By Rosine Alleva – Rock At Night EU Editor
The very charismatic Cinelli Brothers is a four-piece band from London with the brothers Marco and Alessandro Cinelli, Tom Julian-Jones and Jorma Gasperi. Before even meeting them they were already dear to my heart since the brothers come from the same area as my own roots…
The interview took place after the sound check. I was really excited to see the show. And what a fabulous performance!!! Multi Instrumentalists, multi vocalists, with amazing harmonies… couldn’t be better! With a blend of blues, soul and rock with a contemporary touch, it was an exceptional show. To make the packed audience stand up and dance on the last songs in this fully seated venue, it was the cherry on the cake to end this fabulous performance.
Definitely a gig no one will forget, a must-see live show! I’m a new fan forever!
Interview
RAN- How did you discover music? And when did you know what type of music you wanted to play?
Marco– For me… For all of us… Yeah, well, you know what? Tom?
Tom JJ– Marco and I have something in common, which is… We both, at the age of 11 years old, saw the Blues Brothers movie. With Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi. And that movie really introduced maybe all of us in some way to all these artists that we might not have known about before. They’re in the movie like Ray Charles, Aretha, James Brown, John Lee Hooker, you know. And so after seeing that movie, it kind of opened up this whole new world of music that I didn’t know existed before. And that is what… That movie, along with a couple of other things, really set me on the path of wanting to play like American roots music.
RAN- How did you start the band, the four of you?
Alessandro– Well, me and my brother, we actually know each other for a long time, of course. And we decided to play together, I think it was 2016, the first time we really started to do something together. And we wanted to do a blues record for fun. And he was living in France at the time. And I said to him, why don’t you come over to London? I know some guys that are really good musicians and we do a record. So he came over and in three days we cut our first record, which was “Baby Please Set Your Alarm”. And that’s how it started. And JJ joined the band and we’ve been touring since. That’s it.
RAN- And what are your influences?
Jorma– Me? Sorry. I started playing guitar because of Jimi Hendrix. He was the first, my very… my hero. Because my dad was a musician, so we always had music at home. Stevie Ray Vaughan is another great guitar player for me. And B.B. King was always in my playlist, constantly.
Marco- Same as us, really. Also us, it’s the same influences. The blues, the rock, the band. The bands, you know, like Beatles, Rolling Stones, The Who, all the British bands. And the American singers. Is that it, right? To summarise, to make it short. That’s it. The music from…We could be here hours. Yeah, we could be here all day talking about the references. You know, the good stuff. From, I would say, the 50s up until the 80s. That’s the target.
RAN- How is it, to work together as brothers?
Alessandro– It’s great. I mean, me and Marco, we have a great relationship. And it goes behind work, so we’ve always been very close. And I love to work with my brother. He’s an extremely talented musician and composer and producer. I mean, he makes my life easier, which is great. And we just work together, you know. I’m good at certain things, and I have my tasks, and so does he. So it’s a great combination, and I think musically also it works. We have the same influences and the same passion for the same kind of details. So it just works, I guess.
RAN– It feels like family on stage and out of stage, even with Tom and Jorma….
Alessandro– Yeah, they are brothers from other mothers. We spend so much time together. It’s really like a family thing. And of course, me and Marco, we’re blood-related, but I spend so much time with these two fellas. Of course, yeah. I love them. And it’s great to share the stage with such a connection. It’s definitely a different thing, and it really feels like a band. You know, it’s not like tonight who’s available, who’s not available. We are a band, and we share a lot. And it’s great.
RAN- Cool! I have a special question. If one day you wanted or you had the chance to decide to choose a guest on stage, who would you invite? Living people.
TomJJ– This is a very interesting question, because I think the four of us would say completely different people. Yeah living people of course. I think I know the first few that pop into my head, but for me, one of my favourite guitar players and singers is actually the older brother of Stevie Ray Vaughan, who is still playing and very successful, called Jimmie Vaughan. I would love to play with him while he’s still here. So that would be mine.
Alessandro– I don’t know. I think we should all answer quickly individually, because it’s going to be very different. What’s yours? I would love to share the stage with Paul McCartney, I would say. Paul McCartney would be my best option.
Jorma– I would love to have a jam session with Derek Trucks and the Trucks band.
RAN- My friend Jose Oliveira interviewed them in Switzerland, they’re absolutely fabulous.
Marco– I would love to share the stage with Dua Lipa. You don’t know Dua Lipa? Sorry. Sabrina Carpenter. Yeah, one hot chick! I would like, yeah, somebody from the pop scene, you know? Some big, like, used to do big stadiums. I wonder how it feels to be on the stage with us. I would like to invite a girl.
RAN– Lady Gaga? She’s amazing, Beth Hart?
Marco– Lady Gaga! Bruce Springsteen Tom just said! Beth Hart, we play with her next year! 25th of July, 2026. In Winterbach, Germany. That will be something, I tell you. 4,000 people. We are so excited.
RAN– What do you think about tribute bands that are quite popular lately?
