Caparezza: “I saw the darkness, but imagination saved me”

A space and nerd Odyssey, but also a human journey, profound and full of light. Caparezza’s new and ninth album will be released on Friday 31 October, “Orbit Orbit”, which the singer-songwriter told the media in a two-hour meetingrevealing many of the meanings and backstories behind all the songs. “This is the most conceptual concept I’ve ever done,” he says at the start. The album (here are the 2026 tour dates) will be released in conjunction with a comic of the same namewritten by the same singer-songwriter and rapper from Molfetta and drawn by nine cartoonists, which is useful for understanding the plot of the work. “This is a record about freedom, in which I took all the liberties possible, it is a record that tells the story of overcoming a crisisaccepting my age and reuniting with myself: I was convinced that I would never make music again and yet here I am”, opens Caparezza.

Rehab? A comic

“’Mumble mumble’ in the world of comics represents thought, imagining means floating so for me ‘Orbit Orbit’ has become its respective onomatopoeic word. Hence the title. Before the album, the comic was born, which was the answer to my problems. Tinnitus is now my life companion to which hearing loss has been added. ‘You’re losing your hearing,’ the ear doctor told me some time ago. After the tinnitus this also came. Another stop, painful. It no longer made me happy listening to and making music because I thought, ‘I can get worse.’ After ‘Exuvia’ I felt totally lost. But I’m not interested in compassion.” He pauses for a moment and continues: “Comics, which has always been my great passion, even before music, threw me a lifesaver.”

Capa began studying comic screenwriting and wrote his first screenplay. “And so the comic ‘Orbit Orbit’, my rehab, takes shape. It shouldn’t have been transformed into a record or rather it could have been, but perhaps an instrumental one. But then the situation got out of hand. From thinking that I could no longer make music, the words flowed. In each song a comic is mentioned, it is my thanks to this world that saved me, in particular to Galaxy Express 999″. A detail, which is not a detail: “This is my first record with hearing aids. And I would recommend them to anyone who makes music and has my problembut they don’t want to face it. Glasses are accepted, hearing aids are not, but wearing them does not mean being deaf, just as wearing glasses does not mean being blind. I’ve made peace with all of this”.

The power of imagination

“Orbit Orbit” is a work of fantasy full of reality and, despite the storms described, also of positivity. “True freedom is imagination. All other freedoms have contradictions. No one can take away our imagination. After the themes of imprisonment and escape, in this album I talk about freedom. In the last track of ‘Exuvia’ I came out of a forest. The new project starts exactly from there: I continue and I find myself in a backstage where everyone knows that I am Caparezza except me. I go to the dressing room and pass out. And so two stories are formed: one real and one astral, one with the ‘fainted me’ at the center and the other with an ‘astronaut and space traveler me’”.

The album develops the theme of the comic chapters and has a real story. “There are themes such as adult disenchantment and the passing of time, on the journey I encounter specters which are ideas generated by a volcano to which I no longer give weight, but song after song, between characters like Darktar, adventures and planets, I become the protagonist of a mission in which I fall in love again to do something, the fire returns, and I regain freedom, I make peace with myself”.

Kraftwerk and Run DMC

The songs have a precise musical setting, as perhaps never happened before in his career. “The main reference is to space and electronic music of the late 70s. Kraftwerk, Rockets, Ganymed, Lords of the Galaxy, Space, all artists who dressed up: they were among my points of reference for this work. My records have always been sketchy, but this time the project is compact from a sound point of view. Then there is also among the sources Moroder: ‘I am the journey’ starts from its sound and for me it also mixes with ‘The Neverending Story’. In Autovorbit there is drum and bass”.

There is no shortage of rap, with more classic and rocking references to Run DMCwhich among other things have their own series of comics, but everything is filtered differently. “Yes, there is rap, but I didn’t want to be a youth activistI wanted to rap as a fifty-year-old, not as a kid. When I listened to Battiato as a young man he spoke to me from the height of his age, he didn’t act like a kid. Here I have brought to light an intimacy that for many years was hidden by a blanket of word games, games that I no longer wanted to use.”

From Enzo Del Re to Morandi

“’Comic book saved my life’ is a centerpiecehas a Rockets sample and explains why the comic saved my life. As a child it opened me up to my imagination. Then he introduced me to music, because I fell in love with bands and artists who dressed up. And then after ‘Exuvia’, when I saw the darkness, it came to my rescue.” A curious song it is “The Auctioneer”: “This is my first cover made in an official album, it is a tribute to Enzo Del Rewhich through its onomatopoeic sounds embodies the battle cry of the comic and the record. Enzo is a singer-songwriter from my country who performed by hitting a chair. ‘The Town Crier’ is a crazy song. Speaking of Italian artists: in ‘Gli occhi della mente’ an unexpected sampling of the song ‘Deliri’ appears, performed by Gianni Morandi. It’s a song that warns against believing the stories we imagine. The piece talks about the negative version of imagination, which is important, but which should not be replaced with reality.”

Pathosphere

“I live in a world that is the exact opposite of what I would have hoped for. War, genocide, ugliness, there is so much darkness. And we often have blinders on. We got to see soldiers who, after killing people, do ballet. I don’t know what could be after such horror. The songs are also steeped in reality. ‘Pathosfera’ is about recovering empathywe must go back to recognizing both the good and the bad things.” The album is anything but negativistic. “There is no mission in life. I am what I am, not what I do. This is a positive record. Accidents are part of existence, there is no plan. The album puts me at the center, but the ending is choral, with a 74-piece orchestra. I wanted to broaden the lens. The final message is: humanity is capable of doing terrible and wonderful things. ‘Perlificat’, the final track, is an invitation to create, it is an ode to the creative actwhich in my case saved my existence.”

Capa and streaming

“Orbit Orbit” is a dense recordwhich deserves to be explained and explored in depth. And it requires listening, a high attention span, in total contrast with today’s user who switches from one song to another on the platforms. “The level of enjoyment is another field, a field in which I don’t play. I observe. The explanation gives more value to things, it’s true. But I’m old, I can’t understand enjoyment today. I come from a world where records were bought without knowing anything about them beforehand. When I bought the Run DMC album in Molfetta I listened to it with my friends and we shared something, an experience. Quick enjoyment doesn’t represent me, I go my own way. Those who listen to me want the physical album, they want in-depth analysis. Streaming platforms were supposed to give us the ability to find everything, give us ‘freedom’, but today pre-packaged playlists are the beacon. I prefer to be out of these dynamics.”