In this blog I take you with me on my musical journey. Mostly from the ideas, creation and finalization of my upcoming EP “Into the Light” to the release concert on the 19th of june.
My musical journey started a long time ago in a small village in the Italian Alps. Not more than a thousand people live in the village. Growing up I started playing the accordion and the piano. Focused on traditional and classical music, but also on more virtuous music like tango and jazz.
Music has always given me the space to let my emotions flow out. In various emotional states of mind I would always look out for the nearest instrument and put all my feelings into the music. Later on as a teenager I started playing the guitar and found myself singing more often. For me the human voice is the most emotional instrument. Everyone has a different voice and different timbre. But to sing is also the most vulnerable feeling. I had to get used to that. Then in my young adult stage of life I started to make a living as a singer and songwriter. Mostly playing cover gigs around northern Italy but also Austria, Germany and Switzerland. I always tried to bring my own touch to cover songs. Even though I played a lot of songs I haven’t written myself, I changed them up and tried to make my own versions out of it. That went on for some years. In the beginning I made a lot of progress and developed myself quickly. After some years I felt I was completely stuck in my musical and artistic progress. I started to think a lot about what I should do. Which direction should I go for? Then covid happened. No live gigs, no public life. Turns out that was exactly what I needed. During quarantine at home I discovered the youtube channel “Cercle”. They posted videos of various artists making electronic live sets in breathtaking locations around the world. I was stoked. Especially the performances of FKJ and Ben Böhmer catched my attention. Combining my traditional instruments and voice with electronic music. That was something I have never thought about. A totally new world for me in the realm of music. Suddenly there were so many new ideas floating through my head. So many new possibilities. I was hyped.

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The first beats.
I remember opening Ableton the first time. A complete mess. But who doesn’t know it? Starting something completely new is never easy. As overwhelming as it was in the beginning, the more fun it got the more you knew. The workflow started to improve, I haven’t had to google or watch youtube tutorials anytime I wanted to do something. Relatively quickly the first beats came together. It’s always nice to go back and listen to them. See the progress you made. Some were quite nice ideas, some of them complete trash. But that’s how it goes. To learn something new you just have to try, try and try another time. The progress was slow. Sometimes invisible, but always there. Summers during covid were quite “normal”, so I started playing gigs again. A lot of gigs. So that I kind of hadn’t had time to get back to producing as much as I wanted. That whole thing repeated again the year after. I came to the conclusion for myself that I still had to change something to bring more focus to the newly discovered direction of music I wanna go to. Started to look up cities and universities to go to to find a new space, new people and new surroundings to develop myself as an artist, musician and producer. First thing that came up googling was “Catalyst” in Berlin. The university looked different from others. I felt it was the place where I not just develop my skills but also grow as a person. I signed up for it, got accepted and moved to Berlin the next fall. A new adventure, a new chapter in my life. Berlin had an instant vibe. So many new inputs for a boy coming from a quite remote part of the world. Suddenly I found myself in a world city. Surrounded by millions of people. Surrounded by a great musical history. Especially in the realm of electronic music, the field I wanted to step into. The first year in university was important for my development. Previously in life, Even though I released some music and played a lot of gigs, I’ve had a hard time seeing myself as an artist. Being in Berlin, working on my own sound, I slowly began to see myself as an artist. As an artist that can make unique music. That went on as well for the second year in Berlin and brings me to the present. In the middle of seeing myself as an artist, but an artist with a long way to go.

