Dolcevita Brothers | Interview with Lyndsey Parker (LPTV)

Hi there. This is Lindsay Parker at Lucris Pizza for LPTV. Today I'm an honorary Dolce Vita sister, but we have the Dolce Vita brothers here. We have Mr. Ciao. Ciao to you.

Ciao.

Well, not ciao. That means goodbye. Hello.

Well, chiao means both.

Okay. To you.

We can say that later as well, and we'll be okay. I will understand when we get

and ciao to you, Don.

Yes. Hello. Ciao.

Deon.

It's so wonderful to have you arrived in style. I have to say we've had some pretty spectacular events happen during my time here at the store,

but I don't think anyone's made as rockstar worthy an arrival as you guys did. You literally arrived in a Rolls-Royce. I was tempted to have the white snake rolling on the hood moment.

I refrained, but I did get my photo op. But is that just like, no pun intended, is that how you Well, actually, pun intended. Is that how you roll?

We roll with [laughter] the roll. Yes, that's the rolls. It's uh it's the funniest car because uh I mean it's cheaper than a used Prius.

Yeah.

But it looks like the craziest thing ever. We call it the Spritz Tura car.

It is.

Uh because it's kind of iron we drive vehicles ironically only. We don't drive vehicles literally. Uh

we only sort of with

everything ironically nothing literally or or seriously ever.

Right.

Yeah.

With a with a little sex appeal.

That's correct. Maybe a little sprinkle.

Only a little.

Yeah. Don't sell yourself. I think so. Yeah, just a little bit.

You do have a song called Well, it's an acronym.

Well, because uh I don't have as many uh kids hold uh

DIM YTF

Y WTF

YWTF.

Um if you know, if uh our, you know, nephews and niece and daughters hold the vinyls, we don't want them to see the full title of the song.

It's very thoughtful of you.

Thanks. [laughter] You're responsible. What if they listen to the song though?

Is there a clean version of

the song is marked explicit so if you have your

There will be you know parent

there will be if we need to be

we can make a version

doesn't make you want to own

responsibly kids

yeah exactly just be careful

we are here with you guys to celebrate the release of I hope I say it right is it spreza

that's right

all right those Italian classes paid off

and do you could you tell everybody what spreatur means that effortless uh charm that to show in everything you do in life and you make everything look easy uh even the toughest uh tasks and um the

French call it let's not talk about the French people I'm joking we love everybody we love everybody but it's an Italian term that comes from like the middle ages it's old and by the way no one uses this in Italy uh it's more used in America than in Italy in fact it's funny when I showed the album to Italian friends they were like oh spata which literally means trash. [laughter] I was like, "No, no, no. That's very far from the concept of spat, although it sounds pretty close. Spritzatura." Um, but yeah, so it makes everything, you know, it's it's a lifestyle like you choose to live by the the the idea of spritzatura with everything you do. You make everything feel a little bit more easy and you don't care that much.

You fly a private jet while eating KFC.

Yeah. That's Julio Glazia's famous imageries. Yeah, exactly. That's Presura in a tank top. Uh,

but you're Italian. Wouldn't you have something else instead of KFC?

Well, we um

I'm I'm going to pretend you guys are Italian. At least that's your

Well, we're now is he's Italian because now we're brother. We We realize we're half brother. So,

which you find out in the album.

Yeah, exactly. There's a whole origin story, but

I want to hear the story because you guys are are men of mystery, elegance and style, but also mystery in the sense that when I have done a bit of research for this interview, there's not a lot of information about your origin story. And it's like, are they brothers? Are they Italian?

Well,

is that their Rolls-Royce? We don't know.

No one knows.

We were both looking for our father and we found ourselves at the Rainbow Room.

Yeah.

The one on the Sunset Strip.

On the Sunset Strip. And neither one of us knew our father and we found out that he had slept with both of our moms that same night

and then we found out

together that we had a brother.

