Violet Blend
Interview conducted on February 14, 2021
By Dan Locke
Violet Blend is an Italian alternative rock band from Florence. The band is made up by Giada Celeste Chelli (vocals and piano), Daniele Cristellon (guitar), Ferruccio Baroni (bass), and Michel Agostini (drums).
You are from Italy. What is your upbringing?
Giada: Italy has an incredible tradition of music, both classical and modern, every time you look around in our country you can find art in all of its forms. I raised in a family that loves art, my father painted and my mother drew and they listened to lots of music. I’ve always had the aptitude for music, since I was a child. My parents brought me to my first school of music when I was three years old and I started studying musical theory, solfeggio and singing. After a couple of years, I began to attend academic studies for saxophone (my first love and instrument), piano and singing. My family always encouraged me to pursue my aptitudes and follow my dreams, so I did it. I graduate twice in two different fields of Disciplines of Music in two different colleges, one in Florence and one in Bologna. That was the academic part of my education, the love and the need of rock ‘n roll is grown beside and always took a great part of my studies and my life. I was lucky enough to study and play different genres in different situations, classical, jazz and rock, experiences that blend together in my life.
How did you discover music?
Giada: My parents led me to music. My father has a great collection of vinyls of 60’s, 70’s and 80’s, he made me listen to different kind of genres since a was a child. He loves rock and metal, while my mother is more for intimate songwriters. I clearly remember the day my father put on “The Dark Side of the Moon”, it opened me a world that I’ve never left.
How did you start to write music?
Giada: I can say that I started writing real songs when I was fifteen. I started experimenting with the piano and the voice and things really came easily. One of the songs I’ve written when I was a teen is Funeral of Love that is in “White Mask” album.
Describe your music.
Giada: Most of the songs are written by me, and as I said before there is a kaleidoscopic world of genres, forms, styles and influences in my education and view of music. This background makes me mix and blend – sometimes unconsciously – lots of different styles. I can say that the base of our music is rock, but you can hear echoes of classical forms, jazz chords, metal riffs and punk attitudes in it, it combines different musical genres and unravels between them. The sound system is enhanced by the frequent dynamic and rhythmic sudden changes, you can hear the scratch and the riffs of the guitar contrasted with the clarity and harmony of the piano, the juxtaposition of themes and chords in dissonance, the bass play most of the themes, the melodic lines and the color of the voice are like a glue between all of these things.
You have to add the fact that we arrange songs together with all the band, so all the different backgrounds and tastes of each one of the band models the songs.
Your band has been together for 12 years. How did you form the band?
(We have not been together for 12 years, we formed Violet Blend in 2014, but the actual training of musicians is since 2017.)
Giada: The band was officially formed in 2014 by me and the drummer Michel Agostini. We played together since a couple of years before, at that time he was a session musician for my soloist project. My ex-producer introduced me to him. With time we began to understand the incredible feeling between us and the great things we could do together as partners, so we formed the band and started composing new songs. I abandoned my soloist project and I concentrated myself on the band. Ferruccio Baroni (bass) and Daniele Cristellon (guitar) came with time, we knew each other’s and we were friends since years so it was not so much difficult to find a musical feeling between us all. Florence has a small community of rockers, we know all each other’s, so you can easily understand if a player is good for your project or not.
How did your band get its name?
Giada: We wanted to combine our origins and our passion for exploration. Violet is the color that represents our city (Florence), our traditions and our background, the place we call home and that make us feel safe; Blend suggests our need to go further, to go over the limits and the safe places, the pleasure to mix and therefore to blend concepts, styles, experiences, forms and genres in our music, the desire to be a person with million different faces.
What was your first performance at like?
Giada: Our first performance together was in a cool music venue in Florence that unfortunately closed some years later. We set the date directly with the owner, we were truly inexperienced and it was a real bet. I can say that we entered in an exuberant way in the musical scene of Florence, there were about a hundred people at that concert and it is not so common for our city and for the first date of a band.
