Hiya Fabio, thanks for joining us in the virtual RGM lounge today. Grab a brew and take a seat.
What made you decide that music is a thing for you?
It was a coincidence… or a synchronicity, depending on your beliefs! One day I happened to visit some Italian friends in Fleet, a town not so far from London, who also had a passion for music. While I was returning home after the jam session, I was walking along the main street, and I saw a job offer in the windows of an Italian restaurant run by Turks, “looking for a solo guitarist”, it said. I went in and introduced myself to the manager, who told me they were looking for a guitarist who could play songs of various genres arranged for acoustic guitar.
I had the classical guitar, which was fine anyway, so he proposed that I come back on Saturday afternoon to be able to test myself with the restaurant customers. I was very excited to begin this adventure and after the first session, the manager gave me the job. In the following weeks, customers began to increase and leave great comments about the live music on the restaurant’s Tripadvisor profile. As the clients and positive reviews increased, so did my gigs, and within a few months, I went from playing one to two, three, and finally four gigs a week!
I was really happy with this experience and I used to ask customers which song they would prefer next time, so my repertoire expanded quickly, and I also built a relationship of trust with them. I became obsessed with the guitar. My enthusiasm and the excellent feedback first convinced me to reduce my working hours as a waiter and bartender, then, following the bankruptcy of the bar where I worked, I began to dedicate myself to music full time, and I also became a busker in central London!
In addition to playing in restaurants and on the streets, I was playing at events and private parties. I also started writing some fragments of original music here and there, which would then become a real album within a few years.
Introduce us to you and your musical history.
I’m an Italian eclectic artist (actor, composer, musician and scenic designer), and I first came to the UK as an exchange student in 2007 in Totnes, South Devon, to study at the Dartington College of Arts, now incorporated by the Falmouth University College. After going back home, I emigrated to the UK in 2014. As a child, almost every summer evening, parents and relatives took me to festivals in southern Italy, where in addition to revelry and good food, you could appreciate the icons of Italian music in concert.
Then I used to watch cartoons with their beautiful theme songs and soundtracks. I remember writing a few songs with my sister when I was little, with no other goal than for fun. At the age of 7 or 8, during Christmas time, I visited some relatives in Rome, who could play the keyboard, and I fell in love with it. My father brought me a small keyboard at first, and then a bigger one. But the real blast happened when I started high school, and discovered Jimi Hendix. He inspired me to wanting to play the guitar!
I went to take guitar tuitions from a local guru of the six strings, who taught me the basics and then, after a few months encouraged me to continue on myself the journey with music and creativity. I started to play with friends starting bands and doing jam sessions, but I didn’t take music seriously until I emigrated to the UK many years later… When I saw that job offer in the windows of an Italian restaurant in Fleet!
Ever since, I played in restaurants, pubs, for events and charities, on the streets, at festivals and online. I recorded my first “sound diary”, a collection of songs, at the legendary Abbey Road Studios and at the Soho Sonic Studios in London. I also worked as a background artist for commercials, TV shows and Hollywood movies, such as Artemis Fowl directed by Kenneth Branagh, where I was a busker. A couple of years ago I worked as an actor in a musical at the Royal College of Music, a community project called The Way Home – The first musical of the Italians in London, where I started to work more in depth on my singing skills.
What’s the live music scene like in London right now? Anyone we should be looking out for (bar you, of course)?
London is a vibrant, multicultural megalopolis that gives everyone the chance to express themselves. No matter the type of talent you want to hone, or in my case, the musical genre you want to propose, there is always a part of the audience ready to welcome it and recognize itself in it. The only requirement that is asked of you is the desire to get involved, to take risks for your ideas…
There are zillion of great artists in London, I’ll suggest you a few to look out for.
Valeria Perboni, my vocal coach, she’s a singer, actress, opera director, dramaturg and music psychologist, who has a condition called synaesthesia that allows her to perceive music, colour, texture and touch as connected www.valeriaperboni.com.
There’s a great composer and pianist who has been busking in the underground for over 20 years, Fabio Tedde. He also started his project Pianist Without Borders, where he travels around the world to share his music www.pianistwithoutborders.com.
