Irene Grandi - A Woman in Blues

We're in Latina, Sunday October 30, 2022. Irene Grandi has just finished the sound-check for the concert that will see her take the stage that evening at the Palatenda set up for a small four-day festival in the Lazio provincial capital. For a few months now Irene has been on the road with “Io in Blues”, a tour in which, backed by a four-piece band, she takes on the role of a thoroughly convincing blues interpreter, alternating great classics by Italian and international songwriters with tracks from her own repertoire, rearranged for the occasion.

We approach this lively chat with the aim of revealing the more "rock" and "alternative" side of an artist who achieved major success through unmistakably pop hits. Starting from the pandemic, which in 2020 forced her to cancel a tour planned in the small live clubs of the independent circuit, we step into her world to hear about her roots, some of the most significant moments of her career, her current and future projects, and dwell on some of the artists whose paths have crossed hers over the years…

Hi Irene, I'd like to start almost from the end: Sanremo Festival 2020, where you performed "Finalmente io", written by Vasco Rossi, a song that expresses that "rock attitude" you'd already shown several times in the past. At the same time, a tour of yours in live clubs was announced, the same venues that host the best names on the international "indie" scene. You were set to kick off on March 5th at Largo Venue in Rome, then you would have played at Cage in Livorno, Latteria Molloy in Brescia, CAP10100 in Turin, Locomotiv in Bologna, all symbols of the "alternative" circuit. There was huge curiosity to see you at work in those intimate spaces, then Covid hit…

And it all went up in smoke… Yes, we'd made that choice of small live clubs mainly because, thanks to "Finalmente io", the song written by Vasco, I was going back to embracing certain rock-oriented sounds with real force, and I was doing it by leveraging the huge megaphone of the Sanremo Festival.

A kind of statement of intent…

Exactly. What's more, playing in live clubs, in those intimate spaces, is a situation I've always loved, and of course the band accompanying me loved it too. The real problem is managing to make a tour of that kind sustainable.

You mean because it doesn't pay well?

Exactly. You see, the musicians who play with me are really excellent, and they certainly can't be underpaid. To be able to play in small venues with a reasonable ticket price, you need to ask for a fee that's sustainable for whoever is willing to host you. But we loved the format enormously — eight clubs had been selected, all very charged spaces where so much energy is always unleashed, energy that's enjoyable both for those watching the show and for those playing it. We were thrilled by the idea of promoting the album we were touring, "Awesome", in this way — a new edition of which included two unreleased tracks, among them precisely "Finalmente io".

An album containing mostly tracks conceived, or re-conceived, in a "rock" key, as in the case of "La cometa di Halley", recorded with a new arrangement quite different from the original

"Awesome" was a kind of "best of…", but with the songs re-recorded — some live, others in acoustic versions — plus a few completely new duets. There were also new tracks with a more rock-oriented arrangement than what I usually do. After the stop forced by the pandemic we never managed to bring that tour back, but who knows, maybe one day we'll think about it again.

I imagine that idea was nonetheless the driving force behind the project you're currently touring around Italy, focused instead on the blues…

It's actually connected, also because this tour, which we've called "Io in Blues", we're bringing it to intimate spaces too, like the Blue Note (the historic jazz club in Milan, ed.), where we played a few months ago. The idea is to offer a series of blues repertoire classics: some take us back in time, others are closer to the present day, with major forays into Italian music, for instance Mina, Lucio Battisti, Pino Daniele. A "coming-of-age" show, if you like, one that also helps explain to my audience where I come from and what I like to listen to. Then we've added a few songs from my own repertoire to the setlist, rearranged in a blues key for the occasion. The idea grew out of a moment when I decided to immerse myself in sounds I knew well, but hadn't practiced for a while.

Speaking of coming-of-age: as a very young woman Irene Grandi used to play in small Florentine rock bands…

You mean La Forma srl? Let's say rock-blues, because honestly I was never one of those hard-hitting rockers: I've always relied heavily on melody. Back then I loved Nirvana, who had huge power in their sound, but also major melodies, which not by chance later emerged on their "Mtv Unplugged". I love rock, but I love it most of all when it leaves room for melodically sung parts.

