Northern Exposure is a new column from Jesse Locke, a managing editor at Weird Canada and an all-around good guy. He lives in Toronto, plays roto-toms with Dirty Beaches, and was a jury member for this year’s Polaris competition. Enjoy!
Even if you’ve never spent days on the couch with gramma watching her “stories,” you already know the archetypes of classic daytime soaps. Everyone has a secret lurking just below the surface of their overacted emotions, whether they’re a conniving gold digger, a muscle-bound hero with a haunted past, or a classic doll brought to life by a witch.
Advertisement
These lusty, long form serials are the jumping off point for Bernardino Femminielli. His gnarly whispers bring Gainsbourg’s lechy vocals to mind, but they’re based on baddies from Spanish-language telanovelas he watched as a child. The persona is completed with spine-tingling Giallo soundtrack electronics, Moroder mojo, and the less fashionable touch point of Italian New Wave crooner Franco Battiato.“I’m definitely influenced by the actors from soap shows in the ’70s and ’80s, and I see the same charisma in singers like Battiato and other big stars in Italy,” explains Femminielli. “With the shades they wear, their style or the way they sing, everything is really sensual. At the same time, I’m trying to be the most pure that I can be. When I record and perform, it’s very sincere and at times almost tragic.”He’s laughing when he says that, but there’s a feeling of real pathos in his songs. Despite his hyper-sylized aesthetic—check his white disco suit and all denim outfits onstage—Femminielli isn’t doing this for irony. It’s like Marc Almond’s move from Soft Cell to Coil: serious music you can dance to that’ll probably freak out your roommates.“I love to look good,” Femminielli laughs. “The feeling I try to create with my outfits is always different. A white suit can seem more pure and will attract people easily, but at the same time it’s pretty ugly. I read something about Alan Vega where he said he was always changing costumes as well. Whether it was red leather, white leather or black leather, he was interested in how it effected the crowd’s reaction. Black is the best though, because it’s classic, it’s slick and you don’t look fat!”
Advertisement
Don’t worry if you can’t make out what he’s saying. He’s singing in Spanish and French over that sick deluge of drum machines and robotic bass lines. “The subject of most of my songs is love,” Femminielli says. “They’re like a script, and I’m just telling stories. Sometimes they’re true and sometimes they’re more like fantasy. I try to create an ambience of perversity and decadence around me because I’m really attracted to these things. I don’t mean that I’m out doing weird things in real life, but the idea of them definitely excites me.”At the release show for his recent Carte Blanche Aux Désirs EP, Femminielli brought on fellow electro-popster Jef Barbara to act out a leather fetish S & M encounter on closed circuit camera in real time behind a curtain. Then the hallucinatory, Videodrome-inspired visions beamed through TV screens while the main action took place onstage, bringing the subliminal subject matter to life. Long live the new flesh!“I love that kind of decadent theatre because you don’t see it very often,” Femminielli says with glee. “I do performances in that style to take a risk and often just to see what happens. Sometimes I feel like an outsider in this world of music, and it can actually make me really lonely. I know some people love this kind of thing, but at the same time it can be hard to make them understand what you’re trying to do. It’s always partially improvised as well, so it can go horribly wrong.”“I first started off with Spanish, then learned English when my parents went to Toronto,” he says. “After that I had to learn French when we moved back to Quebec, so my English was completely lost. I was something like four years old at the time. It’s pretty hard to keep track of, and I can only imagine what it must be like for a new immigrant. Now though, after almost 30 years, it’s all good.”Capping off a string of 2011 releases also including his Chauffeur 7” for Fixture Records, this month sees two more cassettes drop from Robert & Leopold and Femminielli’s own label, Los Discos Enfantasmes. To usher in the new year and help present these recordings live, Femminielli has expanded the project to a four-piece featuring members of Red Mass and Léopard et Moi. But all he really needs onstage is a slick suit.
ORIGINAL REPORTING ON EVERYTHING THAT MATTERS IN YOUR INBOX.
By signing up, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy & to receive electronic communications from Vice Media Group, which may include marketing promotions, advertisements and sponsored content.