Tommaso Varisco is a songwriter based in Veneto, Italy, near Chioggia. He’s been active for many years and have recently released a new album. ‘All The Seasons Of The Day’ is a kind of new start for Varisco, showing a disillusioned approach to life and relationships, but also his aim to discover new and unknown places, travelling in body and spirit, always in search of his musical roots.

“I don’t write about specific characters but mostly about sensations”

You’ve been in music for quite some time now. Your first album was released in 2006. How has your approach to music making changed during the last years?

Tommaso Varisco: If I think back to the times when I started writing music, in my early twenties, it’s like a dream come true. It seemed like something waiting for me for so long. When I bought my first acoustic guitar my dear friend Emilio, who also plays on my album, taught me a few chords. I wasn’t that good but I jammed a lot in my bedroom and recorded everything in so many cassettes that I still own. Whenever I found something that had some meaning to me, I turned some of my poems or ideas into English and to my surprise the lyrics fit perfectly. Other times, for example in ‘Big Sleep’, lyrics came along with the chords to complete the sound, or were accidentally stolen from others. When I sing “… I lost my band…” this portion of line is innocently taken from Neil Young. More or less I use the same approach nowadays. The only difference is that lyrics for songs now come directly in English rather than in my native language, plus I firmly believe I’m no longer stealing from my idols.

My first real experience in a band was in 2001. I was the last member to join a rock group called Satirus. They were a mix of various things from the sixties to the nineties. Songs started by a guitar or a bass lick or by a jam and then turned into a complete transcending trip. The final result smelled too much hard rock or grungy and this wasn’t the direction my new friends were looking for, so my role was to add something I was very into in those years, especially Joy Division and Kyuss but also The Doors or Cream, with whom I badly fell in love as a teenager. In 2002 I left for Dublin where I tried to get a few gigs but the band hadn’t that synergy anymore. Satirus was my first love, I still hope we can get the chance to record our album. In Dublin I began writing new songs with a more acoustic or sophisticated side; I was very into Mark Lanegan and Mike Johnson albums, something new to me that deeply influenced my songwriting. I also went to a couple of shows: Grant Lee Phillips and Evan Dando, full circle, man! In 2003 I came back to Italy and tried to put a band together. A close friend baptised our band Sickwatching because we were always looking for chicks. I was the main writer and started using material written in Ireland for Satirus and also new songs. My task was to put together a show where the first 20 minutes were complete mosh, then little by little we were headed towards more articulated and psychedelic tunes. In the end we always played a “summer” ballad called ‘Hello’ (still one of my fav to play live) followed by a lysergic 11 minute-song called ‘Bones’. ‘Bones’ was my attempt to write something close to ‘The End’ of the Doors. I must tell you that the final result was really satisfying. So we recorded a couple of eps that sounded pretty bad because we had no money and the guys who recorded us couldn’t afford the proper mics and gear. But everything was nice until the day when, completely out of the blue, the guitarist decided to leave the band for another, looking for his real self; he’s still searching. Paolo Pregnolato, the guy who recorded our last ep, convinced me to put together a whole album with even more acoustic and bare material; he was sure we could make it and so it was. We realised ‘This Is How I Feel’ in 2006, a more than honest debut. At the time I had no experience at all about labels, press and how to make it work, but it happened that a few reviews came in, and they were pretty cool and grabbed the spirit of the album. It was completely unexpected and it made me feel really happy. So I searched for another band but what gave me Satirus and Sickwatching couldn’t be replaced so easily. In the end I decided to go on my own, even though, in my mind, this is more an exile, like Ulysses… I’ve always felt more at ease with a band and I’m always hoping this may happen again.

“I’ve been blessed with a gift that is the most precious thing I have, because it generates empathy that, in my personal opinion, is the only key to survive.”

In my mind there’s no frame and I don’t really have any precise clue about my songwriting. It’s certainly a sum of things I love or the way I elaborate what happens to me everyday through my lens. It’s probably the only way I’m able to communicate a certain part of me to the people. It’s something pure, even though sometimes I don’t even know the name of the chords I’m playing. It’s God-given and I’m far from saying that my songs are cool, I’m only asserting that I’ve been blessed with a gift that is the most precious thing I have, because it generates empathy that, in my personal opinion, is the only key to survive.

