When I write an album, I start with the concept. Just like with a film, I build the story first, then the scenes, and only then do I think about the music. Yes, it’s a bit strange, given that I’m a musician and I should start with the music first.
Well, that’s how it would be in a perfect world.
Things actually work a bit differently than one imagines. The insights speak for themselves. You drop a full record and the first track gets most of the plays, then it’s a slow slope downhill.
The algorithm looks at you like:
From a pure strategy point of view, making full records is stubborn and a little suicidal.
Imagine a restaurant that sells only full-course meals, while all the clients just want a plate of pasta. That’s me. I’m the restaurateur saying: “No, sit down, we’re opening a bottle of red, this is going to take a while”.
I love writing stories, almost more than the music itself.
I’m a bit obsessed, and honestly, there isn’t a single album or EP in my career that doesn’t have a common thread or a clearly defined story running from the first track to the last.
And yes, the album must be listened to from the first track to the last, in exactly that order. Heaven forbid you listen to it at random. I could come and take the plate off the table while you are still eating.
For Auto Radio, I created an entire radio broadcast featuring a host, a traffic report, and a call from a listener. For They Speak Italian, I even created a mini-ebook, and for They Speak Italian 2, I ended up writing a much longer ebook, as well as creating a podcast, a mini-game, and recipes.
Another comparison that comes to mind is likening a single to an Instagram post and an album to a whole roll of film. That roll of film tells the story of a special day spent with someone, or a school trip, a birthday, a vacation. Do you remember when we used to print our photos, go pick them up from the photographer, and look through the album from the first picture to the last?
I will continue making albums as long as I have ideas. Maybe a bad business but it’s the most Italian thing I can do: take my time, cook the full meal, open the good wine, and invite you to stay longer than the algorithm thinks is reasonable because Grandma comes up to you and says: “Eat, eat”.
If you’re still here, grazie and buon appetito.
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I completely agree, I am sick of a world where artist seem to only have the patience and persistence to only comecup with singles. I appreciate tje effort of creating an album that is not only a randomised collection of previous singles. Take your time, write great music and believe me, algorithm or not, people will come to dinner!
I feel that inspiration will strike suddenly, as often happens. I go through periods of stagnation followed by bursts of creativity. I’ve certainly slowed down compared to the start of my career, but I think that’s only natural: I had just arrived in a genre that was still taking shape, and there was so much curiosity and hunger. Now, with maturity, perhaps I’m a bit less impulsive; I prefer to pay more attention to concepts, communication, and arrangements, which leads me to be more selective about my compositions. That’s not a bad thing, though perhaps I need to remind myself that many tracks I didn’t think much of turned out to be favorites for so many people.