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Rating: I no longer remembered where the "Le Tits" club was located. I hadn't been there for a while. I vaguely remembered the area but not the exact place. I parked the car nearby and started wandering, aimlessly. Then I entered a UISP club. Basically a small bar. Inside, a small humanity divided between card games, the billiard table, and glasses of grappa. My appearance was a small surprise in that moment of evening quiet, even more so than noticing an intact "Gazzetta dello Sport" on a table from that day. Yet, they immediately went out of their way for me, for the wanderer's expectations, and showed me the way. A humanity willing even to accept an immigrant, with his stall of trinkets sold to scrape together a living. Seeing Massimo Zamboni again has a dual value for me: firstly musical, secondly it allows me to reconstruct and enrich the past/present. Zamboni wields a journal, the acoustic guitar. Small instruments for great emotions and meanings. It’s an opportunity to ask him other questions as well, to interpret those days halfway between socialism and barbarism.
IT'S THE SECOND READING YOU'RE OFFERING TO THE PUBLIC IN BRESCIA. DOES THIS TYPE OF SHOW, SO DIFFERENT FROM A CLASSIC CONCERT, ALLOW YOU TO EXPRESS DIFFERENT SENSATIONS AND MESSAGES, OR DOES THE FORMAL DIFFERENCE NOT CHANGE THE SUBSTANCE AND CONCEPTS YOU WANT TO CONVEY?
The form changes the substance a lot. On occasions like this, I manage to be one-on-one with the listener. When I play with a band, it's about connecting with the audience as a collective entity, whereas here I have the opportunity to address each of those present, to look them in the face one by one. I really like it.
IN THE PREVIOUS READING YOU FOCUSED ON BERLIN, ON THE PASSION AND INSTINCT ASSOCIATED WITH THAT JOURNEY. TODAY YOU MENTIONED MANY PLACES, NEAR AND FAR, INCLUDING MONGOLIA, WHICH YOU HAD ALREADY SPOKEN ABOUT IN THE PAST ALONG WITH GIOVANNI LINDO FERRETTI. WHAT HAS MONGOLIA REPRESENTED FOR YOU?
It's a place always similar to itself, the beginning and the end. A circle that closes. In Mongolia, you can understand the origins of our world and the possibilities for development. It was a redemptive journey where, starting from scratch, I managed to build new thoughts.
WE ARE IN THE DAYS OF REMEMBRANCE OF THE FOIBE (the interview is from 02/10/2012 n.d.a.). YOU SPOKE OF MEMORY, OF SIMPLY REMEMBERING. WITHOUT PRECONCEPTIONS OR SPECULATIONS. GOING BACK TO THE FOIBES, ONE SHOULD ALSO ASSOCIATE THE ATTEMPTED SERBIAN ETHNOCIDE, COMMITTED BY THE FASCISTS AND THE CROATIAN USTASHE. HOW CAN THIS ITALIAN MISCONDUCT OF REMEMBERING ONLY EVENTS WHERE WE WERE VICTIMS AND NOT PERPETRATORS BE JUDGED IN TERMS OF MEMORY?
There are many ways to look at things: historical, political, convenient, and human. What was, was, it cannot be denied. We share the planet; we must find the strength to continue, to walk forward, and recognize the pain. There is no abstract man. In the end, they are men, just like us, who found themselves on the other side of the barricade by chance. I also can't settle for just facts; I need to know who the people were. Especially loved ones. Today I spoke of my grandfather, a fascist, killed by partisans. It's easy to leave memory halfway.
IN A DOCUMENTARY ABOUT DISCIPLINATHA YOU SAID THAT THE DISCIPLINE OF PROPHECY IS IN PREDICTING THE PRESENT, SEEING IN IT EVERYTHING THAT WILL HAPPEN. IS IT POSSIBLE TO PERFORM THIS EXERCISE IN AN ERA WHERE NOTHING IS LEFT, WHERE SURVIVAL IS EXALTED, AND RIGHTS ARE DENIED?
You're right but you're wrong at the same time. The distance of rights, between having them and not having them, is measured in millennia. If there were no rights, we wouldn’t be here; nor would the other people who came to see me. Someone would be someone else’s slave. We have managed to conquer rights over thousands of years. When you come to me for the interview, you want to contribute. You give hope. There’s hope even in those who organize these events, those who come and fall asleep. Those who do nothing have a problem, but it is theirs, solely linked to their condition.
LAST YEAR YOU RELEASED AN ALBUM WITH ANGELA BARALDI, PRESENTING SONGS OF C.C.C.P. AND C.S.I. IN A NEW FORM. THIS COLLABORATION MAY RECALL ANOTHER OF YOUR RECENT PAST, THE ONE WITH NADA. I’D LIKE TO ASK YOU WHAT DIFFERENCES AND SIMILARITIES YOU FOUND IN WORKING WITH AND GETTING TO KNOW THESE TWO GREAT WOMEN AND ARTISTS?
What they have in common is grit, the similarity of being aware and fearless. They are never satisfied, and I felt really comfortable with them; they treated me with great affection. However, they are very different, they are not interchangeable. I can't do with one what I do with the other, and vice versa. Angela on stage shows great irony. Nada is an inexhaustible volcano; she has very different energy from Angela.
I thank him once more, and not for a song. I thank him because, on the occasion of the previous reading, he promised he would return to Brescia. With a guitar in hand. He kept his word, and that's no small thing these days. At the end of this reading, he said he would return to give a full concert. This time, however, as we have already agreed, we’ll make a nice film.
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