Part 2

Could you take us through a day in your life, from a possible morning routine through to your work? Do you have a fixed schedule? How do music and other aspects of your life feed back into each other - do you separate them or instead try to make them blend seamlessly?

I have a wife and a beautiful four-year-old daughter who lights up my whole day. In the morning I get up to go to work (my job is system administrator) and I'm away from home at least until 6PM from Monday to Friday.

I dedicate the weekend to my family. I enjoy music, possibly late at night, when the baby sleeps and there is silence around me. For a very short time now I have my professional studio where I can now finally dedicate my time as a composer and as a label manager. I receive many demos from other artists so I can listen to them and do my evaluations. Obviously I also have to manage the orders and shipments of the CDs (prepare and pack the parcels etc ...) It is during the night that I usually feel more inspired.

So when the situation is right, I turn on the instruments and start playing.

Could you describe your creative process on the basis of a piece or album that's particularly dear to you, please? Where did the ideas come from, how were they transformed in your mind, what did you start with and how do you refine these beginnings into the finished work of art?

I can talk to you about my last album, "Algida Bellezza" which I composed for my daughter, which was my inspirational muse. A few days after her birth, I felt a very strong emotional impulse due to this great event, and I started playing during the night. I cradled the baby on my arm, while with the other I scanned the sounds I had in my library. I mainly used found sounds, various samples, piano and field recordings and all these were heavily processed, cut, manipulated and performed with my Roland VP9000. Behind every single sound there is the emotion and beauty of my newborn daughter.

This was the idea and the feelings that gave birth to the whole creative process. Subsequently I entrusted the final mixing and mastering to my friend and sound engineer Matteo Spinazzè Savaris, who gave that extra gear to the whole album.

There are many descriptions of the ideal state of mind for being creative. What is it like for you? What supports this ideal state of mind and what are distractions? Are there strategies to enter into this state more easily?

My ideal state for composing music is the silence of the winter night. If I can also take a nice walk in the woods or a nice run, even better. These things discharge me from any tension accumulated during the day, and this is then reflected in my music.

How is playing live and writing music in the studio connected? What do you achieve and draw from each experience personally? How do you see the relationship between improvisation and composition in this regard?

They are two completely different experiences. Playing live has an improvisation component that stands out much more than the studio composition. Even the place of the event does its part, and above all the attitude of the people who listen to the performance. These things are reflected on the artist and consequently on the music.

The experience of playing live enriches me as I meet different people and situations, places, cultures and foods that do not belong to my everyday life. It is a total experience that is not limited only to music.

How do you see the relationship between the 'sound' aspects of music and the 'composition' aspects? How do you work with sound and timbre to meet certain production ideas and in which way can certain sounds already take on compositional qualities?

Sound is a small part of composition. I think that each sound goes in the same direction … the final goal is the composition itself. But behind each single sound, sibilance or noise, there is the artist … if there isn’t passion, there can be no relationship between sound and composition. Sometimes I get an entire song using only one sound. This happens in a completely random way. That sound has something really special, and it doesn't need anything else. Less is more. I'm trying to have this approach on my compositions, like for example I did on my album "Algida Bellezza".

Our sense of hearing shares intriguing connections to other senses. From your experience, what are some of the most inspiring overlaps between different senses - and what do they tell us about the way our senses work? What happens to sound at its outermost borders?

Sound has always played a very strong role and exerted power on the human mind. Just think about the magic rituals that were made (even in these times) by the tribes scattered around the world to obtain altered states of consciousness. I remember for example the didgeridoo played by the Australian aborigines, the Tibetan bowls and bells of the Tibetans, gong, tabla, zither and many other instruments. A certain type of sound opens the doors of the invisible worlds because it scrutinizes and shakes the remote areas of the human mind. As far as I'm concerned, it's the feeling of cold in a landscape wrapped in silence and white snow.

Art can be a purpose in its own right, but it can also directly feed back into everyday life, take on a social and political role and lead to more engagement. Can you describe your approach to art and being an artist?

I can't answer this question ... I don't like to think about the idea of being an artist and making art. Maybe because I'm not an artist.

It is remarkable, in a way, that we have arrived in the 21st century with the basic concept of music still intact. Do you have a vision of music, an idea of what music could be beyond its current form?

More than anything else, I would have a dream and a wish at the same time. I would like music to connect the human species back to nature. To regenerate the role of humanity on this planet through music.