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MARC
FRUTTERO is an Italian vocalist and songwriter. He is
unknown for most of Italo Disco fans. BUT, Marc made in the 80's some very
good Italo Disco songs who's never been or have been published in very small
number of copies. Why is that so you will be able to read in following interview.
His most known song is "Darkness" by Aquarius Project. This song
and "I Wanna Live With You" you can listen on this site and on
that way I am trying to promote Marc's good work and hoping his songs will
soon find the way how to reach many Italo Disco fans. In that should help
new singl "I Wanna Live With You" released for Flash Back Records.
It's a vinyl record with 2 original songs that were not published in the
80s. Those songs have just edited now and pressed in Milan in April 2005. Hi Marc and thank you for this interview. Marc Fruttero isn't well known name among Italo Disco fans, unfortunately. Who is Marc Fruttero? Thanks to you too! Ok, I’m an Italian vocalist and a songwriter. I write different kinds of music, and Italodance is one of them. Music is the greater artistic love of my life, and maybe the field where I could express the best creativity. |
Before we start, let's
say to other fans who are reading this that your songs are not known among fans
because you had big distribution problems in the 80's but we will talk about
this matter a little bit later, ok? Tell me something about you, for the start.
Ok, no problem. Just to start, I can tell you something about my childhood:
When I was a kid, my mother wanted me to take part in an Italian children’s
competition called “Zecchino d’oro” (“Golden penny”,
more or less), that took place in Bologna. Maybe it sounds funny, but she heard
my voice many times, I was always singing…She probably insisted, but I
was a reserved and shy child, therefore I didn’t want to sing on any TV
show! I cannot really remember all my childhood, but I can remember that ‘thing’
quite well. Even later, I was not really interested in music so much and I stopped
singing…. But my father wanted me to study piano. It was just when I was
13 years old, after seeing “Turandot” by Puccini, the famous opera,
that I changed my mind and decided to have piano lessons. My first musical love
was classical music. I was always listening to it. My first best-loved composer
was not Just Puccini, but even Tchaikovsky and Chopin, that influenced my first
solo piano compositions. Some of them were played for the first time in a school,
in Saluzzo the small city where I was born. They were strongly influenced by
Chopin and the romantic style, therefore my piano teacher told me it was time
to write something with a more contemporary style. When I was 16 I started buying
some Disco music, by Donna Summer, Giorgio Moroder, the Bee Gees just to name
a few…Then Pop like Barry Manilow, Barbra Streisand Dionne Warwick etc.
So I started writing songs too…
Tell me please when you decided your work would be music and could you tell
me about your beginning?
It was 1983 when I thought about making my first record.
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Is
Italo Disco your first music you made or...? How come you decided to make
italo songs? No, Easy listening was my first pop style. For that first record, I decided to choose two of my slow songs, “Clara” and “Melodia”, and look for an arranger. A guy suggested starting with some dance music, but I didn’t follow his advice, and it was a mistake. I also wanted to sing my songs. To tell the truth I though my voice was not so good, but I cannot really explain why I felt I had to sing them. Even the arrangements for those two pop tracks were not really the best. |
|
"Clara"
& "Melodia" |
When we recorded that 45 at New Phantom studio in Tortona, I noticed that the vocal result was much better than I thought, but I later understood that the arrangement was not really satisfying. “Clara” was played by some radio stations. Some of them were even big, but that song didn’t have any wide spread publicity. Very few copies of it reached any shops. I was not in contact with any important showman or influential politician. That’s extremely important in Italy. So it was very difficult to find any distribution. And I was not rich….
| „Darkness“,
„I Wanna Live With You“, „Crying For Love“ (http://www.nic.fi/~flexx/News.htm)...
are great italo disco songs. Are they only italo songs or maybe „The
Seafarers“, was italo as well? Thanks so much! ..Yes, “The Seafarers” was even a danceable track, but rater more refined than ordinary Italodance. |
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„Darkness“
have been performed by Aquarius project. This song was pressed in small
number of copies and it was lucky if we compare it with other songs, which
not even see daylight. Can you tell me more about this song? Who was the
Aquarius? What year did you make it, who wrote it etc.? “Darkness” was written by myself in 1985, ‘cause I finally decided to make dance songs too. It’s wasn’t really for the money. I liked good dance music too, therefore recording disco or pop was rather the same for me. I met the drummer Sergio Cerutti and some other musicians, and we created the “Aquarius” project. At the beginning, the Aquarius had to be a real band, but later I noticed that we were forced to change/add different musicians for each song. So it became a project. We also asked jazz vocalist Francesca Oliveri to sing a duet song with me: “When The Snow Falls Down” had to be a dance track too, but we later transformed it in a pop song. Francesca had a powerful voice, and she really was the right singer I was looking for a duet. An unreleased dance mix of that song will be probably included in an album, in 2006 or even earlier. |
Which studio have you
recorded your songs in? In any famous perhaps?
