I am very happy to present new, second, interview with Marc Fruttero. Marc Fruttero becoming every day more popular and productive artist. In Janaury 2006 he and his "dream team" Kimmo Salo, Dyva and L. A. Messina released new record, "If You're Feeling Blue". About this new release and future plan you can read in this interview. Marc I am very glad we can have another interview, to update to the previous one. We have a very good reason for that, have we not?! Yes, of course, it’s a real good occasion once again!

Well, not many days have past since you released your new single “If You’re Feeling Blue” (January 2006). The style is Italo Disco and released by Flashback Records. But can we go in chronological order? The song was been written by Dyva and L. A. Messina. Can you tell me how you met them and arranged the job with them? I met L.A. Messina more than one year ago in Milan. My producer Kimmo Salo (“King 0”), asked me to talk to him, in order to check if he could collaborate for a new track. We asked him to arrange “If You’re Feeling Blue” with an 80s style, because the Dyva, who wrote the song, were too busy with some other projects to work on a new arrangement for that song. To tell the truth I have never met the Dyva personally, even now Roberto Calzolari from Dyva is still ‘just’ a voice on the phone. I called him several times and ask for all the information I needed about his song. But Kimmo knows him personally very well.

I guess you have been very satisfied to have such a great people around you as Dyva and L. A. Messina . When you heard for the first time the music for the song and lyrics, what did you think?
One year ago, Kimmo Salo gave me a few demos recorded by the Dyva. None of those songs had been released yet, and Kimmo asked me to choose one of them. The first one was “If You’re Feeling Blue”, a bright song that I immediately liked, because it was very easy to listen to. Its refrain was very catchy indeed. Maybe the lyrics were a little bit too simple, but I did not want to change much.

Can you tell me what your participation in song has been, except voice of course?
I helped mixing some sounds: DJ Savino mixed almost all the song, but I mixed a few additional tracks too. I also revised the lyrics a little bit. I asked Gianluca Scali, a friend of mine and songwriter with a nice voice, to create some background vocals, in order to reinforce the refrain effect.

Could you tell Marc something about L. A. Messina and Dyva because they are Italo legends, any info you have perhaps and what could be interesting for italo fans?
I can say they are specialized in writing and arranging tracks that are rather different than mine. Their songs are generally easier compared to the compositions I write. Even their way of singing is more ‘commercial’ than mine (If I can say that), but I’m open to almost every kind of musical experience. Therefore mixing their way of arranging and writing melodies with my personal singing style, is something that can sound new and interesting for me, and…I hope for many other people too. I like making different things, and finding new solutions too. I’m not really keen on just ‘Cloning’. Copying is unfortunately too common nowadays.
But regarding L.A. Messina and the Dyva, it’s true…they are among the most wanted and popular artists in the field of 80s Italodance now, at least among the Italo collectors. Names like P.Lion or Mike Francis, were, and still are much more famous among our great public, but Messina and Dyva are much greater favorites in that specific field of Italo records collecting. Some of their original records, but even the new ones, are sold for incredibly high prices on the Internet, and maybe even on Ebay .

Who made such a fantastic art job and could you introduce him?
I suppose you mean the sleeves for my “If You’re Feeling Blue”. I don’t personally know Jim Proffit. Kimmo Salo is in contact with him. Yes, Jim is surely very talented in making record sleeves! He makes everything under direct supervision of Kimmo Salo, who also chooses the pictures. Jim really combines very nice colors with suggestive images. The sleeves are printed in Milan too, along with the vinyl records. He also made sleeves for some Dyva’s records, but the artwork he did for my personal records have a more romantic look. Probably ‘cause my music sounds rather sentimental…

I think I should ask your producer Kimmo Salo the next question but I know I could also ask you. Your new record is a bit expensive. Can you tell me why? It’s always the same problem: Flashback doesn’t have any common distribution in shops and stores. Not yet. Therefore those records are printed in a very limited number of copies, therefore each copy costs quite a lot, and just sold on-line by some Internet shops. Therefore it’s mainly a collectors’ edition, and cannot be cheap. But to allow more people to have those songs, Flashback records is going to release a CD compilation that will have an ordinary price, ‘cause it will be pressed in a much higher number of copies and distributed in normal stores by a Swiss company. To tell the truth, there’s already a site at Cafepress ( www.cafepress.com/marcfruttero2 ), where it’s possible to order a few CDs with my unreleased songs and compositions. The price is much more ordinary. I’ve just finished mastering those songs for a collection called “In My Dreams”. It contains even contemporary and 80s dance, and easy listening tracks that have never been released on any record before. Except for “Miracle of Love” that was previously included in a Kid Antrim Music CD Compilation in 2004, just for broadcasting in the States. Even a CD single taken from that collection is available at the same site, and it’s even cheaper than the album version. It contains not just “Miracle of Love”, but even a modern version of “I Wanna Live with You”, that is a duet with opera singer Rossella Inghilleri. That site also shows an mp3 CD with my classical piano pieces. Cheap too.

