HomeCooking Share

HomeCookingShare: To begin, who are you?

Granato: We are Granato, a band with an EP, "Corrente", and two single released, "Europe" and "Ultra". Our new tracks are ready to be released, starting from November. Our names are Francesco Bianco (voice, guitar and electronics) and Alessandro Cicala (electric guitar and electronics). "Europe" and "Ultra" are written and produced with Dario Giuffrida, who played drums and mixed and mastered the tracks.

HCS: How would you define your music?

Granato: Our music is a mash of rock and electronics. We can call it Electrowave or electrorock. But we don’t like to classify our stile into a specific genre of music: we explore music, listening to our soul. Every new song is an experiment and we don’t know, because we are not able to preview, what will be the result of our work. At the same time, we pay much attention on understandability of our music. Our aim is an equality between our satisfaction as artists and a strong, communicative and expressive connection with listeners.

HCS: What made you decide one day to embark on this musical adventure?

Granato: Granato come from various past experiences. Me and Alessandro, years ago, made music with only two classical guitar; then we used a computer and an electric guitar too. Now we want to play with a larger musical possibility, by including the voice and use a more understandable form and concept.

HCS: Your influences?

Granato: We love many different styles and music genre. We use to refer to musical Italian context of the 90's, to artist like Bluvertigo, CSI (before CCCP), Marlene Kuntz, Subsonica, Almamegretta; but we like as well international artist as Radiohead, Kraftwerk. Other influences can be identified in Franco Battiato and Baustelle.

HCS: If you had to leave on a desert island with 3 discs: which ones?

Francesco: "The paper at the gate" of down by Pink Floyd, "Affinità e divergenze" by CCCP, "Trans Europe Express" by Kratwerk.

Alessandro: "La voce del padrone" by Franco Battiato, "In Rainbows" by Radiohead, "Turrican II OST" by Chris Hulsbeck.

HCS: The perfect track to cook?

Francesco: Depend on what you are cooking: for Italian food, a tradition song of Italian music; joking aside, every track by Mouse on Mars.

Alessandro: I think something of Floex inside his the album "Zorya".

HCS: Small technical point: with what material do you work?

Granato: At first, we mainly use guitar to compose the music. Then we switch on the computer and the synthesizers and start to write lyrics and melody.

HCS: Not easy to break into the musical jungle, even with talent ... what do you think about it?

Granato: It’s a very difficult field of work and the musical industry have ever less assets for the non conventional music. Moreover, to produce arts, money are needed. It is very typical, nowadays, that consumerism takes control over artistic aspects. But you can't succeed if you lack of a strong message and style. So, money and personality are both necessary.

HCS: And finally, if you have something to add, here we go!

Granato: n this moment music, as many other human activity, lies in a very difficult situation. The end of a world as that of the physical support of music, as LP or CD, changed the way of making and conceiving music. The financial crisis brought to a strong decreasing of assets for music. Coronavirus pandemic also worsen the situation: live concerts are limited and workers in the show-biz sector are facing a lot of difficulties. We all are living in a changing world, demanding a transformation of our “normal” way of life. Arts and music have to find new way to express the current world, moving from the need of a new humanistic foundation, by seeking a new “social mandate”.