Non Voglio Che Clara - The Awareness of Ourselves

Belluno or Milan, does it make a difference?

by Marco Lo Giudice

Interview with Fabio De Min, frontman of Belluno's own Non Voglio Che Clara

“Actually I grew up on something completely different, I only came to singer-songwriters much later on”. Fabio De Min has the look of a seasoned musician, one who betrays none of the nerves you'd expect just hours before a show, at the Panic Jazz Club in Marostica (Vicenza). Which comes as no surprise, given the excellent track record of Non Voglio Che Clara's live shows.

And when asked about the lofty reference points that have supposedly weighed on Fabio's songwriting over the years – see Tenco, Bindi, Battisti and De André – he answers quite calmly: “I don't think listening habits really affect what you end up doing all that much. Besides, I listen to music just like any other listener. Being labelled by critics is normal, and sometimes it's flattering, like in Tenco's case, but honestly, after ten years of activity, you no longer feel any artistic reference point at all”.

Listening to “Dei Cani”, it's clear that Clara's personality is indeed strong and well established. What you hear, instead, is a broader, more evocative sweep – in the lyrics, the music and the imagery – almost cinematic. “That's true. Especially when it comes to the great tradition of film score composers we have in Italy. The challenge was precisely to bring certain film-like sounds together with alternative indie rock, and see what came out of it. It's the same reason we moved towards electronics: I believe that, fundamentally, you always end up trying to write the same song, and then a whole series of things step in to differentiate and enrich the track, including the studio process itself. That's where the sonic exploration begins, which for us feels like an intention, an absolutely spontaneous need, one that lets us avoid ever repeating ourselves”. A deliberate choice, and a highly accomplished one, that enriches the Belluno band's sound. Belluno, precisely. “Maybe fifteen years ago being in Milan would have made a difference, Milan was the centre of the world: all the contacts and infrastructure for making music were there. But that's no longer really true, the market has completely fallen apart. Also because how many venues are there between Milan and Rome where you can play at a certain level? So, even though it still takes a lot longer for something to break out of the provinces, plenty of things still come from places this small anyway”.

A fractured market, with apparently no one (or a thousand people, depending on how you look at it) to blame. “I actually think the blame lies mainly with the major record labels, who never managed to reverse the trend, by now they're a train running on its own that's incapable of changing direction. Illegal downloading does cause damage, that's true. But it's not the only factor behind the crisis in record sales. That's why I find certain penalties excessive. Why not instead make the websites pay directly, or better yet, the phone providers? Maybe by leveraging some kind of subscription model. The truth is phone providers will never pay for content”. Because, deep down, nobody believes in culture as an economic resource anymore. Fabio is convinced of it: “Of course, it's a deeply cultural problem. Just think about venues, like I said before. Not long ago we played at LaCasa139, in Milan, shortly before it closed, and it was one of the few good places left”.

Before leaving Fabio to dinner and then the show, his final words are devoted to upcoming plans, between live dates and studio work: “We'll be on tour until autumn, then we'll start thinking about a new record. No rush, though. We've always allowed ourselves the freedom to choose who and how we work with, and we'll certainly do the same this time round”.

The Awareness of Ourselves

by Stefano Bartolotta

After a long wait, the Belluno band led by Fabio De Min has returned with an album already very well received by critics. We tried to give the frontman a few prompts, via email, to dig deeper into various aspects of this record. His answers reveal an artist with clear ideas, and one very satisfied with his own work.

When the news broke that you were coming back, plenty of people must have inevitably wondered about the reasons behind these four-plus years of absence. Listening to the album, I personally thought you only came back now because you wanted to wait until you truly had something new and important to say. Are there other reasons?

After touring the previous album for several months, the first thing we did was take a short break, during which we kept playing shows, but in a stripped-down lineup and more intimate settings. It was a run of shows that acted as a sort of appendix to “Bene”, the single released only on vinyl in 2007. After that I focused on writing the new songs, lent a hand to a few friends with their own projects (Artemoltobuffa, Valentina Dorme, Loft, Public), and in the meantime we also changed a couple of members within the band.

Already between “Hotel Tivoli” and the self-titled album, in my opinion, there's a shift in the perspective from which you tell your stories, in the sense that I see less naivety and disillusionment and more awareness and maturity. Now I find that this shift has gone much further, and this is a record that leaves no room for doubt or lightness, but comes across as tough and determined.

