Lorenzo Gabanizza and Jeff Christie have joined forces to create a powerful and evocative piece of music. Their lead track, ‘I Don’t Want to Live Without You’, is a country-rock track that blends elements of blues and rock and roll.
What inspired you to create I don’t want to live without you
It’s never an easy answer for me, when asked where I got the inspiration to write or compose something. Let’s say that this song was inspired by deep and radical feelings. My passion for Emily Bronte’s novel “Wuthering Heights” is no longer a mystery to anyone. Therefore the all-encompassing passions of the novel are echoed in my song, and video clip too . A love that goes far beyond death, an indissoluble and indestructible bond that has the same power and strength as a wild waterfall in the Amazon. The loneliness of the broken heart, the broken glass of the window, the frost, the night that turns into a dark and icy lament, are nothing but an illusion, because she is right there, even if you don’t see her, caressing you, accompanying you , kissing you…
Can you tell us more about your musical influences and how you created your unique sound?As for my musical influences, they are as wide as the ocean. My parents had a monstrous collection of vinyls of every genre, from Italian popular music to twelve-tone music. And everything in between. After all, I believe that an artist has recognized, tasteful, but also involuntary influences: art is like a smell, it sticks to you, therefore, in a certain way, I have the artistic smell of what I have experienced and penetrated me over the years. If I should mention names, in music, I would Say: Jeff Christie, Elvis Presley, Donovan, Bob Dylan, Neil Diamond, Johnny Rivers, Brian Hyland, Bread, Queen, Edith Piaf, Southern Comfort, and all that bright, romantic, poppish british music from the 70’s like Marmalade, Stamford bridge, Kincade, John Carter. Also Classics, like Tchaikovsky, Sibelius, Grieg, Smetana,Chopin, Glinka or Irish music, Kate Bush…But you know, it’s not like art and composition have limits. So, when I write a song, I don’t just refer to my musical taste, but also to my literary taste, therefore, that’s where what you call “Unique Sound” comes from. From my readings, from my love for Andersen’s fairy tales, Celtic traditions, Capote’s adamantine prose and Proust’s swirling introspections; the delightful brushstrokes of Dickens, the tragic odes of Keats, the poetic abstractionism of Virginia Woolf and always, the moor of Emily, the scent of wet earth, of the fog, of the rock…everything contributes to form an aesthetic sense that it then explodes into creation.
Do you have a track that shines out as a favourite to play live?
No. Live gigs are unique moments, and they depend on too many factors to have a fixed choice.
How does your songwriting process happen?
No rules on this. I do not follow a true working methodology. And this also concerns my parallel activity as a poet, novelist, and essayist. Let’s say that my mind is a minefield and the randomness of the day can trigger and light the fuse. A bit like the involuntary memory described by Marcel Proust. Because in any case, I believe that the creative process must be free from the conditioning of any kind. And just as Proust’s involuntary memory is the true memory, because it brings back the object that we are recalling from the dark place within ourselves right where we left it, untouched, with its colors and flavors, so it is concerning writing that comes, for me at least, from a casual stimulus. Of course, as a professional, I can write and I do write songs that develop a voluntary message, but they are not the best ones – at least not the ones I prefer. Generally, when inspiration strikes, I grab my guitar and excerpts of text fall on my head. Sometimes the urge becomes so compelling that I have to get up at night to throw down some musical notes. Have you seen “Jazz singer” with Neil Diamond? The scene where he gets up at night and composes “love on the rocks”? Well, that’s me! To quote one of his most famous successes:
“Well except for the names
And a few other changes
If you talk about me
The story is the same one“
How would you describe your music to a potential fan?
An emotional potpourri.
Who would you love to collaborate on a project with?
Well, if you look at the guys I have in my latest single or in my career, could I possibly dream of something more? Having Jeff on board it’s already reaching the top. But yes, of course there are artists out there with which I would enjoy a collaboration. Most of them. are dead…like Elvis or unreachable like Dylan…Or surely don’t have time to think about me, like Thelma Hopkins, the Sweet Inspirations etc.
What does the future hold for you?
Who knows? I don’t set limits for myself. I am walking to the Artist’s Valhalla. Yes, because I am really convinced that once in the afterlife, we will all meet at the table like the ancient nordic warriors believed, celebrating, singing, in an eternal symphony. I think we will do a lot of buzz around with our videoclip which is a real short film and is running in more than 50 festivals all around the world. My co-protagonist Martina Sacchetti already won the Halicarnassus Film festival, an IMDb qualifying event, for Best Actress, so, it’s first quality stuff and I am particularly proud of my performance as an actor in this short. So you know, I surely see more vastness in my future, and this creative vastness enclose music, poetry and…Acting!