Planet Funk: “Music in Italy risks approaching”
Born in 1999, the Planet Funk for twenty -five years they represent one of the most important realities of the panorama of electronic music and international dance, thanks to their “collective” being open to influences and collaborations and the successes obtained in recent years, including “Who Said”, “Lemonade” and “Chase The Sun”. The multiplatin collective, formed by Alex Neri (DJ, keyboard, synthesizer, sampler), Marco Baroni (keyboard, piano, synthesizer, programming), Domenico “GG” Canu (guitar) to which are added the voices and signatures of Alex Uhlmann (voice and guitar) e Dan Black (voice), is strong of an audience of listeners who has been able to enjoy the Return of the formation during the Sanremo Festival where as guests presented the new single “Nights in White Satin”which rereads in pure planet funk style A 1967 classic of the English band The Moody Blues. An appetizer of what will be a new album as they confirmed the same Alex Neri and Dan Blackwho told us about the new journey of the Planet Funk.
“Sanremo was fun, for Dan it was something new because in England there is no such thing – explains Neri – He did not know the event and when he made the media exposure he carries, he excited himself. For us it was like playing a Champions League final, with all of Italy looking at you. True, we come from a different world, from electronics and clubs, For this we were surprised when Carlo Conti called us and chose us“. “It was all very fast, very particular – adds Dan Black – the impact with the cameras that run around you was also curious and you have to understand where to look, what they are taking up. There is a part of music, of course, but also of the impactful television show“.
The particularity of the recovery of “Nights in White Satin” It is precisely to make different universes embrace. “There is little time to go in detail, it’s all fast, too fast. See how social media work: there is no space and way to learn more. Furthermore, today the music is commodified, everything that made us fall in love with a certain type of world is missing, that is, culturethe one who was at the roots of music – says Neri – Speaking of these topics the piece of The Moody Blues has sprung up and we said to each other: It would be nice to contaminate that 60s sound with electronicsreporting some melodies and that type, in fact, musical culture “. It was necessary to make the song. “At the beginning I was not convinced of the text, it seemed too much teen, I was not sure I could sing it and make it mine – DAN admits – Then I filtered it through the way of understanding it and also the video, in this, offers a great hand. In the center there is universal love that looks at nothing, He does not look at the genres, but to feeling and that’s it. Everyone must be able to love how and whoever wantsthis is the true sense of the song for me ”.
The new album? “It will be a disco full of different music, today with this type of music industry it is not easy to propose something particularbut certainly within our next project there is what we feel, we like. We tried to give our point of view: simple, free and fast among synthesizers and samples, it is a very electronic album, but also very human thanks to the texts “, continues Dan Black. The return of the band smells of rebirth. “We were in the middle of writing a new album, when one of the founders disappeared in 2018, Sergio Della Monica – He opens black – was a shock that stopped our career. We stayed with a disc in half written, we didn’t know if to continue because in any case, first of all, We have always been friends who have put together to try to do something different, not a boy band. We had to find the strength to go on“. Dan intervenes: “Lennon wrote: ‘Life is what happens to you while you are busy doing other projects’. Planet funk have never been a conventional band, The values that have kept everyone united were fundamental. And at the moment we find ourselves around those values, we are writing what will happen. “
Planet funk are a symbol Because in their career they managed to bring alternative songs to the top of the rankings and transform them into popular hits. But is this today still possible? “I believe there are opportunities for everyone. My daughter listens to K-Pop, I saw thousands of girls and boys sing songs from a band that I didn’t know, but that evidently has great success, “underlines Black. Black, however, enters specifically: “Yes, it’s true, there is a sea of fantastic music around, but if we look for for example Italy with a Sanremo Festival where more than 50% of the songs sees the same names as authors and producers, it is clear that something is wrong. I don’t want to judge anything and nobody, but it is clear that there is so the risk that music in Italy looks like it a little, said what there are more opportunities to make songs, Thanks to technological progress, it can only be a positive side“.
