Who is Marco Castello?

“I am a musician, I come from Syracuse and I really like writing and provoking.” The long conversation with Marco Castello began with a very simple question: who are you?. We meet him in a video call, a few days after the conclusion of the acoustic tour which, among other things, saw him stop in Milan, to the army beauty, where in just one afternoon he made three concerts Sold out. In the meantime, he has announced a tour with stages in the capital of half of Europe on his Instagram channel.

And these are just some of the last clues to understand that the Sicilian singer -songwriter is of those to keep an eye on. In recent years, a good interest from the public and colleagues has managed to create a good interest in Milan (and not only in Milan) (he collaborated with Nu Gena, 35 caliber, lightning, Mace) and the main motivation is probably the simplest: He is good. To raise the bar of curiosity, then, is the fact that it has a particular artistic path. Founded his record label, Megghiu Sui, And it does not seem to have particular marketing or communication strategies. “The name of my label is a game of words: in Sicilian it means the” best sun “but also better alone». And he explains: «Why did I choose to found my label? My hunger, my haste, my desire to work did not correspond to the times that the labels had set themselves. In the end I decided to do my things for me ».

Let’s take a step back. Marco Castello is thirty -one years old, he graduated in jazz trumpet at the Civic in Milan. A big ass blow, as he himself admits, leads him to meet Erlend Øye of the Kings of Convenience who invites him to turn with the party during a world tour. “Playing so much abroad made me understand how” small “Italy was in its musical dimension, how in the hands of a few people, at least at high levels were.”

In the meantime he puts aside the songs of his first album: “Contenta tu”, from 2021. An album that comes out for the Bubble Records in Europe, in Italy with 42 records. In 2023 he published “Sera pieces” But this time he does it alone, with his record label. «What I had done until then had given me the opportunity to understand my potential. I made my experimentation phase by working with two labels, even if just staying on the roster with already established artists gave me some credibility. If I had left alone I couldn’t have done it. When I had the second album ready therefore, I was perfectly aware of my potential, of my audience, of the fact that what I could do, in one way or another, would have worked. And he couldn’t have been worse than what I had done before ».

In short, a countercurrent choice. “There is this belief, especially in Milan, that there are rules in doing things in music in a widespread way. Of the steps due to respect, otherwise things do not go. This is something that I am denying with pleasure. The fact is that nobody tries to do things differently, we are still linked to rules that have come since the 1960s when the world was another planet. It would be the moment when these dynamics were broken. They only work because too many continue to make them work and nobody really bets or tries to go to some other direction ».

Let’s go back to music. Marco Castello is an artist who carries on an authentic project. His stylistic figure has its roots in the Italian songwriter – with references to Battisti, Dal and De Gregori, and adds Enzo Carella and Bob Marley – but they munovesu sound territories ranging from jazz to blues, from funk to more international suggestions, without losing the link with tradition. Among the contemporary songwriters, Bunori Sas with “La Truth” and Colapesce with “Total”.

He sings in Italian, but often there is a call to the Sicilian dialect. In his texts he tells fragments of daily life with a subtle irony and a little cynicism. Among the most appreciated songs by the public are “Cicciona”, “happy you”, “Marchesa” and “maybe” – the latter written in collaboration with lightning. «I observe the world around me, known details that make me laugh or angry. I like to tell what is close to my heart or strikes me, trying to do it with finesse. Even if, almost never, I can completely. I like to be ironic ».

An example? «I often stop and reflect on how many issues are managed in my city. Let’s take the problem of the loveourism: it is a local phenomenon, but it becomes universal. For example Bad Bunny dedicated his latest album on this theme, a sign that certain dynamics repeat everywhere. We tend to conform, people become more and more all the same. And I realize that certain points of view are becoming more and more shareable ».

A question that is also worth a bit for the use of dialect, starting from the fact that it is a custom -cleared and cool language among the Neapolitan rappers and that does not easily find ground in other genres: «The reasoning I made is simple: the Neapolitan It has always been accepted as a musical language, even long before rappers. Let’s think of Pino Daniele. And then I wondered: why the Neapolitan yes and the Sicilian – or other dialects – no? But for me it is also a cultural and social question. I suffer to see how, in my land, in Syracuse, the use of the dialect is losing. As a child, when I was talking in dialect, my mother reproached me, she told me that I was a malacarne, an ignorant because I didn’t speak Italian. Today mine is a deaired dialect, and for this reason I feel the need for a claim: to protect what remains of this identity, so that it does not disperse completely ».

Before closing this long conversation, while the world of music is preparing to face the week of the Sanremo Festival, we stop to talk about food, another great passion of Marco Castello, as often recalls in his texts. “My favorite recipe? There are too many, it’s as if I asked me to choose a song ». The first memory linked to music instead, “is that of my sister who puts the CDs in my father’s Windows 95 and teaches me to go to the bongotti in time”. And finally, before saying goodbye, one last clarification: “I don’t want to demonstrate anything, I try to do what I like and reflects me”.