Interview with Radiana Basso
This story starts in March 2024 as I was listening to the bands that would be playing at the upcoming Kombinat Festival when I discovered the album, Coming Fast, by Dizzy Davis. I was drawn into the album straight away with the single, Dresscode (video embedded below), and Solleone being the standout tracks for me.
Seeing the Leopardo/Dizzy Davis set in the Waxy Bar, especially the crowd’s reaction to Solleone, was definitely one of the highlights of the festival. Having started to learn Italian at the time, I sent a message to Radiana Basso for the lyrics to Solleone which is the only song on the eight-song album sung in Italian, to which she replied and sent them across.
A few months went by and I started to notice that videos of some of my favourite bands had also been directed by her - Fomies, Leopardo, Penkowski - and I saw that she was a part of the association Spazio L’ove. Coincidentally, I had been following the Italian band, Indianizer, whose albums Zenith and Radio Totem are magnificent, and discovered they performed there.
I got in contact with Radiana and we organised a video interview which helped me a lot to understand her - from the difficult beginnings to her music career, how the Dizzy Davis project took off, her involvement in the creative scene in Lugano, and, what she has planned for the future with her latest project, Concetta Spaziale. We discussed many topics and projects, and unfortunately, I am not able to include them all - either due to the length of the article, or it never being finished. However, there will be a follow-up article in which Radiana talks about her five favourite music videos which she directed.
”A sweet side with a more fucked-up side” - where classical meets punk music
For Reverb Dream, I have always been interested in the backgrounds and beginnings of artists. What’s unique with Radiana is that already at a young age there is a cultural clash musically within: two complete different worlds - the ‘cold’ classical music education with its perfectionism and the ‘more human’ punk scene in which seems to be where she feels more comfortable.
“I studied classical piano, classical dance but I always had the punk spirit. My best friends when I was in high school were punks, my brother was a punk, I was listening to a lot of post-punk, new wave, a lot of shoegaze. Somehow, even though I come from a classical background, I felt really close to punks. It was funny to put this sweet side together with the more fucked-up side.
I need music because I’ve been really sensitive to everything since I was a child. I always felt that I didn’t have the space to put out my emotions because I was feeling too many emotions. So music is helping me to help transform deep emotions into a mantra and to understand my feelings and let them go. Singing is a way to experience the emotion and let it go also.
When I was playing classical piano, I always felt a bit weird about this perfectionism. I remember once when I was 14 and doing a concert, I had to play a Schubert song - not difficult but not easy - and I made a mistake during the performance and I left the stage. It was a traumatic experience. I decided after this show, I would never perform on stage again because I made a mistake, so I’m not meant to be on stage”.
“We were able to work six months and spend the rest of the year doing art” - Spazio Morel
Having moved to Lugano from her native Italy to study cinematography, Radiana found herself living at Spazio Morel. It was here where she began to be involved with the music and art scene in the city. As well as providing accommodation for artists and musicians, the location was also used as the set of some of the music videos which she directed as well as a concert venue. According to Radiana, she filmed and saved many videos of concerts which took place there. This also allowed her to create a network with other musicians in the Swiss rock scene which led to future collaborations and long-term friendships.
“After my spiritual journey then I ended up in a community of punk people. Noah Sartori (of Leopardo) started Spazio Morel with six friends from the Associazione Drunken Sailors. Some of these guys were organising concerts in C8, another secret spot in Lugano in a house, then they started this project in Lugano. At the beginning there were 7-8 people and then it became 17-20 people.
It was an ex-Fiat garage, above it there was an old house with three floors - one floor with five rooms with one big room and a kitchen, another floor which is similar and the last floor, under the roof. We had many rooms for the art and the guests. One floor was dedicated to artists. We also had a rehearsal room - the Dizzy Davis album we recorded there as well as the last Leopardo album
I was one of the first women there then many other women came and, in addition to sharing work, we had many life experiences and love stories during these years. Artists - painters, musicians, curators - came and never left - it was very magnetic.
