The third episode of has been released on YouTube SPOT – THE PODCASTthe format hosted by Michele Monina And Massimiliano Longodirector and founder of All Music Italy. Guest of the episode, fresh from the launch of Black Monday, Mr. Rain. The artist talks about himself without filters between fifteen years of apprenticeship, the two albums in progress, the new tour in theaters and a clear reflection on a market that moves too quickly.
The podcast was born within the Spot Music Festthe Bareggio festival of which All Music Italy is media partner. A dialogue recorded in front of the festival's audience of young artists, which provides the backdrop for many of the guest's reflections on the profession and how one really approaches music.
Mr. Rain and the talent: “I wanted to go on the episode and say my no”
Among the most direct passages of the episode is the story of how Mr. Rain he had approached the talents, with a precise plan and a basic choice.
“In a clever way I wanted to use TV to make myself known for castings. I was a super fan of Macklemore, one hundred percent independent, I had a flag in my chest and I wanted to get to the episode and refuse. It was a strategy, not an improvisation.”
The no never came, because, he says, he would have had to sign contracts that bound him regardless. Hence the decision to follow another path: “I chose to follow my own path, much longer, but more true to myself.”
The fifteen years of apprenticeship: “I also sang in front of three people”
Mr. Rain claims a slow path, made up of many jobs and very small stages before arriving at the arenas.
“I have fifteen years of experience. I played in every small bar, then in clubs, then in bigger places. I sang at live shows where I had three people, with that wink that makes you wonder: should I do it?”
Experiences which, he explains, risk disappearing today: “Now there are flare-ups, someone who comes from scratch, and that very thing is missing. The fact of having arrived there step by step is missing.”
The second market Mr. Rain: “It's not a sprint, it's a marathon”
The singer-songwriter does not hide his difficult relationship with today's industry, which he considers too fast and built around the charts and a few viral seconds.
“I don't like today's market, too fast, made for the charts and for the seven seconds that go viral on TikTok. Many see it as a hundred meters, I see it as a marathon.”
A posture that led him to stop: after years without breathing space, he says, he took almost a year off. “At first it scared me, I thought: I'll stand still and everyone else will move on, they'll forget about me. Then I appreciated the courage to take time to make music that makes me proud.”
Superheroes, depression and the public that entrusts its stories
An intense part of the conversation concerns Superheroes and the choice to explicitly mention depression, a song born from a private story that Mr. Rain he didn't have the courage to tell even his family.
“Giving the exact name was useful, so that at least one person would say: then I'm not alone.”
From that moment, he says, he became the gathering point for the stories of those who listen to him: “They send me a lot of letters, emails, messages. It's a beautiful thing, but on the other hand it's exhausting, because some stories are very strong.” The way he protects himself, he says, is only one: writing music.
Italy and Spain compared: “For us it's all calculation”
Working on two separate albums, one in Italian and one in Spanish, Mr. Rain he talks about a difference in approach that struck him.
“There you go to the studio to have fun, not to clock in and say: we built the right hit for TikTok. Something cool comes out? Better. Something mediocre comes out? Oh well, we played.”
A comparison which, he admits, is the point of view of an Italian coming from outside, but which leads him to a reflection: “I'm starting to think that we actually have the problem in Italy, where almost everything is done by calculation.”
The challenge of artificial intelligence: “My songs heal, his entertain”
At the end comes the usual confrontation with “Gigetto”, the artificial intelligence to which the podcast entrusts a question. The answer of Mr. Rain closes the episode with a clear distinction.
“Human sensitivity and what you experience are not replicable. Even if we lived the same story, I would tell it in a different way than yours. My songs heal, his at most entertain.”
Hence also the advice addressed to the young artists present at the festival: “Exploit every means we have, but following what we feel like doing. The key is honesty with ourselves and with everyone else.”
