Interview Roberto Di Gioia (Marsmobil)

L'ennesimo colpo in casa Compost lo mette a segno con l'etichetta di Kruder & Dorfmeister -la G-Stone- è il secondo disco dei Marsmobil, eccellente lavoro che si aggrazzierà i fan degli Air, degli Stereolab e dei Talk Talk oltre che tutti i più raffinati palati musicali. L'album in questione s'intitola Minx e vale anche a mostrare l'abilità della brava cantante Martine Rojine oltre che la fantasiosa versatilità del sound Marsmobil. Abbiamo fatto qualche domandina alla mente della formazione, Roberto Di Gioia, che nonostante i natali italici e una certa affezione satin per il suolo natìo, è cresciuto e vissuto in quel di Baviera. Tra le altre "rivelazioni", la conferma di un nuovo album per l'imminente 2007! Marsmobil "Minx" (Compost/G-Stone, Distribuzione Family Affair) 01.Magnetizing 02.Astralbody 03.Call Me 04.Dark Star 05.Je Suis Lache 06.Lily Blossom 07.Reversed Mantra 08.Mangia Amore 09.Supersonic Mind 10.Sovatex 2055 11.From Elsewhere To Nowhere

Hi Roberto. First of all, compliments for your new album marked by Marsmobil. Could you tell us something about its birth? MINX started off in the beginning of 2005, when i had a couple of songs together which were different from the songs i wrote until now. I mean the songs had much more "song"-character, the songs had a somewhat stronger meaning to me. Out of that i developed a concept for MINX, together with the two producers Peter Kruder and Christian Prommer.

Someone could imagine that you met Marine -her voice reminds to me tho one by Hafdis Huld from Gus Gus- during a Stereolab concert! What about your rendezvous? On a concert of MARSMOBIL, Martine Rojina was in the audience and asked me if she could sing in the band because she loves it so much. I invited her to my studio for an audition, and she was great!! We recorded a few songs, then i decided to take her in the band, too.

Germany is maybe the country which is living the most exciting period in music. We thought that you decided to move there before discovering that you were born in Milan and raided there. When you come back to Italy, what are the main differences you notice between Italy and Germany from the musical viewpoint? Unfortunately, I am not too often in Italy to work there, so I can`t tell you the differences correctly. But I know that Italy has one of the richest musical potential in the whole world. There are so many fantastic musicians there. Italians are – of course – very happy and content with their own country, in other words: they love to be there and live there as musicians and be happy only in Italy. Not so in Germany: Germans tend to expand and to go abroad with their music.

A propos of German music scene, journalist and music writers tend to create imaginary musical maps, maybe influences by some musicians, which are particularly famous abrod (for instance the Mojo collective from Hamburg, Boozoo Bajou from Nurmberg and so on). What about Munich? Do you think that these maps are too reductive for the German musical boiling pad? I never care who says what, about a city, or “hip” scenes, because i am not stressed by the fact that in Hamburg for instance live 5.239 great DJs, 7.401 musicians, but in Munich only 438 DJs and 203 musicians... The more important thing is to create a working situation for yourself in which you can develope your music without comparing all the time who does what and so on... I am happy to live in Munich, because it is a quiet and peaceful city (except when the OKTOBERFEST is happening – at the ITALIAN WEEKEND!!)

Let's talk about Minx again.. someone argues that you managed to fill the void, created by bands like Air or Stereolab. I know that sometimes categorization in music is not so correct. Anyway standing to the critics' acclaim, do you think you have a particular position in music jet-set? For me it is important to develope my own sound. I can`t tell you if that`s a particular position, that decision is definetely up to the people and critics.

Is there any track you're particularly tied to? I think it is “Magnetizing”, since this is my most personal song...

Any funny episode connected with the development of Minx? We (Peter, Christian, Martine and myself) were watching this great and funny movie “The Life Aquatic” (with Bill Murray). It was very late. We went down to Peter`s Studio to finish the production on “Dark Star”. So, in the movie, there is this guy performing Bowie songs with his accoustic guitar in a Brazilian Bossa-style throughout the whole movie. We were looking for an ending for “Dark Star”, so i took the accoustic guitar and started to perform “Dark Star” in this Brazilian way, the others clapping and singing along with it. Peter immediately pressed the recording button...you can hear it at the end of “Dark Star”.

What about your musical background? Are there any musicians which inspired you most? Well, i was (and still am) a piano player. In the 80ties (wow, long time gone. I´m getting old...!!), I earned money playing gigs with American Jazz Greats like Woody Shaw, Art Farmer, James Moody, Johnny Griffin and so on. At a certain point I discovered that my first love – The Beatles – gave me more. When I was a kid, I listened to all their records nonstop...So somehow, I bought myself a 4-track-recorder, and started to record songs of my own. (That was “the end” of my Jazz career – at least in my heart! I still do play gigs with other musicians sometimes). I started to play other instruments - like bass, drums, guitar, indian sitar... even singing and writing lyrics (I am NOT a great player on all these instruments!! But I do have a vision of how things should sound!!). Mostly I was inspired by Charlie Watts from Rolling Stones. I was at doing a recording date with Tim Ries for his album “Music of the Rolling Stones”, where I was aked to play a song on it, too. Tim is the on of the saxofone player of the Stones, so he managed that Charlie Watts was playing in the studio as well...

If you should choose a collaborator among them? Charlie Watts.

A lot of people knows your Munich Loves You and some of them compared that work to Moroder background... What about the nirth of the hit which got famous for World Socces Championship? Why did the Committee choose that? Honestly: I have no idea.

Speaking generally, when someone asks to a skilled keyboarder about the origin of his music, normally the questioned one answers speaking about "something he/she had in mind"... But, we're still asking to ourselves how that thing went into his/her mind"... How do you describe your creative process? I try to be faster than myself. After waking up, i first need a strong ITALIAN coffee. But even before that, I go to my piano and play a bit...this first “innocent” idea is what is in my “mind”. No, it is somewhere else probably. When the morning coordination isn`t yet awake, it is the best moment for me to write music.

The most fascinating aspects of Minx music is that some musical language, even if anaemic or sleepy (let's say so), can create a wonderful contrast between the music you play and the music which maybe your one is connected to: the 70's. It seems you're able to hypnotize without hypnotizing, which perfectly fits to a kind of music, which could be described as "urban". Thank you! Again: I am trying to stick with myself to get the most authenticity. At the end I never can tell what`s coming out and why...

Any possibilities to see you perform in Italy? We are working on it! I am shure next year sometime!

Any work in progress? Yes, the recording for the next MARSMOBIL album is almost finished. It will come out next year...