The Whistling Heads
Dance Punk | IT
AVAILABILITY FOR EUROPE
2026/27 | Dates upon request (EU-based band)
Line-up
Alberto Zaccaro aka Albert Mud | Vocals, guitar
Santino Mondello | Guitar
Samuele Costa | Bass
Giuseppe Arnao “Ziffo” | Drums
Style
A Messina dance-punk band with a wiry guitar attack, a restless rhythm section, and a clear instinct for hooks. Their sound moves from raw art-rock tension into dance-punk propulsion, keeping the urgency of British crank wave and new wave alive without sounding derivative. Sharp, youthful, and physically driven, they turn nervous energy into songs built for both small clubs and international showcases.
Profile
The Whistling Heads are a Messina-based dance-punk band shaped by rehearsal-room intensity, local underground culture, and a fast-developing live identity. Emerging from the Retronouveau orbit, they built their early profile through lean songs charged with alternative rock friction, noise-pop edges, and a youthful sense of tension. Since the first singles and the 2023 debut album Dull Boy, the project has expanded quickly through Italian dates, UK shows, growing international press attention, and the Gabe Gurnsey / Factory Floor remix of “Well…I Mean”.
Their 2025 release Better and Better than Before… widened the frame further with remixes, live cuts, and unreleased material, confirming a band that is no longer interested in staying inside one strict lane. What defines them is the balance between abrasion and melody: angular guitars, elastic basslines, alert drumming, and vocals that channel irony, pressure, and youthful disillusion with directness rather than pose.
Details
Alberto Zaccaro aka Albert Mud | Vocals, guitar
Frontman and co-founder of the project, Alberto Zaccaro is the most visible narrative voice of the band. Public release credits list him as Albert Mud for lyrics, while interviews place him at the centre of the group’s stylistic shift from classic post-punk toward a more dance-punk direction. His delivery gives the songs their tension between sarcasm, anxiety, and immediacy.
Santino Mondello | Guitar
Santino Mondello belongs to the original nucleus that launched the band and remains crucial to its guitar identity. His playing helps define the band’s angular, British-facing language, balancing abrasion with shape and momentum. He has also publicly explained the origin of the name The Whistling Heads, underlining the project’s rooted Messina identity.
Samuele Costa | Bass
Samuele Costa is the bassist whose arrival helped turn an early idea into a stable working band. In interviews he describes the chemistry of the settled line-up as the moment the project became serious. His bass work is central to the spring-loaded grooves and to the more dance-oriented direction of the recent material.
Giuseppe Arnao “Ziffo” | Drums
Known as Ziffo, Giuseppe Arnao is the drummer whose arrival stabilized the line-up that wrote most of Dull Boy. His drumming gives the band lift, bite, and rhythmic discipline, carrying both the nervous post-punk drive and the newer club-leaning accents. He is also regularly present in the band’s public interviews and live presentations.
Biography
The Whistling Heads belong to the new Italian wave of bands reclaiming dance-punk as a live language rather than a museum code. Their identity is rooted in Messina, but the project already reads beyond its local scene through a British-facing guitar vocabulary, dance-aware bass movement, and a frontman presence that turns irony and pressure into direct stage communication. The result is a band that can work in clubs, alternative festivals, and showcase circuits with the same sense of urgency.
Discography
October — single — 2022-10
Teenage cliché — single — 2023-03
Shoot Shoot — single — 2023-06
Dull Boy — album — 2023-09-01
Well…I Mean — single — 2024-02
Well…I Mean (Gabe Gurnsey / Factory Floor Remix) — single — 2024-04
Shut Me Up — single — 2024-05
Lullaby Lady — single — 2024-08
Wreck — single — 2025-03
Better and Better than Before… — compilation — 2025-09-13
Quotes
“One of the most interesting acts in today’s Italian underground.”
Stefano Gallone | Rockit | 2023-10-02
“From Messina, beyond the borders of rock.”
Giandomenico Morabito | Musica Intorno | 2023-11-22
“A gripping indie post-punk where electric crash, lively rhythms, and melodic pop taste all come through clearly.”
Gianluca Polverari / Radio Città Aperta | 2023-12-01
“A band who knows exactly how to write a funky indie-rock tune.”
Fred Bambridge | It’s All Indie | 2024-02-12
“They are injecting fresh vitality into that spirit.”
Alice Teeple | Post-Punk.com | 2024-05-27
Reviews
The Whistling Heads: “Dull Boy” recensione / Rockit / Stefano Gallone / 2023-10-02
Dull Boy, The Whistling Heads oltre i confini del rock / Musica Intorno / Giandomenico Morabito / 2023-11-22
Intervista The Whistling Heads ad Alternitalia / Radio Città Aperta / 2023-12-01
The Whistling Heads drop their funky new tune, “Well…I Mean” / It’s All Indie / Fred Bambridge / 2024-02-12
The Whistling Heads – Well…I Mean (Disasters by Choice) / The Big Takeover / Dave Franklin / 2024-02-15
Sicilian Post-Punk Quartet The Whistling Heads Debut Video for “Shut Me Up” / Post-Punk.com / Alice Teeple / 2024-05-27
Wayne Krantz was born in Corvallis, Oregon. He released his first album, Signals, in 1990, sporting an array of recognized jazz musicians such as Dennis Chambers, Don Alias, Anthony Jackson, and others.
Evan Marien is an award-winning bassist, composer, producer, author, educator, and 3D artist, born and raised in the cornfields of Decatur, Illinois. He graduated from Berklee College of Music in 2009 and has lived in the NYC area since 2010.
Josh Dion was born at the tail end of the disco funk era, when popular radio bore the sounds of Quincy Jones, Michael Jackson, and ‘four on the floor’ drum beats! Raised in Storrs, CT, Josh started playing his father’s drums before he even started kindergarten. He grew up playing drums to the simple and beat driven sounds of Nick Mason and Ringo Starr. He also lived across the hall from his older brother, who not only followed the Grateful Dead, but introduced him to Cream at the tender age of seven. Rightfully so, Cream, Zeppelin and the Stones led Dion to Willie Dixon, Robert Johnson and beyond.