Your career has, in fact, always been marked by freedom of expression: pop, soul, jazz, funk, even an album alongside pianist Stefano Bollani…

I've always tried to bring something new, making choices that would let me reinvent myself. The goal has always been to avoid staying locked inside an exclusively pop labyrinth.

I remember the many crossovers with the electronic scene of the time on “Per Fortuna purtroppo”, your 1997 album…

Many years ago I also made some forays into reggae music…

Besides, you're from Florence, where in the Eighties there was a very active rock-wave scene: I'm thinking above all of Litfiba and Diaframma…

But I have to say I feel a bit like an outsider with respect to my city. The rock that leans towards new wave, the darker, gloomier kind that I really enjoy listening to, isn't something I see myself making — I don't think I have the right personality to pull it off. I'm very rock inside, but then I'm also very sunny; my rock stuff was always tinged with black music, for instance I liked Prince, I liked Lenny Kravitz, and then I liked The Police — artists who made less “dark” sounds, those were the ones I preferred to listen to. I never felt a particular bond with Piero Pelù or with Diaframma, who worked in a different genre from mine. Besides, they're four or five years older than me, and back then I was still too young to follow them in person when they were huge in Florence and played there very often. By the time I started going out at night, they had already moved on elsewhere, they'd become a national phenomenon.

I won't ask you — as everyone probably usually does — about Vasco Rossi and Pino Daniele, two monuments who co-wrote some of your biggest hits. Instead I'll ask you about another of your longtime collaborators. In the indie scene there was a sudden surge of interest in you when you recorded “Bruci la città” and “La cometa di Halley”, two songs written together with Francesco Bianconi, among his first forays into writing for other artists. Whose idea was it originally for those two songs?

I love Francesco enormously, and I have to admit my part in writing those two songs was small. As we all know, he's very skilled at composing; I only tweaked a few words, and then of course I worked a lot on the production side, because as you can imagine my way of making music is very far removed from that of Baustelle, especially the Baustelle of their early phase, when they were very wave, very Eighties. As I told you before, that's the kind of music I love listening to, but that I've never actually made. For “Bruci la città”, what worked so well was the fusion of an almost apocalyptic lyric with an arrangement — done together with my team — that gave it a sunny, pop feel. “Bruci la città” became a real crossover hit, the kind that both adults and kids listen to and hum along to. The whole point was to try to open up Francesco's original idea, which was actually a bit more “particular”, darker in sound if you like, with all those eighth-note basslines, to a wider audience.

How did the two of you meet? Did you seek him out? Did he seek you out? Or did the idea come from your respective managements?

At the time I was working with a very young manager, Francesca Pellegrini, who had seen Baustelle live, loved them, and told me she thought a collaboration could work. They're from Tuscany too, among other things. I listened to their work and found it really interesting, maybe a bit far from my style, but I thought we could at least try to sound out whether Francesco would be up for it. And in the end it worked!

Bianconi has remained particularly attached to those two songs, so much so that he still performs them live both on his solo tours and with Baustelle…

I know, he's even put them in the setlist for the tour supporting his solo debut. Francesco decided to revisit them in a more singer-songwriter key: I really liked his versions. You see, in the end, when songs are good they work even through a different lens. I love his voice, even though Francesco isn't an artist for everyone, at least not yet: he's a bit demanding, he packs in all those cultured, refined references. Let's say “Bruci la città” and “La Cometa di Halley” turned out to be a great way for us to support each other. For me they were two big hits that maybe brought me closer to a new audience, different from the one that had followed me up to that point. For Francesco those two songs were just as important, because at the time he still had to break out of his niche, he still had to reach a wider audience, and through my music his name started circulating in circles and situations quite different from the ones he came from artistically.

