Filipo Bonamici is an Italian musician who has a very special and unique style of singing. We are tracking him since 2017 and finally had a chance to have a quick chat on phone, while he was recording some new tracks at the studio in Berlin.
Enjoy!
Thanks for this interview. So you are in Berlin right now, right?
Exactly, i'm living in Berlin since like 7 years and i'm in the studio right now, recording new songs!
Cool! Berlin is really a great city but i think it should be a little bit cold now.
Oh yeah, it's freezing. It's getting very cold, from december to march it's gonna be even colder. But the good thing is now that i'm in the studio, when i look outside it looks cold and it's good to work.
I was there in 2016 for Radiohead concert, at Lollapalooza Berlin.
Yeah, i was there also. It was nice.
You were born in Rome and then moved to Ireland and then Berlin. Can you please tell us about this journey?
I started playing music in Italy, i grew up in Italy. My dad is from Rome, my mother is German. When i was around fourteen i moved to Ireland because i simply asked my parents if i could move to a college. We were joking around and then they said "yeah, yeah, yeah, come on, let's do it" At the end it became reality and i moved to Ireland alone and i spent like 4 years. I learned english and learned a lot about music and musical culture there. After i finished the school i had 2 years off. I was working around Europe then i moved to Berlin in 2012 to start my studies. I studied product design at Art University in Berlin about 2,5-3 years. And there was still music on other side, i always recorded music on my laptop and worked on music. One day i split up with my ex ex-girlfriend and so i had a lot of more free time. So i started to do music more and one day i said "ok, now maybe i should take like half a year, six month of break from the university, to concentrate in the music, my song writing and learn and fail and learn and fail. So thats what i did. In 2015 i started doing music full time, and for 5 years i'm doing this.
We know that Berlin is very live and famous for its night life. What are the pros and cons to be in Berlin as a musician?
I think Berlin has the advantage that there are a lot of possibilities to get inspirations. But they can also be distractions. Because you have so much to do here, the bars are open all night long, there is every possibility in the world. So they can also be confusing. But luckily i never really fell into that party hole. I'm not really a party guy. I only spend my nights in the bar drinking with friends and smoke cigarrettes But i never go to clubs. So i'm very relaxed and its so good for me. So secure place.
So i think you are not into electronic music much i guess.
I'm not really. Well i started listen to it more since i moved here and i really like all kinds of music. But mainly i dont really like dancing.
How did you meet and decide to make music with Felix Anton Remm?
We met in 2015 after i brought out my first very simple demo i recorded with garage band on laptop. I uploaded the song on soundcloud and put it on facebook; to a lot of facebook groups like musicians in Berlin, Berlin musicians etc.. A lot of people started to like the song and putting comments on it. And Felix was one of these guys and we got a friend in common. So he wrote me through my friend and said "hey i heard your songs, do you wanna meet up?" and i was like "yeah man, i'm looking for people to play music, play live especially". So we met up, had a drink and started working together for live music and for some new songs.
And how did you decide to name this project "Fil Bo Riva"?
The name was made up from my first name and surname: Filippo Bonamici to Fil Bo.
And "Riva" came after few years later, i was looking for a third name. Because i was always like very pathetic and nerdy about number three. I always loved the number three and its geometric form also. I wanted to have three words artist name so i was looking for surname and i had a list of 50 names on my phone, i was collecting names like "riva, luna" some surnames sounding like "al pacino" "robert de niro" .So i picked up "riva."
I think you have a very special and unique style of singing. And this makes your music adorable. What are your inspirations?
My biggest musical inspiration is always The Beatles. i grew up with The Beatles, i started to learn writing songs on their kind of song writing skills. i inspired a lot from them, and also the doors, jim morrison. Jim Morrison's kind of poetry lyrics. So there are a lot of 60s music in my soul and in my head.
Your first full-lenght album "Beautiful Sadness" is released early this year. I really think its a masterpiece. How are the reactions you receive?
It was very nice to release the album after we worked a lot on it. It was beautiful to see how people reacted to songs on the live shows around europe. It was very interesting and beautiful to see people singing the songs because they knew the lyrics. Because when they came out, they had chance to learn the lyrics and actually sing along. So its the best thing.
I loved the album cover. What is the story behind it?
The album cover was painted by my girlfriend at that time. Me and her did a lot of work on the album. I had a scetch of the art work with this idea of this kind of women angels crawling up, like flying to the sky and being pushed up by a hand. So then she was a much better painter, had a much better vision of colours. So i started to work with her and she started painting it whole and did like 50 different versions of colour and finally we choose this version.
And its really a good one.
Thank you very much.
After that, you also released a 5 song acoustic EP version of Beautiful Sadness. Do you like to play acoustic on stage? How did this acoustic EP idea come?
Yeah, we started playing around acoustic versions after we recorded the album. We were just jamming on recorded songs because we had some small shows at small clubs so we had to play the songs acoustic and we said ok lets do it. We recorded the songs at felix's home in berlin. it took us three days and than the sound was pretty good for us. So we said lets give them to people.
How did you choose the songs by the way?
It was just random. Just the songs we played acoustic most. By the personal feeling of the songs we liked.
Do you know anything about Istanbul or Turkish music scene?
Not really. During the last years, i am really concentrated on german music, i dont even know a lot of italian music, when i hear italian music i'm like "oh damn, i dont know really anything".
I see that you'll be touring next year in Germany, Switzerland and Austria. Is there any favourite stage or city that you like the play most? Would you like to perform in Istanbul?
its beatiful to play at different cities and countries. What i personally like a lot is to play in italy.in milano, rome, or bologna. because i'm from there. and the feeling when i play there is a little bit stronger or emotional then in germany. we are still playin in front of smaller crowds but its more personal and emotional because italians talk italian and when i sing italian its more directly and close to the heart.
i'd like to play in istanbul also, sometimes i get messages like "please come to istanbul, Turkey." We always like to do it. We have to combine with the tour dates and with a proper sort of budget with the booking agency. I'd love to.
Which bands / musicians do you listen nowadays?
Let me think...Its a very good question. Now at the time of spotify, we have so much offer and possiblities. When i listen to something, i listen to my self-made playlist. Yesterday i was listening to Leonard Cohen. I also like 60s 70s.
What's your plans for the near future?
We are in the studio right now, in Berlin, in Kreuzberg. Recording and writing new songs, new scetches, new ideas. Showing them to my friends around and see what to do with them. New music is being written!
Thank you very much, is there anything that you want to add?
Good questions! Thank you, see you soon!
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