhours starts a new Italian tour, sharing the stage with Patti Smith at the Traffic Festival in Torino. At the tours conclusion, the band left Universal when the label charged double the price they’d committed to for a deluxe 2 CD release of I Milanesi Ammazzano Il Sabato.

Band members

Manuel Agnellli - vocals, guitars
Giorgio Prette - drums
Giorgio Ciccarelli - guitars
Rodrigo D’Erasmo - violin
Roberto Dell'Era - bass
Enrico Gabrielli - keyboards, sax, bass clarinet, flute

Album releases

Germi (Mescal) 1995
Hai Paura del Buio? (Mescal) 1997
Non è Per Sempre (Mescal) 1999
Siam Tre Piccoli Porcellini, live (Mescal) 2001
Quello che non c’è (Mescal) 2002
Ballate per piccole iene (Mescal) 2005
Ballads for Little Hyenas (One Little Indian/Mescal 2006)
I Milanesi Ammazzano Il Sabato (Universal, May 2008)

http://www.myspace.com/weareafterhours

http://www.afterhours.it/en/