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Name: Francesco Lo Giudice
Nationality: Italian
Occuaption: musician
Current Release: The Trunk on Motor Music
Recommendations: NonViolent Communication by Marshall Rosenberg / Inside by Bo Burnham

If you enjoyed this interview with Olmo visit the website to watch his videos and learn about live shows.

When did you start writing/producing/playing music and what or who were your early passions and influences? What was it about music and/or sound that drew you to it?

I started playing violin at 6 years old, writing songs with a guitar at 13 and producing on a laptop at 16/17 but I only got really into it at 19 at uni.

Some people experience intense emotion when listening to music, others see colours or shapes. What is your own listening experience like and how does it influence your approach to music?

I do see images - still and moving, and yes I associate certain songs with certain colours or combination of colours.

How would you describe your development as an artist in terms of interests and challenges, searching for a personal voice, as well as breakthroughs?

I was always in search of my own voice for as long as I can remember, playing strictly other people’s music was something that didn’t necessarily make sense to me from a very young age playing in orchestras.

Tell me a bit about your sense of identity and how it influences both your preferences as a listener and your creativity as an artist, please.

I grew up between Italy and the UK so my sense of belonging is pretty much consistently at a loss and it means I inhale and exhale Italian melodies and UK punk with a perennial juxtaposition of insider understanding and a feeling of outcast.

What, would you say, are the key ideas behind your approach to music and art?

Express an eternal feeling using tools of today.

How would you describe your views on topics like originality and innovation versus perfection and timelessness in music? Are you interested in a “music of the future” or “continuing a tradition”?

Both are equally as important and one without the other makes very uninteresting material to me. Perfection is a fantasy.

Over the course of your development, what have been your most important instruments and tools - and what are the most promising strategies for working with them?

Computer microphone for recording vocals. Quick, mobile and sounds great (if your voice agrees with it)
Prophet 08 - embracing the chaos on it tends to get me the best results

Take us through a day in your life, from a possible morning routine through to your work, please.

It really depends on where my project, bank account and mind is at. I wish I had a morning routine but not enough to actually implement one.

Could you describe your creative process on the basis of a piece, live performance or album that's particularly dear to you, please?

After a long period of being severely broke, watching a Dylan documentary and my friend Will texting me ‘how are you, you dreamboat?’ everything collided together in my brain and my song ‘dream boat’ came out in a matter of minutes.

Listening can be both a solitary and a communal activity. Likewise, creating music can be private or collaborative. Can you talk about your preferences in this regard and how these constellations influence creative results?

Creating with others is of course incredibly fulfilling and joyful.
Full creative control and internal discovery is also amazing and I think necessary for an understanding of yourself through the years. A balance would be ideal. And ‘no solo artist is really a solo artist, if they’re honest.’ Thom Yorke said that.

How do your work and your creativity relate to the world and what is the role of music in society?

My goal is for my art to mirror society in some way. That’s something that excites me a lot in other people’s work. In music (as in all art) I think there is escapism within presence. In forgetting you remember and in remembering you forget.

Art can be a way of dealing with the big topics in life: Life, loss, death, love, pain, and many more. In which way and on which occasions has music – both your own or that of others - contributed to your understanding of these questions?

Music is definitely a way I deal with these things. It has a magic power but I feel if I try to rationalise it and explain it the power will go away.

There seems to be increasing interest in a functional, “rational” and scientific approach to music. How do you see the connection between music and science and what can these two fields reveal about each other?  

Music is maths at the end of the day. Sometimes it helps to think of it that way, it can help creative ruts for me. Strip it of the deep emotion and see the shapes, patterns and numbers.

Creativity can reach many different corners of our lives. Do you feel as though writing or performing a piece of music is inherently different from something like making a great cup of coffee? What do you express through music that you couldn't or wouldn't in more 'mundane' tasks?

I’m not sure if it’s advisable to do so but I take my music much more seriously than my cups of tea. But I’m probably over thinking it.

Music is vibration in the air, captured by our ear drums. From your perspective as a creator and listener, do you have an explanation how it able to transmit such diverse and potentially deep messages?

Honestly it blows my mind daily. Our ears are such infinitely complex mechanisms that let us communicate with other beings like ourselves. WTF???