We recorded “When The Snow Falls Down” and “Darkness”
at Mini rec , Giava and Blue record, in Turin and around it. But we mixed them
in Milan at Airport studio, the same place were some Italo artists recorded
their hits. But my “Darkness” was not really going to become a hit…at
least in the 80s…
Marc, you introduced
yourself as vocalist and songwriter. You didn't write all your songs by yourself
so I would like to know who was with you at the time when you were making your
italo songs? Could you introduce people who were around you? As far as I know
there was: Marco Remigi, Gregory Santo Arena....
Yes, for example Castellano and Gilio were the first arrangers of “Darkness”.
They also made another maxi-single for Disco Magic. But later, Mauro Gallo,
known as Tommy Bow, finished the work. Mauro was involved in many Italo projects.
If I’m not mistaken he also arranged songs for Albert One. He was extremely
fast when he created his arrangements. Almost unbelievable, he also arranged
“Crying For Love” in about 20 minutes! Marco Remigi made one work
for Disco Magic before arranging “I Wanna Live With You” , but that
work, called Scorta, and my song, were the only dance tracks he made. He’s
a jazz musician now. He lives in Bergamo, near Milan, the same place where I
recorded “I Wanna Live With You” and where I’ve lived for
years. Gregory Santo Arena is a friend of mine, and a professional writer (Californian,
with an Italian origin). He wrote tales like ”A Lady in the meads”
, published in 2004 by Raw Edge, and the poem “Caliban”, in the
magazine Decanto, October 2005. He also wanted to suggest lyrics for one of
my tracks, so he helped me to write “Crying for Love”.
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You have interesting
vocals. Some friends asked me, when I told them about your songs, whom is your
voice similar to? I told them that it’s specific and the vocals are very
nice . Have you learned singing anywhere?
Thanks again for your compliments, yes, I just started to learn singing after
I recorded “Clara”. My voice still needed a better technique. My
teacher was always Francesca Oliveri, but I did not study for a long time. But
my voice troubled me quite a lot because it was considered to be too ‘different’.
Many Italian producers told me I was ‘not commercial’, therefore
they didn’t like it. They wanted me to forget my own voice color, and
start imitating some other famous singers, much more commercial ones. The mentality
is still like that, even now more than before. From the 40s until the 80s, having
a very good vocal performance was often considered to be really important, in
America as in England or Australia. And for some actual productions, or maybe
not just some, it is still rather important even now. I wasn’t really
like that in Italy, unfortunately….and it’s not much better even
now.
OK Marc, let's talk now about your problems with distribution of your songs?
And could you tell me on which door your knocked at that time? For example have
you knocked on Discomagic?
Oh God, I knocked on many doors, but my main mistake was not to go abroad. Perhaps
because I couldn’t…I will never forget what the artistic manager
of a well known Italian label told me in 1986: “You come here and talk
about music…we are not interested in music, this is just a business”.
I later signed a modest contract with a small label, but that record was impossible
to find in almost any shop.
In that time, as it is today, Deejays had a big role. Have you tried with
some of them to present your songs and in that way start with distribution?
If I knew any important DJ I wouldn’t have any distribution problem…
One time, a DJ from a big Milan radio station said he could launch our record,
but he wanted a lot of money for that, so we were forced to refuse that opportunity..
Those fans who were lucky to hear your song(s), including me, particularly
I mean on „Darkness“, like your songs pretty much. It is strange
that no one showed interest in publishing and it's hard to understand in some
way. Maybe you weren’t in the right place at the right time?! Can you
tell me your feeling in that time, I guess you were pretty disappointed?
Yes for sure…I was! but I could expect it; A guy that worked for the Italian
TV said I immediately had to leave the field of records, ‘cause it was
really too difficult… I was stubborn, and I didn’t want to give
it up. If I went to Germany, England, America or wherever, I would surely find
a producer or a label willing to help me. Many Italian artists went abroad and
became famous ‘cause Italian labels were not interested in what they did
at the beginning. It’s normal in my country. In England, or some other
foreign countries, it’s not really important to ‘know someone’.
