Every Forest Has Its Shadow (2014)

EVERY FOREST HAS ITS SHADOW

1) SLITHERING: it’s mainly about catching your lover with her/his hand in the cookie jar. You point it out sarcastically but even though you’re right, as soon as you get home by yourself, a deep blue feeling pervades your thoughts.
2) STRAWS & POPSICLES: sun shines again, you fall in love with your eyes wrapped in ham, you try to convince yourself she’s the one but you know well that you belong to two different, incompatible worlds and in the end you get to know her better, you study her actions, perceive her selfishness and think ‘thank god she didn’t set me up!’
3) HYDRANTS: the power of books, the magic of their words and the mysteriousness of its pages.
4) CRAYONS: frames of childhood tangled up in innocent visions, the purity, the freedom and the innocence of infancy the way it should always be, untouched.
5) BOUGANVILLE: a person got involved in a summery afternoon marked by super-strong Mexican pot. After a few hours spent smoking in a very relaxing situation, sipping lemon iced tea and lying on a hammock he suddenly remembered that had to go to a garden party and arrived there with his mind wrapped up in kaleidoscopic and paisley patterned skies.
6) BEWITCHING WOMAN: a man courts a woman for about two months, she gives him many clues and seems to pay attention but then one day he sees her on the beach, hand in hand, with the worst self serving social climber. The vision of her pretty face beside that jerk helps him leave her behind.
7) A PLEASANT INN: a special place made special by a special waitress. All you eat or drink has no importance at all, check included.
8) KING OF SPADES: the seedy side of gambling, it lures you, seduces you, possesses you and makes you lose anything that really counts, anything you love and care about.
9) LONE WOLF: this song simplifies the importance of wanderlust in a man’s life.
10) OLYMPUS GIRL: past love: the desire of reliving those experiences, the recklessness of the inexperienced, the risk of the adventurer, the haziness of the teenage years.
11) AXES AND BARROWS: families rarely have harmony and the issues amass if they’re not faced on a daily basis. Then, life itself shows you the price you have to pay for your lack of feelings and time towards your loved ones.
12) AND THE FOX WAS RUN TO EARTH: how can a person pursue and glamorize the gory, cruel, unfair and heartless practice of foxhunting?
13) STRAND CONVERSATION: a man on vacation sunbathes peacefully in a Mediterranean beach, has a quick dip in the crystalline azure sea and goes back to his beach towel. After a while he overhears the conversation between two young men, both homophobes, who were mocking, belittling and taunting a homosexual couple they met somewhere at a bar. The man, a fervent gay rights supporter, gets up and gets close to the two guys. He begins to humiliate them verbally with his fierce and wicked gift of gab in front of hundreds of entertained bathers to the point that they are forced to leave the strand looking like shit and watching hundreds of people hailing insults down on them.
14) WARBLER: the artist is like a bird in modern society. His freedom of living and of expression is tremendously limited and his sensitivity makes him aware of the current lack of resources he needs to go on and stay alive. Technology neither will save nor will simplify his life; however it will be his executioner.
15) AUTOMOBILES: nights can be very long if your eyelids don’t want to hear a thing about being close shut.
16) MAGICAL DAY: seven friends take a day off and spend some time together in a small uncrowded beach nearby a pinewood. At the end of the day they also share a crimson red sunset that will remain forever imprinted on their minds.

In 2011 Claudio Conti (songwriter / lead vocalist / guitar player) proposed several songs he wrote to Davide Sgualdini (drummer / producer / sound engineer), the latter liked them and they agreed to form a group and get a record off the ground, that is, their 16 tracks debut album named “Every Forest Has Its Shadow”. The two musicians recruited bass player Gianluca Menchi and guitar player Simona Soddu and soon after they re-hearsed at Davide Sgualdini’s LaMorte Studio, packed their gear and played gigs continu-ously since 2011 in Cagliari and in the outskirts of town receiving warm appreciations and astonishment regarding their intriguing and unusual repertoire, especially in the region where they were formed. In addition to Magic Salad’s own songs the set lists were com-pleted by a selected number of covers that were revised and skilfully rearranged taking the cues from Patti Smith’s album ‘Twelve’, a record composed of only cover versions. Songs like Rolling Stones’ Paint It Black, The Mamas & The Papas’ California Dreamin’ or Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit were highly appreciated by the audience but during the gigs they also included songs by Van Morrison, R.E.M., David Bowie, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Iggy Pop and others.

Their peculiar setlist and sound brought them a good number of followers and they quickly made their mark in the local indie clubs as well as coffeehouses and pubs.

Apart from founder members Claudio Conti and Davide Sgualdini a huge contribution to the making of their project has been given by bass players Gianluca Menchi (D.G.I., Sibilya) and Francesco Migoni (SilverTongue), Ivan Sgualdini (D.G.I., Sibilya) and Simona Soddu (SilverTongue), both guitar players.
The sound of Magic Salad and its musical composition are deeply influenced by the dis-similar roots of the band’s members: The Beatles, Tim Buckley, Fleet Foxes and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Jesus Christ Superstar” are the main ones.

Track listing

01. Slithering
02. Straws & Popsicles
03. Hydrants
04. Crayons
05. Bouganville
06. Bewitching Woman
07. A Pleasant Inn
08. King of Spades
09. Lone Wolf
10. Olympus Girl
11. Axes and Barrows
12. And The Fox Was Run To Earth
13. Strand Conversation
14. Warbler
15. Automobiles
16. Magical Day