Nero Kane and Samantha Stella are an Italian artist duo whose work explores the dark recesses of the human soul and phenomenal spaces full of melancholy and decadence. Nero Kane, is an artist of unique sensitivity, whose music is a blend of psychedelic folk, raw blues-rock sounds and elements of desert rock from the American West. His songs are personal reflections on death, religion and love, created in a minimalist yet emotive style that recalls the work of the likes of Nick Cave and Johnny Cash.
His musical journey began with his debut album Love In A Dying World, recorded in Los Angeles under the guidance of producer Joe Cardamone. The album was warmly received by critics and Kane’s sonic creation, coupled with his dark and reflective lyrics, gained him recognition in the music community. Collaborating with Samantha Stella, a visual and performance artist, he has created a unique combination of music and experimental film that has been shown in museums and art galleries around the world.
As a versatile visual artist, Samantha Stella combines elements of body art, performance, film and music in her work. Her artistic vision intersects with the work of Nero Kane, creating unique projects at the intersection of contemporary art and music. Her work, characterised by elegance and romantic decadence, has been exhibited in prestigious cultural institutions such as Teatro alla Scala in Milan, the Joyce Theater in New York, and the Ace Museum in Los Angeles.
In this interview, I talk to Samanta Stella and Nero Kane about their collaborative projects, inspirations and creative philosophy. They discuss how they combine their ideas to create works on the border of music, film and visual art, and the importance of their spiritual and artistic journey through different landscapes and eras. We will dive into their artistic world full of mystery, depth and emotion, where sound becomes a medium for reflecting on life, death and the inevitability of fate.
Artur Mieczkowski
Artur Mieczkowski: What were the beginnings of Nero Kane?
Nero Kane: I started this project back in 2017 following my desire to be a solo artist after my previous musical projects in bands where I already was the main author. This was basically a way to be more free and focused just on my songwriting. This was not an easy choice but at the time I felt that this could be the most pratical way to go on. From this point on, everything developed quite quickly. I recorded my first album “Love In A Dying World” in Los Angeles with the producer Joe Cardamone (formerly The Icarus Line and last collaborator of Mark Lanegan under his moniker Skeleton Joe), that was released with the LA art collective American Primitive. Then in 2020, during the pandemic, I released my second album “Tales of Faith and Lunacy” (Nasoni Records), and in 2022 the third chapter called “Of Knowledge and Revelation” (Subsound Records). Since 2018, I started touring in my country, Italy, and abroad in Europe and the UK, in collaboration with my partner Samantha Stella.
Samantha Stella: Nero Kane and I began collaborating with a performance done in 2016 by the two of us entitled “Hell23” that we presented in an art gallery in Milan and at the Italian Cultural Institute in Los Angeles. Then, Nero recorded his debut album in LA, where I neither play nor sing, while I shot an experimental film in the desert landscapes of California mainly for the album’s launch. Nero later asked me to join him – who plays guitar and is the lead vocalist – on the organ/vocal part of the concerts. We started playing tours and we haven’t stopped coming to this day. In the second and third albums I sing, play organ parts, wrote some lyrics. Also, I created the short films and photos for their promotion. Besides clubs and usual music venues, we present our concerts in theaters, museums and churches, as we did in the latest Nero Kane Temples Tour.
A.M.: What were your musical inspirations for your debut album Love In A Dying World?
N.K.: Basically it’s an autobiographical album. The inspirations came from the American desert, its landscapes and atmospheres and also from authors like Cormac McCarthy. Old poems and chants from the Presbyterian Church also contribued to give a sort of religious background that, since then, became more and more evident in my works. The influences of Nick Cave, Johnny Cash, the melancholy of Vincent Gallo, were also important issues. I put together all these things and mixed them in a stripped-down psych folk mood. Really minimal and ethereal like my playing.
A.M.: Your music is often described as melancholic and dark. Where do you draw inspiration from to create such an atmosphere in your work?
N.K.: Again, I have the tendency to write autobiographical songs so everything is really connected to my life. Sometimes I also write stories that are not directly about me, but are somehow a reflection of me. I like to mix these ways of writing. My inspirations come mostly from art, old paintings (check out my Instagram page The Rosary Archives), books, literature, sometimes films. I have a strong connection with dark themes such as Melancholy, Death, Love, Romanticism, Decadence, Poetry, the sense of Infinity of Nature and Beauty over all.
One of my favorite lyrics is from the poem Ode on Grecian Urn by John Keats: “Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all. Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.”
Another one is from the poem Auguries of Innocence by William Blake: “Some are born to endless night”. I think that my influences can be well described with these two lines.
A.M.: What is the significance for you of themes such as death, religion and love that appear in your songs?
N.K.: As a songwriter I think these themes are, and will forever be, the most important ones to investigate our lives. They are the fundamentals of every human being. If you live a life in which feelings and emotions are at the centre, everything moves around them. You can’t stay away from them. Meaning is the meaning of life itself.
A.M.: Samantha, how did the idea of combining Nero Kane music with an experimental film created by you come about?
