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HELLO! Nice to meet you 3
Sound made when transitioning from a sitting to a standing position. Pronounced:
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P7 • Editorial • KRUMP P26 • Interview • LA MELODIA P38 • Editorial • Back in the days P46 • Interview • FIENO P58 • Editorial • MR Man P66 • Shopping bag
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KRUMP Photography: Attilio Brancaccio • Styling: Marie Claire Liem • Dancers: Sheyda, Nader, Eddie • Make-Up: Milena Prieto
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NADER
Sound and body movement there is something about these two... I KNOW ! It’s unconditional love and i’m part of the family.. you know why ? Cause i can enjoy it anytime, for free and unlimited... till the wheels fall off. If that happens.. am still blessed with my fruitbasket
AND THAT IS FRESH !
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EDDIE
my name is eddy, 20 years old and live in Utrecht and i am born in Angola, and live in Holland for 8 years now. I dance HipHop for 3 years now, and i am always looking for new shapes and doors to open for me. My crew is called Illusionary rockaz.
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SHEYDA
I’m Sheyda Darab and I was born in Isfahan, Iran. I currently live in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. At age 16 I started belly dancing and when I was 18 I got in touch with Hip Hop. I’ m an autodidact who considers every dancer as an individual with an authentic dance personality and statement. The most important thing is bringing out this statement with dance. I also believe that a person’s dance is a reflection of his or her soul.
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La Melodia Interview: Andrea Lanzillotto Photographer: Attilio Brancaccio Styling: Marie Claire Liem Set design: Fieno Make-Up: Kenza
How did you develop your music since the beginning in 2004? Where did you start, and how do you see yourself now? We started La Melodia in 2004. We were in a group together with another MC/producer before that called Imadodattaz,. With this group we were doing shows but we weren’t putting any music out. That’s why we created La Melodia. Our main goal was to put our music out on vinyl. And so we saved our money, found out where to press vinyl and made our first 12” called Dough/ For You. We released this record independent and asked Rush hour to do our distribution. That’s how our music was spread worldwide across the globe for the first time. Ever since we started, we’ve grown a long way. We went from small town artist that are doing it as a hobby, to professional artists that spread and perform their music all over the world. And this music has grown as well. Nowadays we don’t only use samples. We know how to work with instruments now, plus we have a live-band
performing with us. We have definitely been crafting our music and our sounds. And next to that we developed our knowledge about the music business. No label can make a crappy deal with us now, haha.
Well music is our life. We can’t imagine a life witout music. It is what we do on a daily base. We write music, we produce music, we promote music.. It is how we make a living, it’s what gives us inspiration, it’s everything we do and are.
Your last album is called ‘Electronic Love’, what does it mean? A new way to love? Or just a wordplay to attract the audience?
Melodee, you recently took part in a very interesting project – Diversidad – may you tell us something more about it?
Electronic Love is the named after the concept of the album. See all the instruments that are used our ‘electronic’ ones (Synths). Where we normally work a lot of samples and instruments, our challenge was now to only work with electronic sounds. Topicwise, all the songsare about love, in its purest form; love for your man, love for music.. it’s about where we are standing at this moment, love, sexiness, all that good shit.
Diversidad is an international project by the European Union in which La Melodia has been participating for the last 12 months. Together with 19 other artists from all over the continent, we gathered to combine skills and styles, and produce an album. The 10 days we had in the studio resulted in ‘The Experience’.. We had a great time working on this project with lots of talented and like-minded people. The Experience album will be followed up by a tour in May and June this year, and an exhibition, by the way.
How would you describe your relationship? Is music an extension of your life?
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You have worked with several foreign artists. What difference did you find in the approach to their own music.
I.N.T When you start working on a new song, which elements can you not avoid?
Well the artists I work with are mostly hip-hop artists. But within hip-hop you also have different styles ofcourse. Some of these artists like to keep it raw and gangster, other ones are more in to club music, and some 9like us) are down with a soulful approach to hip-hop for instance. Of course you have all these different styles all over the globe, so that’s not different. But it is the way of promoting the music, what makes a difference between these artists. These days within the whole changing music industry, there are so many different ways, of promoting, and doing your business. You have to check and try out which one is specific for you as an artist. It is interesting to see what everybody is doing to promote their music.
Break-beats (original break sounds, no drumkits). Melodee, and I’m not talking about MC Melodee, haha ;). A musical Storyline. See you start somewhere.. it is like a trip. And it’s gotta be warm. With everything I touch, I try to create a warm, pleasing, organic sound.
Which artist or music period has brought the greatest influence to your style? A Tribe Called Quest. The entire discography. The jazz element, the feel good element, just.. the native tongues movement brings a good vibe,that is what we try to do as well. Plus, the soul samples and jazz samples were just genius! This inspired us, to work with as well.
Which artist would you like to work with? Well, we would like to plug some new artist, work with them maybe in the future, for instance Louis Bordeaux, Fata Morgana, Cleo Cléo… You probably haven’t heard of any of these artists, because they are at the beginning of their career, but they are really gifted. They’re really motivate as well and they’re eager and ready to bust some moves!
