Alice - Carla's Songs

An independent album, made in spare time. On weekends, to be precise. Hence the title: "Weekend". "Those were the moments when we'd get together with producers Francesco Messina and Marco Guarneri, to take stock," says Alice, her sturdy black-framed glasses framing that same lively gaze as ever. We find her more at peace than a few years back, visibly pleased with her new creation, released two years after "Samsara". In a lovely Rome apartment overlooking Montemario, she treats us to a pleasant chat, in which present-day enthusiasm mixes with memories of the past.

Let's start with this excellent single, "Tante belle cose", a cover of a Françoise Hardy song from 2004, as beautiful as it is little-known. How did you discover it?

It was Francesco Messina who discovered it. He played me this "Tant de belles choses", which struck me immediately. That's how the idea came about to have Franco Battiato rework the lyrics, and he did a great job. And I have to say I prefer the arrangements of this version, which is also enriched by Paolo Fresu's trumpet at the end. It was a great discovery, just like "Christmas" by Blue Nile's Paul Buchanan, a track we'd found online still in demo form, with no official release: we made our own version of it, and then we also found out that in the meantime it had been released as a bonus track on a deluxe version of "Hats".

Coming back to Battiato, he was a fundamental guide for you early in your career, but then there was a long period when your paths didn't cross. How did you reconnect now?

In life there are cycles, things come on their own... Already on "Samsara" Franco had written a song ("Eri con me"), and that reopened our collaboration, which then naturally continued on this new album, on which he produced and made two tracks, "Veleni", co-written with Sgalambro, and Claudio Rocchi's "La realtà non esiste", on which he sings alongside me. Reconnecting was easy. It helped that we'd always stayed friends throughout all this time — I myself kept singing his songs, and I even recorded a few of them, like "È stato molto bello" on "Viaggio in Italy", from 2003. We're not the same people we were back then, we're two different people now, but somehow we're in tune again, and it was lovely to work together once more.

On "Weekend" there's another guest, perhaps a less predictable one: Luca Carboni. How did your collaboration come about?

Since the track he's featured on ("Da lontano", ed.) calls for this kind of exchange, it was natural for me to think of Carboni, with whom I'd already sung on "Farfallina", on his duets album, "Fisico & politico", released a year earlier. I got on really well with him and his voice was perfect for this track.

On this album your voice comes back to the fore too, and it's always been a thing apart. What do you think of the female voices on the current Italian scene? To me it seems like there's a terrible flattening-out...

Yes, I think so too. But I believe today's artists, many of whom came up through talent shows, have far more potential than they get to express through the songs they sing. It's always the same songwriters writing for them: there's a global standard that causes this flattening-out, and it doesn't do music any good.

“Weekend”, on the other hand, is very eclectic, especially given how many minds contributed to it…

Yes, and that's really important to me, because it lets me express myself across a very wide range, something I could never manage writing everything on my own. I really wanted to bring out every facet of my interpretations in a single record.

Is there a common thread running through such different songs and stories?

Above all there's the existential theme, the theme of life itself in all its facets, its questions, its anxieties and its certainties. That's actually been the guiding theme of my songs all along. Even in a seemingly light track like “Chan-son egocentrique” from 1982.

In the 1980s Emi surrounded you with an extraordinary team — people like Battiato, Messina, Carrara, Giusto Pio, not to mention the musicians you worked with later, from Manzanera (Roxy Music) to Jansen/Barbieri (Japan)…

Well, first of all I should point out that I too paid my dues for a long time, even if few people know those records and I myself have more or less erased them from memory… (we laugh)

True, I'd erased them too… But in the '80s, you certainly weren't short of resources and support from your record label at the time, Emi.

Yes, of course, back then artists were genuinely invested in, always surrounded by important collaborators and musicians. At first I was almost intimidated: it was my producer Francesco Messina who suggested these names to me. I would never have imagined they'd agree, and yet… They were fundamental, they helped me grow and challenge myself.

And today, how does one grow?

Today everything has changed: record labels no longer invest in new artists. In 2009 the general manager of a major label candidly admitted to me that they simply don't do it anymore, and that they only bet on talent shows: if a song works, great, otherwise that's the end of it. It's much harder for young artists these days, in short, though at least there's the advantage of technology that makes it easy to make records, and the web as a huge showcase to present them to the public.

So at a certain point you got tired of record labels and decided to self-produce…

Yes, that happened about twenty years ago, in 1995. When I saw that my record label wasn't interested in supporting my projects, in my way of making music, I decided to lay the groundwork so I could keep working independently, and fortunately I managed to, even if it's very demanding.

Which of your records do you feel most attached to?

I'm particularly attached to my early records, the ones from 1980 onward: “Park Hotel”, which for me is a milestone, as is “Sun in the rain”…

…which is a milestone for OndaRock too!

Oh really? That's lovely to hear, it really was a great record, actually. But among the works I feel most attached to, I'd also mention "Mélodie passagères", "God is my dj", "Viaggio in Italy"... It's hard to choose, though. There isn't one that changed my life – they all marked a specific moment, both existentially and artistically.

Any regrets?

No, why do you ask?

Well, I was thinking more that maybe the Italian scene has some regrets regarding you, for instance for not having given enough recognition to some of your more recent work...

No, I believe things move the way they're meant to move... I focus on making a record, a project, a tour, giving it my all: that's the whole point of my work, everything that comes afterwards is just a bonus. Either way, I consider myself lucky to still be here today, after all this time, able to make and produce what I feel, and to have invaluable collaborators, without whom I couldn't do it.

Among these somewhat underrated works there's also "Mélodie passagères": will you go back to working with classical music?

There's a project I've had in a drawer for years: after "Mélodie passagères", I had conceived a sort of follow-up to that album, namely "Art & Décoration", with tracks performed live together with the Toscanini orchestra of Parma. A beautiful repertoire, again spanning the late 19th and early 20th centuries. But so far I haven't managed to make it happen — it's still there waiting for its moment, and I hope to bring it to life sooner or later.

Will there be a tour to promote "Weekend"?

Yes, in spring, in the second half of March. I'll be playing theatre shows, certainly in Rome, Milan, Genoa, Padua... I'll perform the new songs plus a few old classics, depending on how I feel...

In what sense?

I have a peculiar relationship with some of my songs. For example, I went at least twenty years without performing "Per Elisa" again; I only recently started singing it again.

(14/11/2014)

Extended version of an interview originally published in "Leggo"

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