We were at the same time scared and excited by the crowd that night, but in the end, we had a good performance. If I think all the things that happened after that first concert it seems them happened hundreds of years ago, but it was not.
What makes a good songwriter?
Michel: Technique is the language with which concepts are expressed, it is important to have a good musical language skill to reach people, but if you have nothing to say all this becomes useless. It is important to have a good language and it is essential to have interesting concepts to express. More than anything, you should have the talent and the instruments to develop it. I think that a good songwriter has the capacity to make you see a concept from a different and unexpected point of view, and the gift to make you reflect on the meaning of things.
What is the process of writing your music?
Giada: Every little thing you feel can be an inspiration for a new song. Our songs investigate the whole range of feelings, trying to look into the soul honestly.
When I have a good vibe from an idea or from a melody, I usually sit at the piano and start to develop the song. I always write lyrics and music together. When I’m convinced that the song is good, I send it to the band, then we develop the arrangement during the rehearsals.
Do you belong to any to songwriters’ organizations like the International singer-songwriter association, SESAC, BMI or ASCAP?
Giada: Yes, we belong to SIAE, the Italian Society of Authors and Editors. It protects the copyright of the songs and give compensation every time your song is played somewhere by someone, even if you play your own song at a concert.
What was the title of your first original song? Did you record it?
The very first song that Michel and I develop together is called A Part of Me. We decided not to include it in “White Mask”, but it will be released with our second album in the next months. It’s a very powerful song with an incisive guitar riff that speaks about inner changing. It investigates the fact that every person you meet change you a little and vice versa, also how sometimes people shape themselves just to be loved. This is what I mean saying “a part of me”: people steal a part of your being as a sort of souvenir. You’ll hear it soon.
Tell me about your latest cd White Mask?
Giada: “White Mask” is a clear provocation, musical and not. The album wants to incite people to reconsider the digital era we live in. For the presentation of the album, Florence (IT) woke up with thousands of white masks painted with a purple ‘V’ in every corner of the city, which attracted the attention of citizens and national media. The album has a real matchbox on the cover with the words “Burn your mask” and it is accompanied by the same mask we put all over the city. The message is a provocative invitation: burn your mask and re-appropriate of human and interpersonal relationships, in the era of social media where you can see millions of masks and very few faces. We didn’t only incite to the metaphorical gesture but provided the real instruments – a mask and a matchbox – to symbolically get rid of the weight of the unreality of today’s world.
To reinforce the concept, we decided to distribute the album exclusively at our concerts, to encourage a relationship and more direct and real communication with our supporters.
We presented “White Mask” in Florence (IT) and it was incredible to see hundreds of people wearing the “white mask”. From there we started “Burn Your Mask Tour” throughout Italy, England, and Wales. At the end of each concert of the tour, people came to talk to us about the deep meaning of “White Mask”. This is a great satisfaction for us, they have shown that we have managed to shake their consciences a bit in some way.
What is your favorite track on the album?
Giada: I really love every track of “White Mask”, we chose carefully every song in a stack of other songs, just to be sure that the album had a harmonious meaning. My favorite track is Free Falling, because it’s a song about self-love and self-respect. It’s speaks about the power to overcome the fear of changing, and it gives me the strength to go on every time I hear it.
How do you stay healthy while performing?
Michel: We have imposed ourselves a rigid ritual, before the show we don’t drink nor smoke, we warm up a lot, particularly on the voices, we try to have a very light diet, we never eat at least two hours before the show, this to be sure to be able to give our best performance. Everything is clearly accompanied by daily training that helps you face every situation. We do really take seriously stage performance because it is the real moment when you meet people and must demonstrate that you are worth it. This I’m sure won’t change even in time, year after year.
After the show it’s all a different story, it’s rock ‘n roll however. We like to meet people, speak and drink with them, we rarely spend the post-concert in backstage.
What are you’re feeling about streaming music?