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The present.
Today I sit here writing these words. Reading my previous posts and realized I came a long way from that three year old starting to play accordion. Acknowledging that, but also realizing that I’m also just at the beginning of something new. The whole thing with producing my own ideas gives me a lot of freedom to make exactly what I want. I dived into it and now the whole creative world in front of me gets bigger and bigger. For me that is such a nice feeling. Knowing that there is so much out there that I don’t know yet, so much more that I can learn, so many new skills that can be crafted, so many artists I can collaborate with, so much more ideas coming to life. Getting to know talented artists around me and just finding crazy good artists on the internet pushes myself to go further. It really inspires me to get better for myself, to be able to start realizing the ideas floating around in my head. My goal is to share the joy of music. Music in my life is such an important thing. Not only making music, but also listening to it. In various situations in life there is different music that supports my emotional state. Music for me is also a social thing. That is also an important aspect for me. Music is there to share with people, to share some special moments in our lives. The same goes for my music. I want to give people my music. To help them in difficult times, to get people together, to make people dance, to make them smile, to make them cry or just to listen to it. That also gives something back to me. It inspires me to make new music. The two main inspirations for me to make art are on one hand the people in my life. Really good friends and family are very important to me. On the other hand I drain a lot of inspiration from my surrounding, Either it is the calm being in the middle of nowhere surrounded by nature, or it is the chaos of cars, people and a concrete jungle of buildings. Discovering your surroundings or just being in it how you used to do it as a child brings so many interesting new details to it.

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Creativity
Ideas come when you don’t force them to.
That is my way of thinking when it comes to creativity. I know everybody has its own way of doing things, its own way to get creative thoughts out of their brains. But for me it works the best when I’m in a surrounding where I feel comfortable. I have a hard time to sit down and make something specific. More or less my best way to work is simply starting, getting in the flow and staying there. It’s not always easy because sometimes ideas come to you when you’re busy or don’t have time. But I try to bring as much down as I can in that moment and keep working on it as long as the flow and the spark is there. Like that it can be possible that I can almost finish a song in a day. On the other hand, it also happens that it can be months till I finish one. The flow is really important for me. Realizing when I’m in the flow state and just keep being in it till I’m naturally falling out of it. In my opinion the feeling of not thinking of what you do, just doing it is the most enjoyable and amazing thing. For me it is the embodiment of creativity. I realized that for me it was more and more important to get a proper workflow and quick setup. The quicker I get navigating programs and bringing down ideas from my head, the better it is for me and the longer I can stay in the flow state. Nowadays you can bring down ideas in so many ways. It’s also way more accessible to creative things. Producing music for example, what do you need? A laptop and a pair of headphones. It is as simple as it is. The important thing is just to be creative with what you have. Do not limit yourself to thinking you need this and that to start. Just start. From ideas and creativity it goes into actual art in front of you. For me that was crafting an EP with my debut Songs.

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EP – Into the Light
After more than two years developing my skills and learning I slowly feel myself comfortable to release some own produced music. I felt vulnerable showing my personal lyrics and music to the big world. But after a while it feels good. It feels good to finally show people the path that I took. To show people a glimpse of the path I want to go. The moment to see your art, which you spent hours crafting, out in the world gave a lot to me. For some people it might sound silly but it was a new milestone for me. The EP “Into the Light” is composed out of four tracks. I’m gonna tell you more about it in the next post.

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Track 1 – Into the Light
The Intro Track that has the same name as the EP. The idea behind “Into the Light” emerged first when I had the idea of filming a sunrise live set in a breathtaking location in the Italian Alps.
Even though till today I was not able to make this specific live set happen, due various delays and bad weather situations, I still see “Into the Light” as a very special track. It talks about coming from the shadows into the light. From coming out of the dark of the night to the slowly illuminating horizon until you feel the first sun rays on your face. Musically it follows that pattern too. The piano theme that goes for about 5-6 minutes in d minor and brings a slightly melancholic but still hopeful sound, suddenly evolves into d major, representing the warmth of the sun, for the second chorus. Accompanied with some light vocals and a calm beat gives it a kind of a mood of departure feeling.
Track 2 – In my Arms
The second track following “Into the Light” is “In my Arms”. This track originated from some thoughts about hugs. I was realizing that there can be so much power in a proper hug. A hug can be casual, can be strong and can be full of translated emotions. I experienced that with some people there were these crazy emotions in the air during a hug. I could really feel how much I loved some people, and how much from that love I received back. I wished that some hugs just never ended. An emotional and powerful hug is nothing you can force. Sometimes it happens, sometimes not. The power of a hug. That was my intended message for this song. I collaborated with Anirudh, a talented producer I met in Berlin. I really like his emotional touch to music. I think it comes from his Indian origins. Also his implementation for real world instruments and atmospheric soundscapes. He brought exactly that into this track. We tried to forge the piece with a lot of warmth, almost as if the track would hug you as a listener. Reading this, try to listen to the track and tell me if that translated to you. Also try to pay conscious attention during your next hugs. Maybe you get what I meant.