Yeah. And um one of those like double uterus like freak pregnancy things. That is a thing.

It's a magical thing. It's a magical thing. And so our father is famous Italian it Italo singer Jppy and Jeppy which by the way long gone. I guess he passed. That's all right. We never met him so it's all right. It's okay. Um I'm

sure he would be very proud of you.

But uh he gave us the gift of uh Italis

and allowed us to take this adventure.

Spread.

Yeah. Spitzer is is just uh

it comes from our half father our full father half.

Yeah.

Um

in fact Dolce Vita most people think means sweet life but when it's together as one word it means

turtleneck.

Turtleneck.

It's true. So, we are the Turtleneck Brothers,

but also the Sweet Life Brothers.

There's a story on your album that's all about this. You had a photo, The only thing you had of your parents was a photo of them in a hot tub.

So, how did you find that?

Well, that is the album cover from Jeffy and Jeffy called Body to Body. And only on the vinyl is present the cover of that song from our father Body to Body.

Uh the reason is uh legal. we couldn't really upload it because no one exists anymore that can deal with that uh licensing and IPs and rights. So, we could only put it on the vinyl for, you know, local use.

Yeah.

And um personal use, how do you say, like not mass-produced production. And um on the vinyl only, the last track is both of us singing with our longgone father. It's kind of emotional if you if you're invested into this magical journey. Uh and you get to the end of this insane story.

Uh you get rewarded with this beautiful song called Bodyto Body. You can listen to the original version.

It's one of those songs where you're like, why wasn't this in disco in America?

Yeah. Like

it didn't cross over, but it is fantastic.

It's fantastic. Like you're, you know, when you listen to Donna Summer, I feel love by Georgia Marauder and Donna Summer and you feel like this is can go on for 72 minutes and I'll still dance the whole time. It's that kind of song.

Yeah.

So, so

we're honored to be

Is this Absolutely. Um, what do you think he would have thought of it this version?

Um, well, uh, I hope he doesn't sue us.

Uh, first of all,

I thought you said he was gone.

Well, there is four older Italian men somewhere that own it and we cannot get hold of them. Yeah, they never got back at us. But don't worry about it. They're not gonna find us.

No, I mean, you don't worry about anything from your attitude.

We'll worry later. In fact, if that happens, great. We'll we'll just

Yeah, I'll just make it more exciting.

Prophet all publicity is good publicity. They say that's correct.

Is this a concept album like because it ends with this journey? And if so, what is the concept?

Espura is the meaning. In fact, if you listen to the beginning Yeah. If you begin, if you listen from the first song, which is not a song, it's an intro. a typical human. It's only 90 second and you received the phone call. It's think like Matrix meets Plato's cave and you get uh you get left a voicemail message by Donosera revealing you that the secret of happiness and the secret of life and everything else is not 42 like those.

Um,

so you said that you were talking about that particular song, that last song and how body to body and how it should have been a hit here. It didn't cross over. But in general, I mean, am I pronouncing I always said Italo disco. Am I saying it wrong?

I think so. I've been saying it wrong my whole life also, so it doesn't matter.

I defer to your authority on this.

I thought I was saying Ital, but that's was ital Ital sounds good. however you

pronounce it. I don't think in general it's I mean it definitely has a cult following here and there's like an amazing um documentary that maybe some people have you ever seen a documentary called the dawn of disco? It's about some stuff. You should watch it. It's pretty great.

I better

It's like a Millie Vanilli style story about star from that era. But it's super like most people don't know what that is in America. I wonder

I'll watch it tonight right after. I'll watch it while we're performing.

I'll just cue it up.

I'll put it on a D. It's pretty fascinating cuz like a lot of people don't know about this whole like genre, this whole phenomenon which obviously inspires

you fast. It was only

well tell the people watching like what is it? What was it? Cuz it's it's a real Italian take on disco and somehow with the heavy use of some unique synthetizer that some of them are only made in in Italy. They were made in Italy at the time. Um, they created this very very recognizable sound uh with arpeggiators and uh very simple shapes of uh synthetizer sounds and it's been just so

remarkably late7s in intro in the 80s.

