Between the various commitments of IL VOLO in this period, there is also a presence at the Collisioni Festival Barolo.

This event takes place in Piedmont in the beautiful land of Barolo, which also gives its name to the very tasty and famous wine.

It is a beautiful land, full of vineyards and certainly with a very pleasant climate, given the stifling heat of these days.

Look at the picture, what a splendor!

Collisioni Festival, promoted by the Piedmont Region, was conceived in 2009 by an artist team made up of Italian journalists and writers.

Collisioni is the agrirock festival of literature and music in the hills. Concerts, meetings with writers, actors and musicians, musical and theatrical performances, street artists, all in the natural amphitheater of the green hills of Barolo.

The Festival takes place outdoors in the country itself, which is therefore totally involved. Of course there are also food stands and in particular dedicated to wine. Good music, good literature, good wine, fine place, what more could you want?

The peculiarity is that the singers are first interviewed on stage, and, in the case of IL VOLO, the moderator was Ernesto Assante, music critic journalist, who has never been too benevolent with IL VOLO and who had also promised to go to the concert From Rome. We didn’t get any feedback, that Assante was at the concert in Rome, but surely, today, he will have the opportunity to ask Piero, Ignazio and Gianluca some questions and then also be able to hear them in live performances.

COLLISIONI FESTIVAL article – Click Here

So let’s keep our fingers crossed, and let’s hope that some fans will record videos, because Collisioni Festival does not provide any connection, it will only publish some photos.

Here, to you: IL VOLO.
Thanks guys and welcome to Collisioni.
They are very expected.
Good listening.

 

Fortunately, the Volo Highlights, whom I thank, made a video of the interview. Unfortunately at some point the view is tilted, but the interview is really interesting.

Translate for you.

A = I guess they’ve already asked you a million times: what did you think the first time you sang together?

I = It’s not about what we thought when we sang together, but what we thought about the week before, when they gave us the parts of the song to study …

A = It is true.

G = ….. but with these I have to sing ??

I = … because we were three singers, and at a certain point we have to study “O SOLE MIO” because you have to sing it in trio with other guys. Who knows what it will bring us. Then we re-found ourselves on stage, you know when you are small you face things with naivety, with less responsibility and less knowledge of what you are doing. But we had fun and then it went great. (very well)

A = You realized at the time, that an alchemy had been created, which in fact now exists. Then you couldn’t be friends without knowing each other. Alchemy, is created immediately, because people from home noticed that it wasn’t the usual thing.

P = The thing that brought us together right from the start is the musical genre we were singing, we understood and we all felt the same thing, the same passion for bel canto. At the beginning they called us “the three tenorini” (small tenors), that nice name was born with Antonella ….

I = But now how do you manage to call me a “tenorino”? I also weigh 120 kg.

P = Fortunately, that alchemy has always improved, day after day.

A = Apart from “O SOLE MIO”, what was the song that you immediately understood to be in perfect harmony?

P = Maybe “SMILE” by Charlie Chaplin

I = But also, “IL MONDO”. I also explain to you, that all the songs we proposed together, I had already sung by myself, in the program. I had sung “IL MONDO”, “UN AMORE COSÌ GRANDE”,  “É LA MIA VITA”  by Al Bano, and then we sang them together. I think that “IL MONDO” is really the song, where we immediately found ourselves in harmony.

P = He too (Ignazio) immediately found harmony with “SMILE”, tell him about it.

A = I want to know.

I = When we recorded the album, they divided the parts, we were small and I came from Sicily and I didn’t speak English well, and then, we arrived in the studio, I entered the first room to record the song, then I repeated the first sentence 58 times.

G = And in any case we were three children, catapulted into a totally different world, which perhaps did not belong to us, or perhaps belonged to us, and we still did not know it.

A = Being so young on television, what was it like? After each television episode, did you return home, and life, was it normal or wasn’t it normal for nothing?

G = For us, life has always been more or less normal, the important thing, even during the journeys that have taken us away from the family, we have always found the time to go back to being the ones we have always been. It is as if we lived a life with two parallel tracks.