S.S.: Well, I have always loved the landscape of American deserts and prairies. When the opportunity arose for Nero Kane to record his debut album in Los Angeles with Joe Cardamone, I thought it would be splendid to combine the days in the recording studio with a road trip through California landscapes: a video camera in hand and create material where Nero (and I) were the protagonists. The idea was to film different locations and create ten episodes – one for each song on the album – to form an experimental film. Thus was released the album Love In A Dying World and the film of the same name, which we previewed at the Italian Cultural Institute in Los Angeles and then in Italy at several contemporary art museums and galleries. MTV music television network premièred the first episode. Also, I created new experimental films, mainly shot in old churches and cemeteries, always melted with the American gothic western landscapes, for the following two albums, which were presented in cultural circuits and screened during our sonic and poetry reading Tales of Faith, Lunacy and Revelation based on writings of Medieval female mystics.
A.M.: How important is the visual aspect of your work to you?
N.K.: It is very important because for me there are no boundaries between music, life and art in general. Life is art and art is life, as Oscar Wilde says. That’s how it is, at least in my vision. The aesthetics of my work are as valuable as its sonic legacy. What I represent with my songs is also reflected in the way I live, dress or perform. Even the videos, or artwork, are just a continuum of the music.
A.M.: How was the concept for the second album Tales of Faith and Lunacy born? What did you want to convey to the listeners through this album?
N.K.: I like to conceive my albums as a kind of trilogy in which the transcendent aspects become more and more present. Tales of Faith and Lunacy is a step up from my debut in this ascent. A little further from the desert dust of Love in A Dying World and a little closer to the otherworldly background of the third album Of Knowledge and Revelation. The second album in particular has a strong gothic western vibe. Ghostly ballads and lonesome roads, little prayers, chants of redemption that never comes.
A.M.: What was the recording and production process for the Of Knowledge and Revelation album like? What were the biggest challenges when working on this material?
N.K.: The challenge in all my albums is to find a good way to convey this sense of sadnees and lonesome or death with elegance and a poetic vision. And of course in a personal and original way. The recording process usally is quite fast for the basic traks such as guitars or vocals, but there is a lot of work on the arrangements. A lot of “post production” if we can call it like that. In “Of Knowledge and Revelation” this part had a strong role, more than in the previous records. This because I wanted to create an “otherworldy background” in which the songs would move. And because my songs are basically composed using loops or a few minor chords that go on and on in a kind of mantra, like a psychedelic drone, there is a lot of work of layering of sound that can give to the main riff a dynamic, a crescendo. This is not so easy without using drums or beats. All the arrangemets are mostly conceived as a soundtrack, with a more experimental attitude. This part has been well curated by Matt Bordin of Outside Inside Studio, who is also the producer of my last two albums.
A.M.: What is the significance for you of the ancient paintings and writings that inspired your third album?
N.K.: Ancient paintings give me a lot of emotions. They can open a new world, they go beyond life to fall into eternity. Grief, beauty, peace, transcendence, spirituality, lasciviousness and more. Everything can be found in the paintings. In this case, during the writing process of my latest album I was in a strong “Hieronymus Bosch” period. This extraordinary and unique artist is so fascinating and one painting in particular, The Ascent of The Blessed (made between 1505 and 1515, it is part of a polyptych of four panels entitled Visions of the Hereafter, and depicts angels helping human souls towards heaven), was the main inspiration for the song The End, The Beginning, The Eternal. The song Lacrimi și Sfinți (Tears and Saints in English) was inspired by philosopher Emil Cioran’s work of the same title. The engravings for Dante’s Divine Comedy by Gustave Doré were also a strong inspiration The significance of all these amazing works contributed to my personal narrative and vision of a kind of Limbo in which souls are forced to live in a timeless scenario, waiting for salvation, for the final and eternal light.
A.M.: Are there any particular films, books or artists that have particularly influenced your work?
N.K.: Nick Cave, Swans, Nico, Mark Lanegan, Johnny Cash, Townes Van Zandt, Neil Young, The Stooges, PJ Harvey, Jozef Van Wissem, blues in general, can be quoted as my musical background. Dostoevskij, Puškin, Leopardi, Goethe, D’annunzio, Cormac McCarthy, Thomas Bernhard, John Williams are among my favorite writers. Luchino Visconti, David Lynch, Jim Jarmusch, Béla Tarr for films. Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and Italian Renaissance for art.
S.S.: Swans, Nico, Nick Cave, Joy Division, PJ Harvey, Lingua Ignota and Father Murphy are some of my favorite musicians. The Funeral March of Frédéric Chopin, the paintings of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, the genius of David Lynch and the grace of George Balanchine are among my aesthetic influences. Many say my vocal timbre is reminescent of Nico – “the priestess of darkness” – that I found a great compliment because she is my favorite female artist. Also, with Nero Kane I had the honor of supporting great experimental dark musicians like Jozef Van Wissem, Zola Jesus, Darkher and Jonathan Hulten among others, who I sincerly admire.
