by Caterina Ruggi of Aragon
The Roman singer-songwriter: «Has my hair turned white? I’m certainly more relaxed than I was 25 years ago.” Presenting his new recording project for his 25 year career
“Singing was the last thing that interested me,” confides the Roman singer-songwriter Niccolò Fabi, who was a guest on Thursday 19 January at La Feltrinelli Red in Florence (6 p.m.) to (and on 10 other Italian bookstores) to present the recording project Meno for less, with which he celebrates 25 years of career. That’s right, a quarter of a century has passed since his Sanremo debut with Capelli, which won the Critics’ Prize for New Suggestions. Almost half of Fabi’s life, who is 54, has been spent in a balance between word and music, between a lexical research that draws its strength from his rich cultural background (and his degree in Romance Studies) and an ongoing sonic experiment that this is what free speech tends to do. Without fear of sinking into the most painful folds of existence. But without missing a single opportunity to celebrate. In fact, the album released in December on the Bmg label (three years after “Tradizione e tradimenti”) is a tribute to the first 25 years he shared – soul and voice – with the public and includes 4 unreleased songs and 6 pieces , orchestrated together with Maestro Enrico Melozzi and his Orchestra Notturna Clandestina for the festive concert in the Arena di Verona.
How did you experience the Arena di Verona?
“I can hardly remember that evening. I am not fit to live and metabolize such rapid and explosive events. I prefer tours that require movements, stages and trends where you have time to change and improve. There was a religious stillness in the arena that, more than the size of the room, made me feel the affection of my “extended family” with whom I felt a strong mutual interpenetration during the hour and 15 minutes of the solo.”
Do you prefer bookstores?
«It is not a question of place but of speed that did not allow me to stop the memories. In the bookstore I will have the opportunity to interact with people in a direct and informal exchange. I don’t like brokered relationships, so I’m only active on social media to set up dates; I rarely go on the radio, even less on TV».
Will he see San Remo?
“No. I don’t even have a TV at home. When a colleague I know and love attends, I indirectly follow them through what’s published. But I’m not interested in the collective ritual of the show, its hosts and Stacchetti change but not the principle I identify with the singers who take turns on stage, among other things, I feel involved: I couldn’t get involved in the voting and paddle game, we’re not talking about talent .”
Speaking of subtractions, there are two lesss in the title of his latest album…
“I provocatively repeat subtraction, which I clearly prefer to addition. It should also be noted that the result of multiplying two negativities is positive, just as my music can have positive effects by touching painful keys, not just on myself. I write when my sea ripples: it’s a masochistic play with therapeutic aspects. The best thing is the effect on the audience».
In 2010, for the birthday of his daughter Olimpia, who died of meningitis at the age of only 22 months, he organized the 12-hour mega concert “Parole di Lulù” (he also gave a name to the foundation that supports projects for children). Where did he get the strength to carry such a great sadness that he didn’t even have a name on the stage?
«I did it unwittingly, instead of focusing on the narrative, I made the portrayal of a man in his various nuances, in the most complex moments and in the most exciting of his existence, making it commonplace: not trivial, but inserted in the natural course of his story “.
A strong empathy with the audience was triggered…
“It certainly wasn’t why they started loving my songs. But since I have an audience that listens to me and follows me, my music has a different meaning. I don’t know if I would continue writing if I didn’t have anyone to interact with. Writing songs would surely lose the point.
Among the new generations, which singers do you like?
«In this period there is a very large production of Italian music: that is a positive thing. If you walk by a school you will see that maybe 99% of the kids listen to Italian songs through headphones while in my day they listened to international music. But the singers of the latest generation are connected to the representation of everyday life, which has never fascinated me. Instead of a story about what happens on the street using the language of social networks, I prefer a moving writing like that of Andrea Laszlo De Simone or Emma Nolde from Tuscany.”
The theater tour “Less for Less” starts in April: a mixture of events in the arena and personal meetings in the bookstore?
«The idea of the tour is to make the Verona concert an itinerant tour divided into two distinct moments: the guitar solo for an hour and a half and the other hour with the Orchestra Notturna Clandestina. I liked the fundamentalist mechanism that goes from the minimum to the extreme and I decided to repeat it with the freedom of a tour that allows me to change things along the way».
For the May 15th stage at the Verdi in Florence, he returns to Tuscany, a region with which he has an emotional bond.
«My mother belonged to a decadent Sienese noble family. I have elitist memories with Tuscany: vacations in the country, mostly living in seclusion or playing with the peasant children: I would have preferred to go to the beach, to places full of people my own age, but these summers have influenced my personality and they have left me a strong leaving a feeling of belonging to the Tuscan countryside, to which I always like to return».
Is your music elitist?
«Yes: I say it without pride or shame. It is inevitable that family, studies, life experiences and the people you meet will affect our vocabulary. I can’t be popular: that’s a technical fact».
His famous hair has gone gray…
“Actually white. But what does it matter? I’m certainly more relaxed than I was 25 years ago.”
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January 18, 2023 (change January 18, 2023 | 08:00)
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