Elettrodomestico is a two-piece band made up of songwriters Jane Wiedlin and Pietro Straccia. Formed in 2016, the band will release their first album, IF YOU’RE A BOY OR A GIRL, in Summer 2017. Jane Wiedlin is best known as guitarist/songwriter of the eighties all-female band The Go-Go’s. Pietro Straccia is a multi-instrumentalist/songwriter who grew up in Detroit and Italy. Their elettro/psyche/pop sound has been compared to bands Metric, The Mamas & The Papas, Abba, The Flaming Lips, The XX and Phantogram.
We had the pleasure of asking Jane and Pietro a few questions for our Goddesses & Ganja issue …
Haight Street Voice: Are you feeling a paradigm shift between male/female?
Jane Wiedlin: Our whole the project, the duo we call Elettrodomestico, was born out of our mutual love of creating and the immediate connection Pietro and I made together when we started writing with each other. We both have always felt rather non-gender-binary. It isn’t something easily categorized, so I just call it being a Queerdo. I’ve always felt part boyish, and Pietro has always embraced the feminine within himself, so we melded very easily together to form our duo.
I love that the world is becoming less binary gender obsessed. There is so much room for a rainbow of colors between black and white/ male and female! And it is so much fun to play in this new playground! I started listening to David Bowie when I was 11, so my mind was shaped/influenced/inspired by him from that very young age.
Now, for Elettrodomestico, Bowie is our Patron Saint. He has been our guiding light throughout the whole process thus far and I don’t see that changing much in the future!
Pietro Straccia: In nature, the feminine and masculine energies seem to be elevated when they interplay and counterbalance each other equally. One without the other creates disharmony. Yin-yang, duh!
Pietro Straccia and Jane Weidlin
HSV: Our magazine is meant as a vehicle for people to voice themselves, speak their mind: what would you like to say to the People? What message would you like me to relay to San Francisco — and the world?
JW: 2017 is the 50th anniversary of the Summer Of Love. San Francisco CHANGED THE WORLD in 1967 and we strongly feel that our town is poised to do the same thing again now. We MUST bring light/love/color to these very dark times we are living in. It is our mission and we hope to inspire others to do the same.
PS: A modern form of rebellion is to be kind to all living things and to put our energies, intentions and creativity towards that which adds good to this world.
HSV: Earth Day, the state of Mother Earth and the World — oy vey. Do you still feel hope in all this mess we’re in? How do you stay positive and strong?
JW: I’ve felt very strongly for a very long time that real change and hope occur on a local level. We must all rise above our depression and battle the Darkness with Light. Start in your neighborhood! Do something to help the Earth! We just cannot succumb to the madnesssurrounding us all!!! CREATE! LOVE! LIVE! DON’T LITTER! 😉
Jane, far right, in her Go-Go days …
PS: Nature will always prevail, so I’m not too worried. I try to avoid politics, division and conflict and instead dedicate as much time as possible to music, friendship and art as a way to counteract whatever madness is happening around us.
HSV: Ganja … what’s your relationship with the magic herb?
JW: I smoked as a teen, then stopped for a very long time. Now I find that I can finally enjoy it again. It is a gift from the Universe and gets me out of my Monkey Mind. As Yoda said, “Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter”.
PS: Only in recent years we have been very close companions. I view introspection and self reflection as a very positive side effect of its widespread use. I can’t believe it took so long for its use to be decriminalized!
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www.elettrodomesticoband.com
