The magician of ice cream: “Alternative music exists, even in summer, but nobody tells it. Sanremo? It is still not ready, but maybe it will be “

There is music from dance That turns off the brain, we often hear it, and one that turns it on. Ask, for this, a The magician of ice creamfour basic guys in Milan who mix today’s funk-jazz in atmospheres similar to the sixties soundtracks. And try, to believe, their debut album Who is Nicola Fecpieri?sort of sounding of an imaginary film (“It is to the listener, with his imagination, to put the scenes”) in which it is impossible to stay still, with guests among others Venerus and which now has an appendix in Watermelonpiece for the summer that looks like a spot of the time, or the famous Mah-nà mah-nà by Piero Umbiliani. Ambiguous title, on social networks the watermelon, for its colors, is the symbol of Palestine. Sibillini: «We moved before. But when the two things intertwined … we preferred to leave it as it was ». If in doubt, the invitation is above all of go and hear them in concert, for example on August 3 in Naples for Music at the Castle and on the 13th in Locorotondo al Locus Festival. While everything travels online, these here, real alternativesthey still give the best on a stage. “There is only interest to make people dance,” they say.

Parents: why do you call the ice cream magician?
«It is the sign of a bar in via Padova, in Milan, where we passed every morning to go to the studio: now he changed management and name, but then he was inspired because he was a crossroads of different cultures, from the Milanese any to the Moroccan boy, to say, who did not speak a word in Italian, but who still serves us at the bar. Contamination enriches, in life and music ».

But did you say it to the owner of the time?
“We tried several times. “But he knows that we have a group that in the name …”, we didn’t have time to end up cutting short to ask us how many coffees we wanted. “

You said to make the audience dance. How do you do it?
“We focus on the groove and instinct. If in the studio a piece makes us move or someone from our team, here, it’s the right one. We are halfway between the modern club – and therefore a night situation, with synthetic music – and the whale of the past, the one all played, with the smooth and similar genres. Being on stage is fundamental: we left three and a half years ago with this idea ».

However, allow now the stages are less and less, except those giants: stadiums, palasports, large arenas.
«And it is paradoxical, because among the new generations there is a great desire to celebrate in human -sized contexts. And then there is a desire for music played live, like ours. Being able to see seven, perhaps, different people on a stage, each on its instrument, with a strong physical impact on the sound – we think of the trumpets – is a completely different thing about assisting the show of an artist with him alone and the base below. Then, for heaven’s sake, many bands are reduced to the frontman alone and the rest as a upholstery, but it is not our case: we are liquids in this, there is not one that stands out ».

So what happens to your concerts?
“You dance. Each as they want, without judgments, without the anxiety of appearing or being seen. And it dialogues: the urgency is to break down some walls that, also because of the social networks, we built around; And to imagine a space of sharing and freedom with the public ».

Let’s look around: does the magician of ice cream swim against the current?
«Well. Today, yes, but we are not inventing anything: bands like ours have always been there, certainly now they are hidden by a system that, let’s face it, disincentive so. But the underground, to which we belong, exists: it is that of the festivals, the live public and the rest. The point is that it is difficult to be recognized, told. Is a problem of perceived: we convinced ourselves that the artists strong are those with many streaming, and it is not that they are scarce, eh, but they are two different indicators; There are those who split in concert and not for this, without great listening, they are lower, indeed. The problem is the channel on which to be distributed, which cannot be Spotify, which favors that other type of music ».

What is yours then?
«Word of mouth. The concerts, precisely, tighten the hand to the fans at the end of the live, to stay at the record banquet. He is born – has already been born – a new scene from there: Studio Murena, Bassolino, the Nu Gena same ».

In your music there are many seventies. Fear of being back, none?
“The music of the time – from progressive to Brazilian – is our passion, but we try to remain modern. Trivially, we use Autoun and Vocoder. Of course, at the time beautiful soundtracks were felt, with extraordinary professionals, but it is not true that experimental music today died. Indeed, there is more than then. The problem again is that it does not reach the public ».

Who is Nicola Fecpieri?
«He is the protagonist of our album, the one around which all songs and stories revolve. But he is an unaware and imaginary protagonist: it does not exist in reality – we have made the appropriate checks – and lives events that everyone imagines listening to the album, without a plot already defined. The soundtracks of the seventies were teaching, because they were very stimulating to immerse the viewer in a certain scene: here the other way takes place, the music comes first and the listener imagines the scenes, but the mechanism, however overturned, is the same “.

WatermelonFinally, it is not the usual summer piece: is an alternative possible?
«Yes, we imagined a beautiful beautiful song – like an watermelon, in fact – but with its seeds, its gleanings inside. In short, we didn’t want the usual tip box, so we focused on a crooked groove. They are technicalities, yes, but they are the basis of our spontaneity then ».

To close, a million question: Sanremo, would you feel like it?
«We yes, absolutely. But probably he does not feel the artistic direction, even if a podium like this year, with Bruori Sas and Lucio Corsi, is an excellent endorsement for alternative music. Let’s see: for now we do not believe the Ariston is ready, perhaps in a few years it will be and, in addition to us, the groups of this scene will also participate, which is being affirmed ».