As their new LP Some Like It Hot is released, the London-based art-pop trio talk about the inspirations behind the record, and spending time in Mexico City
There’s always been something tantalisingly unknowable about Bar Italia. Formed at the tail-end of 2019, the London-based art-pop trio spent their first few years eschewing interviews and cultivating mystique on Dean Blunt and Inga Copeland’s influential imprint World Music. When they joined Pavement and David Byrne over at prestige indie Matador Records four years later, it appeared they were finally ready to play the game. Instead, they released their albums Tracey Denim and The Twits in the space of five months, further obfuscating any definitive version of Bar Italia.
Turns out things are as much of a mystery inside the band. “Very rarely do we ask each other why we wrote something,” explains Rome-born frontwoman Nina Cristante, who shares songwriting and singing duties with guitarists Jezmi Tarik Fehmi and Sam Fenton. “We respect each other’s privacy when it comes to poetry and lyricism, and it creates this conversation for the listener.” Fenton agrees: “We don’t like telling each other what our songs are about because we believe other people’s interpretations are just as valid as our intentions. Plus, I think we all enjoy the mystery.”
As creative processes go, it’s akin to a trust fall, and yet – as their latest LP proves – it’s an approach that continues to bear fruit. With its loose-limbed melodicism and intersecting perspectives symbolising lost connections, Some Like It Hot is another fascinating chapter in the story of the UK’s least predictable band. Written between two sprawling tours, and whittled down from a pool of more than 40 songs, the onus was on creating music that would thrive in a live setting. “The more you play shows, you have a much clearer instinct of what is going to work live,” says Fenton. “You start to realise what elements are causing noise rather than harmony.”
You can hear this increased directness on Fundraiser – an off-kilter anthem powered by choppy, post-punk guitars and snotty vocals – and in the chaotic grunge-pop of Rooster. But they’re as compelling when they drop the pace with a sea-sick waltz like Bad Reputation or the ambling acoustics of the title-track. Speaking of which, you might assume the trio took the name from Billy Wilder’s classic comedy, it being a three-hander about touring musicians. Not so, insists Cristante: “It was purely about the sonics of the sentence.”
What was influential, however, was their decision to work with an engineer for the first time, and to spend a month recording at Panoram Studios in Mexico City. Based in Roma Sur – the neighbourhood immortalised in Alfonso Cuarón’s Oscar-winning feature Roma – they “simulated living a different life for a month”, making new acquaintances and soaking up the atmosphere of the city. “Being there affected us in a way that bled into the music,” Fenton explains. “But it’s not like we heard local music and were like, ‘Oh, we should try making this.’ It was just [that] there’s a really particular feeling to being [in Mexico City], and it overwhelmed all of us separately.”
Cristante continues: “I’ve got this theory that where cities are built defines the energy of that place … Mexico City is built on this really fertile, shapeshifting ground and I think you can feel that when you’re there. There’s a looseness and a freedom and an expansiveness that feels both dangerous and attractive.”
Fenton posits that their instinct-driven approach could also be a by-product of their creative endeavours outside of the band. (Fehmi and Fenton make music under the pseudonym Double Virgo, while Cristante performs mononymously as NINA, recently releasing projects with art-rock auteur Yves Tumor and fellow Roman Orazio Argentero.) “I think subconsciously, we use Bar Italia to express things we don’t express in our other projects and vice versa.”
And music isn’t the only medium for their creativity. In 2024, Cristante made her directorial debut with The Richest Man in Babylon, a short set in the world of ballet, featuring a soundtrack created by Fenton. She hopes it will be the first in a trilogy of films, while Fenton expresses a desire to work with fashion designers in the future.
For now, their focus is on Bar Italia and bringing the songs from Some Like It Hot to life on stage. “We’re playing better together than we ever have before,” Fenton enthuses. “There’s just a different energy.” Cristante continues: “It’s all about taking fleeting encounters and making a moment that only lasts for a minute, last in the mind for an extremely long period of time.” Living in the moment feels like a fitting manifesto for a band who seemingly evolve on a song-by-song basis. As listeners, all we can do is stop and make sense of what’s left behind.
Some Like It Hot by Bar Italia is out now.
