Senatore Cirenga presents Semantica, a hymn to art in all its facets
Di Lulù
Data di pubblicazione 19/03/2021
After 3 years and several singles we're back to interview Senatore Cirenga who has just released his debut album: Semantica.
Hi Jacopo, long time no see, how are you? In the middle of a worldwide pandemic you managed to finish your album. How was it?
Let's just say it was...peculiar. I didn't expect this to be the situation in which I would close an album I had been working on for 3 years. Maybe the world thought that in this bad, bad year there was something to save. Better late than never, right?
12 tracks, 7 unreleased and 5 we already know. Is there anything different we can find in these unreleased tracks that we haven't already heard/felt in your previous singles?
Well, yes, there really is everything. Each song has had a different gestation, has a radically different meaning and was born at a different time from all the others.
There's the song where I wonder what it means to be an artist, the one where I and the listeners immerse ourselves in one of Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities, the classic song where we wonder about the meaning of living... In short, there's something for everyone, so I'm sure the 7 unreleased tracks will be equally interesting.
Semantica (Semantics) is a peculiar term and I was struck by the fact that you chose it as the title of your debut album. Literally, the term extends to the study of the meaning of words. Does the same concept apply to the tracks on the album? What made you choose this title?
For me there could be no better name for my debut album than Semantica. The point I wanted to make was: it is the first record with which I introduce myself to people, and it is necessary that with it I make clear the conceptual boundaries within which my artistic production moves. It is a semantics in a liquid sense: through my words, carefully chosen one by one, and their meaning, I can delimit what my artistic horizons are.
You go from quoting Italo Calvino, Lucio Fontana to the pop star, American emblem, Britney Spears. Is there a thread that links these characters?
I'd say the one thread that ties them all together is that, in one way or another, they're all part of my culture. And yes, if any readers were wondering: Britney Spears is culture, pop culture. It's always important to me to mix things from different scenarios. What's the point of being an artist if you can't swallow everything that exist in the world, mix it inside you and spit it out again, filtering it with your own sensibility and inventiveness? These three names will not be the last that I will bring up.
The classic indie singer-songwriter sound and language I don't find it, in fact it seems to me that you've gone in the opposite direction. Don't get me wrong, I don't mean to say that you are a pre-packaged product of the big labels, rather you are in the middle, between classic and experimental. Where in the spectrum of Italian music (and not) would you fit in?
I really enjoy straddling the line between dance/electropop and songwriting. The lyrics are deliberately sophisticated, but the music is deliberately electronic. This is a choice that is definitely not very pandering towards the public, because very often - indeed, almost never - the users of these two musical genres do not coincide. What can I say, I don't like to win easy. If there was a middle ground between Paola e Chiara and Franco Battiato, I would like to be placed exactly there.
Particular work on the album cover. From the color, to the pose that almost looks like an oath. What is behind this idea?
We had a lot of fun making it, as with all the covers of the singles. Miraloop's graphic designer, Niccolò Sacco - whom I would like to thank - understands the symbolism behind the cover proposals I make and always manages to put into practice exactly the concept I want to express.
As far as the meaning, yes, it is indeed an oath, as is done with the Bible in American courts. I liked the idea of taking the solemn pledge to swear on a book of semantics, partly as a joke and partly as a reminder to always stay true to the idea I have of my music. The fact that in the cover I become the same color as the book makes the idea of the interpenetration between the artist and his art even better.
I'll let you go with the last question. What is your favorite track on the album and why? I confess that Erasmo particularly struck me, I felt it a bit mine, so congratulations!
This question is the perfect way to get a songwriter to hate you!
All jokes aside: there are definitely more important songs, and songs that are less important, but that happens on any self-respecting album, so I don't worry about it. Let's say it really depends on the point of view: if we're talking about the lyrics I would definitely say Interlunio, if we're talking about the music I would say Il Banco Vince, if we're talking about the emotional impact I would say Camminare. And we could go on like this for every possible point of view taken into consideration!
As for Erasmo, thank you very much: it is undoubtedly a tough piece, among other things one of the least "happy", so in doubt I send you a hug!
At this point we just have to wish Senatore Cirenga good luck!
Lulù