I spent four years there also with Giuliano (Iannarella) from Autobahns, Romain (Savary) from Leopardo - then Covid arrived, so we we partying everyday, doing karaoke together. At a certain point, even if the place is still there, we decided that in the end we needed to go. It was not a squat, it was super cheap to live there and we were able to work six months and spend the rest of the year doing art.”.
“I never expected to make an album” - Coming Fast
Coupled with the Schubert incident, another tragic incident in Radiana’s life leads to needing music as a way of releasing emotions in difficult times. Songs reflect different moments and periods in people’s lives and capture the feelings of that time. Knowing the story behind the album now makes it even more inspiring - especially with the support and help of her close friends helping her not only to overcome her fears on stage and to accept mistakes but to believe in her songs and wanting her to record them.
“My first song, I wrote it when my boyfriend of the time was in Paris during the terrorist attacks in 2015. The day before he called me, he was hiding in a restaurant in the city and telling me ‘don’t worry, I’m safe’ but I was very afraid that he was going to die. It was my first serious relationship. I went to my parents’ house, I took my father’s guitar and wrote Coming Fast. It seems to be a sexual song because I say in your arms that I’m coming fast but it’s a song against war. I’m saying I’m coming fast to you and waiting for you because I want to protect you with my love from the war outside. It was more like a sweet prayer. It’s the song that reminds me why I started making music. I believe it has a power in a mystical way and the power to transform feelings and to show your feelings to another person. In the end, he came back safely. Writing music started a necessity of praying, so it’s very spiritual. I remember this feeling of being scared but I don’t know why I wrote this super sweet song.
I kept the song secret and made other songs. A friend put one of my songs on the internet just for fun and then Noah and Giuliano, when they found these recordings on the internet, and when we were travelling around, they put these songs on the car stereo and they were laughing. They said ‘You are a good singer, you look like Mazzy Star, we should make you perform on stage’. I said ‘I don’t want to, this is my secret'. One day for a birthday, they organised a concert in Vevey, at the Rocking Chair, I think and then in Morel. And they invited me to learn Leopardo songs and my Dizzy Davis stuff. We did it, and after my second concert, I cried the whole night and said I would never do it again. I was singing in front of people I knew and normally I was on the other side of the stage. I was really whispering in the microphone, you couldn’t hear anything, I was so shy.
You need experience, that is what I learned afterwards. I was not ready, I was always shy, I was never expecting to play on stage. After some months, Romain asked me to play keyboards and sing in Leopardo. We went on tour for months in Europe, that’s when I understood that I was ready and wanted to make music.
During the tour, I learned a lot. Leopardo gave me the freedom to make mistakes and learn from them. Now in my music, I am trying to integrate the mistakes. Brian Eno made these cards with suggestions when you’re stuck in the creative process and one of the cards is ‘Honour thy error as a hidden intention’ and I loved this sentence. When I play I don’t care about mistakes, but of course I want to be good. I accept that when I’m looking for something, or when I’m composing or improvising, I have to pass through the error.
I didn’t want to push the Dizzy Davis record out but then this label of friends, Chrüsimüsi Records, decided it’s time, after three years, to release the album. I composed the songs over several years and during different moments in my life. I didn’t expect to do an album, it’s more Romain and the members of Leopardo that pushed me to do it.
It’s strange how things become serious or real - I never expected to make an album or be a musician”.
(photo copyrights: first two photos - Alan Koprivec, the third photo - Camille Beaud)
“It’s more who I am today” - Concetta Spaziale
The Dizzy Davis project had come to an end and Radiana explained the change in name and the change in direction. The last song written for the album, Solleone, was also the first song that she wrote in her native Italian. At live shows, despite being the only song not sung in English, the lyrics transcended the language barrier and united the audience to sing along to the song during the performance. Being able to express herself better, incorporate more profound emotions and playing with words, Radiana decided to only write songs in Italian. By chance (or by fate), the song opened up doors to a new, exciting project which would allow her to be more independent musically.
