There are moments in an artist's career where the past seems too cumbersome and the future an enigma to be deciphered. For Cesare Cremonini that moment arrived after the 2022 concert-event at the Imola Autodrome, in front of 70 thousand people. «I felt like I was a kind of Concorde circling above Bologna, but without an airport to land in», he says, describing the feeling of emptiness that can arise when everything seems accomplished.
From this reflection, and from the courage to start again from “a first work”, was born Alaska Babyhis eighth studio album (which will be followed by a documentary broadcast on Disney+). A record that he defines as «vital and explosive like a debut», out tomorrow. A journey between Bologna, America and Alaska, a sort of personal journey Into the Wild which explores themes such as rebirth, the courage to love, the desire to go beyond one's limits. The 12 tracks mix Brit pop, songwriting, hypnotic Beck-style grooves and choruses that pay homage to the Beatles, all seasoned with collaborations that have become “friendships and loves” with Elisa (Northern Lights), Luca Carboni (Saint Luke) or David Bowie's pianist, Mike Garson, who wrote intimate pieces such as Dark Room. «On the journey I found the origin of the album, the white on the cover represents the vital light that pushed me to create an album capable of looking to the future».
Among the songs it stands out Easy girls«a song written in five minutes, a redemption, the moment in which you throw off the mask and accept the risk of losing everything». It is no coincidence that the album ends with Acrobatswhich makes us experience the artist's precarious balance, constantly suspended between inspiration and judgment. But it seems that in this balance Cremonini finds the strength to get back into the game: «We always remain blank sheets of paper. The only thing we can do is fill them with sincerity.” And in this interview, where he explains the need to lose oneself in order to find oneself, he says that the “punk, arrogant soul and the desire to break the world” is still within him, but that “due to the way musical communication is moving around revival” is not thinking of a Lùnapop revival
The journey of Alaska Baby starts from the “full of ego” heard after the Imola concert. How do you start again with new stimuli when all your wishes seem to be fulfilled?
Once the 2022 tour ended, with the peak of the concert at the racetrack, it wasn't easy. It's something beyond dreams, right? I felt like I was a kind of Concorde circling over Bologna, without the right airport to land. I felt the contrast between these giant things and real life. It took me a long time before I managed to land. But it is necessary to do so, otherwise a deconstructor like me, of myself and also of relationships with others, how can he find intimacy again? It was a pretty tough job within a job.
So how did you do it?
It was important to cancel and start again. A gesture of courage, because in the end it is also a gesture in which you detach yourself from the microphone, which is a protection. How many of us hide behind a microphone? I questioned myself and searched for enlightenment, for some new ideas. I realized that the album was born during this process. On the journey I found the origin, the courage to love, the rebirth, which are the essence of the album.
Some of your colleagues have felt the need for a break lately. Have you tried it too?
There is an inconsistency, a kind of paradox that is taking place at this moment. We live in a world of beginners. We are all immersed in a reality that places a lot of attention on first works. The platforms on which music is listened to push the beginnings, support the vital energy of the first times. And this puts artists who already have an important history, like mine, faced with severe judgement.
It seems like a vicious circle.
It's actually strange to live in a society that pushes newcomers very hard and at the same time doesn't question where it's going. This contrast creates anxiety. The light of Alaska, that white that I chose on the cover, represents the vital force that pushed me to make a record that contained the same inclusive and chaotic energies of a debut. In my case, to try to look to the future, I had to cancel myself and think that only the work itself, when it is a stream of consciousness, contains a shred of hope in the future. As for the debut albums, we should listen to them without judging them too much. Included Alaska Babywhich is like my first record. It contains a glimmer of hope.
Photo: Luigi & Iango
Both the album and the documentary on Disney+ seem to be your own Into the Wildfor the way you were inspired by nature.
They pointed it out to me. There is a synchrony, at least emotional and poetic with Into the Wildbut in my work there is no rejection of society, I have not developed a rejection of my cultural origin. Alaska, obviously, is a word that recalls certain musical and literary references. The album ends with Acrobatswhich could have been the title, even if I later preferred it Alaska Baby because it suggests a broader and more vital narrative.
