Hi all...i got a lot of messages asking info about me..this is bloody insane...i mean...its flattering..and i thank you so much for this...so much you wouldnt believe...so this is the interview requested by SouthKorean label Musoground prior to the release of the album For All the Good Things in SouthKorea...well i guess...if you are willing to read it all.... thanks....its a bit long.sorry about that.......i guess i did my best to make my life sound interesting...uhmmm...if some of you (like me)have trouble sleeping at night,just give it a shot..it might help!!!!best to all of you...rob (PRESS)So Rob,you were born in Rome.How was growing up there and how did you get involved with music? Well growing up in Rome is certainly fun.Despite the problems of the town,Rome remains one of the most incredible places in the world..also I didn’t live in central Rome so I had lots of green to play. I got involved with music in high school..when I was a kid I was into sport,football and tennis…one day I was listening to Hotel California by the Eagles and during the solo I took my tennis racket and pretended it was a guitar…it felt nice..a friend of mine asked me to form a group..i didn’t play any instrument at that time so he told me to learn the bass.So I did, but one week before our first school concert ,the singer panicked and disappeared..we didn’t know where he was so I said “Ok I will sing”.After the concert some friends told me that my singing was really better than my bass playing..so that was it..i became a singer that day. (PRESS)What were your biggest music influences in your youth? The Eagles was my first band..i was in love with them..i got all their albums.Then my musical taste changed and I got involved with The Doors,Jimi Hendrix and shortly after with Radiohead and Tom Waits.By far these were my biggest influences for many years.Lately I discovered singer songwriters such as Damien Rice,Ben Harper and got involved with Bob Dylan on and off,my last passion is Passenger ,a truly unique style and a great songwriter as well. (PRESS)So you formed a band and then what happened? Me and my best friend formed a band and we called ourselves Les maudits from the french poets. We wrote lots of songs and perfomed all over Rome and in several other places in italy for many years.In those years cover bands were unfortunately popular in italy and we refused to play covers..we were doing just our songs.So it was difficult but we managed to play a lot anyway.A couple of times we got close to sign a deal but those days were a bit crazy.Following the steps of the french poets and our favourite bands we got into drinking and things were anything but normal for us..Basicallly we kind of lived the life of a rock star without being a rock star to cut it short..it was a great period on one hand and on the other one ,we certainly missed many opportunities because of the crazy life style we carried back then. In early 2000 we decided to move to london..we changed our name from Les Maudits to Showroomdummies and we moved to London in 2003. (PRESS)That’s when you were discovered by Benoit Jutras and brought to The United States right? Yes..i had a very little money when I moved to London..i took the road of street performing..but the first months were difficult.It was not easy to find the right spot to play and after 8 months I was running out of my little saving I had before moving to London..to cut it short I was broke…I didn’t know how long I had left before giving up and going back to Rome with all my shattered dreams.But then a place called Covent Garden opened the possibility to perform and I started to play there.From the very first day everything changed..i was finally making some money..and after few months,one day while I was playing there, I was approached by a composer named Benoit Jutras and he told me about this big show in Las Vegas…I couldn’t believe it…4000 people at night..great pay..my life changed so quickly that it was hard to believe. I had to leave the band and I moved to Las vegas in early 2005 and became the lead singer of the show.The Director Franco Dragone allowed me to have also few of my lyrics in the show..that felt great. So I was finally doing very well…not only financially but even for my private life..i got married in Las Vegas with Marina….life was so different…I also sang in front of Sting,Prince,Celine Dion,Janet Jackson and many others…but Sting was really the highlight of my singing experience over there… (PRESS)And then what happened? It happened that the owner of the Hotel where the theatre was…a rich man called Steve Wynn wanted to be involved in the creative process of the show…He bought for 16 million dollars the right from the director and started to make changes..one of the changes was me…although I was being chosen by the composer and the director ,he started the process of getting rid of me and he chose the very worst moment to tell me…after few months that we have bought an house and my wife was 3 months pregnant.The reason why he did that I don’t know..i guess he had the right to do it,I just think though that people should do their job and if you are a business man you should do business not art and viceversa..at least in most cases… Anyway…we had to leave the States in 2008 and we got trapped in one of the biggest financial crisis The States have experienced since the Wall Street in 1929…so we ended up losing our house(for various reasons that I am not gonna bother you with here)and lost lots of money…with a baby on the way… Life was suddenly difficult again…but I was told always to look forward and never to look back ,so we moved back to London at the end of 2008 and started to play again in Covent garden. (PRESS)What are your plans now and how is it going? My plans are to write songs and be honest about my music..i love to perform original songs in the street.There is something magical when you play your own stuff and people stop and listen to you…in 3 years I have sold more than 10000 copies of my albums and I am very proud of that because I have done it without a label…in the summer of 2013 I had 2 weeks of full immersion in songwriting and I wrote an entire album called For All the Good Things…so far no other things that I have written have done so well like this one…I have great expectations on this album…and this is thanks to all the people that have stopped and listened to me over the last few months.. With the help of a great friend..Sam Willoughby we went into a studio to record the EP..mean while I kept playing in Covent garden and that’s where I met Rink of Musoground and now they are working hard to release the single from the album in South korea,I am very grateful for their commitment…hopefully this will be a new exciting chapter of my life…in life I guess you can go up and down ,but as long as you keep going anyway it doesn’t matter.. (PRESS)Thanks a lot and good luck with everything…. The same for you…all the best…
Posted on: Sat, 20 Sep 2014 00:14:44 +0000
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