Just now, that I’ve started trying to find labels abroad, I’ve met
very enthusiastic producers like Kimmo Salo (FlashBack) and Martin Verlaan (Mart
Mix Music).
Did you meet any famous Italo Disco artist in the 80's? And did you think
you might work with any of them?
Yes, I met some, but I cannot say it was really a fantastic experience. But
more recently, just a few months ago, I met P.Lion
in Bergamo. I knew many of his nice songs well, but I hadn’t met him personally
before. Then…Yes, it would be nice to work with some more Italo artists.
By the way I’ve just recorded a new song, always 80s style, always for
FlashBack records. That track, called “If You’re Feeling Blue”,
was written by the Dyva and arranged by L.A.Messina. It will be probably included
in another vinyl maxi and even in a CD album.
No matter almost 20
years have gone by, and you still want to publish and distribute your 80's songs
so much. What is the force giving you the strength and will? And how come you
decided to start your project this year?
You know…music is like a drug…you need it, there’s something
like an internal voice that always says “You must go on…you must
go on”, I strongly feel it inside. I don’t do this just for money.
It’s the great passion for music that burns in my soul that gives the
energy to move everything. I put love in what I do, but…it’s sometimes
hard, especially when some other people, thinking just about money, create strong
barriers against my projects…I started again in 2004 ‘cause, searching
through the Internet, I found a possibility to include my track “Miracle
Of Love” in a Kid Antrim Music compilation, just for broadcasting in the
States. At the same time I met Kimmo Salo, that is really an honest and smart
producer. He really helped me. He was really happy and proud to have another
chance to press some unreleased material!
| So
far as I know at the moment, your song „Darkness“ should be
on new edition of Italo Disco Souvenirs published by Martmix (http://www.martmix.nl).
Can you tell me more about those efforts? It is known, for most people
I hope, that Italo Disco Souvenirs series are made to promote rare and
hard to find italo disco songs. Perhaps Martmix could introduce, on his
compilation, some other songs as well? |
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Are you ready to adopt
your songs to a modern style if this is the request from the record or the Distribution
Company for further selling?
Yes, of course, I also like the contemporary style, but when it’s not
too commercial. I don’t really love Techno or House music…Even now,
a Dutch remix producer is recording a modern version of “Darkness”.
I hope it will be released.
Who is your favorite
Italo Disco artist? And if you can tell me your favorite italo song(s)?
That’s a difficult question…I like so many tracks. There were (or
there are..)some beautiful voices, among them: Mike Francis, Spagna, Raf, Mario
Real, even Savage. I’m ashamed
to say that I unfortunately know just two or three songs by Savage: “Don’t
cry tonight” is one of them, and it’s a beautiful one indeed! Easy
but not banal. I have to confess, at that time, I did not have much money, so
I really wanted to buy a lot of records but I couldn’t. Therefore I lost
many opportunities to know more songs, even in the fields of Italodisco. But
I must confess I also heard some terrible tracks…really too commercial.
Not everything was so good.
You have mentioned to
me that you like to listen and sing Jazz and Swing. Also, you made some songs
in that style. Maybe a few words about that?
Sure, but I still have to find a Jazz label for those works…It’s
much easier to have chances in the field of dance music, but for the other kinds
of music it’s much more complicated. I have the same problem for my classical
piano pieces. “Why” , arranged by Bruno Sorba and “Smokes
and perfumes”, by Giulio Gallarate, are two tracks that have a jazz feeling.
Maybe, in future it will be possible to publish them too…
What is your goal Marc?
And plans for near future?
As I said before…to go on. To release everything I can, many kinds of
music, at least as much as possible… I’m versatile. I lost many
important years, and I really would like to continue making music.
Just to finish Marc,
do you have anything important to say that I haven't asked you? I am sure we
only scratched the surface of your interesting music story with this interview.
I hope we will stay in touch and present your work on my site and enjoy it!
I suppose I haven’t much more to say for now. You asked everything that
was essential, and you did it very well!
Thank you very much for
this interview Marc and wish you luck in your near future and after.
Thanks again Zeljko! You too
Read also: Marc
Fruttero_2nd interview
©
Zeljko Vujkovic - June 2005 |
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