Interview with Alessandro Canalicchio
There are those who seek lightness in music, and those who live it like a refuge, a way to give shape to what often remains trapped in thoughts. Revelè belongs to this second category. Young Neapolitan singer -songwriter born in 1997, Giuseppe CacciapuotiThis is his real name, has transformed nostalgia, the roots and silences into songs that know of sea and expected returns. Raised between Melito and the border with Scampia, at just thirteen he moved to Bergamo, bringing with him a baggage made of stories and memories that today become music.
With 'O Mar' o Marhis debut single produced by Mario Meli (already alongside Annalisa, Alpha And Clementino), Revelè tells the need to go home, with a visceral writing and a sound that combines electronic pop, urban atmospheres and a deeply cinematographic soul.
We met him to talk about this first chapter, his indissoluble bond with Naples and how music has become an act of truth for him.
Giuseppe, hello, thanks for your time! “'O Mar' or Mar” was born from the nostalgia of your land. If I had to describe with three images what you lack more than Naples, which would you choose and why?
Three images. The sea of Mergellina at four in the morning, when the city sleeps but I feel awake inside. People's screams in the alleys, which seem to be theater even when they talk about normal things. And then the silence that feels only in Naples, the one between a horn and a prayer. Because Naples is also in noise, he manages to talk to you in silence. And when you are not there, those sounds become memories.
The song was produced by Mario Meli, who worked with important artists such as Annalisa and Clementino. How was it to collaborate with him and what do you think he added to your project?
A sincere, almost visceral bond was created with Mario. We met by chance, but immediately he understood my urgency to tell without filters. Mario is like a tailor who sewed to measure has never tried to change my voice, but helped me to dress it in the right way. He has transformed a personal diary into a song that can also speak to others. And for a debut, it was the biggest gift.
You said that writing was a way to “stay afloat” for you in difficult times. How did music help you transform pain into creativity?
Writing for me has always been like swimming when you feel that you are sinking. Music gave me the opportunity to put order between thoughts, to transform anger and fear into words that vibrate. It has become my refuge and my voice, especially when I couldn't speak.
Even the song and singing have been helpful to “win” what could be considered a possible barrier …
Yes. Buttle for me has never been a difficulty in speaking, but a fear in showing me. Singing allowed me to cross that barrier, to exist in a space where no one can interrupt you. When I sing, I don't stammer. When I sing, they are. It is as if the voice finally found a rhythm that the word had never been able to keep.
In the first verse he sings “Quatt 'Ra Matin, Ngopp' or Scogl 'and Mergellin”. How important are the royal places of Naples in your writing? Is there a place that represents for you more than all home?
They are fundamental. Places are not just scenography, they are memory. Mergellina for me is the place where I took refuge as a boy when everything seemed too much home, school, life. That place taught me that the sea listens. And that's what I also try to do with my songs to return to those who listen to that same feeling of being understood, even in silence.
If I could choose an artist from the past or present with which to duet, who would he be and why? Do you plan some featuring in the coming months that you can anticipate something about?
I would have liked to duet with Mango. He had such a powerful fragility as to become strength, and in every word he was poetry. Among the living, perhaps Mahmood I feel in his songs the same need to tell injuries and origins. On the featuring … something is moving. I can't say much, but there will be collaborations that arise from real estimate, not from strategy.
You have repeatedly told of the influence of Pino Daniele and the Mediterranean identity. In your opinion, what can the Neapolitan scene give today to Italian music and what makes you unique compared to other artists?
Naples has a voice that never stops inventing. Today it can bring truth, contamination, a language that is heart and body. I don't want to look like anyone, and at the same time I know that I carry a thousand voices those of the alleys, memories, silences. Perhaps my uniqueness lies in not being afraid of being fragile. And in wanting to always stay true, even when it hurts.
If I could listen only to 3 albums for the rest of your life, what would they be and why?
Napu'è Of Pino Daniele Because there is all Naples, the real one, the one that is not afraid of showing himself naked. In those notes there are the contradictions that have grown me, the melancholy that inspired me, and even a bit of me, of my need to return every time, even just with a song ..
Dancing in The Dark (Born in the USA) of Bruce Springsteen Because as a child I danced with my father, and today I still dance with those memories.
Thriller Of Michael Jackson Because it was one of the first records that made me feel the body as a rhythm, as a vibration. Inside there is energy, vision, but also a little of solitude hidden among the beats. And I recognized that solitude immediately.
Thanks Giuseppe!
On July 31, the video of'O mar' o mar.
Tells Revelè: I directed this video clip how a dream goes: with silences, light, skin, breaths. I wanted to put a transformation bare: from a motionless room to the open sea, from the void of an absence to the presence that heals. There is no acting, there is no plot, only truth. Every light on, every step in the water is a part of me that comes home. This video clip is not just a visual story, it is my gaze that, for the first time, no longer fears to be fragile
Daniel D`Amico for SANREMO.FM
