Metal, Hardcore, Indie, Rock
Little Boys is an Italian band formed by Elle on guitar and vocals and Esse on drums. They formed in Japan in 2020: we chatted with them about music, touring and more!
Hello Elle and Esse, how are you doing at the moment?
Elle: We’re writing from Jeju, the last stop on our tour of South Korea, so we’re at that strange point halfway between being completely exhausted and not wanting it to end at all. It’s been a very intense month—exactly the kind of experience we were looking for when we decided to come here. And actually, we’re not heading home just yet: in a few days, we’ll be back in Japan for another two weeks.
You’ve built an impressive touring history across Japan, Europe, China, and South Korea. How do international audiences in Asia react to your raw, physical power rock compared to European crowds?
Elle: In reality, the more we travel, the more we realize that the whole world is the same. We’ve never found any major difference between Korean, Japanese, Chinese, or European audiences: if people are having fun, they get excited; if they grow attached to a band, they really grow attached. In the end, human reactions are much more similar than we imagine before we set out.
One thing that never ceases to amaze me about Japan, though, is the audience’s loyalty. If you manage to win over even just two people, those two people will always come back to see you—every time you return, no matter what. And that’s a beautiful thing.
In Korea, on the other hand, I got the impression that true rock fans can be even more boisterous and instinctive than some segments of the European rock audience, which may have become a bit more subdued over the years. But the thing these tours have taught us most of all is precisely this: cities and languages change, but people change far less.
Elle, you play a right-handed electric guitar left-handed without reversing the strings—meaning the heavy bass strings are at the bottom. How did this unconventional setup shape your chord phrasing, tone, and overall approach to writing riffs?
Elle: Actually, my way of building chords developed practically on its own. Playing a right-handed guitar as a left-hander—without reversing the strings—means that many of the conventional fingerings simply don’t work or are extremely uncomfortable. So from the very beginning, I had to adapt the chords to what my hands could actually do, find different fingerings, eliminate some notes, move others around, and come up with my own solutions. Paradoxically, having fewer options has given me more creativity. If I’d learned the guitar the conventional way, I would have had thousands of pre-established solutions at my disposal; instead, I’m forced to find my own every time. And inevitably, this also influences the riffs, phrasing, and sound of the Little Boys.
I never consciously decided to develop a “strange” style: it’s simply the result of years spent solving a physical problem. The limitation has become the language.
Esse, you originally played bass before switching to drums to build this shared language with Elle. How did your background as a bassist influence the way you approach the kit to fill the sonic space without a bass player?
Esse: My background as a bassist definitely helped me when I started playing the drums. Actually, I think my first real drum lesson happened even before I picked up the sticks: I was playing bass in another band and spent a lot of time sitting behind the drummer, watching and listening to him. That’s when I realized how much you can learn about an instrument just by observing the way someone else plays it. As for having to fill the space left by the absence of a bassist, honestly, that’s a problem I’ve never even considered. I don’t think of the drums as something that has to compensate for a missing instrument. Elle fills that space with her guitar and her playing style. Our sound has been built that way from the very beginning, and for us, there’s never been anything to “fill.”
Touring as a two-piece requires immense logistical and physical endurance. What is the hardest part about maintaining that level of raw energy night after night on the road?
Elle: The hardest part is definitely the accumulated fatigue. On tour, it’s not just about the concert: there’s constant moving around, traveling, delays, changing hotels practically every day, eating when you can, and sleeping when you can. And then, regardless of everything that’s happened during the day, the moment comes when you have to get on stage.
When you’re really tired, you also start to face your true weaknesses—the ones that might not normally surface if you’d slept well, eaten regularly, and been physically fit. On tour, you can’t hide them anymore. There have been moments of real crisis—before playing and sometimes even during the concert—when you honestly think you have nothing left to give.
But then the evening ends, you meet people, talk to them, share a moment, see their reactions, and realize what really happened during that concert. And it’s precisely that response from the audience that restores the strength you thought you’d run out of and gets you going again the next day. Perhaps this is the paradox of touring: what wears you down is also what keeps recharging you.
What was it like sharing the Club Realize stage in Korea with iconic acts like the Hard-Ons, and how has the Asian media response (from Yonhap to The Korea Times) impacted the band’s momentum?
Esse: For me, it was almost a life lesson. That evening we’d put on a fantastic show: Club Realize was buzzing with the right kind of energy, the crowd was enthusiastic, and when we stepped off the stage, we were truly satisfied with what we’d done.
Then I made my way into the crowd to watch the Hard-Ons.