By the way, Francesco Bianconi is a songwriter exclusively for female voices, just like Vasco Rossi for that matter…

Yes, I've noticed, clearly he likes female company (laughs, ed.). He evidently has a kind of sensitivity that women really respond to: he manages to strike chords of tenderness, of emotion, sometimes even of anger. Because we women are tender, sure, but we're angry too…

Coming back to your forays into “indie-rock” sounds, these also run through your 2005 album, “Indelible”, which in my view deserved a better reception: maybe audiences weren't ready to see you in that version of yourself?

For “Indelible” we actually worked a lot on the rock side of things, it's an album that brings out that aspect of me, with guitar solos, a very live feel, with a band actually playing.

And even a tribute to Janis Joplin tucked inside…

Yes, and not only that — in there is a song that's very important, one I'll be performing tonight as well, "Lasciala andare" (which will close out the set, ed.).

Another Italian artist who managed to pull off an unpredictable transformation was Nada, embraced and appreciated by the indie scene thanks to two highly successful tours in which she chose as her backing band first Zen Circus and then …A Toys Orchestra…

If you like, she's becoming a sort of female Vasco, turning into a genuine icon, and she's moved incredibly far from the image she embodied at the start of her career. Maybe today she's trying to carry forward an idea of music she already had back then, but which only now she's able to express in a fully realized way. I hope to have at least as much artistic longevity as she has.

In your repertoire from the new millennium there's also a cover of Paolo Benvegnù, "E' solo un sogno" (from "Before Leaving", 2003), a song written for you by Marco Parente, "Cuore bianco", and even more recently another one written by Antonio Dimartino, "I passi dell'amore", which ended up on "Awesome"…

It's nice to know the alternative scene is being followed so closely, that names not exactly bathed in the spotlight get recognized. Marco Parente and I have been friends for a long time, I'm glad you brought him up, he's a songwriter of tremendous quality. Just as I'm happy to mention the singer of Dirotta su Cuba, Simona Bencini, whom I'm very close to, and who never managed to sustain over time the success she had early on.

Dirotta su Cuba remind me of the period when a lot of people got infatuated with acid jazz — some of your early songs moved in that direction too…

Yes, that flavor was there too, it was a style, a way of playing that was very popular and worked really well at a certain point in the Nineties. I don't know if you're aware that Cristina Donà also wrote for me…

Yes! Two tracks found on your 2015 album, "Un vento senza nome", titled "A memoria" and "Una canzone che non ricordo più".

Cristina belongs to the "independent" world too, as does Saverio Lanza, who's my current producer, someone I've worked with for the past ten years — a guitarist who's featured in a lot of alternative, very distinctive productions, which I'd recommend you look into. It's also thanks to his support and collaboration that I've managed to become a "rockeuse" on stage, because yes, my attitude has always been rock, but musically I have to say it's thanks to his advice that we've grown so much in recent years.

All the way up to Stewart Copeland…

And we did get there, can you believe it? It all began when Stewart accepted the proposal of Maddalena Calderoni, the Artistic Director of Tones Teatro Natura, in Val d'Ossola, where they conceive and stage very ambitious projects, embracing every musical genre, from opera to electronic music. This year they came up with the idea of a musical about witches, who really did exist in Val d'Ossola, with cases of inquisition and crimes against women, carried out especially during the 1600s. Maddalena asked Copeland if he'd be interested in composing the music for this story. He's been writing scores for films and musicals for many years, and he was thrilled to make a work in Italy. It's a rock opera, titled "The Witches Seed", where I sing rock, but my colleagues on stage are all opera singers. This blend of opera and rock might sound gaudy if described out loud, but it actually becomes captivating thanks to the music written by Stewart, partly in collaboration with the singer of the Pretenders, Chrissie Hynde, who brings in her very English rock edge. What came out of it was a genuinely original, unusual proposal, a mix of songs à la Pretenders, the orchestra, the opera singers, the dancers, the choreographers. It really was a fascinating adventure.

And has it already ended?

No! Right now we're looking for partners who can help us produce it on a bigger scale, to help it grow. It's an ambitious work, because there are a lot of us, with a major stage, and rather expensive, elaborate sets. It needs the right kind of spaces. The experience was exhilarating, we hope to be able to do it again.

