interview with Paride Pignotti

Have any of you played in other bands? Yes, we play a lot of jazz music often we love to play this improvised music with new people in order to have different emotions and sensations from each musicians.

How is it that you started playing music? I started thanks to my Father that play a bit the guitar too. When I was 4 I was used to sing songs I heard in my house and play randomly the guitar without knowing nothing about music. In my family my sister plays the piano so I had the chance to be soon in contact with the music world.

What are your names? / Who plays what? My name is Paride Pignotti and my quartet is composed by wonderful musicians that are Alessandro Marzi on drums, Alberto Fidone on double bass and SeBy Burgio on piano. 

Have you had other previous members? No, i’m very lucky because I love a lot my members as person and musicians and they are very professional and on time :P !!

Did you make music even when you were young? Yes Sure. I started studying seriously guitar at the age of 10 in a small school of my town. Since 4 or 5 year I’m focusing much more on my original compositions and I’m studying less music of other musicians, that I still listen to.

Where are you from? I’m from Grottammare a small town near the see in the centre of Italy in which the 43°parallel pass by. 

What year did the band form? The band was formed almost 2 years ago.

What's your style of genre? We Play a lot Jazz music but we love playing a lot every music that we like as Bossa Nova, Soul and many other.

What inspires you? I love the sea. I was born in a place where I can see the sea every moment and I take a lot of inspiration just looking at it. In these years I’m living in Rome and I miss a lot the sea.

How often and where do you reherse? We are lucky because the Pianist as a professional studio and we can rehearse there.  We try to rehearse once a week, but sometimes there are periods in which we are very busy…

How have you developed since you started with the music? I started playing Rock and Pop when I was very young. After I while I started studying classical and jazz music. At 16 I studied at Conservatory Jazz Guitar and I Did my bachelor in Guitar Jazz with honors. Immediately I moved to Rome to finish my study at “Conservatorio Santa Cecilia” and there I did the master in Jazz. Now I’m composing and trying to play a lot in the clubs and in the festivals of Italy and in Europe. 

Do you have other interests of work outside the band? Yes I’m working in a Solo Guitar Project. I would like to record an album in guitar solo composed entirely by my compositions and which is inspired by great musicians and composers such as Andres Segovia, Ralph Towner, Egberto Gismonti, Hermeto Pascoal, Nelson Veras and many others. In this album the sound will be mainly acoustic and many of the songs of the album will have clear references to the music and life experiences I had in Africa.

Are you looking for a booking agency, and what are your thoughts around that? Yes why not!! Sometimes it’s very difficult doing the “booking” stuff by yourself. I would like to find a booking agency especially for Europe and the rest of the world. In Italy I learned a bit doing the “booking Stuff” by myself. Hope that this interview can helps me :)  

Are you looking for a label, and what are your thoughts around that? It depends. I’m could looking a new label for my project in Guitar Solo, but it’s very difficult to understand the role of the labels in this periods, in which service like “tunecore”, Spotify and many other are giving the opportunity to be in the musical business without a label. The label should helps you to grow in 2 different ways: Musically and improving your “image as Musician”. So probably I will have a new label only if there is a true convenience for the artist and not for just the label itself. 

What made you decide to make this music? I always loved the improvisation music, and I think jazz is one of the best music to learn improvisation. But I love a lot many different kinds of music as classical music, Brazilian music, Soul and many others.

What are your songs about? Every songs try to say somethings I really lived, like love stories or difficult situations I had during my life. Every track has is own story and the position of them in my album is not casual.

Who does the composing and writes the lyrics? My songs are instrumental songs and in my new album called “43° Parallelo” I wrote all the songs. 

Do you compose in a certain inviroment? I’m trying to compose everywhere and every time I feel the necessity, I think that in this way the songs are more spontaneous.

Have you done any covers live? Yes we did . In jazz music we are accustomed to play “Standards jazz” that are a “sort of covers” of the American’s songs of film of 1930, 1940 etc.

