Piqued Jacks, who is the band that with San Marino goes to the Eurovision Song Contest 2023

The fever rises from Eurovision Song Contest 2023. After surprisingly winning the 2nd edition of A voice for San Marinoi Piqued Jacks – Tuscan indie band with an international spirit – they are ready to scratch on the notes of Like an animal on the big stage of the Liverpool Arena for the continental music festival scheduled for 9, L’11 and the May 13th in the UK. They will have to see it among others with Marco Mengoni, winner of Sanremo with the song Two lives. Three albums released, Buggiano’s fab fours pick up the baton of Achille Lauro. And there are those who, already, shout at the “new” Måneskin.

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Average age of 26, the Piqued Jacks they form in 2006 in the Pistoia province. Alternative rock with the stylistic code of funk represents the quartet composed by Andrew (voice), Mark (guitar), Francis (bass) And Thomas (drums). Energetic and refined sound, the Piqued Jacks have been breathing music since childhood. Andrea’s mother sang in a jazz band; Tommaso begins to beat cymbals and drums at the age of five influenced by his drummer father. On the piano, played by his older brother, Marco preferred the guitar that he began to play at the age of eleven, before studying at the conservatory. Francesco, the rebel of the four ropes, is the self-taught of the group. Their repertoire is in English like the song that brought them into the limelight. And on a possible debut in the mother tongue, the frontman replies ironically: «Maybe we’ll make a song in San Marino».

The quartet won a place at Eurovision after a long apprenticeship. Between tours around the world, important collaborations (such as the one with Brett Shaw producer of Florence + The Machine) and a slew of participations in highly popular musical events. In the 2019they win San Remo Rock. In the 2020are selected by MTV for the platform New Generation. Last year, they became the first Italian band to perform at the prestigious Summerfest of Milwaukee in the United States. Today, the Piqued Jacks prepare to rock the Eurovision Song Contest 2023.

Where does the name “Piqued Jacks” come from?
“The story is pretty silly. The first sprout of the Piqued Jacks dates back to 2006 when we were still kids just entering high school, we barely knew how to play. During one of these times Fra slipped the bass from his hand, crashing to the ground and bending the jack that was attached to it. Seeing it folded up we immediately thought of a clear double meaning, then we studied the vocabulary to find a suitable term. Piqued means “interested”, in this case with a visceral meaning, full of passion and spontaneity, like a jack who bristles at something exciting. This is our way of conceiving, approaching and experiencing music and what we do, something that hasn’t changed at all from that moment to today. To understand it better, come and see us live.

Does the victory in San Marino represent a turning point or a starting point for you?
«Let’s mix the two things and say that it represents a turning point from which to start again, to gather strength and make the most of an opportunity we’ve been working on for years and a visibility that no one has ever given us. We feel that we deserve the stage on which we will play and that we live up to it, without arrogance but with awareness of our means».

How it was born Like an Animalthe song that will take you to the stage of the Eurovision Song Contest 2023?
«Like An Animal it began to form during the period of the first lockdown, in which distance did not affect our desire to keep music alive at all costs. We started bouncing drafts from one phone to another. For some reason that piece remained there, closed in a drawer, until 2022: we opened the drawer in the rehearsal room and started playing on it. When A Voice for San Marino he asked us for an unreleased piece, it took us a second to decide which one and four days to record everything. Definitely Like An Animal it is a song that retains all our characteristic traits: energetic voice, redundant riff, penetrating bass and super present drums».

What is it about?
«The message is very simple: to be free to indulge one’s impulses, experiencing sexuality as a party, a dance in the jungle in its most animalistic features».

When did you realize that you wanted to live on music?
«Getting there was gradual and certainly not immediate. It’s a natural feeling that’s been with us since we started and it’s gotten stronger over time.”

What album changed your life?
Andrew: «Flamingos by Brandon Flowers. This is the solo debut of The Killers frontman. A CD bought by chance at Amoeba in Los Angeles».

Francis: «Californication of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. She didn’t change my life, but she accompanied her for a long time_ funk, sweetness, simplicity, passion, friendship, aggressiveness and above all great chemistry ».

Marco: «The Dark Side Of The Moon of Pink Floyd (which this year celebrates half a century, ed). It was simply among the first records discovered, it changed my life because it made me discover a whole world».

Thomas: «The Battle Rages On of Deep Purple. My lifelong friends and neighbors gave it to me for my seventh birthday.”

Will Sanremo also be in the future of the Piqued Jacks?
«Hi Amadeus, if you are reading us we are ready!».

Other Vanity Fai stories that may interest you:

  • Eurovision 2023 in Great Britain, Ukraine is not there: «We are disappointed»
  • Achille Lauro, because he is at Eurovision with San Marino (and the wait is growing)


Source: Vanity Fair

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