Un project started with a tour (interrupted several times, at the end of 2019, due to the pandemic emergency) and with some songs that the three artists wanted to present to their public. It came out a few days ago (for Sounds From Italy) Trialoguethe album of the “Cantautrici”, that is Rossana Casale, Grazia Di Michele And Mariella Nava.
Theirs is the story of an artistic encounter which has an enthusiast as a common ground interest in getting involved. And in considering the experience of others as the source of possible enrichment. A challenge to be accepted with enthusiasm and sensitivity. To the point that Trialogue contains unpublished pieces written by six hands but also already published songs of their repertoires, even if in new versions where they end up paying homage to each other. We talked about it with Grazia Di Michele.
The interview with Grazia Di Michele
How did the idea of Trialogue?
“Rossana and I had already worked together. Not just a Sanremo we did in 1993 (with Different loves, ed) but we had already written many four-handed songs. There new entry it was Mariella. Writing with six hands is not easy but we knew we had all three a common denominator. It was a form of artistic coherence, a social interest, a commitment beyond music, an attention to the outside world but also to the world inside. For two years I had begun to gather around me singer-songwriters (who are now 23) because I wanted to understand where the female songwriting was going. They are wonderful and talented girls we collaborate with on multiple fronts. This project with Mariella and Rossana is called “Cantautrici” to describe us in one word. It became a tour and then a record ».
An album also born from Skype meetings …
“That’s right, we couldn’t meet during the lockdown period. So we inaugurated this new writing method which worked great. If one of us got a text idea, she shared it with the others: we tried to reason with it. Same thing for the music. My historical producer Phil De Laura coordinated us and this project was born. Other than women’s competition: it went very well (laughs, ed) “.
Rossana Casale, Mariella Nava and Grazia Di Michele
Women and music
Why does this stereotype still exist regarding competition between women?
“Stereotypes die hard. They are children of prejudices. And the opposite is also true. If the stereotype leads you to think that all women are made in a certain way, it turns out that you automatically put this prejudice into what you do. I have been working with other women for my entire life. And at most I saw a bit of initial distrust ».
Rossana Casale, Mariella Nava and Grazia Di Michele
What is the situation of women in the world of music today?
“When I started the word “singer-songwriter” did not yet exist. They called us “the songwriters”. I did not have a reference in Italy: I followed Carole King, Kate Bush, etc. Then over time the female songwriter has developed a little bit more. But until women started writing songs for themselves, it was always the men who did it. And, in doing so, they projected their visions of women onto them… Many Italian artists today follow trends. They seem to me looking for the right song, the right author, the right time. However, this also affects many men. I don’t see as many interesting and recognizable male poetic worlds as those of De Andrè, Fossati, Conte, De Gregori, Cocciante, Guccini and Tenco could be. The whole school of our great songwriters has not yet been replaced“.
Earlier, speaking of Rossana Casale and Mariella Nava, you referred to a common denominator that binds you. Can you explain it better?
“When we first met, we had a sort of ‘reunion’ in my trusted pub. We started chatting and rather than deciding in words what and how to do, we realized that we wanted to talk about the same things. Of mothers, of children, of the future, of illegal immigrants, of the earth, of the cry for help of the planet. The first song, Universal signals, tell this thing. This alarm that is in the air ».
Support for Emergency
You have decided, through this project, to support Emergency. Why?
«Also on the fateful day when we decided to do this project together, we had ahead of us a huge picture all colored which seemed an unclear chromatic succession. We didn’t understand what it represented. So we got closer and realized that it had been made with colored bottle caps. And which represented the sea and, in between, a boat with migrants on board. We saw this as a signal. We said to ourselves: why not support those who work for them? So we called Emergency. We support them and we do it with affection ».
The new single from Trialogue is I am the love. In this passage it is love itself that speaks in the first person. Because
“I wrote it at night. I have the enlightenment to personify love. It is the absence of love that creates the worst tragedies in history and in life. Where it is missing, when it is betrayed and trampled on, there comes a lack that screams. And it often leads to wars. I am the love it was born before the pandemic and it was born before the horrible war that is affecting us. I feel a great need for peace and harmony ».
The theme of war and the role of music
What does it mean for you to make music in such a painful moment for humanity? Does anyone who makes art have a responsibility in spreading beauty?
“I’m working on a mantra disc. I started with Mother Earth And Let me Love You, spiritual and very long passages. I feel the need for this now. At the same time I also feel the need to be very active, in a positive way. When she talks about beauty, she gets the point. It must also be sought where it is not visible. It occurs to me that two Sundays ago I was watching television and, in the midst of the terrible images that came from Mariupol, at a certain point the news came out that in the rubble, dust and destruction they had opened theaters to make us play the musicians. They had taken all the small children to hear the music. If in such a tragic moment one thinks of opening theaters, it means that there is hope why we try to cling to beauty as much as possible. And also to culturewhich is often the main bearer of this beauty ».
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