Music as a path of life — Interview with Michele Pecora

When did you feel the perception of getting closer to music? Was it a choice dictated by the case or passion?

Pecora: A passionate choice, I think I've already decided at the age of 12 when I started playing guitar and writing the first songs, I knew that music would be my life and my craft.

How much does the lyrics of a song count for you?

Pecora: It counts how much – if not – of melody; the union between text and music is fundamental, because one can give more value to the other and vice versa. If a great text has a weak melody is definitely less valued, that is why the most successful songs are just when text and music are almost simultaneously born.

When you write, do you start from a personal experience or from what happens in society?

Pecora: I always refer to situations or feelings felt maybe on the occasion of events or more simply are reflections that mature slowly and then become writing. One thing I never do (or almost) is to start from a title, because it would condition the composition according to the same and make less free all the intuitive part, which is the most fascinating part, because it allows you to write also of what you did not necessarily live, but it is as if you had done it.

Do you agree that music can join us today by transmitting something important against this difficult moment of life?

Pecora: Yes, the songs can play an important role, because they help make them reflect emotions. The message, through music, is sometimes underestimated but in reality it has a lot taken especially on young people.

In your songs you tell love, freedom and strength. What place do these values have in your music?

Pecora: I think they are fundamental values. Freedom is all that men should never lose, because it belongs to the dignity of every person and by freedom I also mean the ability to know how to always dream. Strength is all that we can draw from important values, such as family, friends, loved ones, but also from all that beautiful surrounds us, for example nature, seasons, the strength of every breath to catch breath and continue to fight.

Love, I think it belongs more directly to the soul of people (born from there) and therefore to that part of us untouched, able to understand the other, even beyond appearances but love also means respect, dedication passion.

Are talent shows a box of conformity or an artistic path to help young artists become someone? What is talent for Michele Pecora?

Pecora: Talents are certainly an opportunity for many young people, the opportunity to get acquainted, to confront a world that is much more complicated than it appears. The problem is that at such a media exposure it often does not correspond to an appropriate subsequent preparation and this is likely to be the reason for false expectations important disappointments.

The talent for me is that natural thing that you are never fully aware of but that allows you to give to what you do that spontaneity that in art is fundamental.

Tell us about your new single?

Pecora: And life comes back... born from the awareness that life sometimes puts us in the face of difficult trials but at the same time offers us new opportunities and almost always in the hardest moments. It is something I have often personally encountered; important things start just when we think everything is over and opportunities are also around us, in the face of a loved one or in the simple smile of a friend.

What do you think about the future of music today?

Pecora: I believe that an epochal change has already happened: digitization, diffusion technology have changed all the mechanism of record and commercialization of music. Today everything is closer and more accessible, perhaps too much, but the future of music is always to be written. Every time and every age will always have its changes, as it is right that it is; the only thing that will always resist, beyond the fashions of the times, is a beautiful song.

What are the models you've inspired? What is the soundtrack of your professional personal journey?

Pecora: I grew up playing Simon and Garfunkel's songs, James Taylor and an unbridled admiration for Gianni Morandi. When I first felt “a world of love” or There was a boy like me... I was fascinated and impressed and perhaps also because Morandi, as well as a good one, perfectly represented the story of the boy of province who had managed to realize his dream, which is a bit the story of so many of us.

Who would you like to thank for your professional personal journey? What will your future projects be?

Pecora: I have to thank my family who has always supported me and helped me in the most difficult times. I was lucky to know how to collaborate with so many great music, from Roberto Danè to Sergio Bardotti, Celso Valli and many others, who helped me to grow modeling my talent. With someone my collaboration has always lasted as it rarely happens in our world can become a strong sincere friendship, as with Pasquale Mammaro who is still my manager today as well as a brotherly friend.