I am told that the globe is warming. I am told that, by driving my car down to the Shell station to pick up a bag of beef jerky and a six-pack of Bud Light, I am sowing the seeds of our planet’s future destruction, an apocalypse to be preceded by the watery inundations of New York City, London, Oslo, and Omaha, Nebraska. The fact that, several million years ago, all of those locations managed to get under water without the help of me, my Jetta, or my beef jerky, matters not to the Global Warming Crowd.

What’s that you say? It isn’t Global Warming anymore? Now it’s Anthropogenic Climate Change. Which means that if you get warmer it’s my fault, and if you get colder that’s my fault too. Oh. So all those runs down to the Shell station for beef jerky and Bud Light are the reason I’ve been freezing my #$@%-ing ass off all year!

2014 started off with a cold rain backed by a wind that drove wet misery through my clothing and into my bones. On January 30 the thermometer bottomed out at 6F. The mean low temperature for the month was 25F and included 2 days in which the cats and I were marooned in the house, stranded by an ice storm that left the roads – and my driveway – unfit for navigation. The ensuing months were little better, with temperatures below freezing as late as March 26. Even the sunny days were stalked by encroaching overcasts, both real and metaphysical. And this morning, over a month into Spring, my furnace labored to knock the chill from my house.

This is all Business As Usual for you folks up there in Youngstown, Ohio. But I live in LaGrange, Georgia. You know: magnolias and peaches and mint juleps and mosquitos and ticks and cockroaches. It’s been so cold, last week I saw a squirrel in my back yard, warming his nuts over a campfire.

So the globe is warming and I’m freezing, all because I need a hit of beer-n-jerky now and then. Who doesn’t? Wait… I’ve got an idea… Let’s save the planet by opening the windows and giving the world a warm blast of cool Italian Brit-Pop, “Here We Go Again,” the new single from Newglads. You hot people over there, chill to the minor chords that open this Oasisy Wall of Sound. You cold people over here, warm your souls over the major chords and the folky twang that closes the track. And you guys thought you were just uploading a three-minute file onto Soundcloud. You didn’t know you were releasing the Salvation of Humanity!

Newglads, our favorite band from Reggio Emilia, is Matteo Fallica (lead vocals, guitars, drums) and Cristiano Belluzzo (backing vocals, keyboards, synthesizers). Both contribute to the songwriting, arranging, and production. Formerly a 4-piece-plus-1, the band now comprises its heart-n-soul with Matteo and Chris handling all of the instruments. Together, they continue to create excellent tunes accessible to humans – both the hot and cold demographic – and to cats (read Milkshake’s review of the previous Newglads single, “Make Believe”).

This week we caught up with Cristiano, who brought us up-to-date on the latest Newglads News. As always, Chris’s optimism and positive attitude set him apart from so many of his Indie Brethren…

RR: You seem to have abandoned the “band” format. Now it’s just you and Matteo, even in performances. What led to the downsizing?

CB: After playing with some musicians, we came up with the idea that we don’t need a “standard” band to be creative. We can write songs and watch them grow up without having any problems… We can play all the instruments so, if we talk about recordings, we’re OK like this.

RR: Thumbs up to Matteo for adding “Rock Drummer” to his CV. Looking at your “one-sheet” (note use of hip, music-biz-insider lingo), I see that your role in the performance is “programming.” What does that involve?

CB: Our idea is to have some backing tracks to play live, such as synth or sound effects, and that’s what I’ll be working on with a computer and a keyboard while I’m on the stage.

RR: Have you had good reactions when you’ve appeared as a two-piece?

CB: We haven’t gone out live as a two-piece yet, but we’re very confident the reactions are gonna be good!

RR: Can you describe the musical bond that you and Matteo share?

CB: Well… actually, it’s not about the musical bond, but it’s about friendship. Of course there are bands that we both love, but I think that we play together just for the pleasure of doing it!

RR: What is your songwriting process? Do you both contribute words and music?

CB: There’s not a standard process. Of course we both contribute words and music. Sometimes there are songs all written by Cristiano, and some other times everything starts from a lyric or guitar riff by Matteo, and we both work on that stuff together!

RR: How do you progress from an initial idea to the finished recording?

CB: We start rehearsing the songs we’ve decided to record, coming up with all the ideas that might be useful for the arrangement, and then we start recording some demos until we enter the studio and we’re ready to record the songs track by track.

RR: Who provided the countryish lead guitar at the end of “Here We Go Again?”

CB: The guitar was played by a friend of ours, Ugo Cappadonia, who is a very talented musician! And he played the bass guitar in the single, as well!

RR: The new single was mastered in Nashville by Steve Corrao at Sage Audio. How did that come about?

CB: Talking with some musicians and friends we agreed that in the US there are a lot of mastering studios that could be appropriate for our kind of sound. So we decided to send our tracks to a studio in Nashville – thanks to the internet we can do that sitting on the couch down in here in Italy! – and we were very satisfied about the results!

RR: Any desire to record or tour in the US? Have you visited the US?

CB: We’ve never been in the US, but yes of course, we’d love to come there especially if it involves playing, touring and recording!

RR: You have an EP in the works, I think. When will it be out? How many songs?

CB: Yes we have! We’re going to release it on June 18 (and it’s Paul McCartney’s birthday!). It will be a four-track EP.

RR: The previous single, “Make Believe,” seemed closer to the dreaded Alt-Folk genre. “Here We Go Again” is more in the Oasisy Wall of Sound category. Which side will we hear more of on the upcoming EP?

CB: The new EP is gonna be absolutely “Oasisy wall of sound” and that’s what we’ve done with the first single, “Here We Go Again.” However, in our forthcoming EP you’ll find many other influences!

RR: When you look back a year from now, what do you hope to have accomplished?

CB: The most important thing that we hope to have accomplished is to be able to make music just as we want and being happy in that way.

RR: Who should I start listening to?

CB: Two bands from the UK: SULK and The New Union. They sound really amazing!

RR: Who should I stop listening to?

CB: All the new alt-folk bands that came out in the last two years!

RR: Any last words for Reverb Raccoon’s vast hoard of loyal readers?

CB: Go out watching live gigs, always! And maybe book us for some concerts there in the US!

Thanks, Newglads! The cats and I are looking forward to the new EP. I’m sure that, when it reaches us in June, we will have long since stopped complaining about the cold and taken up our usual hobby of complaining about the heat and humidity.

“Here We Go Again,” and other Newglads releases, is available for streaming on Soundcloud. And be sure to join Newglads on Facebook, and on Twitter.