When dreams don’t make noise

This article is published in number 7 of Vanity Fair on newsstands until February 16, 2021

To overcome the hour of the wolf it is necessary to keep your eyes open: «I have suffered from insomnia since I was born and at night, when silence stimulates creativity and gives back suggestions, I write». Maddalena Morielli, aka Maddalena, is 22 years old. As he speaks, he moves his hands and wrings his shoulder. The only possible final balance, at his age, has to do with dreams. The first flash, as a child «with the reading of The voices of the world by Robert Schneider ». As the protagonist of the novel, he explains: “Until recently I could not read a note or play an instrument, but I already had all the music in my head”.

Waiting for my degree in Philosophy, after finishing high school: “I had to memorize whole pieces of the Physics book because, despite being a nerd, that subject didn’t really enter my head”. Parallel to her studies, she enrolled in the CET, the European Center of Toscolano for musical art founded in Umbria by Mogol, filled in the gaps and walked silently in the direction of her desire, protecting its secret: “My parents have heard my first song just two years ago and many of my friends are still in the dark because I aspire not to be seen and to be just a carrier. I would like my music to take shape beyond me ». It will not be possible.

And even the fears crossed with irony: “Every now and then I think with terror of the idea of ​​having to hold a live for 3,000 people” will be diluted in one verse. The first he wrote them for Anxiety Is a Modern Cliché, a passage from a cluster of days in which Magdalene speaks of anxiety in her mother tongue and in English: «Paradoxically it is an optimistic text», she says, «because if I can talk about it it means that I have been able to deal with anxiety. I visualized it and therefore, consequently, made it non-existent and harmless ».

He argues that music is “self-analysis” and that despite the song not being written recently it tells a state of mind “that perhaps in recent history has never been so present.” To rediscover the light-heartedness of a prepandemic world, he reflects: «It will take time. We come from months of alienation and loneliness and the psychological impact of this period risks having a long reverberation especially on the twenties ”. Also for this reason, says Maddalena: «A wing stroke is necessary, the redemption of dormant energies, revenge on too many clichés that want my generation labeled as it could not be worse: slackers, social addicted, eternally underestimated. Prejudice can only be defeated with the power of ideas ».

Being born in 1998 presents a picture in which being incisive is not a detail: «The threshold of attention on average lasts eight seconds. Whether you are in front of a work of art, watching a film or listening to a song, the content must arrive all at once, clearly ». It applies to what it will be able to produce in the future and to personal relationships. His attention is for those who «want and can tell about themselves even in weaknesses because people who don’t know how to do it make me suspicious. In the end, all of my true friends are the ones who have shown themselves vulnerable or uncomfortable. It is there that a relationship is ignited, in truth, otherwise we would all be puppets ».

She felt in a theater that did not belong to her in London. He left in the middle of high school to try the experience abroad: “It was a failure because I found the city cold and dispersed, but maybe it wasn’t all London’s fault either and it was just the wrong time.” One day Maddalena will go to America: “I have dual citizenship, the goal of tomorrow is to work closely with the great recording studios in New York”, but for now, as a tribute to “a Southern soul”, room in Rome “where until a year ago, in some bars, I could spend a couple of hours looking for inspiration listening to fragments of conversations and real life to be reworked and reinvented to give life to the songs”.

When she was little her father made her listen to De André before going to sleep: «He chose Marinella’s song, a traumatic imposition », he smiles,« which gave way to my first real rebellion ». Today he recognizes in his work “an imprint of our songwriting”. But he knows that formulas will not shape his future: “It is a lottery, a difficult industry and a component of luck is needed” because, as in Person by Ingmar Bergman, “I recovered it during the quarantine and it shocked me”, “every word is a lie, every gesture a falsehood, every smile a grimace”.

Magdalene, who affirms with Flavian taste that she lives “on Mars or in the clouds” and does not have “an iron memory”, has however learned to deal with social fiction. Not everything is perfect: “If I smile forcibly, unfortunately I get caught, I’m not so good at dissimulating”, but there is always a door to close, “a hidden part of my house”, a corner in which to invent and a goal to share “with those who have been and will be close to me in my work: Andrea, Giovanni, Valentina, Ivan and Primiano”. The crew of a ship that left from afar and arrived in port. “I always knew I was going to do this job,” and while he says it, he certainly isn’t pretending.

To subscribe to Vanity Fair, click here.