Julius Caesar and his “Distracted Clouds”: Indie Made in Rome

“I’m back at the gates of summer, but without participating in the summer market of catchphrases. I’m back with a ballad. I like to think about last year, in the same period, when Tommaso Paradiso with Baustelle published ‘Amore indiana’: a masterpiece of songwriting, far from the summer logic. As a musical genre, we are still in the great family of indie pop, but this time the push towards pop is felt”: Giulio Cesare presents this way “Distracted clouds”, his new single, available from today on Spotify (here is the artist’s page), on YouTube and on the main streaming platforms.

The song comes eight months after the previous “.Tenerife”, produced by Leo Pari. This time Giulio Marchetti – this is the real name of the Roman singer-songwriter and poet, born in 1982 – has relied on another protagonist of the Roman scene of recent years: the new single “Nuvole distratte”, which comes out for Matilde Dischi – Maionese Project – was in fact produced by Matthew Costanzoalready behind the success of Last.

With the song Giulio Cesare – a stage name chosen, he says, for “an affirmation of identity and intent, in a certain sense” – continues to carve out a place for himself among the voices of the Roman scene in recent years, the one that thanks to protagonists such as Tommaso Paradiso himself, Niccolò Contessa and his I Cani, Calcutta and Gazzelle has changed the cards on the table of Italian pop. “It’s a love song. A ballad, a beautiful song, traditionally understood. With an arrangement that gives it almost a Sanremo soul”, says Giulio Cesare about “Nuvole distratta”. The song is an anti-catchphrase: instead of chasing the fashions and trends of the moment, the Roman singer-songwriter takes a step to the sideseeking another dimension compared to reggaeton and Latin sounds, winking at the most classic singer-songwriter, with almost ethereal atmospheres.

Already linked by a sincere friendship to another great protagonist of Roman songwriting, that Richard Sinigallia who after having written some of the most beautiful pages of the Roman school of the 90s (starting from the collaboration with Tiromancino for “La descrizione di un attimo”) in the 2010s produced some of the most representative records of the new scene such as “Non erano fiori” by Coez and “La fine dei vent’anni” by Motta, Giulio Cesare made his debut as a singer-songwriter in 2023 with the single “Rolling Stones”, after having made himself known as a poet and visual artist (he collaborated with Achille Lauro for Sanremo in 2022 and Eurovision and his works are also on his official Instagram account). In this role he made his debut with the collection “Il sogno della vita” (Novi Ligure, 2008), which was followed by “Energia del vuoto” (Puntoacapo Editrice, 2010) and “La notte oscura” (2012). In 2020 “Specchi ciechi” (Puntoacapo Editrice) was published, followed by “Varco cielo” (Puntoacapo Editrice, 2023) and “30 e lode” (Puntoacapo Editrice, released just last April).

After “Rolling Stones” came out “Un sorso di te” and “Tenerife” itself (the video clip had as its protagonist Martina Lelioknown as one of the protagonists of Skam Italia): “Nuvole distratta” is the fourth piece of this journey, which promises further surprises.