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Interview with “The Straniero”
The celebrated one man band of the piazza
… I was walking along the streets of Vieste (Italy) with many
thoughts for my upcoming interview with “Miss Nice Girl”,
one of the many personalities of the summer.
…that evening I was supposed to interview a certain “The
Straniero”, one of the best one man bands I’ve ever seen…one
man bands, for those who don’t know, are artist capable of substituting
an entire orchestra by themselves…
ART: Well…a question I often ask…how did you get started
in your activity as a one man band?
STRANIERO: It’s
difficult to say exactly…I started slowly, I was already playing
on the street in Chicago as a kind of after work hobby…but it’s
12 years now that I do it full-time…one day I said,”@#$%^!,
I can live just by doing this!”…and in no time, I was a professional…
ART: The weapons (instruments)
that you carry around are your own inventions?
STRANIERO: …No, if you mean to say that I invented this type
of instrument…but I did design and build this one…at home I
have six different “one man bands”…the one that I have
with me tonight is my newest and most lightweight instrument, but it’s
not exactly finished yet…I’m perfecting it to my needs and my
ideal of the perfect “one man band” as I believe that everybody
who is into this kind of work does…it’s not like you can go
to the store and pick one of these up, it wouldn’t make sense…it
has to be built for your body...
ART: Do you know another
celebrated one man band, Edoardo Bennato?…
STRANIERO: No…but, you know there’s a lot of one man
bands in Italy…in fact, I just came from a festival of only one man
bands…there were at least ten of them…
ART:Do you only do covers,
or do you have some of your own pieces too?
STRANIERO: With this instrument I only do covers…I used to
be with a group that did only their own material, but after the breakup
I haven’t written anything…sometimes I translate songs from
English into Italian…
ART: In your opinion
what’s the advantage of playing on the street instead of more traditional
venues?
STRANIERO: …Well…it’s got it’s positive sides
and it’s negative sides…the street has always been my preferred
place to do shows…when I play on the street, it’s all mine:
if it goes bad, I just close shop but, if it goes well I know that I took
a street corner where nothing was happening and gave people something
that they’ll remember for a long time to come…as for other venues,
bars don’t pay, and there’s always problems with the copyright
industry…on top of it all though, if you want to play clubs you’ve
got to play really crappy music…
ART:In your opinion
what’s the street artists role in society?…what I mean is…just
having fun or, seeing as you play mostly in piazza, to be also a little
politically involved sometimes?
STRANIERO: Yah, sometimes, but not always……I
play in a lot of manifestations…I’ve played in hospitals, for
animals, for street musicians rights. I’m even supposed to play at
the prison in Rome some time soon…
…one thing that I always try to show the public is that with a little
creativity you can do an awful lot!…I like to show kids that they
don’t have to get a 9 to 5 job to get along in life…
…anyway, to respond to your question, apart from politics, I have
a sense of being part of an antique tradition: street musician is an ancient
calling…and when things go bad, thinking about this makes me feel
better…
ART:…Artists who
have been an influence on you in particular?
STRANIERO: …the first one man band I ever saw was when my
grandmother took me to a county fair in Michigan, one of those places
where they give out a prize for the nicest chickens or the prettiest cow…and
there was this guy who played the slide guitar with his feet, another
in his hands, a concertina between his knees, kazoo, cymbals…
…but my greatest source of inspiration was a bandleader from the
40’s and 50’s named Spike
Jones...
…in his shows there were dwarves and giants, real guns, pianists
standing on their heads…there was even this bit where the three sax
players would keep blowing their sax while switching their hands to both
of the other two saxes…
ART: Have you ever had
any problems with the authorities in your years and years of experience
on the street?
STRANIERO: Problems? I’ve had my share…
…normally in tourist towns like this nobody bothers me, but in big
cities it’s much more difficult to get by without problems…only
Naples has ever been a perfect place for me…
ART:: …It’s
difficult to coordinate all these instruments together at the same time?
STRANIERO: …It’s easy…if you build it right, all
you have do is learn to dance…the first time I put the instrument
on I said, ”Damn, this thing plays all by itself!”