By Keith Walsh
Punk rock’s roots in classic American rock and roll are transparently present on the eponymous album by Italian rock quartet King Size. If you imagine that vintage rock filtered through blazing, distorted rock guitars by way of Italy could be a spectacularly badass phenomenon with universal appeal, you’d be one hundred percent correct.

The melodic, aggressive vibe of King Size was earned through the sweat and toil of live performance, and though ‘King Size’ is their fourth release, it’s as fresh as the early rock and roll they built their sound on. The members of King Size – Enrico Dal Pozzo (guitar/vocals) Guido Dal Pozzo (bass/vocals)  Nicola Gubernale, (guitar/percussion/vocals) and Francesco Zanio (drums/percussion/vocals) – were collectively gracious in giving replies to my questions.

(My review of King Size by King Size is at PopularCultureBeat.com)

Punk Rock Beat: The sounds of King Size range from vintage rock, a la Chuck Berry, to proto punk, and grunge but you don’t limit yourselves, as I hear occasional Beatles-que, and also country music chord changes, harmonies and textures, and guitar sounds from loud and abrasive to moody and quiet. Which of these sound feels more natural, comes more easily? Is there any style you won’t touch?

King Size: To answer your question; the most natural sound is probably summarized in ‘Rolla’, our opening track that sounds exactly like we are, sweat heart and rock’n’roll. We have been influenced mainly from classic rock n roll such as the early Beatles. They used to play live for hours and hours some old rough, ass-shaking tunes. Pretty much as we started as a band. Now, basically we just play what we feel and like. Even if as individuals we all have a quite widespread personal music taste. We won’t probably touch any Jazz-esque style as we just are not good enough. 

Punk Rock Beat:  What are some of your earliest memories hearing classic American rock and roll from the 1950s? Do you agree that’s a strong influence?

King Size: That’s definitely a huge influence. To give you an idea, as a band we have been hooked by the natural almost ‘casual’ way Chuck Berry approached its music and the way he played. Also our parents exposed us every day to that kind of 50’s 60s music, we can still hear some classic timeless tunes in our head; it was natural, and embedded into our souls. In a way we are still listening to that music because it’s still relevant even in 2023.

Punk Rock Beat: With “Making No Sound” you created a gorgeous ballad. Would you consider doing an entire album of such commercial tunes, hoping to get tons of radio play? 

King Size: Did we really? Thanks! In writing ‘Making No Sound’ and more generally the whole album, we didn’t pay much attention to a specific genre or kneeling towards a music style. We didn’t think about the ‘radio-affect’ potential of the songs. We just followed the flow of inspiration. In a nutshell; as we always did,  we favoured instinct over rationality. ‘Making No Sound’ came after a nearly obsessive listening of George Harrison’s album All Things Must Pass. Whether or not we will make a whole record of commercial tunes really depends on future inspirations, our mood and feels.  

Punk Rock Beat: When you guys play hard, the guitar sounds are razor sharp. What’s your guitar gear and amp setup? How about favourite pedals, for the hard stuff and also for the moodier sounds? 

King Size: Thank you, we consider being razor-sharp a huge compliment. This is exactly what we wanted to achieve with this album. So we are going technical here; in the pre-production stages, we used a native Logic setting for guitars that we really loved and set the ‘sound’ of the whole album. In the studio, along with our friend and producer Davide Dall Acqua (he’s been amazing) we just replicated that germinal sound. Mainly we use vintage instruments like Fender and Rickenbacker, this is dressed with a varied effects and pedals; from ‘boutique’ effects to cheap homemade stuff. 

Punk Rock Beat: I bet King Size is dialed up 200 percent for your live shows. Please tell me what that experience is like? 

King Size: Playing on stage, particularly because our music style is the heart and steam that drives the band, it is all about energy and fun, it’s about not taking yourself too seriously but rather play with the audience and not for the audience. Every gig traditionally ends with a lot of people dancing and jumping around. So normally it gets pretty loud!

Punk Rock Beat: What are some of your favorite experiences about making music in a band? What are some of the worst? 

King Size: We believe in friendship; that’s what probably kept us together for more than 20 years now. 

At the end of the day it’s about sharing ideas (actually sometimes arguing)  is what proved to be right for us. Our new album has been partially written on-remote, because we are not living in the same area and that wasn’t a walk in the park.. Someone lives in Venice Italy and someone in London UK so we had to come up with a pretty solid plan to make it happen. To be honest with you;  this time some songs have been written individually and then arranged as a group. However, when we have the chance to rehearse together and come up with two or three new songs then each session is priceless. Then when it comes to recording it’s all about having some fun, it’s basically working hard partying hard!. 

Punk Rock Beat: When was the band formed and how did you meet each other?

King Size: King Size formed in 2002 by Nicola and Enrico as they were schoolmates and that’s how almost every band started, then Guido (Enrico’s older brother) joined along with Frank on the drums in 2003. Then very little changed since, which in a way is quite impressive. 

Punk Rock Beat: Where’s the best place to stream all your releases? 

King Size: We would recommend our Spotify channel, also King Size are on a few playlist and the whole platform works really well. Do not forget YouTube as we just published our new video ‘Making No Sound’. However if you really want to experience the real King Size sound you definitely should buy the limited 200 copies vinyl LP record available on Bandcamp. There our sound comes through strong and sharp as we like it. You can also stay in touch via the Instagram account.

King Size on Spotify
King Size on Bandcamp
King Size on YouTube
King Size on Instagram
King Size On Facebook
‘King Size’ Album Review On Popular Culture Beat dot com
King Size Link Tree

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