Do you discover new aspects of your songs developing in front of an audience?

It’s very different when you play with a band for years and then if you want to continue the only way is to play alone. When I was with a band I really felt and loved my role as a singer and the way I leaded the audience into our world. People loved our music, some even knew the lyrics, girls were all around us and I remember I was a pretty cool entertainer. I really missed that, all that energy has been lost, maybe forever. Then it happened that the same dudes who used to see me with a band came to see me alone, maybe it sounded like a defeat… I wasn’t sure they could appreciate it and I decided to stop performing for good. But it happened that I couldn’t stop writing songs and I wanted to play live so bad. So I started it all over until I felt I was driving those who attended to the shows. I must say it wasn’t that easy. Gigs are often free entry, and people mostly look at you with indifference, but I’ve always done my job even in front of one guy, because to play is the thing that makes me feel better and gives sense to my presence in this world. So, at least when I sing my songs, I don’t care about what people think, I just try to give them my purest self. In the end I must admit that to play in solo gave me that freedom to jam and feel my spirit that would have been impossible with a band. I like to start a song and take it somewhere else just going with the flow. Sometimes I find new hidden tiny meanings in my lyrics that make me smile. “Hey, where does it come from?” I ask myself and laugh. I don’t write about specific characters but mostly about sensations, with verses opened to more than one interpretation. I think. I’m definitely not a storyteller and I’m not “folk”, as some have written, I’m more into another dimension that for me it’s hard to define. I adore the way Jim Morrison and Shannon Hoon write, they don’t tell you stories and lyrics are pretty short but intense; maybe they just try to fly above, into a more poetic and free vision that I find close to Arthur Rimbaud’s poetics. Here lays my purest background and I think that some of that may arrive and touch the people who listen to my music or want to come to my shows. In general a song is alive, it is like a child, so it grows everyday and it’s never the same. You always discover something new, it’s an endless surprise. When I take my two children to the park and I watch them play, I feel a little alone and a little proud. Like with a song, you got to let it go.

“Every musician, every human being has to do his part.”

How are you coping with the current pandemic?

Not in the proper way, probably. ‘All the Seasons of the Day’ is my new album in a long distance. Me and the label were supposed to work so much better than we did to grow a following, but something didn’t work the way it should. Then in March the lockdown. It was like the sky falling down. No promotion, no touring, nothing at all. It was like the worst nightmare. I’m aware that now priorities are others and to cooperate is a chance both to overcome this disease and mainly to lay the foundations for a sustainable future. I have children and there are days I don’t see the light. I’m still proud of my album, it’s for sure the best I’ve ever done so far, for so many different reasons, and I do firmly think it deserves its spot. So what I’m doing right now is to learn from friends, who are so kind and patient to teach me, how to work on socials in order to grow a following and schedule a tour for spring. Some would say this is not the way but believe me it is. Rock and Roll unfortunately is no longer a priority for a kid, but if we want to do something kids and the younger generations are the answer. Socials can be really bad, we all know that, but it always depends on the way you use them. An example, I didn’t know anything about Fela Kuti, I know what you are thinking Klemen “How come???” and I do agree… anyway, a couple of years ago a good friend of mine posted one of his song which totally blew me away. I also found out that my teen idol Ginger Baker played with him and has been living in Africa for so many years. So I surfed the web, I read about his legendary story: afrobeat, his strong will, raids against his commune and soldiers violence. I bought his records and was happy like in my early teens. In the end I have to thank the power of the socials. So it’s not the thing in itself but the way you use it. I certainly have a background our kids have not, but we are here to assert “what a wonderful world this would be!”. Every musician, every human being has to do his part.

‘All The Seasons Of The Day’ is your latest album. How did it come together? What kind of album did you have in mind and are you satisfied with it?