Giada: I’m not against streaming music, I sometimes use Spotify and services like that. The real problem is that streaming music doesn’t give fair profit to the artist. But it’s also real that the music market was already killed by Napster and peer-to-peer services ten years before, so streaming platforms are a sort of middle way between paying a CD and a totally uncontrolled free music land.
How can people forget about the origin hashtag # Sharp in a musical score? Because of social media #sonyrecords vs. F#
Giada: Time changes and people are children of their time. Today, unfortunately, is almost rare to have musical theory skills even for the ones who want to become musicians, we have millions of plugins and programs that can simulate everything, that’s why today is better to have computer and music recording skills than musical ones. Today not even all the professional musicians (in rock ‘n roll) are able to read sheet music. I think that’s why people don’t even imagine that the symbol # means sharp and not hashtag. Obviously, we don’t agree with this view, a musician that wants to be identified as it must have both musical theory and the newest recording skills.
Digital vs. vinyl?
Michel: Analogical methods allow to a developed ear to perceive nuances and details that are lost in the digital world, but digital reproduction is much more convenient and usable. We can say that there’s a time for vinyl and a time for Spotify.
What song from the past is in your mind right now? Moreover, what is the meaning that song means to you?
Giada: I’m thinking about Song to the Siren by Tim Buckley. It’s one of my favorite and I think also one of the greatest songs of our times. It’s a passionate cry for help that helps me keep going on every time I feel blue. It’s also a song that inspires me and makes me believe that I can face every trouble of my life. I totally relate to this man in this shipless ocean that hold onto this hope, this inspiration to survive. It’s something I’d had to do often in this last painful year.
Both (Pfizer and BioNTech) and Moderna have conclude Phase 3 Study of the Coronavirus vaccine. With the both vaccines, it takes two shots. How many people do you think will take it and how many will forget to take the second shot?
Giada: In Italy we are taking very seriously all that regards Coronavirus and its vaccine. The national healthcare system takes care of every step and guides people through prevention, quarantine and vaccines. I don’t think that people can forget to take the second shot of vaccine, precisely because we’re all guided through the process. I hope that people will take seriously all the situation and take the vaccine, but I think it will be a long path.
To make things a bit more complex, There is talk that people could either mix the manufactures of the vaccines or in the case of Moderna studies have shown you could take a half doses for the first shot and still be alright for the second vaccine. Do you feel that this is right?
Giada: I am not a doctor, nor I have the competence to understand what it’s right or not in medicine. I only follow medical instructions and trust people that have the competence to talk about it. We are in an experimental phase and it’s already a great success to have a vaccine after a so short time since the discovery of Coronavirus. I do believe that people have the right of speaking about a topic only if they have competencies and studies about it.
How long before the whole world will be vaccinated against the virus. You have to remember there only has to be a 70% for Herd immunity (Herd immunity occurs when a large portion of a community (the herd) becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. As a result, the whole community becomes protected — not just those who are immune.)
Giada: Herd immunity is very difficult to get in short times, it takes a long process for a population. I hope we’re going to defeat this virus with vaccines within a year from now, but there are too many variables that can influence all the situation.
If “Video Killed the Radio Star” do you think that the Covid-19 virus has killed live music? Do you feel the Covid-19 virus going to affect the music business in the future?
Giada: I hope and I think not. The whole music business is going through a great standstill but it will rise again. We are for first in a difficult situation where we don’t know what to do. We had to cancel 35 concerts planned from April to September 2020 and could not set new dates for this fall and winter. We also had to participate the release of our second album, not knowing well when to release it. This has been a great loss for us and a sort of pause for every project we had. I think that Coronavirus will affect live music business for at least a couple of years in the future and it will be very hard to recover for everyone, but I also think that people will reconsider the importance of music and art. I mean, audiences need live music now, all the people miss the great moments that concerts and music festivals bring to our life, so I believe that live music will resuscitate.
What have you been doing with your self-quarantine?
