Charlie Charles: “I chose art, not the market”

One of the pioneers of Italian trap surprised and shocked everyone by choosing the opposite path to the one that made him famous. Instead of replicating the formulas that defined a genre, Charlie Charles, with his first producer album “La bella amministrazione”, embraced minimalism: the piano replaces the 808s, deep listening becomes an integral part of the experience, the artists he chose confess to each other as if in a psychotherapy session. Paolo Alberto Monachetti, this is his real name, like it or not, is an artist. Yes, with him this term, too often tacked on haphazardly, makes sense. Not only for the imprint he left on music, but because he loves vertigo. Today like yesterday, it goes where others don’t go.

We received an email explaining that you would not be doing interviews to “let the music speak”. What made you change your mind?
It is a topic that needs to be addressed on multiple fronts. The real lesson of this album is that I have repeatedly had to react to things that have happened. First of all I didn’t think this project would eventually come out, there was an escalation of issues that brought me here. I started with the idea of ​​not speaking, but probably, as I was saying, I needed to see a reaction from the public to understand how much more to intervene. This is a personal album, which talks about me.

So it needs to be explained?
Yes, if I didn’t do it I could probably be thought of as the village madman. And instead there is an experience, there is an artistic research. I understood that people, to understand these songs, must also know me and so here we are.

It is a record built “by subtraction”. Start from the piano, exactly like in Ernia’s latest album, and then sew a precise sound on each artist. How did this setting come about?
My idea of ​​”tailored music”, tailored to the artist I work with, has always been there. And it’s innate, instinctive, it’s from the gut. This was also the case with Sfera and Ghali’s albums. I usually find a theme that then drags on, without boring or falling into repetition, throughout the piece. But all this also has the flavor of discovery: if I go to the studio with Blanco, I don’t know where we will travel, where we will go. And that “not knowing” is what still keeps me glued to the studio, in love with music.

Why was one of your sources of inspiration Fellini’s “8½”?
The choice to mention it is because it seemed like a good metaphor to tell what I experienced: Fellini as a director became the protagonist of his film, and indeed, as he says, he had to find a way to make the film by tidying up his “beautiful confusion”, which was the original title of the film. I am the exact opposite, I am a control freak, but I too, with all due proportions, have experienced something similar. All beautiful things come from chaos.

In 2023 at Rockol you declared: “I don’t want to listen to the ego, I won’t make a producer album”.
I have changed my opinion several times over the years on the issue….

Is this your “beautiful confusion”, is this chaos?
Exactly. I’ve been working on this record for five and a half years, on and off. It happened that several times I said “I want to give up everything” like when we spoke to each other in 2023. I had strongly idealized this album… it’s a record where in truth in the end I couldn’t choose anything, but I simply reacted to what happened to me, to the stimuli. There is nothing nobler than this. I accepted this project.

What are you listening to these days?
Pianist Yehezkel Raz.

Many expected you to make a trap album, but you preferred to take risks and put yourself in a precarious balance just like in the album cover.
My audience is rightly fond of the me of the past. Everything I did before allows me to say today: I choose art, not the market. I choose art over discography. It’s clear that I could have made a more comfortable album with Sfera, Tedua, Izi, Ghali and others. With the guarantee that it would be a mediocre project because I’m not that thing anymore. With humility I feel I can say that I made that music at the highest levels, it’s as if I had hit a speculative bubble squarely. But now that the bubble has burst, what’s the point of going back in there?

Do you also make it a human and life issue?
Of course: today’s me goes around on a bicycle at night listening to music. I live a different life. In December I will become a father.

Does the public accept the changes?
In general, changes are never easy. But how can I blame the fans who maybe didn’t understand the direction I took? The truth is that they don’t know me, I have exposed myself very little, I have almost never shown myself in all these years. I knew this album might generate mixed reactions, but I still wanted to take a risk.

A provocation: if trap, like punk, is not just a sound, but also a disruptive approach towards music and life, doesn’t your sonic turn against the current make you perhaps the most trap of all?
Yes, that’s right (smiles, ed.). I’ll tell you more: I don’t feel like trap, pop or anything else. I’m the music guy.

Was your reserve also a form of defense in the face of the success you had?
Probably yes, but there was also a lot of lack of interest. For the last two and three years I have even kept the Instagram app deleted. I only put it back on to push the Sfera discs. Social media reflects a distorted reality, I don’t want to stay inside that bubble. I’ve never had the need to appear or say things, music has always been enough for me.

Are you and Sfera like Yin and Yang?
Totally. We are different, we slaughter each other, but we are indivisible. There is something magnetic between us. This is why we always look for each other.

Many of the lyrics on the album are top notch. How much of yours is it in encouraging artists to give their best in writing too?
It is work that happens implicitly. Just coming to my studio gives you a solemn aura: it seems like a temple. It’s welcoming, warm, ultra professional. It gives you the idea of ​​having to perform. I told all the artists about my “beautiful confusion” so that they could tell something about me. Without forcing. I said to no one: “talk about this aspect because it is important to me”. No. I chose names that could really tell me and tell about themselves freely.

Is the presence of Sfera, who sings a text by Geolier, an airbag because you were afraid of risking too much?
I’m sincere: Sfera I didn’t want it. But this concept had to do with the idealization I was telling you about. Why not want it a priori? Sfera and I, humanly, are distant today. Don’t get me wrong: we are brothers, linked by an unbreakable bond, but in different human phases of life. I thought, “No, he can’t do anything that makes sense on this record.” And instead the album itself surprised me again and I accepted its signals: I had this text by Geolier, but he couldn’t publish the piece due to issues of placements and releases. I took it as a sign: everything was bringing me back to Sfera. This album, like human beings, is imperfect and I think that’s one of its magics.

There are those who include you among the eligible participants in Sanremo. Have you submitted a song?
No. I have no prejudices, but I think that Sanremo, which is TV and entertainment, today is not the right incubator for a piece linked to this album, with which I wanted to convey a deeper and more human message. Almost all the songs from this project, in these five years, have risked being taken away to be presented at Sanremo. I fought to keep them all.

Is this album imaginable live?
It would be nice, but it’s too complex. Gathering the artists… it’s a job. And then in terms of repertoire it would be a mess. What do I do? Half an hour of disc and then the songs with Sfe? They are too disjointed repertoires.

What value do you give to the closing instrumental “Thank you”?
These are the end credits. It’s a thank you to the public, to my friends, to my girlfriend and also to my work team. The piece was born from a writing exercise with my piano teacher.

The dialogue with the child you in “Paolo”?
It is a symbolic dialogue with my truest and purest part. He always has the truth, he denies me for the entire duration of the confrontation. The tracklist follows the path of psychotherapy: the trauma, the fear, the panic attack, recognizing the problem until arriving at “Paolo”, which represents asking yourself questions. Only when you really know yourself and accept yourself can you define yourself as free. And in fact the solution is in “I’ll call you love” with Elisa and Madame.

Is this album the start of something new?
I’m a workaholic, I never stop, but the time has come to take on other responsibilities. And in fact I’m already going somewhere else.

Where?
I will be a father.