‘All The Seasons Of The Day’ is a collection of my early songs. That’s the main reason why I often say it is my first album. I always loved those songs, ‘Afternoon’ especially, and I was only waiting to find the right people and the right place to record them. After my first two albums I was pretty disappointed about the way they sounded, there was always something I couldn’t control. In the summer of 2006 when we were still recording my first album, Paolo told me he couldn’t finish it because he was leaving for London. So I had to find another guy to complete the album, but the alchemy wasn’t the same. For this reason one day I’m gonna come back to those tracks and do another mix and where necessary new overdubs. This is something we are often talking about with Matteo Dall’Aglio and Lorenzo Mazzilli at Anakonda Studio where we recorded ‘All The Seasons Of The Day’. I have the files but I don’t know if they can be used. Unfortunately this will never happen for my second album because the guy who recorded it just recorded other albums over the reels of mine in order to save money. This is totally insane if you have a pc and you can save files. In my opinion he deals this way with all his clients, which is a crime and shows no passion.

<a href="https://alltheseasonsoftheday.bandcamp.com/album/all-the-seasons-of-the-day">All The Seasons Of The Day by Tommaso Varisco</a>

Obviously everything changed when I met Lorenzo, he’s such a good-hearted, exquisite guy, and a very talented and polyhedric musician. He got me a couple of very good gigs and liked a lot what I was doing. We became friends and I really love him, as he was a younger brother. I knew about his solo project: The Giant Undertow and when I listened to his debut ‘The Weak’ all ends meet. He introduced me to his younger cousin Matteo who recorded his debut at AnaKonda Studio and who could play drums. So we started recording live as a trio with Lorenzo on bass and it worked! These songs are 20 years old and are the very first songs I’ve ever written when I didn’t even know how to play a barré chord. And it’s crazy if you think these guys are ten years younger than me and have the same musical and cultural background. They are in their early thirties and belong to the last generation of rock aficionados. So the question… is this album really playing the way it should when it was conceived? The answer is: totally!!! I don’t know how it happened but it did and I’m completely satisfied with it. I like to think that my passion and love for music as something meaningful, that in the end succeeded completely. I knocked on so many doors that people and friends could think I was nuts, but finally a door opened and I found a home for my songs… and me. ‘All The Seasons Of The Day’ represents a beginning. At AnaKonda we are recording other albums, we are working hard for putting together my whole catalogue. Matteo and Lorenzo are a blessing.

What would you say influenced you the most on this latest album?

Not only songs, but also movies and books.

Songs: ‘Itchy Little House’ (Carnival Art), ‘Summertime’ (Janis Joplin and Big Brother and the Holding Company), ‘Light My Fire’ (The Doors), ‘Fuzzy’ (Grant Lee Buffalo), ‘Bolivia’ (Gato Barbieri), ‘Out On The Weekend’ (Neil Young), ‘No Quarter’ (Led Zeppelin), ‘Seasons of Wither’ (Aerosmith) ‘Black’ (Pearl Jam), ‘Nutshell’ (Alice in Chains), ‘Laced’ (Three Fish),
‘Mouthful of Cavities’ (Blind Melon), ‘Alone’ (Mad Season), ‘(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay’ (Otis Redding), ‘Play With Fire’ (The Rolling Stones), ‘Dirty Blue’ (Wovenhand).

Books: Mysteries (Knut Hansum), Une Saison en Enfer (Rimbaud), Radetzkymarsch (Joseph Roth), Lo Stralisco (Roberto Piumini), The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupéry), Poems (Georg Trakl)

Movies: Basquiat (Julian Schnabel), Before Sunrise (Richard Linklater), Trust (Hal Harltey)

… just to name a few.

Let’s end this interview with some of your favourite albums. Have you found something new lately you would like to recommend to our readers?

