The singer-songwriter unites past and future: from the Seventies sounds also loved by his father, to the lullaby for his son Ludovico
It was released on October 23rd “Homeward”the new album by Filippo Grazianipublished by INRI Records. An album that arrives almost ten years after the previous unreleased one, and arrives due to Filippo’s strong urge to communicate and tell new stories.
A record that owes its birth to Filippo’s different vision of life, that of a parent, in this case of three and a half year old Ludovico.
An album that is the rediscovery of an identity, a path of artistic rapprochement – almost unexpected – towards the sound world and musical references of his father Ivan.
Filippo, an album born from an intense need to communicate
“I am my father’s son in this too: he only made a record when he felt the need to communicate something. The same thing goes for me. Until you become a father, you remain a son. Until recently I was proudly only the son of Ivan Graziani, and I still am, but when you become a parent you completely change your outlook on life. The birth of Ludovico made me definitively abandon my adolescence and my youth, catapulting me into a period of life that I am enjoying very much! From here the desire to open up; I rented a place under my house, my refuge where I could go and play and there I let myself go and describe this moment that reopened me towards others.”
The title of the album is “Homeward”
“Confronting myself with dad’s repertoire, I understood that what I liked wasn’t so far from home, I discovered an affinity of tastes with him, and little by little my personality emerged within his works. From there it was all downhill. It’s as if I felt I was headed home – hence the title – to retrace the sounds of my family, adding and giving my mark, my musical passions, my artists and the historical periods that influenced me the most.”
What are they?
“I love the period from the end of the Sixties to the end of the Seventies. The album that really changed my musical tastes was Revolver by the Beatles, because it made me fall in love with that period. I can honestly say that there is a life of mine before and after Revolver; this doesn’t mean it’s my favorite album ever, but it changed my listening experience.
Musically, the album is inspired by the extraordinary music scene of the Seventies – Bob Dylan, Allman Brothers, The Band, Neil Young, Little Feat, Jim Croce – and by that folk-rock territory that also crossed the imagination of Ivan Graziani. Inside dad’s vinyl records, I found many artists that I had discovered even before seeing his record collection.”
The album cover is pleasantly busy
“I’ve wanted to make a cover like this for my whole life: put my extended family on it, my son, my wife and her dog, the guys from the band with their girlfriends. I really wanted to do something that had the flavor of home. That’s what I’d like to communicate in this new phase of my life, the desire to open up.”
Open the doors of your home also in the video for “Selvaggio”, the song that accompanies the release of the album
“In the video for Selvaggio I allowed myself something that only four years ago I would have considered unthinkable. I used authentic family videos, shot by my dad and my brother. I have always been extremely reserved, but now I like to share them. It’s a private story that finds its own musical and visual form.”
The protagonist of this opening of yours is Ludovico, to whom you dedicate the song “Nella musica”
“It’s a modern lullaby, where I tell everything I would like to say to my son for when he grows up, for when he is old enough to listen to it. Inside this song there is everything I would have liked to hear, but there wasn’t the time. So, I wanted to do it now, to give us both this possibility. The whole album was actually written with the intention of leaving him something to listen to when the time is right for him to do so, to also leave him a testimony of what I think.”
Speaking of wills, you can glimpse one from grandfather to grandson in the song “The Three Keys”
“I wanted to write a piece about an idea of my father and in an old TDK I found a sample of his. It was still a half-finished song, but I fell madly in love with it: on this barely sketched project, I shaped the lyrics of “The Three Keys”. It is a very beautiful and subtle parable, a bit as if it were the grandfather telling a story to his grandson.”
The tour will start in the spring, right?
“The official one will start on March 17th in Rieti. In November and December
There are some dates planned where we will play the songs acoustically, just as they were born. The premiere will be on November 26th in Casalgrande, in the province of Reggio Emilia, at the Teatro De André. I like the idea of exposing myself, this intimacy that is created with music and the audience. It’s almost like playing in silence and bringing people into a suspended space-time, into a dimension where they can simply enjoy the moment.”