Would you like to suggest us a new release or upcoming artist? See above (smile).
www.lamelodia.com
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k c Ba he t in ys da
Photography: Attilio Brancaccio Styling: Marie Claire Liem Make-up: Shara Esmaili Model: Leandro, Senna
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interview by Andrea Lanzillotto
What was the first spark that made you understand that “dirty hands” would be your passion and your future? The first spark of my creativity happened when I discovered my love for Carioca markers. They had an almost irresistible attraction, all those colours to see, and that you could even use on white paper. It’s hard to imagine a white paper clean when you are a child , you would just take it and draw around with your imagination and with your hands, because it is clear that before learning how to write a child begins to imagine, and then, naturally relaying all its imagination through the colours on that ‘’white paper’’. I loved those books with drawings to fill because I could imagine them as I wanted, with all the colours and patterns that were in me. Another thing that has enriched my artistic skills are sewing books, with drawings made specifically to be sewn on shirts and sweaters. Because my mother could knit with great dexterity, she had tons of knitting books with images of Duffy Duck and mickey mouse that fascinated me so much, trying to redesign them was absolutely the best thing I could do. I would draw them many times, until I could make them identical to the original. Let’s say it was like preparation and training to learn about the art of drawing, as a little boy. Then again, my uncle is a painter and sculptor, so I think that has influenced me a lot, he was one of the first to take me and put me in front of a brush and a spry-can. I remember how he took me to this space in Perugia (my hometown), on my 11th birthday: he put a can in my hand and said: ‘’well, draw, because you like these writings try it yourself,i want see what you can do.’’ That was the first time I ever held a spray can in my hand, and since then I have never let it go I decided to get my hands dirty, because I realised that in this gray world a bit of colour never hurts, and so that I can externalise all my ideas. I can feel free to feel good. I’ve always drawn and I think I will always do, I just can’t stop. I remember very well when I was in high school: instead of studying, I drew all day. I was not a model student, as I spent most of my time doodling in my books and notebooks. One thing that struck me very much, was an afternoon when my father had entered my room
while I was drawing,he was very angry and tore all my drawings, saying that scribbling on paper was good for nothing. In that situation I realised that was really what I wanted to do for the rest of my life, because I hated people telling me not to do so, it was like telling me not to be myself. Fortunately from then both of my parents were always agreeing on the fact that I am to paint, they’ve even become my most loyal fans Can I say one other thing that marked me of my childhood was the answer to the question’’What do you want to be?’’Many children wanted to be an astronaut,an actress,a doctor, etc. etc.. But I answered with a firm response that I wanted to become a graphic designer, drawing, painting, simply expressing how I really wanted. Now, after a while I realise that my answer was naive, I was only motivated by the desire to create such things that not only belonged to me but that the whole world admired. For this reason, no words, but a sketch on a paper. In your works is evident the strong attention use of color, have you never defined “Perfect” a color? Colour is very important, it’s careful and premeditated use can at times enhance a piece of work. But perhaps I should say that colour is necessary, not because one should feel obliged to use a million colours in the name of freedom, a piece of work is already “coloured” with a touch of black lines and pencil shadowing. Even a white piece of paper, as it’s name “white”, tell us, is a colour and consequently a piece of art. Many painters have demonstrated this, just by considering, for their collections, at least one canvas or piece of paper left clear, as perfect as it is in it’s essential colour and appearance. This is how I see it, there is no such thing as a perfect colour, there might be colours that a painter tends to privilege, but never will he/she say that there is one only color that reaches perfection, as it would be blasphemous to discriminate the imperfection of the rest of the chromatic scale. Finally my answer is that all colours are perfect, with a trivial example: “If you watch the sky and you see a rainbow, you’re looking at perfection, the arch of chromatic scales and gradations of all the colours of the solar spectrum, good; say that there were only one flawless colour, could you
imagine a one-coloured rainbow? You express yourself with various art stylesgraffiti, illustrations, graphics ... - which of these feel and what do you consider your most essential to your personal and professional life? I started on a piece of paper and continued on canvas, then went on to a wall with a spray can, and finally used my hands to work on the computer graphics. Honestly the form of artistic expression which I feel closer to is Illustration. I love the craftwork, the touching in it, and as I first said, I love to get my hands dirty I love to take a white canvas, rub it down, prepare it and start to trace the first lines, then go on until the last drop of colour, colour which is material, tangible, and I get very emotional, perhaps too much, it makes me child again. How I cure my colours and clean up my brushes are extensions of my hand and imagination which I cannot live without In my personal life I enjoy to cultivate practice and appreciation of graffiti art, because first of all, it’s a weird way of externalising your art, imagining pressurised color that fires out of a metal can is fun, and then because you’re outside doing it, and with other people, so it helps to socialise with people that all have the same passion as you, in my case my crew, all of my childhood friends. I have to say that grabbing a graphic pen to work on the computer feels impersonal as a form of art All you do is touch a plastic board with a fake pen and everything magically appears on a a screen, it’s crazy! It’s a peculiar sensation, surely not my first choice in my free time, but I can safely say that professionally it gives great results. At the end of the day they say todays painters have to visit the image of a graphic designer, even if to me, it has always been half true.