Yeah, cuz it's what

and then it just disappeared.

It's what inspired daff punk.

That's right. I was about to say that cuz you mentioned

sampled a lot of those.

Giorgio Maroder obviously like who is the Donna Disco in Italian and he had kind of a little bit of a revival when he was on uh what turned out to be the last DA punk record. Uh Random Mattress Memories he's actually on it.

Um are you big D punk fans? Cuz I mean we could just put the helmet the robot helmets on you and just pretend you're Da Punk. No one would know.

We could do that. We could put like a fedora. I don't know like a fedora helmet.

Um we can do an Italian take on that one. So there's a song called I feel Giorgio and that's our tribute homage love letter if you want to call it that way to to Georgia Marauder because and Donna Samber a little bit and we kind of try to recreate that that sound of I feel love and that yeah that essence of Georgia Marauder

and the final song it's the simplicity of the the lyrics of I feel love there's almost it's just a feeling right it's just a feeling but the feeling is not love the feeling is Georgia

you know if he's heard it or have you tried had to get it to him. I bet he would be

Tim. We're going to send it to him.

Yeah. Tim, our producer, he he's

they're connected. I'm sure it will be hopefully not a lawsuit. We're getting lost [laughter] by everybody.

We're going to get sued everywhere.

Are you Would you guys do movie stuff? Cuz I mean besides being the king of disco, I mean, Giorgio Maro is the king of 70s and 80s soundtracks. I think if people don't know who he is, I always am shocked when people don't know who he is, but maybe he's not a household name, but when I go, he did all of these songs. He did Never Story, Flash Dance, Scarface,

American jigalo.

People, you know, all these like, you know, Donna Summer songs like people lose their minds that he did all that stuff.

Yeah.

He's a mysterious man as well.

I found myself in his 80s birthday randomly a few years ago and I cried, I think, when he started playing and dancing. He, you know, 80 years old and he was just like the Rolling Stones, you know, you're just that guy's going to live forever hopefully.

You got to get into the movies. You got to get into the pictures.

The pictures. What a what a cinema. I think George's are out of

I want to uh I feel like this could be a TV show for sure. Like

well the idea it's potentially to expand into like a whole universe a cinematic universe. The spritza cinematic universe the s cu the s sure

yeah sure

like a variety show or like a between I there's sort of between two ferns vibe sitting on this

faded olive couch right now. The way I saw it was similar to the Tenacious D HBO show where there's this story line and then they do some music and then kind of go through there.

But it's also just an excuse to uh make you dance and feel good and forget about the the atrocities and and complexities of modern life.

I travel back to back in time where technology was just a a little little thing on the side just to to help you on your daily life. now like taking over your full spectrum all aspects of life. So that's that's the intent of the the album is to just you know make you time travel a little bit a few decades back.

Do you use those kind of synthesizers and stuff from that era in your music? Tell me about that. We're synthetizer enthusiasts.

Uh RPG synthetizer where with original effects and some some things are not out

yet that we are, you know, still working on like the the the what do you call the talk box that you put that pipe in your mouth and you're the D punk uses that a lot. Um playing a little bit with that but some things are not out yet. So, we're working constantly working on we have other 30 songs that they're not even finished obviously, but uh yeah, it's fun to experiment with that because it's it's so simple yet so potentially complex. You can develop that to infinity. So, you never you're able to never repeat the sound if you want to uh and make your own fingerprint with the synthesizer. That's my

No, I like that.

Do you have a lot of vintage gear? Are you gear nerds?

Well, I used to uh be in a Genesis tribute band back in Italy 20 years ago and and Pink Floyd at the time and my keyboardist. I wasn't

Which era of Genesis?

