VIDEO: INTERVIEW – Gioli and Assia at Portola Music Festival

With the release of their third studio album, ‘Fire, Hell and Holy Water’ (Ultra Records), in September, Gioli and Assia gave fans a wealth of new music as the collection boats sixteen new tracks. Named after a well known local Sicilian saying, the record documents the duo’s challenges as a couple but also the health problems and untimely losses of relatives during the pandemic. They stated, “in Italian and Sicilian, it’s a dialect so it was like mixing the bad and the good things, so it was like the perfect name.” The pair cite many artists as influences who informed the sound on the new album, including London Grammar, Coldplay, Depeche Mode, Labyrinth’s Euphoria score, U2 and Ludovico Einaudi. The album was produced and written entirely by the duo who noted their affinity for Greek mythology as the inspiration for the album’s title, Gioli stated, “I was studying Greek mythology and the Latin language in high school, so I really love Greek mythology and this is why we connected hell, but in general we really love this album because we wanted to really give a statement this is Gioli and Assia not just for the music but also for all the lyrics.” Hailing from Palermo, Italy, instrumentalists, singer/songwriters, DJs and label owners, Gioli and Assia have been producing the boundary-pushing video series #DiesisLive as recent singles “Fire, Hell And Holy Water”, “Silence”, “I’ll Be Fine”, “Playing Chess”, and “Eurydice” have garnered much attention from fans and critics alike.

Giolì & Assia spoke with B-Sides about performing at the inaugural Portola Music Festival their latest album, ‘Fire, Hell And Holy Water’, their perspective as female producers and artists in the music industry and more.