Hi Christian, welcome to Music Reviews 2.0. Reading your biography, one can see that you have had a special interest in music since you were really little. This passion of yours has brought you to today with the release of your first book “Dreaming” accompanied by a 5-track CD. What is this book about andwhere did that need to write a kind of “soundtrack” come from?
Yes, my passion has been born since I was a child…I still remember a “strange” episode in my life : I was 6 years old and my parents took me to one of those classic auditions where they select some children for toy advertisements ; after the audition was over I remember they took me to a room where as a “reward” I could choose the toy I wanted ( and there was a mountain of toys ! ). Well, don’t ask me how, but in the midst of all that mountain I chose a 2-scale keypad that was at most 30 cm big, and I was so proud of it that I even slept with it together!!! To this day I think that can still be described as my encounter with music. As for the book, it is an introspective journey in search of ourselves, traveling, at times, through a very particular period of my life and through the stories of ordinary people. The whole book immerses the reader, through “jet” poetry as I call it, in already lived life stories common to so many of you. If I had to sum it up, I would suggest this chronological strand : Loneliness, Dream, Love. It tells the story of a period that begins with the realization that we are alone and have to start from scratch, exploring our deepest soul in search of ourselves. The key to the whole book is love, thanks to which we are able to throw off the mask of appearance and become free to be ourselves again, abandoning the binary of falsehood dictated by wanting to belong to the average society. At the same time a desire was born in me to communicate all this also in music, through the simplicity of a few notes of a piano…and from there I began to compose songs trying to identify with the situations to make them real through the language of music, leaving the listening pure imagination in making each song his own, making it unique.
What about your pseudonym DeLord? Is this the “nickname” you use when you write…
I decided to use this name because when I was 16 years old I was in a deep-purple cover band, and from there everyone began to attach the title “lord” to me, taken from the keyboardist of Deep Purple ( John Lord ). Subsequently, a strange episode led me to use this name. In 2007, I performed for the first time as a solo pianist at a date in a town where I live, and on the poster they wrote “DeLord,” mispronouncing the English version of the term…from that day I decided to use that name, which also represents the two parts that are enclosed in me : the serious part and the crazier part. In fact, the lord represents seriousness and class, but the initial mispronunciation “De” unites the other, crazier part of my being. I would say I am very complicated and difficult to understand, sometimes I do things that even I don’t understand but I accept them as normal; it is part of my being, after all, from an aquarium you can expect anything. This is all part of the character, which is reflected eclectic, easygoing, with elegance, wears different colored shoes and sees nothing wrong with it ( is this a 90s fashion? Very well, lucky the one who invented it !!! I simply like wearing shoes that way ). From the stage, my character is used to give roses as a gesture of romance, which is also part of lordship.
In 2004 you joined a music club to learn piano theory and then stopped and resumed in 2009. What happened during that time? What motivated you in pursuing your music?
Unfortunately, at that time some family events led me away from music and I had to, in spite of myself, interrupt my studies and continue as a self-taught musician until, in September 2009, the meeting with maestro Alessandro Lunati, rekindled in me that light I had put aside. Another of the reasons that pushed me to pursue music was the desire for revenge against everything that happened during that period; a way to show that nothing could stop me from pursuing my dream : Nothing could stop me from feeling fulfilled doing what I love most : thrilling to excite. I looked inside myself and found the light, my spiritual guide who brought me here and always supports me.
What have been your musical influences?
Primarily Keith Jarret. My English teacher in 2003 gave me “The Koln Concert.” For me it was a discovery, I had never heard anything like it… and anyway at that time I was still in the “Rock band keyboardist” period 😉 From that time I began to explore other artists little by little, including : Ludovico Einaudi, Philip Glass, Micheal Nyman, Yann Tersen. I also went through a little Jazz period where Herbie Hancock was the master 😀 If I have to define however what influenced me the most : the sound of Einaudi and Nyman.
The track that most represents your sound?
Among the edited ones you can find on iTunes, definitely “Misunderstood.” It is a very personal song and tells a lot about me and my world where only a few can understand me …
One of the albums that most appeals to you right now to recommend to readers?
Definitely Einaudi’s latest album “Nightbook.” I have been following Einaudi for a long time, but in this album I feel the musical experimentation has grown even more.
In DeLord’s future?
In DeLord’s future there are so many things boiling in the pot : the summer tour continues and just in these weeks I am working on my first video clip with a video-production house in the province of Modena; in July and August I will proceed with the recordings of my first solo album and I am planning the dates of the next winter tour…
Music Reviews 2.0, as you know, gives a special eye to emerging groups. Your advice to those who are just starting out?
One piece of advice I would like to give is to be yourself 100 percent, to try to be real. In recent years I have made choices and mistakes not dictated by my own will that have led me away from this concept that is fundamental to me, and for this very reason I do not want emerging artists to find themselves falling into the same mistakes.