A = Are you telling me that you haven’t lost anything? Childhood, adolescence?

G = More than lost, we have gained something, because we have certainly been privileged, we have lived experiences, which probably our peers have not done, and we are aware that there are so many whose talents they cannot explore, so we feel lucky and privileged in this. (applause)

I = I think it’s also very subjective. Each of us lives it differently.

A = You, how do you live it?

I = I am a bit special, I live everything as if nothing had happened, in the sense, sometimes, I can’t distinguish the two things, for me it’s always normal.

A = This, however, helps you overcome certain difficulties that I believe you have had.

I = I always try to surround myself with normality, I always look for a daily life, which is difficult to find, since we are always traveling. I am always in constant search for normality.

P = I suffer this thing, I can’t enjoy the moment, I always think of tomorrow, I always have the urge to do more and more. When we do a concert, an event, something important, when we come down from the stage, I think … and tomorrow what should we do ?? I always think I do more and so I don’t live the moment.

G = As often they tell us: “getting to success is the easiest thing, keeping it is difficult”, because after the summit, there is only the descent.

A = But did you think about doing this career when you were small? I do not believe.

P = When I was 8 I went to piano school, I helped my father in the body shop to fix the cars, then I went to my uncle to be a mechanic.

A = Did you think you were a mechanic?

P = No, I wanted to live on music, being a piano teacher and after a path in the conservatory, becoming a singing teacher and then the tenor in theaters.

A = Teaching music to others.

G = We were so young that we really didn’t know what we wanted to do. Imagine if at 14, one can know what to do, but in the end it happened like this, so fast that we didn’t realize, a sudden change, of life.

A = What you said before, that you don’t think about what can happen tomorrow, is it perhaps due to the speed with which it all started? I mean, it wasn’t your choice, and now maybe you have a little fear that everything can end?

P = Do you know what the biggest problem is? That this year we are celebrating 10 years of career and we are 24 years old.

A = Certainly.

G = Even if it’s beautiful, it’s also scary.

A = Indeed, if you were not afraid, I would be worried. And to you Ignazio, you are less afraid, what do you think?

I = It is not that I am not afraid, but sometimes I do not realize what is happening.

A = You can also be afraid of so many things, but don’t be worried.

I = I think that a person must always be worried, and be afraid, because in any case it is what gives you the incentive to do more and more. I am a very cheerful person, and often, when I spend moments of solitude, they immediately tell me, “What’s wrong? Why don’t you laugh?”, but I think that every person needs that moment of sadness and loneliness, because then it is what helps you to produce, to invent, and to do more and more.

A = 10 years, not a few, we have just said it, and you only have 24, but the thing that comes to me to ask you, when did you realize that it was really a success? That you were IL VOLO, that something had changed, you were no longer  in the television program, it was no longer the success of the moment that could end, that it was really your way ……. always, if you understood it.

P = The difference, the transition between hobby and work. Yes, there was the moment when we realized that it has become a serious job, in effect, when Torpedine, our manager, who is that guy among them with white hair, calls us and starts the meetings to solve problems. Maybe at the beginning, everything comes suddenly and you just have to decide whether yes or no.

G = I think the answer is simple, when at the beginning when we were little we took part in concerts, but now we are the ones doing concerts for the people, that’s where the change happened, we’re on the other side, and we, we didn’t expect it.

A = That is, people come to hear you.

G = Yes, now we are on the other side, first I used to go and hear the singers I liked, now, after years, I’m on the other side, I even met and I sang with the singers I used to listen to when I was small, you realize how life has changed and you appreciate it.

A = Can I ask you a trivial question? How do you define yourself? Artists? Singers? Entertainer? Because you are all three things for sure, that is people who entertain the public and therefore know how to do an important and beautiful job, but singers of an important and beautiful and rich repertoire, and artists, of those who put something of their own, to transform something improper, in something of IL VOLO. Is there any for you that prevails over others or not?

I = It is a very difficult question, because we are, in some respects artists, in some respects singers and in some respects ….

A = ….. entertainers.

