Michele Bravi: “My songs, between songwriting and theater”
Michele Bravi leaves no doubt about the intention of his new album out on Friday 17 April. The title is a declaration of intent: “Musical Comedy”. After participating in the last Sanremo Festival with “Prima o poi”, the singer from Città di Castello, born in 1994, presents a new project, eleven tracks, which create a real narrative from a musical and textual point of view. «I tried to write a musical comedy about everyday life, even about the most broken parts of things», says Bravi, presenting a record that defines a psychedelic and symphonic journey. A story where, however, there is no shortage of references to current issues, to the difficulties of life, to contemporary society and its questions. A work produced together with Carlo di Francesco, different from the previous ones in terms of structure and sound, which will take the winner of the seventh edition of X Factor (it was 2013) on tour from May.
Why did you choose to title your album Musical Comedy?
«This record was born from a very simple idea: when you’re walking around with headphones, sometimes a musical starts inside you. I liked the idea of turning the world upside down to understand it better. Musically, then, musical comedy is a genre that lies between operetta and revue: I tried to combine popular, pop, transversal writing with a more symphonic, orchestral musical narrative. There is a lot to say about comedy: historically, it narrates reality with irony and criticism, often starting from a more popular point of view.”
How did you work on this album?
«We worked as one does for music for a screenplay. Each song is a scene, with its own narrative that evolves throughout the album. There is a narrative that for each of the eleven songs has its own approach. We started from an essential writing, piano and voice, and then we built the sound based on what each scene required and recalled. The attitude was very cinematic.”
The album has a very strong narrative dimension, between autobiography and a look at reality but with a look that we could define as dreamy. Is that so?
«Yes, there is a “comedic” look at things, even the most “drooling” ones of everyday life. But it’s an autobiographical record, because when you write you always talk about yourself. There are also broader reflections, for example on parenting or institutions. I’m thinking of songs like “Genitore 3” (single that anticipates the album) or “L’uomo invisibili”. There is also a satirical component, but always with a kind look. The tone remains that of comedy: smiling, even when he tells more difficult things.”
Is it a record that comes from your different maturity on an artistic and personal level?
«The initial spirit was born from recovering what I listened to at home. In the past, in my writing I was often more intimate, reflective, cerebral, sometimes even too cerebral. Here, however, I tried to remove that poetic structure and move towards something more celebratory with respect to things. I grew up with my grandparents, very humble people, even without a cultural education in the classic sense. They listened to music “as needed”. My grandmother listened to Edith Piaf without knowing who she was or that she sang in French, but that music spoke to her and what it was telling her was good for her. It was a generation that had lived through the war, they were children under the war, and yet they had a very strong need to celebrate life. I lost that thing and I’m happy to have found it again.”
What role did Carlo Di Francesco and Alterisio Paoletti have in the construction of the album? Did they understand your spirit?
«The record was already written, but I wasn’t sure it was a solid idea. They were the ones who gave me a clearer and stronger geometry, an external gaze that helped me believe in what I had done. They gave me that push, that confidence to say: it’s the right time to do this thing. It was a record that I had wanted to write for years, to tell the music with a theatrical narrative and they grasped it and pushed me to follow that intuition. We don’t know if it will work on the market, but it’s the narrative that belongs to me today. It is consistent with what I have done up to now and with a thought that takes shape today.”
Will this theatrical dimension also be found in live performances?
«I have been trying to combine music and prose in my concerts for years, but I have always done it in a more timid and moderate way. Here, however, the album was already born as a show, already conceived on stage. It remains a concert, but it opens up completely to the dimension of musical comedy.”
From a musical point of view, where do you stand today?
«I don’t know, and I don’t even understand it in my things. There is so much on offer today that everything is much more fragmented. Twelve years ago when I started there was space to talk about a record, today there is so much, so many things that come out and that need to find their space. In terms of genre, I don’t know where I am, perhaps this is why I felt the need to define the genre already in the title of the album. I write my own songs, so I could say singer-songwriter, but the form is theatrical. It’s something in between. As a listener, however, I am very eclectic: I happen to love records that are far from my style.”
You worked with several young songwriters on this album. How was this comparison?
«I’m used to writing alone, but I really like the dialogue and I like knowing the younger look at the construction of songs. I met authors or people without the idea of necessarily having to write a record, but then an artistic relationship was born, in a natural way. With people like Rondine there was a real exchange: he brought a different look, a color that I wouldn’t have found on my own. Writing, for me, works when there is contradiction, when someone really listens to what you are doing.”
