Edda and Marok - Post-lockdown rock

“Noio; volevam suonar”, a seriously kick-ass duo album made up of eleven bleeding shards in which OFF-mode songwriting and ON-mode experimentation sail toward waters that Italian songwriting in 2020 has largely left unexplored, too busy with soothing melodies designed not to upset ears or minds too much.

Over to the two of them.

Why a free album? Have we hit rock bottom for the Italian record industry's economy?

MAROCCOLO: Everything changes, nothing changes. We're in the middle of one of those many shifts where what was valid yesterday no longer holds today, and where the very concept of a record market seems truly obsolete. Between them, the market and the media barely serve up 5% of the music being made and played around the world every day… Today, as ever, beauty has to be sought in the remaining 95%. But the decision to give away “Noio…” was driven by a desire to do our part at a time when each of us was losing something or someone.

EDDA: No, it's just that nobility of spirit isn't really my thing, but luckily others have it. So it's only right to give gifts. They say the giver feels better than the receiver. I feel great at Christmas anyway. Against all expectations, I hope they reprint it, so I can sell it at loan-shark prices at gigs and on public holidays.

Are you aware that you've recorded a masterpiece of inventiveness and courage? Not that the quality of your solo outings was any less, but there's an extra something in “Noio; volevam suonar”…

MAROCCOLO: Thanks! I think Stefano and I managed to give ourselves a really great gift at a pretty complicated time. The final result was, and still is, surprising even to us; but I think this record is the natural consequence of a deep human bond we've been building for a while now. When you reach that level of depth in how you perceive each other, making music together becomes really simple.

EDDA: Yes, we were. But if there's a chance to make an ass of myself, I'm always first in line. This time, though, it went well.

Speaking of courage. The “gratuitous invective” against Negramaro (and later on Achille Lauro also gets a mention): bold at a time when criticizing anyone, even mildly, seems to be treated as heresy and gets fought on social media with cries of “sore losers”.

MAROCCOLO: I'm Tuscan and I treat irony as a kind of virtue. I've never minced words, but at the same time I don't take offense if someone pokes fun at me.

EDDA: It's fun to bad-mouth people, but I like doing it behind their backs — to their face I'd never dare. Anyway, you can't say Gianni's been lacking in success. I come from a bleaker experience, made up of renunciations, abuses and spit. Dissing is a bit like fisting: it's popular with the people who are popular. Personally, I prefer cotton swabs.

The 5/4 time signature that gives birth to “Servi dei servi” is a chance to reflect on the fact that nobody writes songs with “weird” rhythms in pop music anymore.

MAROCCOLO: The story of the 5/4 is just one of the many bits of messing around between me and Stefano. Another track gave us a bit of a headache too, because it had an odd polyrhythm: “Stai zitta”. I have an instinctive approach to composing and arranging… first I create and record, and only afterwards, out of curiosity, do I rationalize what I've come up with. Although I admit I have a real passion for rhythmic subdivision… in “Alone” and in “Noio; volevam suonar” there are several passages here and there where it shifts from even to odd meter. In each of these moments I'm after that naturalness that keeps you from noticing that something's changing. Everything has to stay simple and subliminal.

EDDA: Let's drop it.

How long have you known each other, and what do you love about one another?

MAROCCOLO: We started hanging out in person back in 2018. A few sporadic encounters where our tendency to mess around partly masked our shyness and our mutual desire to really get to know each other. Nobody takes us seriously, but we've been saying for a while that we should go to Sanremo as a duo. Artistically, I adore Stefano's voice, a genuine talent, and the way he writes both lyrics and vocal melodies. On a human level, I love his purity.

EDDA: I met Gianni at Pontida, he was dressed as a Viking and was absolutely determined to piss in the sacred vial. I immediately went and reported him to Trota, and he had to flee to Tunisia by speedboat.

How much does “Finire a pecora sui Matia Bazar” matter?

MAROCCOLO: Well, you'll have to ask Stefano that. But the fact is I find that bit brilliant.

EDDA: Someone once said “better a day as a lion than a hundred years as a sheep”. I'd say it depends!

Edda's punk spirit, Maroccolo's experimentation. Both hardcore and uncompromising: what advice would you give to those who today aren't hardcore and uncompromising?

MAROCCOLO: I wouldn't know what to advise, also because purity often brings suffering and disappointment. But I also think that burying your head in the sand like an ostrich doesn't help much, except to get through this earthly life without even trying to live it.

EDDA: To have plenty of passive sex.

Why the Don Backy cover?

MAROCCOLO: It was originally conceived for “Alone IV”. And it was written and arranged for Stefano's voice. Then we liked it so much that we put it out on “Noio…” as well.

Edda, what do you say about the lyrics? Streams of consciousness, mental wanking, or carefully crafted poetics?

EDDA: Meter, hendecasyllables, iambs and one huge pain in the ass. I like listening to music in English so I don't understand a damn thing and can just think about the music.

Claudio Rocchi always comes back…

MAROCCOLO: As far as I'm concerned he never left. Like a good Enlightened One, he keeps giving me his Light and constantly pushing me to abandon "the known for the unknown."

EDDA: Well, as a Hare Krishna I'm happy about that.

Edda's guitars make you jump out of your seat, I imagine it's all instinct…

MAROCCOLO: And to think I had to hammer it into him to get him to play them at all! Unique as a guitarist too.

EDDA: I studied at the Solieri and Poggipollini school. Then Elio had me try out his flute. But I wasn't sure about it, so I went back to my disastrous guitar.

…while Maroccolo's electronic treatments sound like Brian Eno on acid.

MAROCCOLO: I've always loved cosmic music!

EDDA: Yeah.

Speaking of which: why isn't Marok the Italian Brian Eno? (or rather, he is, but in Italy there's no room for an Italian Brian Eno)

MAROCCOLO: I won't deny that Brian Eno has been a kind of "lighthouse in the fog" for me. Especially that quality of his as a total musician and experimenter. I've always wanted to become a good musician and a good sound manipulator, and I think I've finally managed it, but the comparison with Eno seems a bit much. In Italy it's hard to find a place for yourself no matter what you decide to do, let alone go off on unconventional musical tangents, but I'm not complaining — quite the opposite, I consider myself very lucky.

EDDA: If you ask me, it's because of that whole ampoule business.

Still on the subject of Marok, who are your bass heroes?

EDDA: Gianni, tell him Saturnino!

MAROCCOLO: J.P. Jones, Bernard Edwards, Peter Principle, Mark Sandman.

With Covid's blessing: gigs?

MAROCCOLO: We were bored; we wanted to play. And we will, as soon as we can.

EDDA: Under cover of darkness too, if need be. Sooner or later we'll go back to seeing the stars from the stables.

Many musicians have gone hungry during this period, and a number of initiatives have been launched, some quite striking. But nobody's taking to the streets to shout about it - why is that?

MAROCCOLO: Someone once sang “my machine gun is a double bass”… I'm content to think that a song can't change the world, but it might save a life. We've all been (and still are) struggling, but taking to the streets and shouting isn't always the answer, and dubious initiatives even less so.

EDDA: It's like Ungaretti saying give me money because I can't write poems anymore.

Marco Philopat, Virus, the antagonist Milan scene - what's left of it?

EDDA: Marco's thinness.

Who are the “servants of servants”?

EDDA: Me.

Ride the wave of great music

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