Jorma- Actually, I was part of a tribute band. It was a fun experience. But I’ve always been towards the original music. I always like to compose, to be in the studio with the guys, to explore the sound. So it’s fun. I see it as a tribute. But for me, the most interesting part is when you put all the minds together to create one original product.
TomJJ– It is a commercial thing, you know? So that has very little artistic value. But it’s a great commercial value. If you go to a theatre, you can do a show, a play of Shakespeare or even a current writer and be of very little artistic value because you’re not bringing anything. You’re bringing something that has been done. But commercially, it’s great because people have another version of it. And you can have some thrills that echo the bigger band for a little ticket, a small ticket. That’s true, too. That’s commercially valid. Artistically, for us that we are creators, it’s like I would never end up in a tribute band. I’d rather hang myself. But I respect it. I would also say that, and Jorma is a good example, that as much as we don’t like the idea of doing it ourselves, I’ve got to say that the people in some of those bands, they are incredible musicians. Because, for example, I saw once an Eagles tribute band. It’s one of the hardest bands to replicate, where everybody sings perfectly. Everybody plays five instruments. I saw this band once and they did a very, very good job of being the Eagles. I think it’s something like we definitely respect it because most of the people that do it, if they do it well, it’s a job. They’re really good at it. But for us, we need a bit more.
Alessandro– We want to write our stuff. Because we create, it’s a shame. We have on the tray either a certain work, but it won’t go further than a certain level with a tribute band. Learn exactly what’s being told. You have your part, you don’t create, you really analyse your character. On the other way, you have a more unstable career with your original material, but far more open. You have way more possibilities. If you get big, you can get bigger. And you are proud, proud too of everything. You are extremely proud of people singing your own songs, rather than singing the songs of somebody else. Even if you sing them, but it’s not your work, it’s not the same. Pretty much like classical music.
Jorma- It’s like when you go to see a classical concert, you’re going to see what someone else wrote. And the orchestra replicates it. You can appreciate them playing it. It’s a good point actually.
RAN– How do you feel with the band in 2025? With all the awards winning that you had. You won the UK Blues Challenge in 2022. Then you finished second at the International Blues Challenge in Memphis. And you won last year in UK again .
Marco– Yes, the UK Blues Award for the Best band.
RAN- You know that the guys who were playing here last year, Josh Hoyer and Soul Colossal, they won the International Blues Challenge in Memphis this year.
Alessandro- Oh, congratulations. I mean, I can speak for the guys. I believe that we… I don’t see music as a competition. So every time we win or we pass through one of these challenges, it’s a bit weird because there’s a lot of people that you have to kind of face off. But you do such different things that it’s so hard for me to judge. At the same time, I mean, me and my brother, we’re Italian. Look, we came out of the UK and we went to represent UK in some major competition. To me, this is still unbelievable. And I so much appreciate such an opportunity that I was happy as a child. And it’s great to be recognised. Of course. I got nothing wrong with awards and things. It can be marketing, it can be whatever, but it’s pleasing. It is pleasing. And when we went to Memphis, it was a great experience because we were in the US. We were dressed up in very quirky clothes and everybody said, Hey, who are these guys? And by the end of the competition, everybody knew us. So it was a great opportunity to go there, to show ourselves, to play our music and surprise them. I mean, I’m so grateful for this, but they really liked it. So, you know, I wouldn’t do it again, I believe. But I’m so glad we did it when the time was right for us to do it. And nothing wrong with it. It’s just like, I think competition really feels weird sometimes, you know.
RAN– You’ll be definitely part of my favourite bands! Thank you very much for this interview and looking forward to seeing you on stage tonight!
The band has released four albums. The latest one “Almost Exactly”, a studio album recorded in Woodstock, NY was released in January 2024. The release party took place at the famous Cutting Room in New York City
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Many thanks to Tomas Martinez – We are Piccadilly for most photos and his collaboration as well as the Concha Segura Theater team.
Photo Gallery
From Belgian and Italian parents, I grew up with music, dance and big fun! I love singing since I'm a little girl, I still am, haha. When I was 14, I saw my first concert: T-Rex. Later it was FrankZappa, Miles Davis, Chick Corea, Fela, Canned Heat, Little Feat, Bonnie Raitt, Earth, Wind and Fire ....
I dreamed to have a chat with each of them 😀 Before interviewing bands, I used to sing (and still do) and met lots of great musicians. I had the chance to be the support band to Joe Cocker in 2007. I love to communicate and meet people (Italian blood).
Working for magazine, a few years ago, l met José Oliveira! We were working at the same festival in Colmar. 2 people from the South with the same passion just recognized each other...and we stayed in contact since then. Here I am! Enjoying concerts, covering interviews and articles with José for Rock at Night!!
- Chatting with the Cinelli Brothers at the Yecla Jazz Festival in Spain - October 18, 2025
- Yecla Jazz Festival – Spain with The Next Movement - October 16, 2025
- Meeting the amazing Jenny Salmon at La Zenia – Spain - October 6, 2025