Here’s a great singer, Eka Bandura, songwriter and composer, who is also a global promoter of Ukrainian culture www.intagram.com/ekabandura. I recently enjoyed her Musical Cruise, a 3 hour boat cruise featuring live music, Ukrainian food and drinks for the first time on the Thames!
I’ve seen a lot of people struggling for support recently online. What’s your view on the industry
I think it’s a great time for anyone who wishes to produce a content of any kind. The internet and social media are democratizing the access to the career of our dreams, especially in our geographical side of the world. What any artist, or content creator of any kind needs to keep in mind in the long term, though, is the value and expertise expected in the contents.
Where do you feel you currently sit within the music industry?
I belong to the old school musicians who started playing on his own, then in the garage with friends, then in places and on the streets, who is now grabbing the opportunities of the internet and social media to establish himself!
Tell us two truths and a lie about you.
I learned English and the guitar mostly by myself, and I always eat healthy… apart from when I need to eat a Kinder Bueno after another every now and then!
Do you ever worry about people taking things the wrong way or cancel culture? Discuss….
Every now and then some historical revisionism, a reinterpretation of an historical account, happens, I think it’s part of the journey of our civilization. On the other hand, if you crave to be someone like Leonardo da Vinci, Shakespeare, Beethoven, I’m sure the majority won’t be able to cancel you for a long time. Furthermore, your greatness will be a source of inspiration, and will be appreciated by people with different political and religious views throughout the centuries!
Do you sign up to any conspiracy theories? If not, why not?
I neither sign up nor I disagree, I can say I’m curious to know the different perspectives about what’s happening now and what happened in history. I think an artist needs to be receptive, like a child, and every child is able to believe in everything and the contrary of everything!
What was your best experience on stage?
It’s very hard to think which one was the best, as making music and sharing it with an audience, both live and online, always make me happy!
Tell us something about you that you think people would be surprised about.
The day, month and year of my birth, reduced to single digit numbers come to 432, and I tune my guitar with A 432 Hz!
What are the next steps you plan to take to reach the next level?
Besides of my great love for shred guitar, which I usually have to keep on hold because of other priorities, I’m working on my voice with a vocal coach, and I’m also writing some lyrics which I hope to be able to sing for you soon!
I hear you have new music. What can you tell us about it?
The Words I Didn’t Say, it’s part of ta 9 songs project, recorded between 2019 and 2020 at Abbey Road Studios and Soho Sonic Studios in London, a sound diary of only classical guitar tuned with A 432 Hz, a collection of my first compositions. The musical project, presents fragments of different genres harmonized in minimal and vibrational sounds, at times hypnotic, a musical fabric that helps you to relax and meditate.
This song was born because of a love at first sight for a girl I met on a film set, whose aura almost struck me instantly. There was a mutual fascination, but at the time, I didn’t allow myself to begin anything, because I was already in a relationship, in fact, I even did my best to sabotage the interactions! It was my stance towards a very promising novelty, who sought to undermine my sentimental certainties, a struggle perhaps more psychological than emotional, against the rarefaction of relationships.
A way of thinking love at first sight, not as the embryo of a pleasant idyll, but as a guide to the elements and attitudes that are missing from our lives at that moment, recognized in the other person, or triggered by them. Personally, I don’t believe the train only passes once, but that we are the ones who attract an increasingly suitable one, as we progress on our journey of personal and spiritual growth. If we try to become aware of all the choices we make, even the most simple ones, we are able to give the right weight and the right place to the experiences and people who walk through our lives.
What was the recording process like?
It wasn’t technically difficult, as my music project only features classical guitar, though I felt under pressure because it was my first official recording. There were tourists from all over the world, standing at the entrance of the Abbey Road Studios, always taking photos of all the people walking in and out, then the staff and technicians were very kind to me, making me feel immediately very pampered.
What was the biggest learning curve in writing the new tunes?
Self confidence! Once I started to speak into reality my music, I could clearly see who I was and who I wanted to become. Recording it has been my birth, I think an artist artistically born with the first release!
Would you change anything now it’s finished?
There’s always room for improvement in everything we do… I feel like Leonardo da Vinci, who was always going back to his paintings to change a thing or another, but with a release you can’t do this, you need to do another recording!
Is there anything else you would like to share with the world?
I would like to encourage the audience not to make choices out of impulsivity or advantage, especially when it comes to a topic as important as love.
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