Interviews: Najing

On this new occasion, we have had the opportunity to interview the Instrumental Post-Metal band, Najing from Italy. Check out the interview and follow the band on their FACEBOOK PAGE.

1. Where did you get the idea for the band name, you plan it, or came out just like that?

It's a Nanjing misspelling. A city where a huge massacre took place in 1937. In our early days as a band, Andrea (our guitarist) talked about this fact and it impressed us so much that we took the name of the city but we removed an "N" and so we are Najing.

2. Why did you want to play this genre?

Because this type of music has different features, It can be both meditative and dynamic. An artist can decide to focus on one of these two types, or combine them, otherwise add a new different aspect. We usually like to work on the last one.

3. Did you know each other before the band was formed?

Not really, Marco (drums) and Marco (bass) had known each other for a while but they had never played together. In the spring of 2021 Andrea answered an ad for a guitarist and that's when the band officially came to life.

4. Each band member's favorite band?

We all listen to a lot of music of various genres and it's impossible to find only three artists. But we can also say that we are hugely influenced by Post Rock/Metal, Doom/Stoner, and also a little bit of Black Metal and Heavy Psych.

5. Who or what inspires you to write songs?

Most of the time we create our music in the rehearsal studio. Being three different people, we live different days and lives made of fears, desires, and flows of consciousness mixed together in one dark vision that creates our very atmospheres. Ultimately, we can say that what inspires us the most is what happens around us, simply during the day. We would say that this is the fuel of our music.

6. Where was your last gig?

Our last gig was in Prato, near Florence. The club's name is Monster A-Live, a really nice place and it suites our mood and music really well. We'd like to play there as soon as possible!

7. Where would you like to act?

We want to play wherever our music is appreciated. In the near future the idea would be to play some dates in Europe and not only in Italy.

8. Whom would you like to feature with?

It would be exciting to collaborate with bands that usually work on our same genre, but also with ones who don't. Even if we don't actually think about a specific artist or band, at the moment we just want to focus on ourselves as a band. Who knows, we can't exclude the possibility of a collaboration in the future.

9. Whom not?

Hahaha, that would be a long list. Here in Italy, we have a truly shitty mainstream music scene. So we definitely don't want to collaborate with anyone from the Italian pop/rock scene.

10. Have any of you ever suffered from stage fright? Any tips for beginners on how to beat that?

Playing live for a musician is both amazing and scary. When we first started playing our goal has always been to get our music to as many people as possible. That being said, when fear of playing and anxiety strike, just remember how much fun is to play for people who don't know you. Every minute spent on the stage helps get more confidence!

11. What bands have inspired you the most?

It could actually be a long and varied list. To be clear, our influences don't only come from metal, we use to listen to lots of different genres which have left a mark on us, it would be reductive to nominate just some of the bands or artists that have inspired us in a specific way.

12. What's the weirdest thing a fan has ever asked you for?

Nothing so strange has happened so far.

13. What do you think of your fans?

Well, for now, the amount of fans doesn't allow us to say what we think about them, we guess it will be easier to have a clearer idea at the album release time because right now we only have a published single.

14. What do you think of our site?

It looks great. Our band is part of the underground, we love zines and sites taking care of bands who are not world-famous. So thank you for taking the time and passion to give voice to bands like us!

15. Something to add?

Our debut album will come out in the spring of this year but we have a couple of surprises before the release... So stay tuned!