Band der Woche: Winter Severity Index

Winter Severity Index wurde 2009 in Rom gegründet und hat sich seitdem als feste Größe in der Post-Punk-Szene etabliert (LINK Review). Der kreative Kopf und die konstante Größe der Band ist Simona Ferrucci, die als Songwriterin und Multiinstrumentalistin die inhaltliche und musikalische Ausrichtung maßgeblich prägt. Nach Jahren wechselnder Formationen kehrt die Gruppe nun in ihre ursprüngliche Besetzung zurück. 

Ein perfekter Moment,  um mit Simona, Diana, Valeria und Valentina über ihre gemeinsame Geschichte, musikalische Wurzeln, kreative Prozesse und darüber zu sprechen, was Winter Severity Index heute ausmacht.

Who is behind Winter Severity Index, and how would you describe yourselves beyond music?
Simona: Talking about Winter Severity Index is basically talking about my several collaborations over the years as the main arranger, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. So, it’s inevitable to talk about its story so far: WSI is a music project born in 2009 as a traditional post-punk band: me on guitar, Diana Salzo on bass guitar, Valeria Tirabassi on drums, and Valentina Fanigliulo on synths. Then, after one year of gigs, for several personal reasons, Diana and Valeria left the band, and WSI became a duo (Valentina on synths and me on guitar, bass, and drum machine). We recorded an EP and played together for at least another year; then the line-up changed again, and I continued with Alessandra Romeo on synths. This was the longest collaboration I had – from 2013 to 2024, three LPs, and more than one hundred gigs. The decision to split up came mostly from my own artistic needs; I didn’t want to force anyone into a creative process that was evolving into a more intimate and personal form. I was waiting for the right time for a reunion with the first line-up for a long time, and it suddenly arrived at the end of summer: a friend of mine invited me to play in a huge, famous squat in Florence, where remarkable Italian Wave bands performed gigs in the Eighties, and I took this chance to make this happen. Here we are, together again. The music of Winter Severity Index has been enriched by every change that has occurred during its story –  of every moment over these fifteen years, both good and bad ones – nevertheless, it has preserved its own strong identity, as I basically remained the same person. I am the fil rouge. Who am I beyond music? Maybe I’m not: I don’t exist without the possibility to listen, to play, to communicate through sounds, and to love this powerful aspect of reality.

Could you tell us a bit about your musical journey so far? How did the four of you first come together as a band? What do you feel connects you creatively, and what do you appreciate most about each other?
Diana: Although we have many common references, our musical backgrounds are different, bringing inspiration and uniqueness. Personally, we enjoy laughing at the same things, and we share the ideal of independence in music.
Valeria: We started playing together 15 years ago because we all share a passion for this musical genre, even though each of us has different musical tastes. Moreover, just like back then—despite the long break we took—I think that on a personal level we’ve found the perfect balance, the ideal equilibrium of the basic alchemical elements. It was trueat the time, and it’s true now as well. What I appreciate about my bandmates is that each of them completes me in the areas where I fall short, and that’s why I’m able to express myself so freely with them.
Valentina: We all come from the same area—Rome and its surroundings—but I didn’t know the other girls before the band came together. At the time, I was already making music on my own, mainly experimental and synth-wave, and I had never played in a band before. We found ourselves together almost by an astral coincidence, through mutual friends, and in a way, we truly met for the first time in the rehearsal room. Each member is a musical world of her own, and I believe that’s what makes the difference—the energy we share, what each of us brings into the project, and ultimately the quality of what we create together.
Simona: I started playing with Diana when I was more or less twenty-five; we were united (and still are) by a similar taste in music, but most of all by the same minimal and sharp approach to the instrument: no useless skill proofing, just researching elegance and efficiency in expression, which is typical of New Wave/Post-Punk. Since then, it has been so difficult for us to find other musicians with the same feeling and vision. In fact, we changed several drummers without any success. In 2009 I was also playing in another band with Valeria on drums and Valentina on synths: the band was called Rethina; it was really cool, a sort of psycho-punk. But still, it wasn’t possible to carry on due to the personal issues of the other two musicians involved. It was almost natural for me to try to merge these two „unlucky halves“. We met in a rehearsal studio just to try it out, to have fun and see what would happen: and the magic happened. In just one hour and a half, we created our first song! Wow! Valeria’s tribal drumming, Diana’s basic and sharp rhythmic patterns, Valentina’s epic funeral synths, the clang of my Stratocaster… Everything was perfectly connected.

