‘The diary of life’ by Massimo Priviero
At the beginning of November Massimo Priviero released his new album entitled “Diario di vita”, which is the latest in a long series that began way back in 1988 with “San Valentino”. To find out more about the album we interviewed the Venetian musician, who has now lived in Milan for years. Indeed, in the province of Milan, in Legnano, where last November 9th he kicked off the tour in support of the album from the Tirinnanzi Theater.
“Diario di vita” is a title with a definitive flavor, a title that summarizes the essence of the album very well. Did you immediately think that it could be the best title for the album or had you also thought about something else?
At the beginning, when I started accumulating songs, I realized that everything fit into a hypothetical life diary.
I had used it as a working title. Deciding on a title is something you often do ultimately. I called it a life diary for the months in which I wrote, then in the end I realized that that was exactly the photograph of everything that ended up in the album. That every song was a passage, a photo, if you look carefully it starts with the little boy on the seashore with his grandfather and ends with the lonely man walking in the middle of the woods in the mountains. In between there are all the episodes of the young man who plays with the band, of the man who has the memory of the values that are inside, of the anger towards the world, obviously I’m trivializing. In the end, ‘life diary’ I realized that it was exactly what I had drawn up and that it gave unity to the whole album, which has moments of very tight rock and moments that are very broad, very acoustic, very poetic. So I continue to consider the title correct and it is the synthesis of everything in the album.
To support the release of the album you published a podcast (if you want to listen to it click here) in which, song by song, you give away your thoughts, your suggestions, your stories. For example of “The best of all possible worlds” you say that it is a song that you had already played live.
I published “The Best of Possible Worlds” many years ago as a half-hidden bonus in an official live album that we did at Alcatraz in Milan with 2,000 people and inside was “The Best of Possible Worlds”. But it remained a little hidden because the focus was entirely on the live performance of my classics. So I took out two or three things, I put my hands back into them, I re-recorded them, I re-sung them, remixed them, because in my opinion they integrated well with “Diario”.
“The best of all possible worlds” can be seen as a song that has no expiration date, always current.
Beauty aside, for me it is the greatest thing that has been written on the subject. It is called “Imagine” because it is one of the most beautiful songs in the history of man. From my point of view it makes the same sense, it has the same type of aspiration whereby you try to elevate yourself compared to the time you live in and you need this dream that will never become reality, but towards which you must strive because it helps you to give a lot more and to defend the values that matter in your existence.
Who played with you on the album?
My historic band played with me for at least 15 years now. Alex Cambise (guitars, mandolin and backing vocals), Riccardo Maccabruni (piano, hammond and accordion), Fabrizio Carletto (bass), Oscar Palma (drums) plus Riky Anelli (guitars, orchestrations and arrangements).
In the album there is a song, “Cantico” (in the credits on the back cover it says ‘in memory of Paolo Carù. Buscadero per semper’), which is a Scottish traditional.
Yes, it’s inspired by an eighteenth-century Scottish tradition called ‘Loch Lomond’, I transformed it and made it into something very singable. If you listen to “Cantico” it makes you want to open a bottle of wine, perhaps they want to have a beer.
A pub thing.
That’s right, when it’s easier to communicate.
They, the Irish and the Scots, have this characteristic of writing things that have an absurd melancholy where if all goes well he and she survive, but then they become songs they sing at the stadium. It started from there and I wrote a text that is, let’s say, much more existentialist, but there is a strength to live inside that is characteristic of everything I write. Fortunately, even in the most intimate and heartbreaking songs I put a beauty in the fact that you are alive and that you believe that your life has a meaning that perhaps you are not able to grasp, that perhaps you do not understand, but which nevertheless exists. This is a bit of a trait of mine that you find in everything I write.
In “Ritratto” you cite Van Morrison and “Astral weeks” as inspiration, it is clear that your musical roots, even looking at your entire discography, are to be found outside our borders. Are there any Italian musicians or songwriters who have inspired you?
I don’t say this out of presumption, but I have never had any particular Italian references. They have always touched me very little, then I have always greatly admired someone like Fabrizio De André. No one can deny the greatness of someone like De André, or I could tell you Paolo Conte, there are those 4-5 great Italian singer-songwriters for whom you stand up and applaud, there’s no doubt. But to say that as far as I’m concerned, given that I’ve been making records for 36 years now, they were a reference or an inspiration I would tell you zero. At a certain point you have your roots, but then the music has no boundaries so you take the traditional Scottish, the American blues, you take what you need.
