logo

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've always chosen to have my own studio at home. They are points of view. I prefer to have the studio always available, and now I have managed to create a sufficiently soundproofed professional studio that I can safely work without bothering the neighbours or other people in the apartment. My typical day tends to be more creative in the afternoon and more technical/management in the morning. If I have specific deadlines, yes, I prefer to have a fixed schedule and work from early morning to late afternoon, but obviously there are extreme cases in which sometimes you work at night. Music production tends to be a constant part of my life at the moment. The separation is there but it is not so clear. I would like to say that it is not a definitive setting but that it will change over time, I will probably create time schedules that can leave room for longer or more frequent breaks within a working day. Lately I believe that short but numerous breaks help a lot with work routing and prepare you better creatively.

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?

More than a song, I can talk about my latest full album Full Panorama and my latest upcoming EP Gymnopedies. Full Panorama is perhaps the most intimate, irrational and emotional work I've done. Not only because I freely followed what I really felt close to musically speaking, but also because it is an album that comes from a very important moment of my life: a moment of creative change, of transformation. I wanted to make an album that started strongly from elements that are closest to my heart, which are cinema and imagery. I thought about what cinematically represented me the most. is a journey, a path, that evolves throughout the entire span of the album, and that touches several musical stages of my life.

Each track was born almost exclusively from manipulations, and then recordings on analogue modular synthesizers where the possibility of repeating is reduced to almost zero, creating a great musical spontaneity.

Gymnopedies, on the other hand, was almost entirely realized during this last lockdown period. It comes from some experiments that I had done with modular synths which then gained greater interest and which I therefore decided to resume and finalize in a more complete way. Erik Satie's three Gymnopedies are part of that listening imagination that has its origins in my very early years. A music my father frequently listened to.

I remember that these three simple melodies have always captivated me and somehow enchanted me. Taking them back and transforming them into a new electronic arrangement was a very spontaneous process that made me rediscover them again. They have something musically magical and eternal, an infinite modernity. The whole rework process was almost entirely (was done almost at a 90%) done with analogue synths and in almost one single recording session, in order to try and make the most out of the instinctive live performance.

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?

I think the best state of mind to be creative is to try to minimize performance anxiety and let go without prejudice to some kind of creative instinct. Personally, it will seem contradictory, an element that helps me to be more creative and therefore to prepare my mood in this sense, is the "deadline", having or creating a deadline. Even if there is no real client, always try to give yourself a calendar in which to try to meet the goals. Is it a little evocative approach? it helps me a lot to focus on the compositional and artistic factor. In this sense, having unlimited time distracts me and often leads me astray

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?

Live experience is not strictly related to studio work for me. I mean, I don't produce music thinking about what it would be like to bring it live. However, this does not mean that I do not consider the live set an important thing both in emotional terms, in terms of relationship with the public, and of broadening your creative horizons. The live experience helps you to relate to your music in a different way. It is like when you listen to your song alone and then in the presence of a friend or colleague, your perception of it changes radically, sometimes positively and sometimes negatively.

Improvisation, often but not always, is the basis of my approach to music, as I said before, my album Full Panorama was born from a series of improvisations that were then elaborated. In live shows, even with electronics you can improvise and perform your own music by interacting with it in real time, in this sense it is very important to build a setup that allows you to do so. However, I believe that a certain preparation and architecture of one's idea is fundamental at the basis of a good product, whether it be studio or live, let's not confuse improvisation with approximation

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?

My modus operandi during the composition process starts mainly from sound and timbre. Through the suggestion that a certain sound give to me that I can create melodies and arrangements. Obviously in electronic music the sound universe is very important and starting from this aspect makes me, in some ways, freer and at ease in developing my musical ideas. In my new ep Gymnopedies in which i reworked the three works of Erik Satie, there is just one such example. From already existing compositions a totally different sound universe has been created, we are talking about piano solo pieces from the end of the 19th century, which have given it a completely different character, all this starting precisely from a work of sound and timbral arrangement.

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?

In the notes of Full Panorama, I wrote: I wanted to make an album that started strongly from elements that are closest to my heart, which are cinema and imagery. I thought about what cinematically represented me the most. I imagined what the soundtrack I wanted to accomplish would sound like, and these 12 tracks were born. So, for me the cinematic and visual aspect seems to be an element that I cannot detach from the music. Images and music, and therefore sight and hearing, seem elements not only strongly linked but surprisingly capable of arousing totally unexpected and unpredictable emotions. There is such a deep and remote connection between these two senses, sight and hearing, sound and vision, that a believe that even today some effects and reactions on people are unknown.

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?

It is a very difficult question and one that requires some responsibility. "being an artist", I don't want to sound too humble, in my opinion it's a belief that honestly, I don't have yet. For me, the relationship with art is a continuous search for an identity. It is not certain that this research ends somewhere, but perhaps its essence is hidden in its continuous becoming. The awareness of being an artist is, perhaps, one of the most difficult things to achieve. One of the most beautiful things that art gives me back is the unexpected, that magic which, behind a work of art, gives back a completely new sensation, a sort of epiphany. I think it often feeds me on art more as a spectator than as a musician!

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?

I think being able to predict or imagine what music will be or how it can become is very difficult. Here I will give a short answer: i believe that the music in its primary essence will never change, the music will always be the same.


Previous page:
Part 1  
2 / 2
previous