- Man, how you guys doing?
- Amazing. - Good.
- All good. Thanks.
- Man, y'all seem in good spirits.
I know why because you're nominated
and you're making your VMAs debut this year
with a performance, man.
Are you guys stoked for this?
How excited are you?
- So excited.
- Yeah, it's great.
In the mic.
[Laughs]
- I mean, but this is, like, just another day for you
'cause I got to see you guys rock another MTV stage a while ago.
I saw you guys in Budapest at the Europe Music Awards
and y'all shut it down.
I don't know how you gonna top that one.
Like, how do you follow that one up?
- Hard pressure.
[Laughs]
- Yeah. Yeah.
We'll try our best. - We'll try our best.
- When you're approaching a show like this, though,
what goes through your mind?
Especially knowing how iconic your performances are.
- I think that we always try to take things
kind of carefree, and always try to enjoy
like, the thing that we are mostly thinking about
is how amazing it's already being nominated
and being on the stage.
So, we are just gonna give our 100 percent
and hope that people are gonna like it,
but we don't feel like that much pressure.
We're just happy.
- I feel pressure because of my boots.
I have the highest heel I've ever worn in my life,
and I'm so bad at it.
- Yeah, heels.
- How tall are they?
- That's the real pressure.
- How tall are they?
- My boots, very tall.
Yeah, but it's like this thin.
- Yeah, it's super thin.
- I actually, like, about pressure,
I don't feel the pressure actually.
I just have fun with all the things,
the beautiful things that we're doing now,
and yes, here is like a special moment
for every one of us, of course.
And I just can't wait to go on stage and perform.
- Absolutely.
What excites you guys about the VMA stage in particular?
- It's super iconic.
- Yeah, yeah, there's been so many
iconic performance and acts.
So, to be part of it is cool.
- Yeah, also it's always cool in these events
'cause you get to meet a lot of other cool artist,
and thinking of playing
while Nicki Minaj watches you is quite pressuring.
- Nicki fan?
- Of course. - Of course.
- Who's not?
- Right.
- Actually, actually I have a neat thing about Nicki Minaj
because when "Zitti E Buoni"
become kind of viral in TikTok,
someone, I don't know who, but like a genius,
does this thing and put a Nick Minaj flow.
- Mash up.
- Yeah, he did a mash up with rock-ish background
that we did, of course with our song,
put in the melody of Nicki Minaj, the voice.
It sounded just incredible.
I mean, really, really, like pitch part
under a rock-ish background.
[Damiano Singing]
- Oh yeah, the "Monster" verse.
- Yes, exactly.
It sounded great.
- It sounded very great, for real.
- Y'all got a Nicki Minaj collab
without getting a Nicki Minaj collab.
[Laughs]
- Why not. - We hope so.
Hopefully.
- But it makes sense for you guys to be at the VMAs
'cause, as you know, we got iconic VMAs moments,
surprise kisses.
I mean, Britney [Spears] and Madonna kissed,
you guys had surprise kisses on stage. [Laughs]
Do you think that art gives you guys an opportunity
to stand up for the issues that you believe in?
Right, because you guys create some really iconic moments on stage
that are entertaining to us as fans,
but then when you look at the political atmosphere
that you're performing in,
they're statements at the same time.
- Of course, I think, like, having a huge platform,
of course it's useful not only to share the music,
but also to share messages you believe in
and having the chance to be seen
by many young people and everything.
Maybe talk about topics that we think, of course, are wrong
and there needs to be more information about.
It's always useful and can help us, like, talk about
something more serious than just only music, of course.
- I love that.
"Supermodel" is a great example of that, right?
It's a fun record, the video was fun, and it's fun
not because of the topic, 'cause it's a heavy topic
that you guys are broaching at the same time,
but the video was creative, man.
Like, I love the lyricism, I love the storyline,
I love following the story that you're telling
in this music video.
How are you gonna approach the performance
this year with "Supermodel?"
- You'll see. You'll see.
Surprise.
- We can't actually tell. - Just relax.
- I'd say iconic though.
- Yeah, it will be iconic.
- What was the inspiration behind the video?
- We took inspiration from 'Pulp Fiction'
where during all the film,
people are chasing this 24 hours -
- Suitcase.
- Suitcase, and you never know what's inside.
And we kind of thought the same.
We wanted to put this unknown thing inside a bag
and this lady that chased for it,
and we imagine that it's, like, the fame-dom and stardom.
And everybody's chasing it, but they end up dying for it.
So, it's not good. [Laughs]
- What inspired that record?
- We wrote it while we were in L.A.
'cause we spent a lot of months there,
so we got to meet a lot of cool people,
but also we went a bit deeper in this, like, star-system
and we met a lot of people that just were, like, faking it
or pretending to just be famous,
or just focusing on that, you know?
So, we found it a bit sad of course
'cause then it was pretty empty on the inside,
and we wanted to make, like, a light song,
but making fun of it.
- Right. Right.
Any favorite moments from the video?
Moments from being on set?
- I loved when- - The chicken?
- Yeah, no, kitchen.