Uh 197 Phil Collins era. No jacket required. Although you are

we stopped at 1983 because after that we were like we don't like you.

No,

we love you until 1983.

So does that mean you I didn't cover

Gabriel and and

Genesis purist?

Yeah. Yeah.

You didn't cover illegal alien. I hope that's kind of like

I don't even know what you're talking about that

that was post 83 I believe.

I don't even know what you're saying. What are those words? No. So my keyboardist was a collector of vintage keyboard keyboards and synthetizer and logistically was a nightmare. Of course I can imagine moving all those old pieces of analog tape machines, readers. I was more interested in the masculinity that exists within Italian disco cuz everybody I saw was middle-aged or

close to 60 and there'd be two beautiful chicks and they're just shimmying. I was like, "Oh, my hair is thinning and I could get up into this."

A real father Jeff and Jeffy, which is, by the way, it's Jeff and Jeffy, but it's one person. That's how big that guy is. It was called

He was the producer and the artist, so he went by Jeffy.

It was the Italian Barry White. That's what they're saying. They're calling in they time very well. The few people that know

understand how he impregnated two women or at the same time because like

our our mothers we don't know which weird

Barry White you know it's like a

Yeah. See I thought he you were born from the same woman but like in

two different women but we both gave birth to both both of us.

But see Barry White is known for like getting people in the mood. So like I can understand how the Italian Barry White made that happen.

Here's the fun twist. My mother moved to America and yours stayed in Italy.

Still there.

I went to his wedding for the first time of the year experience in Italy

and all we listened to was Italian disco and I was like, "How is this not in America? These are the greatest songs."

And the day we got back, we met at the studio and we laid the first track that we recorded was Elegant Bante.

No, the first one was Does It Make You Want to

or

You're right. The first The first Finnish record. I can't spell.

D I Y WF.

Yeah.

So this even though this is is this your debut album?

It is. It is.

But your origins besides obviously going back to those two adjacent wombs is and the hot tub is uh like you you've been working on music for quite some time. Your origins go way back.

Well, we've been with friends for a long time. We did in his last album which had a many other bands and the last album I produced two songs and I directed a couple of his music videos. So, we've been working together. We've been doing comedy. We've been doing photo shoots for

My first album was a country rock album and then it led to doing a Halloween album

under what name or

Debbone and the remains was the Halloween and then my name Derek Debbone Reckley for the first one and Adam Sandler heard it put it in Hubie Halloween and then I got the bug for doing music

and then you got it on uh Hocus Pocus too.

Yeah.

So then it was like oh

brilliant. I'd like to do music with my friends because I started meeting a lot of kind of awful people, try to steal money or be weird and it's like I want to work with friends and then this idea came up and

and brothers

brothers and by the way we just realized as we speak that our father Jeep and Jeep must have reproduced more than just

the two of us. So the Dolce Vita brothers could technically become more. If you're listening to this

guys, you at home listening to this

announcement,

if Jeff is your father, you have two brothers.

Yeah. If you don't know who your father is and you you know you kind of sound like very white, but you're Italian

and you might be our brothers

and you really like Italian disco. [clears throat]

And we you're welcome with open hearts.

This is this is an a growing band.

Yeah.

Will be many siblings. And I mean, yeah, technically it could kind of just keep having different generations and stuff.

Exactly.

Because you are about to become a father, right? So perhaps like there could be a Dolce Vita brothers or sisters too.

Your daughter is already the biggest fan of the Dolita brothers.

Oh, that's right.

She came up with one of the songs Gat Lulu.

That's right. So

she kept talking about big butts and she didn't I was like, you can't can't point at Big butts. Could not lie.

So she was like, there's a word gat which means girl your ass thick.

And she's 11. So I was like what

we

and then she was like your big ass is making me delusional which is guillot dulu in kid language and I was like oh we need to do a song right away.

Greatest discovery to discover this new language underground.