What are the least and most people to attend one of your gigs? It depends where we are playing. If we are playing in a small jazz club we play for 200 people but somethimes we play in jazz festivals and we have the chance to play in front of much more people :) 

What ages are most of your concert attendants? Probably the most has 30 or 40 years old, I think. It depends a lot where and what we are playing. usually in jazz club there are older people than Bar and Restaurants. 

Do you always play the same songs live, or do you vary? We love playing a lot of new songs and standards jazz every time, but in this last period we are focusing on the new Album “43° Parallelo”

Do you have a regular place you play live often? Yes there are 2 or 3 Jazz club in Rome where I play very often. 

What was your first gig like? I remember was a duo with a singer and we was playing music as Queen, Stevie Wonder and Stings in a place near the sea. I love play in duo still now. 

What was your latest gig? Tonight I just finished playing in a place in the centre of Rome, with a trio project that play a lot of Bossa Nova and Soul music with a singer and a percussionist.

Have you had to cancel a gig? Yes unfortunately sometimes it happens but if you have done the best to be a honest person no one will be angry with you.

Where do you plan to gig the comming year? I’m planning to play in some jazz festivals in Italy especially in the summer period. I'm trying to plan a tour in some jazz European Festivals and clubs.

Where can people buy your merchandise? My new album is available on iTunes, Amazon and Spotify. 

What do you think about people downloading music instead of buying records now a days? The music business is changing a lot in this last years. I don’t know how much it will change…I hope that people will understand the importance of buying a records instead of downloading….but the progress can not to be stopped, so I hope that the new streaming service protect much more the artist and not the business itself. People have to understand that the artist spend a lot of time and energy doing a record so, if you like the album and the music, it's better help the artist buying the album than dowloading it.

How do you think the music industry have changed because of this? I think the music industry have changed a lot, sometimes some majors focus more on having more visualizations on Social media than the quality of the products, but I think that there are still persons in the major that love the music and less the business and helps musicians to do a good musical product.  

What do you think of my work? I think it’s beautiful, you always have to be curios to discover and listen new music. You can see the reason why every musician needs to make music and all the differences between us. you can understand many things of the world from music.

How do you think and know that this interview will help you in the music business? I hope that this interview could connect my music with a lot of people. Readers will read this interview and they will be interested in my works and after listened my music will decide to buy the album if they liked . 

Is it easier to find inspiration from older bands, or bands that are more active today? I think it’s very important listen Both of them. The society where we are living now are very individualistic, and it’s the same in the music world. In the past musicians of bands as “Queen, Beatles and Rolling Stones” grew up together building a own sound that is personal and recognizable. we should take inspiration to them because Today we lost this aspect of the band and we lost the concept of the Idols too. We love something just for a month, for a week or for a day we don’t go deep in the things in life. This is a general problem of our society that influences the music too. It’s important to be up to date on new musical bands to understand society and what kind of music we would like to do. 

What have been your biggest obstacles? Believe in my self and be focused on doing my music. A lot of time as musicians we think to not to be able to do somethings. We should learn to be patience and to have the energy to study and improve ourself day by day…

What advice would you give other bands or artists? My advice is to write your music, is the best way to enjoy the music world and discover a lot of yourself. 

How do you get psyched for a gig? I think we are never really ready for nothing so we are ready for everythings :D. Of course it’s important to study well the songs you have to play in the concert in order to be more relaxed. 

Do you have any new material? I’m preparing a new solo Guitar Cd, i finished all the songs but now I have to record them and find a label.  

How can people reach?

They can follow me on Social like Facebook or Instagram. I’m building my new WebSite paridepignotti.com but is not still ready, maybe in one or two week ;)

What are your plans for the future? I hope to continue to travel a lot with music and continue to play in festival and clubs. Last year I went in africa for 1 month to play at Dakar (Senegal) and it was one of the best life experience I did. I hope to continue to travel and know new colture.

Do you have something to add? I would like to thank you for the interview and wish you a happy new year!!

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