We recently connected with Franco Zizza and have shared our conversation below.
Franco, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Do you wish you had waited to pursue your creative career or do you wish you had started sooner?
I wish I did start music at an earlier age. Music wasn’t on my radar as a younger person. I gradually fell into playing and writing songs due to being surrounded by musicians. I didn’t properly join/form a band until I was 22 years old. Most musicians are in this field starting at a young age which I feel gives an advantage to understanding the creative and business side. Also developing your skill as a musician on your instrument at a younger age gives you more time to become more than an average player. Obviously, it all comes down to passion and how much you put into it. I always feel like I am playing catch up within the world itself but luckily paving your own niche and not being in the machinery of the mainstream music world has its blessings too. Working hard and putting in the time definitely improves any chance of achievement .From the start it has been an uphill battle of learning the instrument, songwriting and the business side. But the sun always rises the next day and you can continue your path the way you envisioned especially in the days of today society. The progress shows and it’s a slow and steady race that I am willing to see the end of.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I got into the music industry right after getting out of film school around 2010. I went to NYFA and Montclair State University (NJ) for film, thinking I was going to become a director or editor. After going through the ropes of making films, it started to lose its shine. At the same time I was playing and writing music and had a band called SnakeHeart. What started to become apparent to me was that it takes many people to make a film but 1 person can write a song. As that thought kept popping into my head while going through the long hours, shoots,travel, music seemed like a more instant process. I am grateful for all I learned from film school as I employ all those techniques today in editing, directing videos for the band. Once I went the music route, film took a backseat and music completely took over my life. The band I was in changed to a different direction and we formed what would become Handsome Karnivore. That band started in 2012 and we are still kicking today! We currently are working on our 4th record! After 11 years of being in this band and consistently working towards achieving our goals, we slowly are hitting our mark. After releasing the first record in New Jersey we decided to move across the states to California. This was no easy task and I can see why so many people don’t continue or pack it up after a certain amount of time. We believe musicians do not retire, they die with the next song about to spring from the creative well! It’s been very challenging and inspiring living in LA for 10 years and playing all the venues we grew up hearing about, releasing music videos and meeting a ton of incredible bands and people along the way. One of our main objectives is leaving a discography of music to follow the path and trajectory of our journey. I believe the energy we put out at live shows that comes from our soul and it some how transmutes the audience to a higher state of energy. There are no pyrotechnics nor us doing stage moves, it’s just the musicians as a collective unit playing what comes from the heart. What separates us from other bands is that this is a collective of the creative arts. We do music, film, art, poetry and more! Inspired by the classics of film,music and the esoteric side of philosophy and life. We try to merge the madness with the sanity and create a harmonic and melodic resonance that hopefully connects with other like minded people. We aren’t doing this for monetary gain nor fame, it’s more like being a force that won’t go away and has to be dealt with. 2 things that have motivated me in thought, is I heard Lemmy from Motorhead say in an interview to be in band that always plays shows and releases albums, be like a fungus that never goes away. I heard also from Ville Valo (VV/HIM) in a interview that you shouldn’t try to be current with the ever changing music scene. By the time you have released the song, the climate has changed. I find these sayings very helpful in such a wild landscape of technology that we live in now a days. We didn’t grow up with easy access internet or social media and we have always looked to the past for inspiration. I think our greatest asset is that we are stubborn yet open minded which leads us to continue while constantly growing and changing each aeon. Every album and period of this band has fresh blood and a new creative direction. Many people have moved on, bands have broken up, venues have closed down and the times are always a changing but we continue in the face of the laughing jester just to see how close we can get to the contagious laughter.
Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?
There are many influences especially when it comes to books and resources. Nothing beats the truth of a physical book in your hand. Its not like the internet where you can’t trust the source. I read everyday and here are some interesting books I’ve come across that first come to mind. The first revelation that lead me towards a more esoteric understanding of the world was Manly P Hall’s “The Secret Teachings of All Ages”. Anything to do with Edgar Allan Poe, especially his collected works that has everything he has done. One of my favorite authors is Charles Bukowski, so anything by him, a good place to start is a novel called “Women”. I just got done with his one of his poetry books with a fantastic title called “Burning in water and drowning in flame”. I love rock bios and one that blurred the line between a magic grimoire and a rock bio was by Killing Jokes mad jester Jaz Coleman called “Letters from Cythera”. In an understanding of magick, Israel Regardie’s “The Tree of Life”. For meditation, Alan Watts “Still the Mind”. For a mix of poetry,mystery, and magic, the polarizing figure of Aleister Crowley has a cool book called “Konx Om Pax”. For a great understanding of human anthropology, traditions, superstitious beliefs, and magic, George Frazers “The Golden Bough”. This can go on and on so I’ll leave these here for anyone interested.
What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?
I believe society could do better in general accepting the arts. People love music, film, books and more and these fields aren’t easy to be in. One, no one wants to pay for anything because the society we live in gives it away for free. How do you place value on what you think is great art while consumers want it for free? Now this isn’t everyone, there are incredible patrons that support the arts and we need more people in this category. When streaming services pay nothing and venues want a pay to play policy, how does an artist even have the money to support himself while investing in their art? There are so many incredible artist in all fields everywhere that no one knows about and the ones we do know about don’t make it any better. It seems talent has nothing to do making art anymore when it comes to the mainstream. From the noise that comes out of the radio and the light that shines from a tv screen, lack of originality and constant remakes, most top professionals have more money than talent and it shows in their art. If you wanna support an artist, go to their shows, buy their merchandise and spread the word by mouth and share. People can follow and like your social media all day but that doesn’t translate to people going to shows . Also, when these digital platforms change and die out then what will people look to? I still believe one live show can change everything! It’s something within the energy exchange and the ancient power of the vibrations that come from the music, you can’t get that from a computer or phone screen.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://linktr.ee/HandsomeKarnivore
- Instagram: @handsome_karnivore
- Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/HandsomeKarnivore
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@handsomekarnivore
- Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/7iAmIC0J779k9JMendF8eg?si=1kaSku78RLez6GdqUIebBw
Image Credits
1&7 – Lori Hutcherson @lorileaphoto 2,3,4,5,6 – Don Marcelo @marcdphotos 8 – Edson @luckyshot_photos