Elettrodomestico’s Jane Wiedlin On Her New Band With Pietro Straccia, Collaborating With SekDek, And More


After the Go-Go’s retired from touring 2016, founding member Jane Wiedlin opted to start writing new music and get back in the studio. Wiedlin and Pietro Straccia, who first met in 2014, wrote their first song for Elettrodomestico following the death of David Bowie. The rest of the songs that make up If You’re a Boy or a Girl — which is scheduled for release on October 20 — were recorded in a variety of locations, including Straccia’s home studio, between February of 2016 and April of 2017.

The first Elettrodomestico track to have a proper accompanying music video was “Rabbit Stew.” Directed by pop/gore artist Brice Frillici — also known as SekDek — the video explores themes of marriage, conflict, gender non-conformity, and rebirth. Wiedlin and Straccia ultimately appear as wedding cake toppers in the “Rabbit Stew” clip, which was premiered by Brooklyn Vegan earlier this month.

In support of If You’re a Boy or a Girl, Elettrodomestico kicks off a West Coast tour on October 18 at Seattle’s Sunset Room. Touring continues with stops in Portland, Sacramento, San Francisco, Santa Cruz, San Diego, and Los Angeles. Show dates, videos, and music from Elettrodomestico can be found on the duo’s Bandcamp page.

When did Elettrodomestico start in relation to the Go-Go’s ending?

Jane Wiedlin: The Go-Go’s are still together, we’ve just retired from touring! We did our final tour in Summer of 2016. Pietro and I wrote for all of 2016 and decided to become a band together in December of that year.

Around how many songs did you and Pietro write for Elettrodomestico’s first album?

Jane Wiedlin: I think we wrote 12 songs in collaboration. I probably wrote around 40 sets of lyrics and Pietro gravitated towards the ones he related to or just liked. We really loved what we were coming up with, so there wasn’t a lot of waste.

What is the writing process like for Elettrodomestico? Do you and have Pietro have to be in the room together to write?

Jane Wiedlin: No, in fact, I was in Hawaii and Pietro in Oakland for most of the writing process.

Do you have a favorite song on the Elettrodomestico album?

Jane Wiedlin: I really love “Lost at Sea” and “Mail Order Bride.”

The video for “Rabbit Stew” was premiered via Brooklyn Vegan. How did you first encounter Brice Fillici?

Jane Wiedlin: Brice is a friend whom we are very big fans of. He makes amazing art under the name SekDek. Pietro had previously modeled for him on several occasions. Since we enlisted many of our creative friends to choose a song and make a video, having Brice do two videos was an obvious choice and a real coup for us. We LOVE what he does!

For someone thinking of coming to see your band’s upcoming West Coast tour, what should be expected? Do you only play songs by Elettrodomestico?

Jane Wiedlin: We do our entire album in order, since people don’t really know our songs yet. We also do a few Go-Go’s songs for fun. And we will be adding more songs as time goes on. As you can imagine, between the two of us, we have hundreds of songs!

Is Elettrodomestico a full-time thing for you? Might there be another solo Jane Wiedlin album in the future? Or even more from froSTed?

Jane Wiedlin: Yes, Elettrodomestico is full-time. We are both fully committed to this project. We love our babies — songs — and love working and singing together. Being in a duo is a blast! I doubt I will do more solo or froSTed.

Are there plans for you and Pietro to play live on the East Coast?

Jane Wiedlin: We just came back from doing some East Coast shows and hope to do lots more as soon as possible.

[Featured Image by Lucy Volpe]

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