A.M.: Your music is often compared to the style of Nick Cave and Johnny Cash. What is your opinion on these comparisons?
N.K.: As said, they are obviously an influence, so I like to be compared to something I admire. Other than that, I’m not really interested in being categorized into something. I just try to make my own music in the most personal way without being too tied to the style of something or someone.
A.M.: Samantha, your work as a visual artist, performer, set and costume designer and also as a musician encompasses many different forms of artistic expression. How do you manage to combine all these disciplines in your projects?
S.S.: My studies in contemporary dance and dance-theater inevitably led me first to performance art, then to visual art – photos, videos, and installations – where I was the protagonist, then to the directon of other bodies. Later to set&costume design, to the use of voice, music, reading and writing. I believe in a Wagnerian conception of Art and see no difference between different artistic languages which often overlap in my conception. I simply use, and combine, what I find most appropriate from time to time to express my visions and beliefs. It is honestly all very natural in me, it is the only life I know and I want.
A.M.: What was your experience of founding the duo Corpicrudi and the subsequent transition to a solo career? What were the main differences in creative work in these two stages of your career?
S.S.: I’ve founded the visual artist duo Corpicrudi – literally “row bodies”- in Genoa (Italy) with Sergio Frazzingaro. With a language hybridized between performance, photography, video, installations and music, since 2005 we created projects with a subtle combination between the Apollonian and the Dionysian, good and evil. In more than ten years we presented our works in art galleries, museums, castles, churches and international theaters. We made numerous collaborations with artists from different fields, the most fertile with choreographer Matteo Levaggi which is still in place today with me. In 2015 Sergio decided to devote himself exclusively to his career as an electronic music producer (My Flower), and I continued my journey by directly signing the projects with my artistic name, Samantha Stella. The starting point was the collaboration with a famous Italian art critic, Francesca Alfano Miglietti. Obviously in the creative process with another person you have to consider first of all the comparison with him, while when you work alone you have, let’s say, more creative freedom. Honestly I love both creative approaches.
A.M.: You have collaborated with many renowned artistic institutions around the world, such as Teatro alla Scala in Milan and the Joyce Theater in New York. What meaning do these collaborations have for you and how do they influence your work?
S.S.: I am deeply grateful to have had the opportunity and the honor to present my projects on important stages, and this thanks also to the collaboration with choreographer Matteo Levaggi that began in 2007 at the time of Corpicrudi and with whom in 2019 we founded the duo “Matteo Stella Dance Arts”. The Joyce Theater in New York in 2009 was my first real international showcase as a set & costume designer. Teatro alla Scala in Milan is one of the most important theaters in the world. In 2023, fourteen years since the New York debut, a matured artistic and personal awareness has allowed Matteo and myself to propose an absolute new language for a traditional theater like La Scala: contemporary art on stage, used as a kind of museum, adding a conceptual meaning to the ballet. This year we started with Matteo a new project at the New York University – Tisch School of the Arts: Vox Poetica we’ll see the light in an Italian theater in early 2025 featuring music by Frédéric Chopin and Nero Kane.
A.M.: Your artistic work is often described as poetic, romantic and melancholic. What emotions and ideas do you try to convey through your works and what meaning do you attach to the symbolism of the body in art?
S.S.: It is a very deep question. The themes and interests that permeate my works are basically the same, both as Corpicrudi, as Samantha Stella, with Matteo Stella Dance Arts, with Nero Kane: Eternity and Caducity, Good and Evil, Beauty, Faith, Poetry, Grace, Death. It is all about Death. Which in my eyes is White. For me Art is seeking contact with the eternal. The visual aspect is fundamental, every detail is not casualness but symbolism. I do often use the aesthetics of our Catholic religion as a symbol that allows me to investigate such issues (exactly as Nero Kane does). Some critics have defined this as a form of laic religion. The body is also a symbolic element: the bodies I propose in my installations and performances are often immobile, crystallized bodies, which bring me back to eternity, just like the ancient Greek and Roman statues. I draw a lot from the world of these ancient gods. I also describe them in the lyrics of the song The Pale Kingdom in Nero Kane’s latest album.
A.M.: What are your plans for the future as Nero Kane? Are you already working on new musical material?
N.K.: Yes, last July we went back at Outside Inside Studio near Venice to record my fourth album. All the songs have been tracked and now we are starting to work on the arrangements. I think this album will be less produced than my last one. I would like to find the true essence of the songs with just a few beautiful sounds. Like little touches of color here and there. We are also planning new shows. Last May we ended in Helsinki our latest tour – called “Temples Tour” because we played mostly in ancient churches in Europe and the UK – and now we have something scheduled starting from this fall and new festivals for 2025. You can keep updated on my socials and my website: nerokane.com
A.M.: Thank you for the interview and good luck with your plans.
N.K.: Thank you and all the best to you.
S.S.: Thank you so much for the invitation, really hope to come and play with Nero Kane in Poland soon (never been there!)