So it's such an honor to have my daughter

be here today.

I asked her and she was like [clears throat] I got a couple ma I got some math homework. I was like get it done and come.

We'll circle back. She will circle back.

Yeah she's hilarious. She's going to let us know soon.

Yeah,

that's pretty amazing. That song will be a hit with the Gen Alpha, I guess.

There you go. The Gen Alpha whenever when they get old enough.

Yeah.

Be in a hot tub.

Um, since we're talking about hot tubs and turtlenecks and Rolls-Royce, how did you guys come up with your amazing sense of style? It was I tried to dress up for you. I tried to look a little bit

You nailed it.

Yeah, you did great. So this has been happening since the ' 70s and I mean the long longer time since the 30s like the classy timelessness uh that doesn't really doesn't follow any trend.

It's not you're not trying to be a pioneer in any sense. You're just maybe this this shirt maybe is 30 years old with this blue shirt and it's it's fine.

It's always going to be fine quality then

and I love a reason to put a suit on. Most of the time it's just jeans and a t-shirt but

yeah that's fine. It's like it's good.

Makes you feel sexier.

Uh it's simple simplicity and uh going back to just not over complicating everything like we're now doing about all aspects of life. Just, you know, just enjoy yourself and have a good time.

I plan to enjoy myself when you perform out there. I see you decorated the stage very festively. So, you mentioned Halloween, but we're in Christmas season now. Are you going to play? You have a Christmas song. We have just came out. Yeah, we just released it. Christmas disco love.

That's right.

Yeah, we realized there was no Christmas disco songs.

That can't be

Christmas, but then I couldn't find any.

No, you couldn't find it.

I'm sure they're out there.

Well, Italo disco can be applied to all sorts of festivities being so tensible and enjoyable.

Yeah, we're thinking about doing a Thanksgiving one next year.

Yeah, we might do Yeah, Thanksgiving disc collab. Um, this is the story of how Santa met Mrs. Santa at Studio 54.

uh with you know under under the influence of many substances.

Snow.

Exactly.

Yeah. Lots of snow.

Exactly. Because it's because it's Christmas. That's correct.

Blizzard they said.

And we by the way we don't advocate for substances. We're

for Yeah. We're not forever.

Whatever's in the spreads of tour.

Yeah. Whatever makes you happy, it's it's fine. Just moderation, you know.

Well, before I let you go, so you can set up to entertain us tonight. You mentioned the Genesis thing.

Oh, yeah.

Okay. Which era?

Well, the or both. Both. No. No.

If you had to choose Gabriel.

Oh, sorry. If I had to choose ah God damn it. God damn it. I can't. It's like choosing between JP and Jeppy. Uh

got to choose one.

I think probably Gabriel. Ah, Phil Collins. Phil Collins.

Yeah. Yeah.

Collins. I love Collins. Collins. Collins is the phenomenal soul artist.

Um, what's the other thing that we wanted? Oh, I wanted to mention one one fun fact that some some fans of the genre, fan of the show will will appreciate the how the album cover came together.

Yes, please.

So, we were at at his uh driveway with the Rolls-Royce and we shot the cover on a Hustleblood vintage film camera that only has like 12 shots on it. Uh there's no electronic, there's no selfshot, there's no you can't time it or time do the timer.

And we were only the only people there. So we needed another person to press the shutter

and his neighbor

like let me call my neighbors and see if anybody's home. And the only one was Moli Kulkin.

Yeah. And we just came over and

showing up in 30 seconds showed up

and he gave us so many cool direction and ideas. So, of course, he was like, "Are you guys going to give me credits?" So, his face photo on the moon.

His face is in the moon.

It's photo credited, of course. And we his face. Yeah. If you zoom in in the moon of the picture of the album cover, you can see McCauley's face.

So, you live next door to McCauley Kulkin.

Yeah, he does.

