Samurai Jay: “I have a metal side project”

They are on YouTube two metal versions of “Ossessione” by Samurai Jay. One is gothic metal. The other metal-metal. They are both made with artificial intelligence. Too bad: it would have been fun to listen to a human one. The word “metal” associated with Samurai Jay will make some people turn up their noses and raise their eyebrows, the Neapolitan singer-songwriter who has been adamant in first place in the Fimi chart of the most streamed and downloaded songs in Italy for twelve weeks with the Latin rhythms of “Ossessione”, and who is now preparing to also dominate the album charts with “Amateur“, just released. Yet the comparison is not so far-fetched and Samurai Jay himself explains it: «The meaning of the melody? It comes to me from metal. I come from there, from emo. I have an alternative side project, two completely self-produced albums. For six or seven months, before “Halo” – he says, quoting the song with which last year he began to get to know, via TikTok – I’ve been out of the game. I had to basically understand which path to take. I locked myself in the studio with the guitars».

Who knows if Samurai Jay’s metal album will come out sooner or later or if, instead, it will go the way of Mariah Carey’s alternative rock album, which has become a sort of legend. Meanwhile there are the twelve songs that make up “Amatore” (this is his surname), which between Latin and pop rhythms fit right into the groove of “Ossessione”: «The thing that has made this song enter so many lives is the joy it transmits, the light-heartedness: it makes you want to move. If the kids like it, then, it means you’ve hit bingo» he smiles about the catchphrase. In fact, it is that world that the album seems to look at: an immediate, playful, instinctive universe, almost childish in its ability to speak without filters and to arrive directly, where music only works if it manages to also become play and movement. The relationship with the public, however, he underlines, does not depend on calculations: «Since I’ve been making music I haven’t thought for a single day about the target I need to hit. And the word “children” associated with “market” bothers me, I don’t like it».

He worked on the songs together with his musician friends Vito Salamanca and Luca Stocco: «We had fun. When I create, any type of reasoning must remain outside the room: the creative act must remain uncontaminated by the rules of the market, by business. The act of creation is the closest thing to that of a child making up stories. I am inspired by Bad Bunny’s “Debí tirar más fotos”: there is attachment to the roots, in his case Puerto Rico and in my case Naples». Also collaborations with Serena Brancale (on “Disgraziata”) e Sayf (“Malatì”), he explains, fall within this instinctive logic, born before the Sanremo push and not built after the fact. The song with Brancale is among the funniest on the album: a musical quarrel between two lovers, «inspired by Carosone and Julio Iglesias». On August 15th he will perform at the Red Valley Festival in Olbia. First, however, Ricky Martin’s Italian date in San Benedetto del Tronto will open on June 21st: «The older this album gets, the more it will remind me of this incredible year».