Fuelled by a mutual passion for rock, in all its expressions and variations, the four members of Drønes ’72 (three Italians with a German drummer) started to play together in 2015. All members of the expat community in Brussels, they first met up by chance in a rehearsal studio. After some hours of loud improvised music with a very fuzzy and distorted sound, it became clear that there was something to pursue further and a sound to share.
Without much need to reflect further, they had already become Drønes ’72 and started to play gigs in Brussels and around. The name of the band brings together a retrospective look (1972 is the year of the Munich Olympics, symbol of great expectations, broken dreams and great resilience) and a forward look to the new frontiers of human knowledge – with the underlying idea that music should try to synthesise opposites, sew ties between past memories, dreams, and wishes for the future, and reach out to the widest possible public.
The band members quickly consolidated the respective musical backgrounds and inspirations to define a new original sound and release their first studio work: “Whispers never stop – Vol. 1”, available on major music portals (iTunes, Spotify, Amazon Music, BandCamp, SoundCloud) since September 2017. Whispers never stop – Vol. 1 is an ode to resilience. It contains four original tracks and two live bonus recordings. The lyrics intersect different feelings and perspectives, for the most linked to life at the Brussels latitude. Songs explore a variety of sounds, swinging between indie and alternative rock, which sometimes fall into sweeter rock melodies that then go up loud again, ending into a more aggressive beat and fuzz-hinged sound.
The songs were written during the crazy days of the Brussels “anti-terrorism lock down” and were recorded right then, at the Zinne Studio in Ixelles, while the rest of the city was holding its breathe for the terrorist hunt by police, military and special forces, after the attacks at the Bataclan. In “Bubble Capital Town”, truly a hymn to resilience, the band describes the days of the lockdown and the efforts to keep living life as nothing was happening around, with people very slowly getting back to the streets and in their offices, in what had become an all-of-the-sudden militarised city. The second EP, Whispers Never Stop – Vol. 2, was recorded at the Jet Studio in Brussels in December 2018 and was released on 1 March 2019. In May 2019, a live recorded single was published with the original song “Walking on a Wire”. In 2022, the band released a radio live recorded unplugged “Panik. Sweat. (Live acoustic at Radio Panik, Brussels)”.
The artwork of all the band’s albums is by kind concession of internationally awarded photographer Giulio Zanni. Band logos and merchandise drawings are by Chinese-ink artist Slavo Lalik.