That's very cool. You borrow like a cup of sugar from him or vice

He's got a wonderful beverage fridge that's always stocked, fully loaded. And his his children have a crush on my daughter,

so they like for her her to come. Is he going to come tonight?

He's not. He's on tour for his Home Alone Q&A thing he's doing. I I went with him last year and it was

Home Alone Q&A.

Yeah, he's showing the movie and then question and answers after.

Well, good.

I could see him having the sense of humor that he would appreciate you guys though because I am sure maybe some people watching this aren't aware. The pizza underground. Do you know the Pizza Underground? Oh, I uh

his velvet. He was involved with a Velvet Underground band that just turned

Lou Reed songs into songs about pizza liquor. He should have done that. Pizza underground need to reunite at Licor's Pizza.

I know. I tried to get McCaule 10 years ago when I did my pizza show, All the Pizza available on Apple TV. Uh I created and hosted a show about pizza and the underground, you know, psych psychedelic culture of this magical world of pizza, but we couldn't get him. So, we got Andrew WK and uh and we wrote a pizza song which is available on YouTube and we're love Andrew WK we're neighbors with him too.

Every time I'm like well

this is crazy cuz every time I'm like well we can wrap this up then suddenly you drop some crazy

I forgot it. I wrote a song with talk about the musicians on the Yeah. Okay.

Oh yeah. Sorry. We have some

We got Darren Johnson did the synth who used to play with Miles Davis. Miles Davis found him in the late 80s and uh he was the first one that got me into music and did a country song with me and blew my mind and uh so he's on it. And then we got Mona Tavakoli who's the percussionist for Cindy Looper.

She does the percussion. And then Tim Young is uh our producer

and guitarist

and guitarist. Many instruments. Anything you want, he can make it happen.

Yeah.

And uh Steven Scalfody on the sax.

Genius Mr. Ste.

Mr. Ste and Jenny Carr uh doing background vocals which is such a blessing. You roll with a cool entourage.

What an honor to have this guest performers geniuses.

Did we forget anybody?

I'm sure we are. We're so sorry.

Oh, Ryan Clark Morardi helping writing. But of course help us write some of the lyrics. He's a novelist writer.

But I love that you have all these connections to pizza cuz I love Andrew WK and he actually has a pizza.

We wrote we wrote our pizza. It's called Pizza Paradise. We actually wrote two songs. Pizza Paradise and Pepperoni Pizza Paradise, which is completely different. It's not even close. One is a melodic ballad and the other one is rock like AC/DC. And we wrote in the studio in Chicago and we have a whole episode discussing philosophy on why pizza is, you know, pure happiness. Delightful.

Yeah. It's it's just the concept of can also be applied in from can also be taken out by the concept of pizza. It's universal. It's it puts everyone on the same level and uh it brings you happiness. So besides licorice pizza, of course,

what is the best pizza? Where is the best pizza?

Well, it's the one that you have with your loved ones.

Nice. That's actually a nice answer. I love your pizza connections, though, cuz you got that maulay from the pizza underground. I feel like you guys need to do like a disco pizza song.

We will probably. And it just makes sense that we're here. Yeah. It's a Dolceita Brothers. Yeah.

Is that why you chose Licorice Pizza for your event? Because of the whole pizza. There was only one pizza record printing place I know.

And we love pizza and licorice at the same

and we love you guys. This has been so much fun. Are there any other weird fun facts or stories you want to tell?

So many. Uh so many. We are forgetting all the weird trivia of this journey.

Yeah, we'll do it for the next generation.

Absolutely. We have to meet again in the meantime. Going to go have a Christmas disco party with you out there. Thank you so much for this is fun. The minute I saw your Instagram, I was ready to do this interview. I was ready and it actually surpassed my expectations.

Pleasure to meet you.

I'm feeling the

the Torah.

I hope you guys were as well. I hope you were feeling the love and uh see you next time. Thank you guys. Thank you. Ciao.

Ciao.