Chiello: “I want to change Italian music, but I feel alone”

In his latest album “Mela marzo”, released in 2023, there were references to Verdena and in interviews from that period he mentioned Underground Youth, an indie-alternative band from Manchester, among his favorite listens. Now in the new single “Amore mio”, which comes out this Friday, he returns to look at certain Italian rock from the early 2000s. Listening to it, the 70s ballads of Le Vibrazioni come to mind: «My love / I know that you no longer want to make love with me / call me when / your heart / remembers / that we loved each other so much / and we will never love each other again / goodbye or never again,” he sings. But he prefers to avoid any possible comparison: “I’m not inspired by anyone in particular.” Chiello, real name Rocco Modello, born in 1999, is the loose cannon of the new, very new generation of Italian songwriting. He made his debut as a trapper, as a member of FSK Satellite, a controversial group composed together with Taxi B and Sapobully: an experience that ended in 2021, when the three members of the group announced on social media their decision to split and dedicate themselves to their respective projects soloists. The traces of the other two have been lost. Chiello, on the other hand, in 2021 with the surprising debut album “Oceano Paradiso”, with the hand of Colombre (real name Giovanni Learnato, among the gray eminences of the Italian indie scene), earned the status of “next big thing ” Italian, between rock, indie, alternative and rap. But the consecration proved more difficult to achieve than expected. Also for the artist’s attitude. Someone who goes his own way and doesn’t want to compromise: «I refused a duet with a girl who my mother respects a lot. He said to me: “Rocco, this way you come off as arrogant. She’s even more successful than you.” I replied: “But how can I do a duet with someone pretending to believe it, if I don’t really believe it?”. I kindly declined the invitation”, he says about his vision of the world of music.

At this point we might as well mention the name.

«No, no, I won’t give the name».

When you read the interview, you will recognize yourself.

«I was delicate. But I think we have to be sincere.”

It’s your business, then. Two years ago on Rockol you said: “Most Italian music makes me shit.” Is it still like this?

“Yes. And I add: unfortunately. The themes make me sad. When I listen to today’s songs, the ones that hit the charts, I struggle to find meanings. It all seems very superficial and that disturbs me. I look at the songs of the older generation, those of the Genoese school, Luigi Tenco, but also Lucio Battisti and Enzo Carella: that depth has been lost. I absolutely don’t want to compare myself to these giants, I will never come close. But in my own small way I’m trying to raise my personal bar. And in fact I don’t feel understood. It happens to me often. I didn’t even want to release this song.”

Why?

«Maybe I’m too romantic, nostalgic. One positive thing about this last period is that I created a work team. Before, I did everything myself. It includes Mr. Monkey (Matteo Novi, who produced the piece, ed.), Domentico Venturo, Fausto Cigarini, Tommaso Ottomano (already alongside Lucio Corsi, ed.). I’m making music differently than before.”

Different in what?

«In the approach. Now I compare myself more, in the writing phase. I needed it: I understood that sharing your passion and visions with others is important. Before, however, I was more jealous of my words.”

The images of the lyrics are light years away from trap clichés. Compared to the beginning, today do you feel the need to offer an alternative?

«I don’t like waving flags and I’m not interested in belonging to one faction rather than another. I wrote, as usual, in one go. I will have to analyze the text better, further on, to try to understand.”

When will the album be released?

«In the spring, in conjunction with the club tour, which will start in May (debut on 6/5 from the Casa della Musica in Naples, then it will stop on 7/5 at the Alleanza in Rome, on 11/5 at Alcatraz in Milan, on 14/5 at the Teatro Cartiere Carrara in Florence, on 16/5 at the Vox Club of Nonantola in Modena, on 18/5 at the Gran Teatro Geox in Padua and on 5/19 at the Concordia Theater in Venaria Reale in Turin, ed.). They will be visceral, engaging concerts. There will be five of us on stage: in addition to me there will be Fausto Cigarini on bass and violin, Matteo Pigoni on guitar, Giulia Formica on drums and Francesco Bellani on keyboards.”

What happened with Blanco last year? “I thought we would change the Italian landscape, you and I, Riky, but you’re too busy looking at your numbers and learning about the development of your career, to focus on the magic that lies behind what we do,” you wrote to him on social media.

“I’d rather not talk about it. It’s about private life. I actually respect him a lot. I don’t know if what I wrote was true or if it was just an outburst dictated by the anger of the moment.”

Do you still believe that you can change the Italian landscape? Or are you more disillusioned compared to some time ago?

«I would like to have a shoulder. At the moment I feel alone, however. Other kids making music today are putting out stuff they don’t like just to achieve goals. So it’s easy, in ten years, to look in the mirror and regret.”