Is there a place on earth where you would like to eventually make your artwork?
I thought carefully before answering to this question, and honestly there are two places where I would really like to work. The first one would have to be, although I don’t know where geographically speaking, a huge wall in a museum, as for example the great “blu” did at the
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Tate modern in London, that would be one of my biggest dreams, to get ot express my self in masthodontic dimensions, where people from all over the world would get to see and admire my art because of it’s great size and majesty Then I would finally be able to say I have reached one of my goals. The other place where I would like to paint my art is Hawaii, under a palm tree, in the shade, where no one can see, and then keep it just for me, selfishly I guess these two answers kind of demonstrate a double personality, one in which I want to express my personality to the world, and the other which instead turns against me, to remain closed and solitary within me.
Do you find any inspiration in other art disciplines?
I find inspiration in all that surrounds me, I know it’s a corny and overused answer, but I do observe a lot, even other types of art, for example photography: I find the photographer fascinating, always in search of capturing with it’s lens a pose or an expression to make last eternally Even I try to obtain the same thing, just with different techniques but the final goal is almost the same, Also
video is a strange form of art, strange and beautiful, from motion graphics to the old cinema you will find forms of expression, so pure forms of art which intertwine with minds and lifes of different people to create something unique,, a fusion between reality and fiction, video with computer graphics, always creating something incredible. Then there is Dancing, in any form, even seeing someone listening to music while walking on the street bouncing here and there, I love that,,,,, trying to imagine what he/she is thinking in that moment and trying to draw it in that instant is what I love doing This becomes interesting as it looks at the aspect of motion and it’s forms that moving or dancing people can achieve, the human body is the most dynamic “object” in the world, those shapes changing in the instant trace infinite lines in the air, beautiful. I shouldn’t forget music, especially fascinating as one of the oldest forms of art. The facts that you cannot see it, only hear it reminds me that there are other 4 senses with which you can “observe” art, and it is incredible to use our body at 360 degrees, it allows us to canalise our ideas, and to get closer to others ideas. Every passion is a form of art and has to be seen in it’s fulness, and look-
ing at someone doing what she or he likes to do, is an infinite source of inspiration, an incredible stimulus to create, There, this is what inspires me the most.
You are really young, how your friends live your art side , do you can share with them the deeper aspects of it? All
the people my age I know all have easy going lives and are very interested in my work, let’s say they’re my supporters and my most ruthless critics Thanks to their opinions I feel like a grow more and more each day, I stand for their taste, and many can deeply appreciate my art because they them selves are taggers, graffiti artists or painters, so I trust them and know that they understand why and how I do what I do. Naturally not everyone shares the deeper aspects of what I do, the difference has to be drawn between who knows what they’re talking about and who doesn’t For who is a stranger to this kind of thing will give only subjective judgements, which is still helpful and pleasing even if it’s not on my same trail of thought. Have you ever wanted to be another artist?
Honestly it depends on the period, in my opinion I’m a different artist each month, the ones that I’ve wanted to be, basically here’s why: I’m continuously working on enlarging my horizons, when it comes to thought technique and vision, so each time I change I get morbidly close to a different painter or artist, classic, modern and contemporary, then by “dissecting” him/her study all the skills, the techniques, the defects he/she had or may have. This gives me a much better understanding on the different approaches and helps me to then go on and fuse all of it with my knowledges. Let’s say that I’m trying to get to a higher step. Through all the artists I’ve had the chance to experience, the one that has fascinated me the most is with no doubt Dali’, he was the craziest one of them all, the one that has always questioned the basis of modern art with completely shocking techniques and an unconventional vision. I would definitely chose to be reborn Dali, even a little crazier.
There are emotions that you don’t express by painting?
Unfortunately not, it’s almost like a lie detector, what I feel I draw, it’s not premeditated or anything, my hand just goes on and scribbles on everything, I can’t help it So my answer is no, I can’t actually express all my feelings and emotions in painting, if anything I hide them, but they’re there, even in the smallest detail that no one will ever be able to interpret, or maybe in the bigger background that everyone can see From happiness to angst, from love to suffering, all of it is part of the bigger plan, the frame of my being an artist, and this is what makes a piece of work a piece of art, an expression, and not just a colour splashed onto a canvas.
So there, a plane with a big rainbow in the background, and the colours and hopes of someone I would paint these two on an old wooden board, because it makes me think that there is nothing as beautiful as nature and I wouldn’t harm it, but take care of it and use it how I’m meant to do, in order to reach the so called “peace of the senses”.
How would you rapresent the future by a drawing? I would draw my future, as I see it now, in the form of a plane, I see my self travelling, which I’m already trying to do as much as possible to get to know people, learn from then and gain more experiences with life and work. I think that in the end we only have one life, and behind it we all have a huge rainbow that symbolises our colours and hopes.
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MR MAN
Photography: Attilio Brancaccio Styling: Woody Model: Christiano
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