FRANCO MORONE & RAFFAELLA LUNA
the songs we love
Obviously I would like to start by talking of your Songs We Love cd : how did it come into light to you the idea of it and how did you select tunes?
It's about songs somehow connected to our generation. Gradually we shared a common way for the interpretation. Although I have studied operatic music, I sing in many other genres, too. With Franco I found a confluence point at a glance, those cases sensed like a natural magic, radiating a strong positive drive. Events you immediately realize deserves to be shared.
I've heard an opera approach in your voice, in some cases it's almost overwhelming ...
I was born in an house where there were plenty of music. We used to gather together for singing, a tradition we got from both of my maternal and paternal grandfathers. A wide family mine: my mother Dusolina, the youngest of thirteen children, my father Giulio, fourth from sex; I have three brothers, Gianni, Amerigo and Marzio. All together we used to sing, mainly folk songs. I was always involved in it, in spite of my shyness and being the youngest. But I have to say it was very useful to me, it gave me more self confidence on singing. There was none training behind: I sang just by ear. The demand to start with musical training came at some later date, encouraged by teachers whom they too helped me a lot, also to understand what happens inside us while we are singing, I mean from the physical point of view.
Did the reverting to ‘pop’music obliged you, somehow, to change your way of singing?
No, it’s been completely normal, a matter of register shifts. The technique remains unchanged. But in any case there have always been so much music in my life, with a great fascination for guitarists, too, even before knowing Franco. John Fahey, Leo Kottke, John Renbourn and many others have turned into my ears, as a good company, for plenty of years. These things leave a deep sign..
Would we talk a bit of your original tunes?
I see you know our cd pretty well!
I have to confess that your cd is now long time standing in my car cd reader. And it’s not something that happens to me very often. It’s evident the care you took in it, there’s less or just nothing left to a blind chance.
it’s been a very important experience, I would say ‘a must’. Writing songs can be easy or tough, it depends a lot by how you feel, even though I believe that the best things come out from harder times. At the end we decided to include ‘’Roses, skies blue’’, ‘’La Nuit’’, ‘’Il Tempo Per Noi’’, on which Franco, starting from my original versions worked to have a more precious melody, following his sensitivity, with gorgeous arrangements. Anyway I hope to continue also towards this direction, to have nice melodies with lyrics going a bit farer from entertaining songs, tunes worth to be read in the sense of the interpretation. Because the result of it is a big satisfaction. Perfection in music is important, but what that I am looking to the most, is the pathos in the interpretation and emotions I succeed to convey to people. Honestly, by the first concerts we had a great resonance both from critical and audience. To me it represents a dream that comes true, an important leg in my career. Which, on the other hand, hasn’t started with this cd, rather long ago across the encounter with Franco with whom I shared a lot of experiences. Not only rehearsals, recordings, concerts, but also workshops, conferences, the many journeys to reach places, meeting with wonderful people that in common, beyond sharing the same passion, they have a consciusness, a scale of values hardly comparable in other contexts.
Mario Giovannini - CHITARRE n. 273