This article is published in number 9 of Vanity Fair on newsstands until March 2, 2021
Youth is a wonderful thing, it is a pity to waste it on young people, ”wrote George Bernard Shaw. It would have been a perfect launch phrase for the project that a year ago brought together Colapesce (Lorenzo Urciullo) and Dimartino (named Antonio Di Martino), two indie songwriters before it all became indie. The four-handed and two-voice album I mortali (released in 2020, with Sanremo comes a repack with ten new songs) is a miracle of balance, a sophisticated, beautiful and adult record about being young.
In Sanremo they bring very light Music, a song that instead talks about depression, black holes and plays that save lives.
What did you think of each other before meeting each other ten years ago at a festival in Sicily?
Dimartino: «We were in the same compilations with our old bands, when there was the explosion of independent labels, before indie. When we met we somehow recognized each other ».
Colapesce: “For me there was a bit of healthy envy, he had already released his first album and I was about to go out with the first ep, at the festival I was his shoulder group and I thought: but where does this want to go, it’s not art her. Then that evening we started singing Arbore and De Gregori and we liked each other ».
What a bond has been created by writing Mortals?
C.: “We got naked, it wasn’t obvious and it might not work, but we wanted to do something together, we entered each other’s poetics, it was an act of intimacy”.
D.: «With the Sanremo song even more. Writing it was a constant help. Talk about depression, both he and I have not lived an amazing year, first he was sick, then me, we chased and rescued each other. So many people have come out with broken bones this year. If you take away the stage from a musician, inner tidal waves set off that lead to bad things ».
Very light music was born as a song for Sanremo?
D.: “Not exactly. We just wanted it to be a beautiful and understandable song ».
Which is the definition of Sanremo song.
C.: “And it had to be a song that even in twenty years we wouldn’t be ashamed to play.”
D.: “She had a long gestation. Some songs are born in an afternoon, others take months to become credible ».
C.: “We ran after it, we knew there was a profound meaning, but we couldn’t catch it. We rewrote the chorus thirty times. “
The choice of Battiato for the cover evening is natural for you. But why Poor homeland?
D.: «I remember her in the news reports on the Mafia massacres. He has the ability to tell things while not belonging to the time in which they happen. And it’s simple, you can’t misrepresent it. It is a ferocious piece sung by the least aggressive composer there is ».
C.: “He’s a punch in the face, he has a choice of words that leaves no way out.”
How did the idea of trying your hand at Sanremo come about? Was it an unquestioning yes or did you have to elaborate?
C.: «We discussed it, we said to ourselves: let’s do it, but only with the song of life, the one you write only once. We wouldn’t have used a lukewarm piece, it wouldn’t have made sense, our careers aren’t that bad, after all ».
D.: «We wanted to celebrate a decade of vans, lousy clubs, few people in front of the stage, kilometers, apprenticeship. A gradual growth, neither mine nor his career was an exploit ».
Does it make sense to use the word meritocracy?
C.: «Meritocracy is a word that has never convinced me, for me music is the only thing I could and knew how to do. What then has brought micronotoriety and recognition ago
pleasure, but it’s not merit, it’s just my life ».
D.: “Of course, it would have been nice to get there young, beautiful and fit in Sanremo.”
Age matters up to a point. The guiding spirit of your project is Gesualdo Bufalino, who made his debut as a novelist over the age of 60.
D.: “He was the anti-star par excellence, the manifesto of the elderly who never got old. I have this image of him who looks like my grandfather, but his literature and his aphorisms expressed a young spirit, I would almost say the pessimism of a thirty-year-old ».
Is it strange to debut in Sanremo at a time like this?
D.: “It has a special meaning, it would be nice if it had some for show business workers at home for a year. This Sanremo is used to talk about people being pissed in the face with four coins, people who may not be doing this job anymore ».
C.: “The whole situation was handled very badly, we sunk into indifference. Very light music is the daughter of these difficulties, we are proud to be able to bring it to represent
a category of losers ».
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