When did music first become a part of your life? Was there a moment when you fell in love with sound?
Diana: Music has always been a central element at home when I was a child, and I believe our parents’ generation was easily used to living their days with auteur music as background, in my case progressive and folk. Then, in the ’80s, the great international pop music era, it was impossible to be indifferent to the creative mastery and great quality of production in all genres. My fascination with the electric bass and rhythm in general began back there, and it then evolved during my adolescence into loud, powerful music, even rap or techno.
Valentina: I have a vivid memory of the first time music truly took over me. It’s a feeling I’ve chased ever since, growing alongside me, never really leaving. I remember my father placing a Genesis record on the stereo—“Firth of Fifth.” He said it was the song played at my parents’ wedding. Beyond the story tied to them, what overwhelmed me was the sensation itself: something impossible to name, a feeling of wholeness, of being completely absorbed. It was in that precise moment that I understood that I had a singular, intimate connection with music.
Valeria: Music has been part of my life since I was a child. I was four or five years old when, one day at my grandparents’ house, I discovered my mother’s and uncle’s vinyl collection. From that day on, my little record player never got a moment’s rest. The first music I truly fell in love with was Ennio Morricone’s Western soundtracks, which my uncle kept jealously locked away in a cabinet—and which I, of course, stole from him every single day.
Simona: Ennio Morricone was my first love too! I think I was deeply influenced by my father, who has always been a curious listener, especially when he was younger. He worked as an audio technician in the cinema production industry, and he used to bring home some cassettes with soundtracks and songs. Among them, the most famous soundtracks by Maestro Morricone, of course. I still can remember a cassette where he had written „MUSICA ELETTRONICA“. I still don’t know who the artist was, but it was something very similar to Klaus Schulze, something related to the Berlin school, you know… I remember that I could listen to that cassette for hours.

What are you looking for in music? What are the boundaries you want to explore with music?
Simona: I don’t think I’m trying to explore any boundaries with music, and I don’t think I’m actually looking for something in particular: the music comes, perhaps from another dimension,  I’m just here as a means to let music become reality. Passing through me, music helps me try to find a way to express myself in a different way, as I’m not so clever with words and gestures.

If you had to describe your music without using any musical terminology, how would you portray it?
Diana: Evocative and fierce.
Valeria: Tribal and fiery. Most of my drums are inspired by tribal, obsessive, and explosive rhythms.
Valentina: I would describe it as a vibrating vision—distant, introspective, and slightly distorted, like looking at the world through a reflective surface.
Simona: True, whatever that could mean.

What themes are you currently drawn to in your work?
Simona: Winter Severity Index, since the choice of its name, uses a sort of scientific metaphor to underline the intent of a direct recording of phenomena, as a sort of experiment. Music is for me a sort of report of an emotional state in a determined period or related to a certain experience. I have continued using this terminology over the years, naming all the LPs with scientific terms: Survival Rate (2012), taken from zoology; Slanting Ray (2014) from optics; Human Taxonomy (2016) from scientific nomenclature; Disgelo (2022) from meteorology again. Themes are very different for every album (the will to survive adversities, the search for light even when it seems to disappear, the refusal of human categorisation, the passage through periods of deep transformation), but the general intent is always the same: recording moments.

How do your surroundings impact your art, and in what mood do you create your best pieces?
Simona: Our surroundings surely have a deep impact on our art, even if sometimes we would try to avoid it. When you are involved in artistic creation, it’s very easy to isolate yourself from reality and common life, but this is a sort of illusion. I’m quite sure that everyone involved in art wants to feel detached from what is around them: art can be considered a sort of escape from contingency, from a place/an era we don’t belong to. But this attrition is the key: this sense of discomfort is the real fuel for the engine. In this sense, surroundings deeply impact our music. The best mood to create doesn’t exist: the trigger could often be a negative moment, but without work, this moment can’t be transformed into something else. Creating is basically constructing. The start could be  in rage, fear, or sadness, or a simple reflection about a phenomenon, but what comes after that moment is the real creation, and it deserves work, dedication, and consistency.

 Where does the impulse to create something come from for you? How does the birth of a new composition happen for you? How does your compositional process work?
Simona: To start talking, you must be intimately convinced about the possibility of a useful dialogue with someone else, you know… Sometimes this certainty vacillates; I’m really honest about it. So, the compositional process is really complicated. To be really productive, it requires a sort of act of faith, a sort of naïveté, and I don’t have this attitude all the time. Speaking about the practice: I play a lot, I search for interesting sounds; at the beginning, I try not to ask myself about the utility of what I’m doing; I take notes. Then I use these notes in a more structured way when it’s time to say something: first, the collection of sketches, then the organisation of these sketches into a more complex vision.

What artistic influences, outside of music, have had a significant influence on how you approach your art?
Simona: Surely, other artistic influences can contribute to the creation of a certain atmosphere that I want to reach with my music; this very often happens  with movies and photography. These two forms of art are the main sources of inspiration right now. Maybe more than listening to other music itself.

How important is the visual side of Winter Severity Index to you? How does the visual aspect relate to and reflect your music?
Simona:The visual side is very important, especially in creating a certain mood during composition, as I previously said. But speaking about the visual aspect related to live performances or presenting the project on social media, I tend to prefer a minimal approach. Honestly, I struggle a lot to create something that can match today’s overstimulated audience expectations, as it wouldn’t match my music at all: I’m an anti-rockstar; I have a very reserved attitude; I’m fond of post-punk and cold wave music for this reason. I don’t understand the latest evolution of this scene in such a spectacular way… I think it can be considered a devolution, indeed.

How would you describe the world you are trying to create during your performances?
Simona: An intimate, deep glimpse into everyone’s soul. Music is the highest form of sacredness.

Looking ahead, what’s next for you? What are you most looking forward to?
Simona: The next steps for Winter Severity Index will be the release of the vinyl version of our first setlist and some European gigs to promote it, to celebrate our friendship and the living spirit of our passion for post-punk music from when everything started fifteen years ago. I really hope this amazing mood will lead us to create something new; we’ll see what happens.

Webseite     Bandcamp     Instagram     Facebook

(574)