Not chicken. [Laughs]
Yeah, but I was saying the same.
We shot this scene inside a kitchen with all this fake food,
and the two guys, the two-
- Cooks.
- Cooks were amazed.
They had this crazy, creepy faces and then it was super fun.
- I love that.
I love the video was so trippy.
When you guys are putting together performances
for records like that, that have iconic music videos, right,
to go along with 'em, what's most important for you
on the stage when you're thinking about
how you wanna approach your performances?
- I think we always try to do something
that actually stands out.
We don't want to just go there and perform
because we can do, like, whenever.
And when you get to be on such a stage
and such a huge event, we always try to think
how to make it remarkable.
- Yeah, you guys are nominated for Best Alternative,
but also Best New Artist.
But in a lot of ways, I don't see you guys
as new artists, right?
You're kind of vets, at least in my book. [Laughs]
You've been performance since high school.
I mean, the Eurovision win was big for Italy.
I mean, do you still feel like new artists in some ways,
or do you feel like veterans?
- In U.S.
- Yeah.
- In the U.S.
- Yeah, yeah, I think, like,
even if we've been playing together for quite a long time,
we're still, of course, there's still a lot of people
that are discovering our music now.
so I think that means that we're kinda new.
Like, we still need to go on.
- So, how do you take it to the next level?
I mean, every year there are gonna be new challenges, right?
When will you know, like, OK, we're here, we've arrived?
- Never.
- Never!
- Yeah, no, I think-
- I was about to say the same thing.
- Yeah, I think that actually, like, it's a very healthy thing
to never feel that you arrived
'cause there's not a spot where you can settle and say,
"OK, I did everything I wanted to do."
It's always about working on yourself
and trying to get better and get bigger,
or whatever you wanna do.
But, you can always chase for something new
or something more.
- I mean, we always lived our careers
like every end of something
is just a new beginning of something else.
Basically, this is the concept
we're basing on our way of thinking our work, also
and our lifestyle.
- That's poetic, that's a song lyric right there.
The end of one thing is the beginning of something.
- The poet of the band.
- Right. [Laughs]
- Maybe I could. [Laughs]
- But I mean, I think that's what makes it fun
to be fans of yours because you get to see
your journey, your growth.
I mean, even just visually, if I look at pictures of y'all
from back in the day, the style has changed.
- Don't look at that.
- It's too late, it's too late.
I've been down a rabbit hole.
- That's what happens on the internet.
[Laughs]
- How have you guys grown as artists, as friends,
as family together?
How have you grown throughout the years?
- A lot.
I think, of course, living this crazy experience
has pushed it even closer together,
and especially I think since we've been playing together
since we were, like, 15 years old, we really developed
both our, like, individual personalities,
but also our music taste. And we musically are, like,
based on each other and influencing each other.
So, I think this is only keeping going, like, deeper
and making us even closer the more we go on.
- Yeah, a big part of Maneskin not just the music,
but it's the fashion, right?
You guys have grown and taken risks
musically and with your fashion choices.
I'm thinking about this performance,
I know I gotta wait until Sunday,
but how did you approach the look for this performance?
What went through your mind?
- Same thing as the performance.
We always wanna do something that is remarkable,
but, first of all, I think that the main thing for us
is to feel comfortable and empowered by what we wear.
So we always search for something, look for something
that makes us feel powerful and also matching
with the song of course.
- How do those discussions go though?
Do you have a beef about like -
- Sometimes.
[Laughs]
Not that much.
- No, with clothes, less.
- Yeah.
- Not so much with clothes.
You look like you beg to differ.
- No, no, no.
Sometimes as a family, like, we are family, actually.
So of course, sometimes we have beefs about something,
but it's not a like big deal for us.
I heard low frequencies.
- Yeah, someone's playing.
- So yeah, we just have fun with it.
Of course, clothes can also be a through
to spread and share a message.
So if there is a chance to, we try and also to use
our clothes to spread a message, of course.
- I would say also that we have each one of us,
we have different tastes also in the music, of course,
and also in the clothes.
So we don't fight a lot
for trying the best clothes, you know?
'Cause we have different tastes each one of us.
So, basically, yeah, it's OK I mean.
- You guys, its synergy.
You guys speak the same language, man.
Musically and fashion wise, man.
2021 was of course a big year for you guys.
You released 'Teatro D'ira Vol. 1'.
When can we expect 'Volume 2.'
- Good question.
- That's a good question.
- Yeah, 'cause it was meant to be,
like, in the Eurovision moment,
but then we won Eurovision, so all the schedule changed.
[Laughs]
But now yeah, we worked on a new album.
We have plenty of songs that we can't wait to put out.
- How far along are you on the new album?
How many songs are we talking?
- We're at a very good point.
- Good point.
- A good point, in a good spot.
No spoilers yet.
- No spoilers yet.
OK, when you got spoilers,
you'll come back and holler at me?
- Promise.
- Of course.
- If y'all not, I'm taking a plane trip to Europe
to go make sure it happens, man.
Maneskin, thank you guys for taking the time.
I appreciate this.