I = Communicators, because we think that music is sharing, music must be shared, any genre and any way of making music. So for us, being able to transmit emotions, especially with the kind of music we play, is a very important thing.
And then it depends on where. On stage we are artists, but we always try to bring the more human side, also because this is the beauty, knowing how to put yourself naked on stage and show what’s inside you, to people, and it’s the thing, harder.

P = Don’t worry that he doesn’t (to get naked).

I = Also because it’s not a good show.

P = Do you know what the beautiful thing is for us three? Do the concerts. You never came to one of our concerts.

A = No, I confess I never came.

P = You ask the people who came to our concerts, we have fun, because for us, there is not that barrier between stage and audience, for us it is a whole, and we talk to people, we joke, we laugh, everything we think, we externalize it, and it is the most beautiful thing. Your question before, as we define ourselves … we are three normal but extremely lucky boys, because we love music and sing it and there are those who come to listen to it. If these 10 years have passed, it is only thanks to the people who come to listen to us, we are not super-heroes. (applause).

I = He said something nice, really.

A = Now I speak as a critic, not as a music critic, you know that I haven’t been your fan since the beginning.

P = No, but what do you say ….. (Assante has always written bad comments on IL VOLO) … his vote in Sanremo 3,5 !!!

A = …. I got there very slowly ….. besides, my vote was high, because to other singers I gave even less. In reality you know that, with those like me, you have struggled, because you were very good but very small, more considered phenomena than artists. Now, for those like me, I don’t say the public, because they loved you from the beginning, overcoming this fact, it was not easy, you committed yourself, not only to convince me, but also to convince yourself that you were not only child prodigies,

P = Yes, because at the beginning we were child prodigies, a phenomena, but after so many years, after so much study, so much effort, so much dedication, so much h.24 work, we never stop, our work is not alone on stage, before arriving on stage, there is a lot of work, which does not depend only on us three. Our manager works every day, at the beginning we had a record company that was on the other side of the world, so with the different time zone, he worked until 5 am. OK, at the beginning we were child prodigies, but then it was time to show that there was something else, that there was commitment, and all the projects and collaborations done together with great artists, therefore, the criticisms bad, we couldn’t tolerate them anymore.

A = (to Gianluca) I want to know what you think of the passage, from child prodigies to IL VOLO.

G = It is clear that it was not easy, important and doing something, to have a goal, and ours has always been to sing, because it makes us happy. We do not do it just for success, but to reach people, which is the most important thing.

Usually there are child prodigies, like Nikka Costa, for whom it is difficult to overcome that line that marks the transition from child prodigy, so you can last a year, two years, but then, if there is not a team that works for you, as Piero used to say, but also the ambition itself to go beyond, and go farther and farther. So thanks to all the people who are working for us, but also thanks to our perseverance and determination, which has helped us to keep going.

A = And how do you choose songs? Choosing songs is crucial to making others understand who you are.

G = We choose the songs together, and then 80% of our songs are covers, the repertoire of the bel canto, of the crossover, is not only Italian, but there are songs like “SMILE” or “MY WAY”, we follow, a little in the steps of Bocelli.

A = Exactly, but considering a song, instead of the other one, is very important, it makes the difference, how do you do it? Do all three choose songs? Do you bring the proposals and discuss among you?

G = Yes, we discuss every day, also because we have different thoughts and tastes, different personalities, but with a single goal, to get the best for the group. In the first CD there was “IL MONDO” by Jimmy Fontana, “SMILE” by Charlie Chaplin, two unpublished ones in English, there was “O SOLE MIO”, in short, all the songs that contain the Italian and American tradition. The bel canto, a little like the repertoire of the 50s where Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin also sang in Italian, or Elvis Presley who sang SURRENDER or IT’S NOW OR NEVER and above all in those countries, Italianness is thanks to those singers who they made it known to the general public.

A = Being, of the flags of your country, do you feel it as a burden, a responsibility or an honor?

P = He (referred to Ignazio), heard it, for a long time as a burden.

I = No. Surely it is a great pleasure, from the first day, we tried to bring the Italian spirit to the world.

A = And you, you succeeded.