Giada: A lot of music. All of us. We wrote lots of new songs for the new album, we practiced and studied a lot. We did the rehearsals via Zoom. We also tried to help our community by playing in a streaming concert in support of the Italian Red Cross. As we’ve canceled all the concerts, we decided to perform online and asked people to make a donation for the Italian Red Cross as if they’re buying a ticket for our concert. We also performed online in the same way in support of Niguarda Hospital of Milan, encouraging people to donate, this was in collaboration with the Italian National Team of Singers. We tried to make a contribution to our music.
Have you discovered or rediscovered any new hobbies?
Giada: Not many actually. We’ve been working hard on the new album during the whole quarantine, even if every one of us was at his own home we could count on virtual communication. Also, we have all a personal home studio that allows us to work on music pre-production even in distance. We used the time to prepare and perfect the songs in every detail before the studio recordings. Although in fact I started to do embroideries like an old lady with a throw and a tea, but I shouldn’t say that cause it’s not that rock n’ roll.
Most of the world is not having live music. But you are still playing. In fact, you just did a Fest called RoMetal Festival 2020 in October 2020. Tell me about it? How many bands played?
Giada: After march 2020 we’ve done only two concerts. One in July, at Legend Club in Milan, we played a double concert due to audience limitations, one at 9 pm and another one at 11 pm. Legend Club is an incredible music venue in Milan that can boast thousands of concerts with international artists thanks to its owner Fil Puliafito, a real rocker and music lover. The other concert was in Rome at RoMetal Festival and it was in the first days of October. RoMetal is something like 20 years old metal Fest in Rome that saw the participation of many international metal bands year after year. Originally the fest is in September and outdoors. With a great commitment of its planner Marco Fatini, that anyway managed to make the 2020 edition, concentrating on Italian metal bands, postponing the date, and having trouble with all the restrictions. We finally made it in October and it was a blast. The indoor venue was sold out and seven metal bands rocked out Rome. It was very strange to see all people neatly sitting at their tables with their surgical masks on while we’re performing, but it was very beautiful.
95% of people said that they have changed the way they watch television. This includes people who don’t have television and using their computers to do streaming of programs and movies. Which is your favorite streaming channel?
Giada: I personally have all kind of streaming subscriptions, from Netflix to Disney+. I’m a great fan of cinema, but I also have strange time rhythms, I wake up very late and go to sleep in the morning, so I prefer to have the situation under control, being able to decide what and especially when to see what I want. My favorite one at the moment is Prime Video, it has much more movies than series, series bore me.
Many artists are doing nightly concerts over either YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. In October that is going to change at least on Facebook. Facebook is cracking down on livestreamed shows that include recorded music with new terms of service, preventing artists from using the platform for “commercial or non-personal” purposes, unless they have obtained the relevant licenses.
The updated music guidelines state that users “may not use videos on our products [which include Instagram] to create a music listening experience […] This will include [Facebook] Live,” and stipulates that such content should be posted for the enjoyment of friends and family only.
How do you think this will change the landscape of Facebook?
Giada: Facebook has become part of our lives and also an essential part of the interaction between artists and fans. Everyone shares news, new songs, concerts, and every sort of thing also through social media, this is also the goal of Facebook artist’s pages, so I don’t really understand this change that they want to make. If artists won’t be able to play or present new works through Facebook, they’ll leave this platform and their fans will follow soon. It’ll be also difficult to create new or keep fans. In a critical situation like this Facebook should help people and this will only break us down.
How can bands keep their fans if they cannot play live in front of the fans and sell merchandise to them at the show?
Giada: Concerts and merchandise are almost the only two things that generate incomes for bands since some years, bands can’t keep producing music without incomes. Without concerts, it’s more difficult to sell merchandise and you have to invent new ways to stay afloat. I’m afraid that many bands will throw in the towel, this is in fact already happening, mostly for those bands who hadn’t a solid fanbase. Luckily, we’re holding on, we are going to release a new album and a couple of interesting initiatives soon. Sharing and interacting with fans is always the right way to keep them.
