With “Blooom”, their new album, Planet Funk open a new season of their journey, a phase that does not have the flavor of celebration but the rarer, more necessary and intimate flavor of re-foundation.
After profound deaths and internal transformations, the collective chooses not to become rigid in its own mythology, but to relaunch: a conscious flowering, matured over time, which looks forward without removing what has been. Alex Neri, Marco Baroni, Dan Black and Alex Uhlmann today they are going through this transition with renewed energy, keeping intact the international gaze that has always distinguished them and reaffirming the idea of the group as a living organism, in constant mutation.
In this interview Alex Neri talks about “Blooom” as a gesture of continuity and rupture at the same time: a record that comes from a long time, from resistance to the logic of rapid consumption, from the desire to restore an emotional and human density to music.
A lucid conversation between “boomers”, without nostalgic indulgences, which focuses on what it means to make electronics today, to remain faithful to an idea of art and, above all, to continue to flourish.
THE INTERVIEW
The title “BLOOOM” evokes a vital explosion, a sudden flowering. How important was it to nominate the album as an act of rebirth after a year marked by such decisive absences?
Yes, it's an important title. “Bloom” means flowering, re-flowering. In recent years, in our lives and in the group, everything has happened.
Every loss we have faced has led, like it or not, to a rebirth. In my opinion, rebirth always comes after mourning.
The title was born precisely from this: from many restarts, not least that of Planet Funk. I wouldn't talk about a phoenix being reborn from the ashes, because the group never died, the DNA has always remained. But we had to go through a lot, especially on a human level.
The disappearance of Sergio Della Monica first and then of Gigi Canu inevitably had an impact.
Certain. Over the years we have written music, rewritten, remixed, adapted. Today's sound is the result of this entire journey. Blooom seemed like the right name to say: let's start again. And accentuating the “Os”, almost like a sigh of relief. Finally.
You were talking about an updated sound. How necessary was it to do this today?
Absolutely necessary. Music and technology are galloping today. We have always liked working on sound obsessively. We have always been very international, and when you enter that market you have to be competitive. Maybe we were even ambitious, but it's our style.
The Planet Funk sound is born from a precise mix.
Yes, right from the first album: eighties, indie, new wave and dance. That matrix remains, but it must be reread. Today we are no longer the same as we were then. We lost Gigi, Dan Black is back full time, there's a new singer. Dynamics and visions change.
And then there are songs started when Sergio and Gigi were still there. Some date back almost ten years. But if a song is good, you can change its dress, but it remains good.
You have gone through and partly written the history of Italian electronics. What do you see as radically different today?
That today we no longer say “I'm going to listen”, but “I'm going to see”. It's an epochal change. I live it every weekend as a DJ. I always ask myself: what is there to see when you go to see a DJ set?
It's the sign of social media, which for me is the new television. Music is no longer listened to only with the ears, it is looked at. The images are central.
But Planet Funk have always worked a lot on imagery too.
Exact. Video, aesthetics. We have never been a band of faces, but of sounds and names. You might recognize Dan Black, but he was never a canonical pop star. I don't suffer from this today.
However, I miss the physical involvement of the public, fewer phones, more presence. But here the 55 year old “boomer” speaks. It's difficult to judge.
Technology has also changed everything. I think about artificial intelligence.
I am not against AI. Progress is fine as long as it remains at the service of man. It becomes dangerous when it's the opposite.
I come from pure analog: samplers that recorded one second. Today I talk to guys who tell me “I made this sound”. Then I find out they got it from Splice. It's another world.
The change from the nineties to today has been so fast that you almost don't notice it. But progress is exciting, if you govern it.
Today the charts are dominated by Italian music. Is it a good thing? And above all, isn't it penalizing for you?
It's a huge change. In the nineties, Italian music almost didn't exist. Today yes, and this is positive. The new generations are less xenophilic than us.
For Planet Funk, who sing in English, it can be a disadvantage. But we try to speak to young people with direct language, as in Feel Everything.
Our messages are universal, ageless.
Would singing in Italian be easier today?
Probably yes. But that's not our path. Rather I tell the kids: broaden the range, listen to international music too. Trap is a worldwide phenomenon, not just Italian.
There are realities, I'm thinking of Naples and the suburbs, where that rap is true, it comes from a real urgency. And when art is honest, it always comes through.
Are you very critical of “planned” music?
I hate it. Songs designed to last two minutes, one and forty for Spotify. It's all more and more like a commercial.
I don't sacrifice a song. You can't ask Pink Floyd to cut solos. So you risk killing art. I understand modern times, but I have limits that cannot be crossed.
Will there also be a tour?
Yes, a European tour: London, Berlin, Amsterdam, Brussels, two dates in Spain. We want to get back into the game, to see the reactions outside Italy, especially on the lyrics.
In England they understand every word, and the reactions are different. It's inspiring for a band that sings in English.
What will you bring to the stage?
The workhorses, obviously: The Switch, Inside All The People, Who Said and of course Chase The Sun. But also the whole new album.
We're working on a long show and it's great to see the guys jumping under the stage with songs that have transcended generations.
THE TRACKLIST
1. FEEL EVERYTHING
2. THE WORLD'S END
3. NIGHTS IN WHITE SATIN
4. ANY GIVEN DAY
5. THERE'S A STRANGER
6. TWO LOST SOULS
7. I GET A RUSH
8. ROLLING SAYS
9. YOU ARE NOT ALONE
10. LEAP INTO THE LIGHT
11. NOWHERE NOWHERE
12. FAMILY REUNION
THE TOUR
PLANET FUNK will return live in May 2026 with the “BLOOOM European Tour”, a series of events that will cross the main European cities, an obligatory step for the collective to present the new album of unreleased songs live and meet the public.
This is the complete calendar:
06 May MADRID (Moby Dick)
11 May AMSTERDAM (Melkweg)
12 May LONDON (Scala)
13 May BARCELONA (La Nau)
19 May BRUSSELS (VK)
20 May BERLIN (Club Gretchen)
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