Acrobats Does it describe what artists feel, always suspended between inspiration and the judgment of the public?
Yes, that constant feeling of being on a tightrope, on a hidden truth, confusing information that needs a filter to reach the public. The essence of an artist, at least for me, is being able to stay in balance and write new pages. Ultimately we always remain blank sheets of paper and in this void we have the possibility of filling pages with what we feel, with sincerity. The most important aspect is not the idea that an intellectual shows the way. I think it's simply the example. I mean, we can say a lot more by example than what we put on a record. By being coherent we can transmit energy to others.
As in every journey there is room for solitude, but also for encounters. And this album is full of encounters with other artists. How did you choose them?
I wanted to involve many professionals, starting with Elisa who is a divinity from a musical, artistic and human point of view. Passing through Luca Carboni, who is a legend. And again Meduza with their original sounds and Alessio Natalizia (Not Waving, ed) who is an amazing producer. All the people who worked with me, in reality, became the lifeblood, blood and organs of this album. They are not simple collaborations, but meetings, friendships, loves, those born around Alaska Baby. There was the desire to lose ourselves all together in a common goal.
During your trip across America, did you also notice the signs that would bring Donald Trump back to the White House, or did the election result surprise you?
I saw them and in fact I was absolutely not surprised that Trump won. Traveling for three months in America, having had the time to watch, observe, participate in some way in society at that time, I saw a country with a very strong tension which, even now, is attenuated by that piece of fabric that is the flag . But it is an increasingly fragile piece of fabric, increasingly ruined by time. America is both those seeking social cohesion and Donald Trump.
One of the keys to the album, as you tell in the documentary, is the song Easy girls.
Let's say that Easy girls contains one of the great themes of the album, which is the courage to love. It is the reaction to a pathology, in my opinion very widespread and also very dangerous, from which we all suffer a bit: the terror of pain. Not even fear, just the terror of experiencing suffering. The courage it takes to throw off the mask and present yourself for who you really are gives us the chance to understand that you have to be ready to lose something to gain something new and important. It's one of the biggest stimuli I found on the album. Easy girls It's my moment of redemption.
Is it one of those songs that comes by itself, or did it take longer?
I wrote it in five minutes, everything happened in total sync with what was happening inside me, with that transformation process. It's a very important song for me.
Instead Saint Luke seems like the opposite of 50 Specials that you wrote with Lùnapop. At 20 you travel the hills of Bologna carefree on a Vespa, after 40 with a more reflective and almost mystical attitude, also thanks to the support of Luca Carboni?
It's as if Saint Luke was built from many cobblestones. I asked Luca to walk with me on that small road. Together we crossed the passage which in this way was transformed into a wonderful avenue. I will never stop thanking him for what he gave me. Even just being close to him as he returned to singing after a long time and after a very complicated health experience. 50 Specials And Saint Luke they are connected by something fundamental, that is, by the fact that, wherever you are, in Alaska or in the middle of a storm, you can take your binoculars, look out the window and see home again. Which is the most important thing in life.
At the time of Lùnapop you smashed the charts, but you also received a lot of criticism. Today you are considered one of the reference songwriters for several generations. How have you changed?
If I think about it today, Lùnapop seem more and more free, more and more punk and arrogant, in some ways. We had that arrogance and that desire to rock the world that were products of the 90s. Which were injected into us by a society that allowed you to play anywhere. Also because at the time forming a band was necessary for a teenager of my generation. Otherwise you were excluded. If you were 15 and not in a band, what did you do? There was the idea of producing things that would make us participate as passengers attached to a cultural thread that was supposed to connect the past to the future. It was a historical moment in which walls like the one in Berlin fell, the ideologies of the Cold War collapsed, events occurred that led us to talk about peace in the world, even in the Middle East. At least until September 11, 2001 the world was one way, then it became something else. I maintain exactly all the positive declinations of that energy from that period. What came later, however, seems to me to be a present that must be lived day by day, but without nostalgia.
Keep that energy, but you seem less optimistic about Lùnapop's return. Or am I wrong?
I don't think so, given how communication around revivals is moving. If this were to concern Lùnapop too, I would prefer not to, honestly.
