Frah Quintale: “I survived the fashions. And I remain indie”
«I added layers to what I have always done, looking for me to move to other territories too. I am more pop, but I don’t distort myself: I am 35 years old, doing the same things I did at 28 would seem unnatural to me, “says Frah Quintale. Two years after the joint album with his friend and colleague Coez “Lovebars”, the singer -songwriter and rapper Brescia returns with a new solo album. It is titled “Love”, is his first unreleased album in four years and comes out this Friday: it is perhaps the wider disc, more pop among all those engraved to date by Francesco Servidei, this is the real name of the voice of “8 billion people” and “in the trains per night”, which since the debut with “Regardez Moi” of 2017 has imposed himself as one of the most interesting pens of the new Italian songwriter, that of the circuit. (ex) POP Indies. Among the guests there are Colapesce (in “Regardless”), Tony Boy (in “1 hour of air 1 hour of anxiety”) and Joan Thiele (in “Diamond eyes”), with whom he duetted last February at the Sanremo Festival on “What’s” by Gino Paoli.
What turning point tells “love love”?
«The end of the thirty years. In these four years I have felt the need to ask myself questions, to ask a report of my path, a budget. I asked myself: “Who am I? Where am I going?” ».
The answers?
“I looked for them with this album: analysis has arrived. I understood that the big one I wanted to demonstrate to myself, I showed it. I am satisfied. I think I have cultivated enough to be able to live music freely, without too many constraints. I managed to survive fashions ».
What you say could be perceived as a lack of ambition. Like: what I had to do, I did it.
“It’s not like that. I mean that I earned the freedom to make records as I want, without necessarily having to chase numbers, audiences, goals. I also said many no. To featuring, for example. Or to catch a catch. “
How is it possible, then, that the most pop record of your career came out from these songs?
«It is also a matter of age, as I said before. In writing, “love love” is a continuous “lovebars”. There is pop and there is also rap, but made with different styles than the canons that I had fifteen or twenty years ago, when I actually started. “
Who did you work with eleven songs included on the disc?
«Various producers. I also contributed firsthand. Ceri produced “flash” and “ice cream”. Golden Years produced “Regardless” and “The night” and worked in part on “Blue Monday”. There are also Sine and Bruno Bello, who produced the duet with Joan Thiele with me on “Diamond eyes” with me.
What is the song that you champion in the song?
“” The gentle touch “by the English composer Herbert Chapell. Coming from hip hop, I have always been a great enthusiast of everything related to the samples and digging and when I found this pearl, I immediately thought it would be a perfect champion for a song on the disc. The atmospheres immediately brought me back to the world of soundtracks, a peculiarity of Joan Thiele’s music ».
“I’m dying and you eat ice cream”, sing in “ice cream”. Did Lucio Dalla’s “dear” quote desired?
“Yes. But it doesn’t come from my pen. I was in the studio with Ceri to start working on “flash” and we were listening to some instrumental and some of his auditions. He was back from a writing session with Coez and Franco126, who had sketched this refrain above the beat. When I heard it, I immediately found the song in my ropes, so I asked the boys if I could recant the refrain and add about the stanzas and so I did ».
First you stressed that you survived fashions. What remains of the Indie pop scene?
«A lot of music that has now become a mainstream pop in all respects. And a historical memory. At that moment something happened that represented a breaking point in Italian music, a generational change. At that moment many different scenes began to make music so that it was in contrast to the moment. And imposed a new way of making music, creating new styles that were missing in the panorama ».
Did the indie get incorporated by pop in the end?
I would not know. I speak for me: I still feel indie, independent in the attitude. I think I never distorted myself ».
Is Sanremo in the race in the floors, after the duet with Joan Thiele last year? The Nai Palasport tour starts on April 13 from the Milan Forum (before stopping on the 15th in Florence, 17 in Rome, 18 in Naples, 20 in Padua and 21 in Turin). The timing seem to be perfect.
«Last year it was nice to do it as a guest. On the tour there will be a great job to do: it will be my first soloist in the Palasport. The festival in the future I do not exclude it. Maybe”.
