Elisa, the artisan (dreamer) of music

With that “stupid will to live” that sang on the stage of the Ariston, Elisa has always reckoned with us. It has always been for her, an artisan of music, a fundamental prerequisite for her to build her. For her “chlorophyll photosynthesis in music”, where sentiment and social and personal instances have turned into wonderful dewdrops. In timeless songs that end up talking about her, about amazement and about our everyday life.

It came out today, Friday 18 February, his new double album of unreleased tracks Back to the Future / Back to the Future (Island Records), a project that talks about change (personal and social, especially on issues such as sustainability and the environment), the world of women, capitalism and its drifts in our often confused days.

Not surprisingly, talking about these two albums (one in Italian and one in English), Elisa addresses the issue of the identity crisis of the West. And he talks about capitalist society in passages like Let it go to waste on me And Fire. “There is a crisis in progress. What do we have to chase? What are the values ​​of this time?He asks himself. The theme of the environment has always been central to her: «In recent years, during the pandemic, certain things have become very evident for many people. It seemed a duty from my artistic point of view – having the power to “raise your voice a little” – to sing about social themes. They pulled all the work, ”she confesses. So who is Elisa singing for today? “I am with those who believe, also because I am one who believes. I am a dreamer, an idealist. But they are also an artisanone who gets her hands dirty: I come from a family of workers ».

This dedication to work, albeit consistent with his so experimental, amused and apparently disordered soul, emerges in this courageous project where musical genres, approaches and productions alternate. In fact, in the twenty-five tracks, we go from love ballads to pieces with a dark atmosphere. But also deeply soulful sounds and powerful and energetic moods. “At the time of writing, it’s not easy for me to be rational. It’s almost impossible. I always have to make plans with an instinctive heart. I am like that. Certainly the plays I have made over the years have influenced. I still listen to Jeff Buckley and U2 a few times, just as I did at sixteen. But today I also listen to The Weeknd, Justin Bieber, FKA Twigs“, tells.

The approach that Elisa adopts is very simple, from this point of view. AND it takes her back to when she was a little girl, at home, dreaming of notes and sensations. “I need to listen to music every day. And to do it even at a certain volume. I don’t listen to it as an adult or as a professional. I don’t analyze it. I listen to it as a fan. It hits me completely, as if I were fifteen. This is the most beautiful thing. What I sing, therefore, is a fusion of my past and present listening and of who I am. I have a cult for beautiful and powerful headphones and speakers ». And he tells an anecdote about the latter Sanremo: «At the final party in the hotel everything was beautiful but there was no music. Nobody had a chest. So I went to get mine in my room and made it available to everyone“.

To listen Back to the Future / Back to the Future it means entering a profoundly “Elisa-like” imaginary, but full of nuances. Brave. Contrary to many principles of marketing and communication, as they are contaminated and difficult to classify. An attitude that, if you think about it, recalls the one adopted (undoubtedly with more recklessness than today) by the artist for her first unforgettable album, Pipes & Flowers: «Looking back now, I understand that I didn’t realize I was developing my own world. I had succeeded in the super miracle – you have to be crazy like me to do it – of letting something out in my identity, wild as I was, but also deeply pop ».

This wild spirit of Elisa has remained over time. And she has nurtured and nurtured it, project after project. “It is something innate in me. I have friends who were born here and who may not feel the same connection with nature as I do. When I was little, I loved flowers, bushes, trees, the sky. I was already very worried about the environment (as I was of the wars). I have always struggled to watch the news, for example, due to my hypersensitivity to certain topics, “she confesses. It is no coincidence that some songs (such as Show’s rollin ‘, I feel it in the Earth And Hope) speak of the respect for the planet. But there is a point of hope and she has, for Elisa, the names of Emma and Sebastian, her two children. «When my son says to me: ‘Mom, look at that beautiful sunset’ I am happy because he is able to capture it, he perceives it as a beautiful and special thing that he wants to show me,» he explains.