And that’s when the lesson hit me.
I heard their drummer playing just a few meters away from me, and I simply thought: okay, there’s still so much to learn. He was a beast. It was one of those performances that, instead of discouraging you, immediately put you in your place in the best possible way: it reminds you why you keep studying, why you keep playing, and why you can never think you’ve made it.
And the even best part was meeting them afterward. Behind all that power on stage, we found people who were delightful, friendly, and incredibly down-to-earth. Maybe it was precisely this combination that struck me: seeing musicians capable of being massive on stage without needing to be that way off stage as well.
Elle: That evening we put on a great concert, but we also came home having learned something. And personally, those are the kinds of nights I prefer.
For us, the attention from the Asian media meant a great deal, especially because, while in Japan we already had a history and relationships built up over the years, in Korea we were arriving for the first time.
One of the images that will probably stay with me the most is our arrival at KNN: you walk into the building and find a giant screen entirely dedicated to your band. Then you go upstairs and discover that they’ve prepared nearly two hours of programming and interviews centered on what you do. For a band that, just a few weeks earlier, had never even set foot in the country, it’s pretty surreal.
From there, more appearances followed—more radio shows, from Jeonju to Busan—but the biggest surprise wasn’t even the amount of attention we received. It was the way we received it.
Many of the journalists and hosts who interviewed us didn’t just schedule a studio appointment: they made restaurant reservations for us, and before the live broadcasts, we found ourselves sitting down to truly lavish lunches, with an endless array of courses, treated with the utmost care. We ate together, talked, shared stories about our lives, and only then went on the air. At that point, the interview was no longer just a meeting between a band and a journalist, but the continuation of a conversation that had already begun hours earlier.
Even the journalist from The Korea Times came personally to see us play at the festival and brought us printed copies of the newspaper.
So we didn’t experience the typical cold, impersonal interactions between artists and the media, where you send some material, answer a few questions, and that’s the end of it. In Korea, we met the people behind the names and the publications. We ate with them, talked, laughed, played in front of them, and built real relationships. I think this was one of the nicest surprises of the entire tour and definitely one of the reasons I want to return to Korea. Not just because we found an audience there, but because we left behind people we want to see again.
Are there any Finnish artists that you like, that inspire you or that are present in your streaming playlists?
Elle: If we had to choose a name, I’d say The Flaming Sideburns: we like that kind of raw, straightforward rock ’n’ roll, without too many layers between the band and the listener. It’s an attitude we can definitely relate to.
Can you share with us your families’ reaction to Little Boys?
Esse: At first, they teased us a little. Now, though, they just act like nothing’s going on. I think that’s the most accurate description possible.
When we have a little success, though, you can tell: deep down, they’re satisfied—maybe even proud—but they’ll never admit it. They keep acting as if everything is perfectly normal.
The thing that made me laugh the most happened just before we left for this tour in Korea. It had been four or five years since our first album came out, and my dad, completely serious, asked, “But you still haven’t played me a single one of your songs. Can you play me one?” After five years. I thought it was wonderful.
Elle: Sometimes I’ve tried to figure out where this attitude in our families comes from. Part of me would like to find an answer; another part, honestly, would rather not have one. In the end, I like that things have stayed this way. They pretend nothing is happening, we keep doing what we do, and every now and then, we catch them being happy for us. That’s just fine.
If “THE BEAST OF LITTLE BOYS” were the soundtrack to a movie, what kind of film would it be, and who would be driving the getaway car?
Esse: It might be the easiest answer in the world, but it would inevitably be a Tarantino movie: gritty, over-the-top, just the right amount of violent, with questionable characters and a soundtrack that’s probably more important than the plot.
As for the getaway car, I, Esse, would definitely be the one driving. Because if Elle were behind the wheel, the getaway would last only a few seconds.
Thank you so much for taking the time to do this interview with me! Is there anything else you’d like to add to our readers?
Little Boys: Thank you for the interview. If we had to leave your readers with a message, we’d say two things.
Esse: First: Put down your cell phones and go back to seeing live concerts. Go to a venue, stand in front of the stage, and discover a band you don’t know. Music still needs to be experienced physically, not just watched on a screen.
Elle: The second is to be braver. Do what you want to do, care a little less about what others think, and keep moving forward. We ourselves started out doing something that, from the outside, might have seemed absurd, and we still put ourselves in situations today where we don’t know exactly what will happen.
But if you truly believe in something and keep working at it with determination, perseverance, and even a certain amount of recklessness, sooner or later things start to happen.
So, strength and courage to everyone. And above all: go to concerts.
