Venetian psych rock trailblazers New Candys return with a courageous new chapter in their sonic rise. Regicide, the first single from their upcoming album, The Uncanny Extravaganza, blends industrial grit with hypnotic rhythm, channelling raw energy while diving deep into themes of rebellion and consequence.
Frontman Fernando Nuti turns history into allegory, painting a picture of exile, guilt, and liberation. MetalTalk’s Lea Wagner caught up with the band to talk about Regicide, the dark heart of their new record, and the uncanny balance between past and present.
In earlier conversations, New Candys mentioned Gaetano Bresci as a lyrical source of inspiration for Regicide. With regicide being the act of killing a king, what drew New Candys to his story, and how did they translate that historical context into a modern narrative within the song?
“My grandfather was actually the first one to mention Gaetano Bresci to me,” Nuti says, “back when I was a teenager. He told me the story of his regicide. To summarize: in 1900, the King of Italy, Umberto I, ordered a general to open fire on an unarmed crowd protesting the price of bread.
“Over 300 people were killed, and just as many wounded. The king then rewarded that general and even made him a senator. Bresci killed the king two years later and let himself get caught, famously saying, ‘I did not kill Umberto I, I have killed the king. I killed a principle.’
“What always fascinated me about the story is how, despite the violence of the act, Bresci had this elegance in his manner and words. He wasn’t a madman. He knew exactly what he was doing and the risk it entailed.
“Later, I watched a documentary and learned he died in a very peculiar prison, horseshoe-shaped, on an island. So, he was exiled to an island like Napoleon, who was a king. That’s when I connected exile and regicide.
“A gesture like regicide feels ancient, yet it’s emblematic and timeless in its symbolism, and that’s why I wanted to use it. Then fate added a strange twist because Luigi Mangione in the U.S. is suspected of committing a sort of regicide, and it made me realize how eerily current and almost prophetic the lyrics are. Maybe it’s because I see politics and the state of the World slipping further and further into decay.”
Regicide has a striking blend of intensity and melody. There is almost a Nine Inch Nails’ The Hand That Feeds influence to the musical direction.
“The instrumental base came from Dario Lucchesi,” Fernando says. “It inspired the vocal melodies. Then, I worked on the guitar parts, the dance-club-style synths in the verses, and more with the rest of the band.
“The Hand That Feeds, and in general the sound of Nine Inch Nails, has influenced us a lot in recent years. Especially their use of electronic elements within rock songs and the way they build their rhythm sections, which are often very mechanical, with drum machine layers.”
The lyrics repeat lines like “Just by following our enemy, I can live for a victory.” That duality of resistance and sacrifice is bloody powerful.
“In the lyrics, I play with words,” Fernando says. “At first, instead of ‘live’ I say ‘lose’, precisely because the act itself remains violent. But the question I like to raise is: What is the lesser evil?
“For example… killing the king, or the king ordering fire on the crowd? Sometimes, I like to provoke thought in my lyrics, to ask questions, and maybe not giving a clear answer is the most accurate response.
“To paraphrase that line, my interpretation is by behaving like your enemy, you might win a victory. But it will taste like defeat because you mirrored something you were fighting against. I’m really happy with this lyric. I think it really hits the mark in expressing what I wanted to convey.”
There’s a strong theme of exile, guilt, and transformation in the lyrics. As for the broader themes of The Uncanny Extravaganza, New Candys say this is an anti-concept album.
“The only recurring theme across multiple tracks is a connection to water,” Nuti says. “Aside from that, I don’t think there’s much lyrical continuity. The songs are intentionally very different from each other. The idea was to keep the experience fresh, not to make an album boxed into one specific genre.
The Extravaganza part represents something colourful, elaborate, even festive, while the Uncanny is about what disturbs us, the eerie, the unsettling, the mysterious things that scare us deep down. I first came across the term uncanny while reading about Kubrick and how he pursued that feeling in The Shining.
“New Candys’ music has always had a dark, moody undercurrent, and that is why this new album’s diversity, the extravaganza, is uncanny.”
How does Regicide set the tone for The Uncanny Extravaganza as an album? Can we expect more historical or political undercurrents throughout the record?
“Yes, there’s another song with a similar theme called Crime Wave, and it’s actually second on the tracklist, right after Regicide,” they said. “After those two tracks, the album does not really return to political themes, so we placed them together intentionally. I would say Regicide sets the tone for the album in terms of sound. It introduces all the instruments that will feature throughout the record.”
The home town of New Candys, Venice, has such a vast and unique cultural history. Has the city’s atmosphere influenced this album visually, lyrically, or emotionally?
“Venice has a huge influence,” Fernando says. “It’s even paid tribute to in the artwork. It influences everything you mentioned. It’s known for being flooded by tourists as well as water, but that’s not the case if you move away from the tourist areas, especially at night. When the city sleeps, it becomes surreal, and I love that.
“Lyrically and visually, Venice is obviously tied to water, which is one of the main themes of the album. When something is submerged, it gets distorted due to the refraction of light. It’s like it passes into a dreamlike dimension.
“Physically, it also deteriorates. What is submerged gets lost in the darkness of an environment hostile to humans. So, I also associate water with death. I played a lot with that symbolism.”
If Regicide is a call to action of sorts, the band hopes that listeners can connect with the song after a loud listen and “see themselves in the spirit of rebellion it conveys. I know it sounds like a cliché, but honestly, the political situation in much of the Western World and beyond has gotten significantly worse in recent years.”
New Candys play dates in the UK in June but are now gearing up for the Fuzz Club Festival in Eindhoven next month, an especially epic lineup this year. “It means a lot,” Nuti said of the festival. “After 2024, when we barely played live because we were busy writing, and this first half of 2025 was spent in preparation, this festival marks our return.
“It’s the celebration of our record label, and I love that it’s happening in Eindhoven, in the Netherlands, even though Fuzz Club is based in London. Playing in a European city is important to me, and Effenaar is such a cool venue.
“We’ll only be at the festival on Saturday, unfortunately, so we’ll only catch half the lineup, including Goat, Mien, Rose City Band, and many others. We can’t wait.”
There is a genuine realness about New Candys. God (or whoever resides in the kingdom above the weather) knows that these days, integrity and honesty are rarely seen traits in people. Here, it comes naturally, just as it was always meant to be.
As with many folk in the wonderful World of music, it is not hiding deep down there within, if ever even there. Here it shines through as clear as a Samurai warrior’s sharpened sword.
Talent is not something to be earned. Or learned. Forever glued to your thick, dark sticky blood. It runs in the veins. It is not given and can definitely never be taken away.
Smashing it out from the cobblestones of Venice, the sonic revolution has begun! And it all starts with Regicide.
The Uncanny Extravaganza is released on 30 May 2025 via Fuzz Club. For pre-orders, visit NewCandys.lnk.to/tue.
