Fast Times at Torii High

Interview by Maija Jussila
Photos shot by Pauline Bauvin in Leiden, Netherlands

Through the grapevine, we overheard that Torii frontman Domenico Mangione had set up a recording studio in a gnarly, old school building somewhere in Leiden. Appropriately dubbed, Idiot Seagull, the school is now home to not only Domenico and his gear, but also a number of local artists who use it as a creative space. We were curious to know more about it so we dropped by to have a chat with Domenico about the fast times at Leiderdorp high, seagulls, and marching to the beat of your own drum.

Hey Domenico, how’s it going?

Yeah, I’m good. I’ve been keeping busy with recordings.

You have this cool space in the middle of nowhere, and you mentioned that this used to be abandoned for two years before you came here, how long have you actually been here?

For almost a year now.

What’s it like living here?

There are a lot of strange noises in the building.

Terrifying.

Yeah, but that’s the best thing. When I first moved here, I was completely alone and I didn’t know the building yet. That was scary ’cause there were two break-ins. I’ve done martial arts so I have a wooden katana, and after the break-ins, every time I had to go to the bathroom, I would take it with me.

Were you here during the break-ins?

Yeah, I caught one of them.

How did that go down?

I called the police, I just held him in choke hold until they came, and the other guy ran away. They stole a lot of copper pipes. The building had been empty for a long time.

How about now, is your time indefinite?

Yeah, well they have plans to sell it but nobody wants to buy shit here, so yeah, it’s kind of indefinite. The thing is, there’s nothing in the neighborhood so I’m kind of forced to do stuff here. I really like that, because if I lived in Amsterdam, I’d just do shit all week. The isolation forces me to start working creatively. But the creativity is only created by the possibility of collaboration. My little studio Idiot Seagull and Torii would’ve never gotten off the ground without the beautiful people I share it with.

Can you tell me about the space you’re recording in and how that came to be?

I had a lot of space, and I started recording a couple of years ago when I first started writing songs. I collect a lot of mics and other equipment so I thought fuck, I have the room, so why not build my own little studio and just start recording people. I was inspired by an interview I did with Sebastian Cowan from Arbutus Records and he told me about a similar space. It was in November or October, when I’d just moved in here, and he was talking about his own space where he put up, I think, a venue and a recording space. I was really inspired by him and how he started working with nothing, and just started recording stuff with bands like TOPS. I was like fuck, why shouldn’t I try that myself. That’s when I started up. It gradually grew, and I started recording other bands – stuff like Nancy Acid a couple of months ago, as well as my own music.

You have a lot of people coming by to work on different projects. Does that inspire new projects?

Yeah, yeah, like with Denis Wouters. We recorded a lot together, and after a while he was like, ‘Yeah I want to do something of my own’. And he made a new band, just because we have the space and can record. So that’s really cool. Because there are a lot of people here, you get a lot more creative. You see a lot more stuff, people come here and bring their gear and start experimenting. It’s pretty nice. Still, I’m recording the Torii album with Denis and we’re probably gonna mix it together. I was also talking to Tijmen from The Womb and maybe he’s going to work with us if there’s time before the record has to come out.

How’s the recording coming along?

We just recorded a live set and we’ve been jamming a lot too. I want to make the record more collage-y so you’ll have soundscapes, like sounds of seagulls and waves, and random jams in a song. It’s more or less like the Portishead approach, like chopping stuff up. A record that feels organic – that’s what I want to try to do. I’m not using plug-ins or reverbs, I’m only using real spring reverbs and putting speakers in a room and the mic at the other end of the room and recording the echoes of the building in the recording sound. I really wanna use the space I have. Like in the basement, there’s this room that’s very echo-y – if you click your fingers there’s an echo of like 30 seconds.

So for instance, with the drums, you start playing, you get a floor tom and you start banging it through the rooms and listening to the echo to find the right spot. You want as little echo as possible, and when you have the right space, you put the drums there and then don’t move it a fucking inch.

Nice, the character of this place leaves its’ mark on everything you do.

Yeah. The reason I was thinking I’m probably going to name my studio Idiot Seagull just because there are a lot of seagulls and they’re idiots. Yesterday for example, there was this one seagull that was just tapping on my window with his beak, just fucking with me. They sound like they’re laughing at you all the time.

They probably are. What else do you use this space for when you’re not working?

Usually I don’t do shit other than watch series on Netflix and make music. That’s kind of it right now. I have a month left and then I have to start studying again. I’m in my third year of studying History.