I do a completely different job since many years,
but I have never stopped to play and create musics and songs
actually since I was a teenager, for hobby.
As the years passed by, material and experience accumulated, and became more and
more clear also the theoretical desire, technical corollario of the inspiration,
of this production:
starting from rock, my old companion, exceed the musical divisions,
first of all the artificial dichotomy classic-modern music.
Is my opinion that music is a single entity, and consists in producing pleasing sounds
that open the inner doors of perception of reality,
than otherwise would remain closed.
Music must drag the conscience and the sensibility in existentially deep places:
it must primarily move the spirit, for which the technicalities and formal typings
are only useful tools, not the aim.
The path I followed as an experiment in these years does not use a process of “contamination” in which different styles is stirred or emulated, but it uses a process of “harmonic fertilization” in which the styles evolve one through the others, a process that can remember the movement thesis-antithesis-synthesis if you like, in which the final result (at least in the willings) is not the sum more or less partial of the starting parts but is something new, recognizable in its members but not completely explainable by them.
This intense activity lasted many years, until an evening,
particularly tired but inspired, I surprise myself asleep on the sofa while going on
playing the guitar. Crazy.
At this point I asked myself if it makes sense going on like this
keeping for me and some friend only or if things could be different.
Why not making a recording then? But some difficulties suddenly emerged:
The musical competition never interested me a lot, and above all here in my country it has seemed rather used to recommendation and not so much friendly to rock, and with progressive-rock not at all.
I have a family and sons to feed, I cannot afford invest many years trying to be noticed (from who?) playing in the piano-bar. (Also because I have almost no hair left, and we know the wave..)
But, in case of succeed producing something just not so ugly, I don't like at all “to lose it” completely, making it free.
The problems were therefore mainly two: how to record and how to distribute without completely loosing the paternity.
How to record it:
after some test, I realize that with the power of nowadays PC
(PIII class and above) it is possible to build,
without expensive hardware, a semi-pro recording studio. And in most case with free software (GPL licensed).
Moreover, with little money it could be virtualized also quality effects rack, synths,
classic orchestral sections and traditional instruments.
How to distribute it:
sure through Internet. But how?
By payment fees, under copyright as usual, or free without any right, as public domain?
This doubt lasted a little more, because, as already said, none of the two ways appealed to me.
Until I discovered Creative Commons Licences: a new valid law-paradigm all over the world, effectively summarized in the slogan “Some Rights Reserved”
To say it short, I have selected fifteen or so pieces among what I have,
linked to the history I would “tell”.
Some were complete songs, other only Midi cues.
Even dates vary: one song have been written 17 years ago, another the past year (2005).
As rock harmonized classic music there is an homage to J.S.Bach and a Gregoriano song, in
which the classic seed generates “its” rock music, reworking itself deeply,
on the contrary Schubert classic Ave Maria has reworked me.
For every piece, these are more or less the steps I have followed :
That happened, for every track, after about 3/4 months of rifine (night work, of course..).
And the lyrics?
For the lyrics I have used a tremendous approach, perhaps I should not tell: -o :
given the structure of the main things that I felt to be said,
the liric born rigorously after music, gushing from voice as it was an instrument,
words and melodies.
I have tried to take the words that already were in music itself,
and English has helped me much to gain an half-conscious semantic level.
For this most of songs are in English.
Then of course I have reworked and corrected, and it was a surprise to me
how much I like lirics made this way.
Just a little madness? Sure a bit, without considering no-sleep-nights, but also amusing and extremely interesting: good listening!