Riccardo Cocciante: "Being yourself always pays off"

This Friday Riccardo Cocciante returns, twenty years after his last album of unreleased songs, “Songs” of 2005, to release a new album entitled “I have twenty years with you”. An album that was anticipated by the release of the title track, and which will be available in streaming, on orange vinyl, black vinyl and on CD.

The eighty-year-old musician born in Saigon, Vietnam, met the press in the Sony premises in Milan to talk about the new album, but also to comment on all the other initiatives that see him (and will see him) protagonist during this year: the summer tour ‘I… Riccardo Cocciante in 2026’the already successful return to Italian theaters of ‘Notre Dame de Paris’ and the docu-film directed by Stefano Salvati ‘My name is Riccardo Cocciante’ (read our review here) broadcast by Rai last week and now available to watch on RaiPlay.

The pleasant chat with Riccardo Cocciante he begins by talking about the documentary dedicated to his life with which he says he is quite satisfied. “My songs should tell me, everything else is marginal.” the French-Italian musician comments modestly. “They tell me they liked it a lot. I think they liked it because there is a lot of sincerity, a lot of simplicity.”

Cocciante recounts the long interval of time that has passed since the publication of his last album with a smile, saying that he writes music every day, but that ‘Notre Dame de Paris’ and his countless releases have kept him very busy. He then revealed that the twelve songs featured in “I have twenty years with you” they were not written in this last period specifically for the album, but which are the fruit of years of work, they are songs that were closed in the infamous ‘drawer’ that every artist has, and which have now finally seen the light.

Every song on the album was recorded live. That is, the musicians played while the vocals were sung at the same time, just as happens during a live performance (in “I have twenty years with you” they played Alfredo Golino (drums), Roberto Gallinelli (Bass), Luciano Zanoni (piano and keyboards), Ruggero Brunetti And Davide Gobello (guitars) and for the choirs Marco Vito, Claudia D’Ulisse, Giulia Fasolino, Stefania Martin And Roberto Tiranti). This is a choice, says Cocciante, because he finds it artificial to assemble a song with a piece taken here and a piece added there. “The interaction between one musician and another is very important, a musician plays differently if he has another musician in front of him.”

Just as there must be absolute chemistry with the authors (the lyrics of the songs on the album are not only by Cocciante, but also by Pasquale Panella, Luc Plamondonthe missing one Jean-Loup Dabadie (“Planes”, “Go wolf, run!” and “I love loves”), a text by the writer Francoise Sagan (“A Man at Arms”), Mogul And Beppe Dati). “I collaborate with authors who are part of my life, and I would like to work with others too. There must be a connection between composer and author. Luc Plamondon, for example, is a very different person from me, he has a totally different character from mine, but when we are at the piano the world happens.”

Riccardo Cocciante speaking about music nowadays he says he sees it as too homologated. The advice he gives to young musicians is to always be themselves, not to change their artistic vision to put themselves at the service of the discography. Originality, quality, recognisability and taking risks always pays off. And in saying this he recalled his experience as a singer-songwriter different from others in a historical period, the Seventies, in which everything was very politicized even the song. To comfort and support this thought he gives the example of Vasco Rossi’s unfortunate participation in the Sanremo festival in which he did not give up being himself and subsequently had a splendid career.

Speaking of Sanremo, remember that even his victory in 1991 with “If we are together” (Cocciante-Mogol) was in its own way a dare out of context. Still speaking of the festival, he believes that that event invades the market too much. In his opinion, music comes from below, it is underground. Given the no longer green age one might imagine Riccardo Cocciante like a nostalgic, a traditionalist, but this is absolutely not the case, he defines himself as ‘rocky’. He has always greatly appreciated those who, with their songs and their music, are irritating, surprising, unsettling, and cite the Maneskin.

I asked him for his opinion on the quality of the cover of “It was all already planned” That Leo Gassman And Aiello they performed on the stage of the Ariston theater in Sanremo, Cocciante said he was always honored when someone takes up one of his songs. Taking care to add that the covers must be different from the originals. In this sense it was impressive for him to listen to the “With a little help from my friends” Of Joe Cocker which made it a completely different song compared to that of Beatles. In his version of “Michelle” he says he almost reversed the meaning.

Next summer Riccardo Cocciante he will present live the songs from the new album which in the setlist will be alongside the classics of his repertoire (“I cannot disappoint the people who come to the concert also and above all to listen to those songs”) and confesses that even today, despite a long career and experience of over half a century behind him, going on stage for him is always a cause of stress, it generates anxiety, and while his wife is saying these words behind him Catherine Boutet she nods with conviction, rolling her eyes.

To those who point out that the songs of “I have twenty years with you” they can be associated in some way with those present in the musical work ‘Notre Dame de Paris’the musician replies with disarming naturalness, “In ‘Notre Dame’ I am there, as I am in the songs. I make no difference when I compose.”