— You're a reknown keyboard player and a sound engineer. What do you prefer most and why?
— To be honest, I don't have any preference. I love to produce music the same way I love to play. Nowadays I actually do a lot of mixing and recording sessions in my studio and few live shows, so let me put it this way; I would like to play more live.
— Tell us about your collaboration with Virgil Donati.
— Well, everything started back in 2008 thanks to Virgil's webmaster — Chris Nalbandian — who introduced me to him and gave him a copy of my first solo album "EGO".
I must say I was really nervous to get some feedback from Virgil, I was and still I am his huge fan of his. His album OTV — Serious Young Insects is a true masterpiece. Quite some time had passed before he had the time to listen to my album, but I still remember that memorable day when he wrote me his first e-mail. In his message he told me that he was impressed with my record. He wanted to meet with me. It's really difficult to describe what I felt that day! I remember sweating after reading his email…
First time I met him was back in 2009, when Virgil came to my hometown Palermo with a master class. We spent two great days together talking about music and future projects. Same year he invited me to join a new project "Underworld" together with guitarist Kee Marcello (Europe) and Steve Augeri (Journey) on vocals. We've started to work on the first four tracks but after a while the project was stopped and we put everything in the drawer.
We didn't have any other chances to work together until In 2011 when Virgil started working on his solo album "In This Life" he invited me to record only one track. At the end I've recorded 7 tracks out of 10. He must have really liked my playing or rather my vision of his music. When it was a time to mix the album, after a brief discussion I asked him for a chance to do it. At the end the job was mine. It was an honor for me to take care of the entire production of the album and, as you can imagine, a big responsibility.
Today we are working on two new projects. First is a brand new band with vocals, together with my pals Marco Sfogli on guitar and Andrea Casali on bass/vocals. Second is dealing with his next solo album which will be "orchestral-oriented"… I can't tell you more for now.
— What moment of your career you consider as the most significant?
— You know, each and every moment of my professional career is really significant and important to me. What you treat as a failure I consider it as an experience which helps me to improve myself. I prefer to stay positive.
I equally treat every project that I'm invited in. I don't care if it's a project with famous musicians or not, for me the invitation means like what I do. That's why I think I have all rights to say that I'm moving in the right direction.
— Describe one day of your life.
— Well, apart from my family duties, I spend 8-10 hours a day in my studio, the Superman would call it "the Fortress Of Solitude", doing what I do best and it's not cooking (Laughs)!
— What is your top goal?
— My top goal was to be able to make living with music and I think I've reached it. Everything else is an extra bonus.
— What is so special about your playing that can distinguish you from the masses?
— You should ask those who listen to my music, not to me.
As for me, I think that you have to be "convincing" to be distinguishable from the masses. For this you must be extremely self-critical, picky in everything you do, you have to recognize your own limits, to understand whether you have to stop, follow another path or go forward.
— Would you like your children to be musicians? Do you teach your children music?
— Of course I would, what a question! They are still too young for music now. I'm not that kind of parents who force their children to study music from a very early age and I won't do it unless they ask me for it. I will only gently try to involve them into the music.
But as long as they live with me, they will be always surrounded by music, which is a good starting point.
— What would you do for a living if you were not a musician?
Everyone has its own destiny and we can't avoid it. We can probably choose the "modality" to follow it but we can't change it at all. That's why my answer is nothing.