I = Yes, and it just makes us feel that pleasure and honor, it was a goal, and that’s what we’re doing.

G = We want to greet the great Mauro Corona (an Italian writer and sculptor, a frank and unconventional person)

P = Grande Mauro, number one. Last night we had dinner with Mauro, boys, it’s an idol!

A = How is Italy welcomed abroad? You represent the traditional way of being Italian, the historical culture of our country. What reaction is there from the foreign public?

P = Not only that, as far as Italian music is concerned, for everything, ITALY IS THE MOST LOVED AND ENVIED, COUNTRY IN THE WORLD.

G = Many abroad, they do not know Italian music, they appreciate lyric music, bel canto, Italian music, it is not really known.

A = De Gregori (an Italian singer-songwriter) does not know him.

G = No, unfortunately. He is one of my favorite artists (De Gregori sang with IL VOLO all’Arena)

P = However, the answer to our success abroad is due to the strength of the music we sing.

A = But what do you like about the great Italian melody you sing? Is it something that moves you and excites you?

I = It’s not an easy thing to explain, it’s like if you like pistachio ice cream, but you can’t say why, there are things we can’t even explain ourselves.

A = Is it the satisfaction of singing it?

I = I can’t tell you, for example, I really like lyric music, I listen to the opera, we also sang it, but it’s something for which, I personally wouldn’t do projects, instead Piero, in his life, he wants to sing opera in theaters, full time, what maybe, I don’t think, but listening and I really like it, when I listen to it, it gives me a very strong emotion.

G = Instead I arrived afterwards to opera music, at most I listened to Andrea Bocelli first, I didn’t listen to opera, because my father made me listen to De Gregori, Guccini, Lugli (Italian songwriters). A music even, far from what I sing now. So I came later to appreciate classical music.

A = But do you think that this variety of tastes is actually the real value?

G = It also depends on the choice of songs, because if there are less national-popular songs, there is a different choice.
(a person from the audience speaks loudly with Piero, Assante jokingly says to stop talking to each other)

I = He wants to offer (to Piero) a glass of wine, but he is a teetotaler, and when he told him that he gave him a pear juice.

P = That guy, he doesn’t like my glasses ….. I’m a serious guy, I don’t wear glasses like yours.

A = Torpedine, these are unruly, you must tell me how you manage them, on tour, for the world, they do as they like, it’s a big problem. (he jokes) Talk to me, not with them (Assante refers to guys who disturbed the interview, but Piero decides to leave the stage and satisfy them by taking a picture with them.)

I = (to the people) We lost Piero, someone wants to play the part of Piero?

A = I speak, with you two, if you listen to me (Piero returns to the stage), thank you for this off-program. The relationship with the public, how is it? Above all abroad? (The boys among the people continue to disturb and Assante takes them back.) Is not that you always satisfy all the people like that?

G = There is something to worry about when people don’t ask you anything anymore.

A = There is no doubt about this, I agree with you.

P = Do you know why our relationship with the public is beautiful? We always say, often we have seen, of our colleagues who, in the past have denied photos with fans, now you put yourself in the condition of that person, who comes to you, asks you for a photo because he appreciates you, how can you say no? It’s the same thing as a shoemaker with customers, you can’t say NO.

A = But do you like being a star a little bit?

G = One STAR nut.

I = You talk to the wrong person, I live things very quietly, sometimes even wrongly.

The video is interrupted because the girl who was shooting, discusses with the guys who disturbed the interview, however I think it was almost over.

And here is the final moment, the boys sing a cappella “GRANDE AMORE”.

And here is the time to say goodbye.

IL VOLO, greet all the friends of Collisioni Festival.

And here are the guys who disturbed the interview because they wanted to take the picture with Piero.

The same guys with Ignazio who says, “The noisiest guys I’ve ever met.”

This interview was really very interesting and with many questions never proposed.

Piero, Ignazio and Gianluca are always very correct.
I believe that Assante admitted to having changed his mind about IL VOLO.

Finally we also make a nice toast to Barolo, with Gianluca.

Daniela

Credit to owners of all photos and videos.