I was asking you more from a lyrical point of view than a musical one.
The lyrics are something that I have refined over the years and sometimes I think I can grasp a good amount of poetry, translate it and above all make it play.
For example, you were telling me about Italian singer-songwriters: the flaw that I have always found in many of them is that often, having no idea what rock music is, they don’t make the words sound. They don’t realize that many times you are forced to reduce your vocabulary so that the words sound better, which I do in the tight pieces because I have to make the words sound, and then I bring out the poetic part in the larger, more relaxed songs. Italian singer-songwriters, not having a rock tradition, have never even had the idea of what the physicality of music means. Because the lesson that comes to us from Elvis onwards is that there is a physical exchange between the audience and those on stage. I say Elvis, but also ranging from Jagger to Springsteen.
It’s not in our tradition.
Exact. However, at least for me it is a lesson that I have tried to make my own.
In another song on the album, “Good morning soul,” you use the word technology. What relationship do you have with technology, both in your work and in everyday life?
The answer is “very bad”. In the sense that I use social media to communicate what we do: concerts, releases, singles. And I carefully avoid pontificating on things that don’t concern me, or being a know-it-all like so many do. The issue of technology, it’s trivial to say, but it always depends on how you use it. I asked to release this album only physically for the first month, now we are also digital. Because I believe in physical discs also to help the few record shops that are still standing. The physical object, perhaps it will be a timeless discussion, I think it is still a beautiful thing to hold in your hand, like a book. Ultimately it’s always about how you use it.
Like everything.
Above all because the risk with technology is to be eaten by this thing and to build relationships with the world that are absolutely false, absolutely not real. The philosopher I believe in most at the moment, his name is Jannik Sinner, also says it, but that’s another matter.
Is he a musician?
Exact. That guy over there, in addition to being a great tennis player, also says some things that can be shared.
So you like tennis?
Yes, I tend to follow football, but Sinner goes beyond tennis. In addition to being great, I like him as a person.
You performed “Diario di vita” in concert, how do the new songs sound live?
We did the first date of the tour in Legnano where we inaugurated the tour. The theater was packed. The public took them very well. When you make new songs, even you who go on stage are quite intimidated when you see the first rendition. To see how they come out and how they’re received, because it’s much easier to go for things that you know the public knows. Instead the response was very good. What surprises me is that they want me to rock with the band, I would like to be a folk singer, acoustic, guitar, voice and harmonica to save myself a little from the passing of time. Instead they still want the band, the rock, the shooting, that kind of thing.
You like rock anyway.
Yes I still like it, of course. After all, I have always lived with these two souls: the more acoustic one of a minstrel, of a folk singer, and the one more of a rock band. For now there are dates with the band and let’s say acoustic dates. Then I’ll see a little. I am very attracted to the idea of doing my own guitar, voice and harmonica thing while enhancing my voice. I lean very much towards that, and my future will most likely be in those terms there. I don’t see myself in a certain way on stage in a certain number of years, this being said today – then who knows.
The song that closes the album, “My name is peace”, is a single dedicated to the International Association for Humanity “PRO HUMANITY” – Volunteering Without Borders and will be the anthem of the humanitarian initiative: “2025 International Year for Peace Pro Humanity”. How did your collaboration with this association come about?
More or less two years ago they organized a concert of mine in a beautiful theatre, the Toselli theater in Cuneo. They are scattered all over the world but the headquarters are in Cuneo, they introduced themselves and talked and from there a sort of twinning was born, of mutual love, and this situation inspired “My name is peace” which is not simply a song of peace, it is a song that talks about peace volunteers. It is a song that talks about those who, like them, are on the war fronts, for example, bringing medicines. I wanted to give a voice to these types of people and they decided to make it their anthem. This, in addition to being very gratifying to me, has cemented our relationship, we will do an event next year too.
Tracklist:
MY RIVER
THE DREAM
THE SEA
WIN
UNTIL THE END
THE SOUND
FRIEND FOREVER
SONG
GOOD MORNING SOUL
THE BEST OF ALL POSSIBLE WORLDS
NEXT LIFE
PORTRAIT
MY NAME IS PEACE (BONUS TRACK)