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Track 3
Touch the Sky
This track was my first ever, own produced and finished song. I had it laying around for quite some time before it got released. But I never felt ready to release it before. Now it feels good. It took a lot of my headspace for other projects away. The story behind the song is that I wrote it with a very special person in my mind. A person that has accompanied me for over 8 years in my life now. A person I can have so much fun with, a person that gives me so much, a person that learned me so much and a person that just grew on me a lot. The song originated from just laying somewhere next to a lake, staring in the sky, letting our imagination flow as we discovered many different drawings in the clouds, but most importantly just being in the moment. Not thinking of something else, not thinking of what we should do next, just embracing the moment, embracing life. Letting surrounding sounds through your eardrums, laughing and most importantly feeling like kids. The track is supposed to put you into that feeling, bring you back in time when you used to lay on the floor looking at clouds, trying to touch the sky.
Track 4
Far Away
The final track of the EP is called “Far Away”. It is a collaboration with a good friend of mine and also a very talented producer named “Freego” whom I also met in Berlin. Freego was one of my first friends when I moved to Berlin. We both developed each other and got better. “Far away” feels a bit more spacious and in a bigger atmosphere than the other tracks. It should put you as a listener in a world far away. It’s about distance and what’s in between. There is always something in between, but it can be a lot of things. It’s a bit up to your imagination what you put inside there. It’s also about the mysterious universe, the stars and all for us humans unreachable and still inexplicable things. It’s not talking specifically about a human to human connection. It can be everything you feel yourself attracted to.

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Live Set
Now that I had some songs ready and released it came to building my live set. It seemed hard. Where do I even start? How can I overcome the technical obstacles coming with it? At first I wanted to connect all my musical background and instruments with it. I had it all planned out in my head but at that point that was not possible to realize. I stepped back and came to the conclusion to start small. Make a small portable setup, start gaining experience and then I can always build on top of that. So I started out to twist my productions around so that they fit into the live set. Extending parts here and shortening parts there. That was quite a bit of a hustle to wrap your head around. But slowly it started to make sense. Slowly I started to see how it could come together. Finally I have a set to play for an hour. Finally I can go out and play my music live. In my mind there was this idea to play the live set in a breathtaking location in my home region. A location I was hiking a year ago and that I felt was the perfect place for it. I imagined all the videos from the “Cercle” youtube channel I saw. Pictured myself having that kind of a professional production. I started organizing it. With some help from friends the idea slowly came together. It turned out to be way more complex than I expected it to be. How should we bring all the gear up there, who is in for the project to help out, does it all go like planned? The date was set and I managed to organize it pretty well. Everything was set. The day came quickly nearer. I was prepared and looking forward to it. But a few days before there came the big slap in my face. The weather was looking horrible. What am I gonna do if that’s true? I was stressfully checking all the weather apps. Almost every hour. The day came but I had to blow off everything because it would have been impossible with the bad weather. I was quite disappointed. For so long the idea was there in my head and I spent quite some time realizing it. But it wasn’t meant to be. A few days later the weather was good again but some of the people helping out were not available anymore so I swapped my initial idea to a bit of a less complex project. I organized a small concert with only 15 people. Still in a nice location in the middle of nature. I played my music in company with a talented violinist called “Maeg”. It went quite well and the people loved it. I imagine it to be quite special and kind of a private concert vibe. All in all I am happy. But it also taught me some lessons. Organizing something is also a skillset I have to work on. There are mostly way more things to think about than initially planned. It was a good experience to play my music to people and hear their feedback. Now I’m ready to play for a bigger crowd. I’m looking forward to it!