A young songwriter — I imagine you know him, he's actually from Latina too — Edoardo Calcutta, has been the musician who's best managed to show just how blurred the line between "underground" and "mainstream" has become. Living in both worlds yourself, having done five Sanremo Festivals but also moving through alternative circuits, what's your sense of it from the inside? Are the barriers really coming down?

"Underground" and "mainstream" have mixed together heavily in recent years — actually, I'll tell you, in my opinion alternative music has taken hold in pop even too much: everyone today tries to copy the melodies of musicians from the indie scene. Although these days saying "indie" means everything and nothing. Calcutta, for instance, I don't consider him all that "indie", at least not in his approach to songwriting. If anything, I see him as a songwriter who's chosen sounds that are a bit more indie-leaning than usual, but if you actually listen closely to his songs, it's not even that much the case. Maybe at the start, when he was still unknown.

It's been a while since you released new material, but you did "gift" your colleague Elisa with "Litoranea," one of last summer's hits…

Yes, very nice! You see! Her songs that became hits are very pop. If anything, what's "underground" is her attitude, that being always a bit "strange." But she's definitely one of the best.

That also makes me think of Tommaso Paradiso, and his early days with Thegiornalisti…

Right, take Tommaso Paradiso too, but tell me: what's "indie" about that? I mean, his output is completely pop! Those who come from indie end up chasing pop. Just as, conversely, pop sometimes tries to cross-contaminate itself, for instance repeating melodies borrowed from trap, turned into something like nursery rhymes. Pop realizes indie has caught on, so it tends to meet it halfway. Right now they're meeting each other halfway.

What are you listening to these days?

Lately I've been really focused on revisiting a lot of old blues records, partly to get further into the mood of this tour. The roots of much of the music we listen to today can be traced back to the work of artists from the Sixties and Seventies. We're still drawing inspiration from them today. Maybe there's a tendency to relive that musical message in different, more contemporary ways, but so much was already said in those years. Right now I've been focusing a lot on those records, I've grown very fond of them. Among newer names, in the soul-blues realm, I've really enjoyed Alabama Shakes. I'm also listening to newer bands, but I'm more drawn to music with blues roots, that gives me interpretive keys. Then, you know, this tour has been going on for a while, and every so often we refresh the setlist, adding new songs.

Will an album be coming too?

For now there's the single with my cover of Mina's "E poi," out just a few weeks ago, and we're thinking about doing a vinyl, a small run for the fans. I'm not thinking about making an album with a big production behind it, with a promotional rollout, a label backing it and all that stuff. No: the idea is to self-produce a record for the fans who really care.

Any other projects in the works?

I'm starting to gather new songs, although I still really want to keep going with this tour, which means a lot to me, since it tells the story of my passion for blues and black music. But at some point I'll also have to write and put out something new, and something good.

What impact has the pandemic had on your recent path, aside from the interruption of the small-club tour we mentioned at the start?

The pandemic inevitably frayed some relationships: it was pretty tough for me, but this tour is strengthening me again. Now the conditions and space are opening up for me both to try out new songwriters and to reconnect with others I haven't worked with in a while. The goal is to try to renew my songwriting through new collaborations.

Do you see a new Irene Grandi out there today? Let me throw out a name: a young singer, who also took part in the latest edition of the Sanremo Festival. I happened to see her perform live: she has a fierceness that reminded me a lot of you as a young woman. Ditonellapiaga.

Ditonellapiaga has a very different voice from mine, in terms of timbre, but in terms of charm and cheekiness there's definitely something there. Her songs are likeable and winning, including the one she performed at the Sanremo Festival together with Rettore.

Now, before we wrap up, give me a couple of names yourself…

Look, I really like the singer from La Rappresentante di Lista: I find an affinity with her in terms of taste. She too has a voice different from mine, but I love her music. Then, you know, I did that TV show, "The Band", where there was a very young group, all around twenty years old, called Anxia Lytics, and the singer is a girl named Alessia Gerardi. They weren't on my team, but they're really good. In some ways she reminded me of myself as a girl. They're very young, but she's already a true singer.

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