“Dei Cani” is certainly a harder record in terms of content compared to the previous ones, yet I think it also has a dose of sweetness that's not at all submissive, but rather the result of the same determination shown by the protagonist in facing the events that involve him.

What strikes the ear most immediately is the major evolution in terms of sound. Did the desire to renew yourselves from this point of view emerge while the compositional process was underway or finished, or was it an idea present from the very beginning?

It arises first and foremost during composition, in the sense that it was our idea from the start to make a more direct and immediate record compared to the previous ones. So it happened during studio work, engaging with the possibilities the studio has to offer, not least by comparing our ideas with those of Giulio (Ragno Favero, who was entrusted with the artistic production, ed.).

I was particularly struck by the fact that in more than one passage the voice is almost covered by the layering of the arrangements: I find it's a risky solution but a fascinating one when used well, as it is here. Can you tell us something specific about this aspect?

The mixing of the record is entirely Giulio's work. Certainly shared in terms of intentions and choices, but one of the aspects I cared about most in working with Giulio was precisely the chance to benefit from a different perspective on the existing material. I think that this way we managed to bring out better those colors that were perhaps already present in the writing but stayed in the background, and even the aspect you mention ultimately helps convey the urgency of the lyrics.

Speaking of sound, Giulio Ragno Favero also worked on the Valentina Dorme record, which in my opinion is the best Italian album of 2009, and you worked on it too. I find that their record shares another element with yours, one that has nothing to do with the artistic production but with the underlying message, namely that living love very intensely will almost certainly lead to defeat and almost never to a happy ending.

I'm really glad to hear “La Carne.” by Valentina Dorme mentioned, it's truly a wonderful record, one of the works I contributed to that I'm proudest of, including those released under my own name. However, I don't agree with your reading of the message: there's no defeat in these records, but rather a conquest. That of a greater awareness of ourselves, which is in turn a further step toward understanding life as a whole.

Love, however, isn't the only theme dealt with on the record; on more than one occasion there's a gaze, more or less intense, toward social issues, something that can also be found in other bands geared toward a modern-day revision of the traditional singer-songwriter tradition, I'm thinking of Baustelle and Amor Fou. How necessary is it for this to happen today, in a world where disinterest in everything beyond one's personal sphere is increasingly dominant?

Taking refuge from politics can itself be a political choice. Rather than blaming those who aren't interested, I'd rather blame those who responsibly make choices that are harmful to society and to people. On the other hand, the disinterest, the indifference you're talking about, can only stir in the author the desire to express their own point of view. I'd say it's more symptomatic than necessary.

As for the strictly compositional side of things, I find that the maturity compared to the past is shown here through greater variety in melodic style, through writing that's more pop than in previous works.

As I mentioned earlier, the intention was to write a more immediate, raw, direct record. This "forced" me to engage with more linear songwriting, though I hope not a generic one.

In the imagination of Italian independent music fans, the work released under the name Non Voglio Che Clara is seen almost as an exclusive emanation of your own ideas. How much does the contribution of the musicians who play with you actually count?

It's fundamental, if only for the fact that without their presence I wouldn't have anyone to test these ideas against. Non Voglio Che Clara is a band in every respect, with its own balances and imbalances, but without the contribution of the people within the band we'd be here talking about a different project.

I'll ask you the same about the guests. Did they mostly follow your direction, or did they also make a creative contribution and not just a performative one?

I hope our guests' contributions to the record are seen by them as creative, even in cases where we worked closely together. With Diana (Tejera, singer-songwriter from Rome, ed.) and Matteo (D'Incà, multi-instrumentalist who played drums on two tracks here, ed.), for example, we had a lot of back-and-forth, while port-royal and Mia (Julia Schettini, voice of the Rome-based band Palomino Blitz, ed.) worked completely independently. It depends on the case and the situation. Either way, I'm very happy with all of them.

We recently saw you live at Circolo Arci Bellezza in Milan, and what struck me most was your ability to give the songs real substance even as a four-piece, without being able to rely on many of the layered arrangements typical of studio work. Is there a plan in the works to expand the line-up, even just for occasional shows?

Thank you very much for pointing that out, and I really hope our work in the rehearsal room helped put together a set that works on its own terms, beyond any comparison with the recorded material. I wouldn't rule out expanding the line-up, although for now we're quite happy sharing the stage space between the four of us.

So what do your "Saturday night plans" look like now? Will you be spending a lot of them playing live around Italy in support of the record?

That's what we're hoping for - our schedule is coming together over these weeks.

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