HANA B
Hana B are an indie rock band that formed in Italy in 2002. The band currently lives permanently in London, UK.
Early years
December 2002 marks the beginning of a new adventure for a bunch of italian schoolmates who decided to play their own music.
The name HANA B derives from their fascination of Japanese director Takeshi Kitano's most famous movie with the similar name Hana-Bi. In this masterpiece, the band recognized the same poetic expressionism that was prominent in their own music: the clash between harmony and rage, between sweetness and violence, all in the same breathe.
During several years, the band played at all major Italian festivals and won awards for the original and international sound that characterizes their music. In one of these gigs they met Operà Music management, who, fascinated by their music, decided to start a collaboration that lasts until now. In 2006 HANA B also won the prestigious MEI Best Indie Rock Italian Revelation of the year award. MEI is the most important meeting of all indipendent labels in Italy.
London
In the beginning of 2007, the guys decided to record new material in London’s Dairy Studios, with Producer James Loughrey (Hope of the States, My Vitriol, Razorlight, Dave Gahan, Page & Plant, Queen). It was a great collaboration with James as he immediately captured the mood of the band, and in coming months they started the pre-production of the album with him.
In this period they got acquainted with Davide Rossi (Coldplay, The Verve, Goldfrapp, Siouxie Sioux, Royksopp, Fripp), an Italian string performer and producer who arranged all strings in Coldplay’s award winning album Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends. This brought a new dynamic to the sound and the team was finally ready to record their first English spoken album. In the same year the lads decided to reside permanently in London to be closer to the renowned music scene. In this period they started a tour in many clubs and festivals all around the UK, from London to Manchester, from Liverpool to Leeds.
Ruins'Hotel
They began the production of the album at the famous Olympic Studios in London and laid some of the instrumental tracks at Britannia Row Studios. In these studios they met Nick McCabe, guitarist from Verve, that was editing the album Forth in the upstairs room. This was the beginning of the Davide Rossi and Nick McCabe's parallel project called Black Ships. Sam Herlihy, former singer of Hope of the States, at the present time The Northwestern, was involved in the recording sessions, as he sang on the track Mesmerized.
The end of the recording sessions saw HANA B crossing the ocean to mix the album in New York’s [...] Room Studios with James Loughrey and mastering was done at Sterling Sound, by Greg Calbi (Interpol, Blonde Redhead, Bruce Springsteen, Sonic Youth, MGMT).
Ruins'Hotel is released the 8th of March 2010 by Summer Dawn - Ishtar all over Europe and is distribuited in Uk by Rough Trade. Artwork is made by artist Joe Hollick (Starsailor, Beggars) and pictures by photographer Mark Henderson.
Band members
- Fab Vitale - vocals
- Alex Ciani - guitars
- Federico Ciani - keyboards
- Francesco Menegat - bass
- Valerio Morrone - drums
Discography
- 2006 – Camera Oscura (Operà Music - Venus)
- 2010 – Ruins'Hotel (Summer Dawn - Ishtar)