What was the Christmas Bundle?
Giada: Christmas bundle was a gift idea we proposed to our fans. It included a signed White Mask album, t-shirt, gym bag, lighter, keychain, and the real white mask for a special price. People liked the idea; we’ve sold a good number of bundles.
Is pay to play still a thing? Now pay to play also means thinks like playlist on the internet and opening slots for a major band on tour.
Giada: Pay to play is still a thing, yes, many bands are still doing it. I think you should first have an authentic project, with something interesting to say in a personal way, then you should find a good agency that allow you to access good stages and also share dates with major bands. Buying a date with a good band won’t make the difference if you don’t have behind a complex work built in years.
What about Holographic concerts in our living room?
Giada: Holographic medias will be the medias of the future, so concerts will follow. I think and I hope that people won’t give up on real concerts and live music.
Your summer concerts. Together Tour was postponed. Do you think it will happen this summer or maybe next summer?
Giada: I really hope to be able to perform this year all the concerts of Together Tour, but I’m a little doubtful. Maybe we’ll be able to do the smaller ones, but I don’t think we’ll can do the big summer Festivals this year. Anyway, and luckily all the dates will eventually remain confirmed also for the 2022.
Governments around the world are hearing the call of thousands of music creators and included protections for the music community in the omnibus bill. In addition to extended and improved unemployment benefits and small business loans for freelance creators, the package includes several bills which the Recording Academy, its members, and the larger music community advocated for. From the Save Our Stages Act, provided a lifeline to performance venues and promoters, to the CASE Act, which creates an avenue for smaller creators to defend their copyrighted works, Congress has ensured that both music creators and those who act behind the scenes to bring music to life are given the support they need during this difficult time.” .”
Is Italy doing anything to help the music clubs?
Giada: More or less yes. I don’t know exactly what they are doing for music clubs, I only see one venue after another closing. They are still planning the helps for artists and members of the music community. SIAE the Italian Society of Authors and Editors woke up right this month and gave artists a contribute that is something like the 70% of only the first six months of earnings of 2019, it’s not appropriate and sounds like a mockery. On the other side, major artists and people are trying to help the music community in many ways, organizing crowdfunding campaigns and donating their own goods. Last month we won a call for bids called #togetherformusic that helped us keep recording our new album, it was organized by Cesvi, an Italian charity association, Elio e le Storie Tese and Trio Medusa, two groups of major artists in Italy. We’re really thankful to them.
In the past if a musician stops doing music, they find a new career. For example, David Lee Roth from Van Halen became a licensed EMT in NY for 6 years, San Spitz (guitarist for Anthrax) became a master watchmaker, Dee Snider (Twister Sister) voice over work for SpongeBob SquarePants. If you can’t do music what would you like to be doing?
Giada: I worked for a couple of years as event planner, I still have a company about it. I’ve made various kind of events, from public parties to exhibitions, and obviously concerts. I’d probably reinvent myself in that way.
What is your happy place?
Giada: I think I can speak for all the members of the band; our happy place is the stage because you can count on it. The incredible feeling that pervades your mind and your body right when you’re there is priceless. And it’s not about public or big stages, it’s about creating a moment when you’re totally free of every trouble of your life. I feel very comfortable on the stage, I don’t have to think about what to say, what to do, how to impress people, I only have to express myself through the music.
We improvise a lot on the stage, right because we only express ourselves on it and every day is different from the other.
Spotify just deleted 750,00 songs, mostly from independent artists. Was your saved?
Giada: I heard of that, I think it’s about buying listeners and plays. Yes, all of our songs are still on Spotify and we had no trouble with it.
Anything you would like to say in closing.
Giada: It’s been a pleasure speaking to you and telling you something about our project. When the pandemic will be over, we’re going to tour in US, we’ll hope to see you at one of our gigs. Stay safe and stay rock, thanks for all.