Marc, did you believe your records would sell well and your other future releases as well? I am asking this because we are witnessing that, no matter there are many Italo fans around the world, selling is a bit of hard work. Recent example is the great man Martin “MartMix” Verlaan who compiled such a fantastic compilation with Italo rarities named Italo Disco Souvenirs vol. 1 and he sold a small number of copies so had to give up and closed the door behind himself and Italo Disco Souvenirs project. It’s a shame that Martin’s project didn’t work out and I hope Italo fans will be a little bit more sensitive about new italo projects!
Oh God…I’m afraid is not really easy to sell a lot of records or CDs just on the net! The only way of selling normally, is distributing those releases in shops and stores around the world. And even the amounts of collectors that want those records are not surely millions…. Not just a few, but surely not legions. You know…The only real way of selling thousands, if not millions of copies with 80s tracks were…the 80s. Surely not so much now. And even the CD trade is not really brisk at the moment. An expert told me Italo Souvenirs vol.1 contained tracks that many collectors already had, but first of all it wasn’t distributed in shops, were it really had the possibility to sell. EMI Austria is releasing some Italo compilations now, but if I’m not wrong, they sell them. By the way, those EMI collections also contain some songs by Dyva, like “Clap again” for example. Regarding my records…as I’ve already told you, they are collector editions, therefore pressed in a limited amount of copies. Pressing 100 copies costs more than 1000 Euro, mastering and pressing/printing included, then you have to consider some other money spent for recordings, expeditions, paying the arranger etc. Each vinyl record cannot be so cheap and bought by everybody unfortunately…But Flashback generally sells them to collectors that really want to have a rare track or anything that is hard to find in any common record shop. I really hope those CD editions will solve that high price problem.

What is your and your Team’s plan to promote new single?
“If You’re Feeling Blue” is mainly promoted by Flashback sellers on the net, there’s a complete list of them at http://flashbackrecords.org/index.php?page_id=7 But Iventi.com, probably the most popular Italo site, has very kindly shown the sleeve on its homepage too, and published an article.

On the B-side there is remix version of your second single “Darkness” which is fabulous song (at least for me). How come you included this song on your new record?
Thank you as always! I’ve heard many collectors really love that track. One version of “Darkness” that Italo fans commonly know, is a Milan mix that was “partially” released in 1986 for my Aquarius project. I say “partially”, because the label distributed it in a very low number of copies…as usual. The version that has been published as a B-side of “If You’re Feeling Blue”, is the first original mix that was recorded in Turin in 1984. That primordial version is maybe a little less interesting than its 1986 ‘twin’, but Kimmo and I thought it would be interesting to many collectors . Therefore we restored that old recording, and published on FLA 5006, the same new maxi-single. To tell the truth Kimmo Salo is probably going to mix another version too, directly from the original 24 tracks tape, an extended version, a longer one. If he presses it as another maxi-single, the B-side will probably contain an original demo of the same song, made by Tommy Bow in 1985/6, for the Aquarius project. That demo has been just restored too. The other 1986 Aquarius version should have been published by Mart Mix production this year, but that project has moved to Flashback records once again.

Marc, do you have any plans with “If You’re Feeling Blue” like releasing it on some compilations? Do you have some info about that for us?
Yes, for sure one version of “If You’re Feeling Blue” will be released on a Flashback compilation. It will probably be this year. I say “one version”, because my new vinyl record contains two versions of it, while that compilation will include just one of them.

And for the end of this little chat, Marc, can you share some of your plans with us, another single in the near future?
Yes, with pleasure. My next maxi single will probably be “Disco Silvia”, a track that was born as a funny joke at the very beginning of the 90s. Kimmo listened to its ‘scary’ demo less than one year ago. He liked the melody very much, and decided to transform it in a real song, creating a totally new 80s arrangement for it. In its present new version, “Disco Silvia” is a very delightful track, with a sort of deeply dreaming atmosphere. I might also publish another Cafepress CD single with a few unreleased 80s pieces like “Face” for example. But we still have to decide if we want to include it in my album for Flashback, I still hope that CD will be out this year, along with “Divertissement” and an original 80s version of “Tell Me Now” for example, just to name a few titles….

Thank you very much Marc for sharing your thoughts with me and with others and for the info about your great new song. Hopefully we will stay in touch and soon hear more good news from you. Thank you!
Thank you too once again Zeljko!

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