Sergio Caputo: “Here is my new song”

Today as today, in this era of streaming, music is made of individuals. But it’s not a big news. In fact, once, from the 1950s up, they only made themselves singles, and if the singles of a certain artist or band were fine, they were collected in an album. Then, with the end of the Jukebox, the era in which only albums were made, and in an album a stylistically coherent story had to be told, each album was – or tried to be – a milestone in the path of an artist. I was born artistically making only album – apart from a 45 -lap debut. So? Did we go back in time? Yes and no.

I was lucky enough to be one of the (approximately) 120 people of independent labels invited to the Apple theater in Cupertino, California, October 2001, and seeing Steve Jobs who in person presented iTunes and iPod. The iPod was a plastic square with a stereo output that could contain a few hundred songs, and iTunes was the server from which you could download them for a modest figure. The concept was (Jobs’ words) that too many albums now contained two good pieces and the rest was filling stroke that would never go on the radio, so we had to go back to make individuals and give the public the possibility of downloading only the strong pieces. Of course, albums could also be put on iTunes, from which people could download even the pieces of their liking separately. Then things more changed and we came to streaming. But no, it’s not the same as the 45 lap that you went to choose in record stores.

Why do I tell you this? Because I am an album artist, and many of you will be surprised to see me from the one single weeks. Things are now so, even if I do my best to offer the public – song after song – songs that would be fine together in an album, and whoever wants it will be able to put them together at his leisure, which I hope will do. My new single is titled “restlessness”.

Let’s talk. I count the restlessness in the set of human emotions, such as love, anger, empathy, joy or despair (and few others). But restlessness has a march more than other emotions. The restlessness “pushes” us to do things, prevents us from remaining still waiting for something or someone changes our lives. The restlessness, among all human emotions, is the strength that motivates to run towards the unknown, is what pushes artists to create, poets that express deep thoughts, explorers who explore, inventors who invent, in short, it is the restlessness that makes the wheels of our life. My song – which has the appearances of a love song – can however be understood at various levels of reading, which I leave to you, as I have always done.

The genre of the song is undoubtedly pop-jazz (which in my language is a “domesticated” jazz). I can’t help but mention the fact that I gave up playing my beloved guitar, giving it up to the great Georg Wadenius (who has an impressive curriculum that goes from Steel Dan, to Donald Fagen, to Aretha Franklin, Diana Ross, James Brown and so on), and the talented saxophonist Naomi Adriaansz, Opélie La Roche on the battery, Claudio, Claudio. Citarella on bass, Ivan Bridon on the floor.

The video

The video of “restlessness” expresses disturbance but also curiosity; In the role of “restlessness” my wife Cristina. We have Naomi Adriaansz at sax (the others were playing around). My approach to the video is more than cinematographic – essential a little for lack of means, but above all a choice of style: I want the public to see my face, because I believe that the purpose of a video is mainly to show the artist well and can read his expressions, especially if like me it goes little on TV. The choice of black and white is becoming my trademark, and I inspire me for shots and atmospheres to the very first videos of artists such as Serge Gainsbourg, Yves Montand or Charles Aznavour (of course there are also those of the first Italian songwriters, but I do not want to do wrong only a few). On the other hand, my world is that of the song, and I do my best to carry it forward as a form of art at a time when the mainstream seems to offer for anything else.

Thanks for following me

Sergio Caputo