“I changed the name to Concetta Spaziale - it is a kind of game, there is a painter, an artist, Lucio Fontana, he was cutting canvases and the name of these artworks was Concetto Spaziale, spatial concept. I took the name, Concetto, and used the feminine version, Concetta, which in southern Italy is a common female first name. I imagine this kind of strange woman who moved to the north of Italy and started making psychedelic music. I imagine going to my little Apulian village looking for aliens but I only meet old people.
With the previous project, Leopardo were helping me with the instruments, this time I’m mainly recording all the demos by myself and I learnt how to use Ableton, so I’m really producing myself. Only later on will I go into the studio with other musicians to finalise the songs but they will already have a solid foundation. This is the next level because I have to think of all the elements of the song, it’s very interesting to me because it’s another level of being free from people helping me.
A group of editors called me because they found Solleone on Spotify - I don’t know how - and they gave me a contract to press the records and help me with the distribution. I have two concerts in September in Lugano, however I have never played with these three musicians. I chose the musicians and I know how they play but I have never played with them and they have never played together either.
Dizzy Davis was a way to find confidence in myself, creating a character that speaks in another language. I was trying to create my personal Lou Reed. Concetta Spaziale more post-rock, experimental and verbally explicit, somehow psychedelic, it’s more who I am today”.
(photo copyrights - first two photos - Vanni Moretti, third and fourth photos - Eleonora Tedesco)
“It’s something I never expected after Morel - to build a new community with new people” - Spazio L’ove
During the discussion, we talked often about the situation in Lugano with regards to art and music in the city. Although it has improved in recent times, my understanding is that there is still a struggle for such places as Spazio Morel and today, Spazio L’ove, to be a part of the society, especially with other independent associations closing down. I find it interesting that Radiana is involved in another community of musicians, artists and filmmakers, even though she did not know any of them from her time at Spazio Morel, and to be part of a creative group of people willing to help each other and to keep the scene alive in Lugano.
“Spazio L’ove is a big space with twelve workstations that we are renting. There is a really big room where we organise sonic performances, theatre performances or social events. It started three years ago, there were four or five of us and after growing slowly, there is a community here.
We had a lot of amazing events of various kinds and after the summer, we aim to organise events - we work on multiple fronts trying to integrate performances that include multiple disciplines: music, art, performance, film.
It’s difficult in Lugano, all the independent spaces have been closed. There is however a huge underground scene here - we need art. Here is more of a working place where we meet each other and we organise things. It’s really open, so there is not a straight-forward concept. People come here with ideas, social event ideas, organise social events, associations meeting, poetry events - we are very open to external people, we like the idea that this place can accommodate everyone.
Many people that are in the Association are producing videos or music, pictures, graphics and art in general, so we are helping each other. All the people here I met them after Spazio Morel, it’s something I never expected after Morel - to build a new community with new people”.
(photo copyright - Patrick Principe)
“We need to help each other as women to develop further”
One quality that stood out during our discussion is Radiana’s willingness to give back to those around her - especially to women. Radiana hopes that her story can also inspire other female musicians who may not have the confidence or willingness, despite the talent, to go further with their ambitions. She speaks enthusiastically about female artists and bands on stage and how her music has had an impact on some fans’ lives in one way or another.
“It’s good to make music because there are maybe other women who feel shy, I speak with them and I tell them, '“I was shy and I didn’t want to do it, but if you’re able to play or able to do something, you can do it, even if you are shy and you will feel free when you do it”. We live in a society where men are allowed to do music since high school, it was full of bands with guys playing music. However, as women, we are the girlfriends of the musicians. It’s important to realise that this is a common vision but not a real one. As women, we can create art and not only children. As women, we are not necessarily meant to be mothers to children, inspirational muses or women who trace a man’s ideal imagery that is often the result of a preconception dictated by a patriarchal-based society.
Even if I was able to play music, I never thought I would be able to perform on a stage and be in a band. It lets me be free. For me to learn to record myself, produce the music, to manage my own project, find the musicians and organise the shows, it’s a way of becoming more independent. We, as women, have to take back our voices and be part of the society in different ways. Many women helped me develop as an artist and as a person. Many women have helped me find my confidence and we need to help each other as women to develop further and this is very beautiful for me”.
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