My dad had and still has so many books, vinyl and CDs surrounding the walls of our home; education’s always been the priority in our family. But my first experience with music was strictly personal and started when I was nine with Europe, their single ‘The Final Countdown’ was everywhere. I spent all of my days listening to the radio or watching TV in a desperate attempt of recording something on cassette. Now with internet is so much easier, back in the day it was tough but fulfilling. So one day I lifted my nose and I realised I was surrounded by everything a music lover could ask. Rock and Roll was my first love but I may assume that the whole thing changed and turned into something special when my dad one day came back home with three CDs: ‘Big Time’ and ‘Foreign Affair’ by Tom Waits and ‘Grey December’ by Chet Baker. So my list of favourite albums includes also some jazz, so here we go: Keith Jarrett/’Vienna Concert’, Monk/’Pure Monk’, Gato Barbieri/’Bolivia’, John Zorn/’Masada’, Balcan music Bregovic/’Ederlezy’ and rock and roll albums nobody knows like Carnival Art/’Thrumdrone’ or Paramount Styles/’Failure American Style’. Some classic from the 60s and 70s: The Doors/’The Doors’, Janis Joplin with Big Brother & The Holding Company/’Cheap Thrills’, Neil Young/’Harvest’, The Velvet Underground/’The Velvet Underground’, Led Zeppelin/’Houses of the Holy’, Aerosmith/’Get Your Wings’, Bob Dylan feat. The Band/’Before the Flood’, Bob Marley/’Legend’, Joy Division/’Closer’. In the 80s Guns N’ Roses’ ‘Appetite’ was a must but I also loved a lot ‘Slippery When Wet’ by Bon Jovi, ‘Pump’ by Aerosmith and Depeche Mode/’Violator’ (1990). In the 90s with the explosion of Grunge music I was heavily thinking about how to be a real singer in a real band. In my personal opinion Temple of the Dog opened the doors to a new world while Mad Season’s ‘Above’ put definitely the word end to this beautiful romance. My favourite albums of the 90’s were pretty mainstream: Pearl Jam/’Vitalogy’, Alice in Chains/’Jar of Flies’, Soundgarden/’Superunknown’, Nirvana/’Bleach’, Blind Melon/’Soup’, Jeff Buckley/’Grace’, Grant Lee Buffalo/’Mighty Joe Moon’, Jane’s Addiction/’Ritual de lo habitual’, P.J. Harvey/’Is This Desire?’. But I also love less known stuff: Sophia/’The Infinite Circle’, Mazzy Star/’So Tonight That I Might See’, Motorpsycho/’Trust Us’, dEUS/’Worst Case Scenario’. When all this hangover ended I realised there were so many good bands in Italy too: Afterhours/’Hai Paura del Buio?’, Marlene Kuntz/’Ho Ucciso Paranoia’, Ritmo Tribale/’Psycorsonica’, CSI/’Ko de Mondo’, 24 Grana/’Metaversus’. In 2002 I left for Dublin and brought with me all Mark Lanegan’s and Tim Buckley’s albums, ‘Chambre Avec Vue’ by Henri Salvador, ‘You Must Believe in Spring’ by Bill Evans and a bunch of Ani di Franco’s CDs, especially ‘Revelling/Reckoning’. I do really love her. In the new millennium I often found difficult to love more than one album per artist; some of my must-have are certainly Devendra Banhart/’Nino Rojo’, Fleet Foxes/’Fleet Foxes’, Noir Désir/’Des Visages Des Figures’, Lisa Germano/’In the Maybe World’, Moltheni/’I Segreti del Corallo’ (Italy), Grant Lee Phillips/’Walking in the Green Corn’, Damon Albarn/’Everyday Robots’. It’s very hard to name all of them, some I just rediscovered these last couple of years: Red Hot Chili Peppers, R.E.M., The Gun Club, Leonard Cohen, The Cure, Minutemen. Two stunning recent albums are in my personal opinion ‘With Animal’ (Mark Lanegan and Duke Garwood) and ‘Skeleton Tree’ (Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds). What I warmly recommend to the readers is the whole catalogue of Big Thief and Adrianne Lenker and Gianni Maroccolo’s last project called ‘Alone’, in four volumes. A perpetual work dealing with salient topics such as violence, madness or Mediterranean migration. In the end I’d like to conclude with two bands from my town, the small island of Chioggia. Maladives who made their debut in 2001 with an album of the same name and No Seduction who released their first record in 2007: ‘Experience More Powerful Orgasms’. I hope everybody can still find something on the web.

Thank you. Last word is yours.

I want to thank all the friends who sacrificed their little free time to record their solo parts from home. Sandro Lovato who played guitars almost on every song, we share the same passion and background; he did an excellent job especially on ‘Wisdom’. Emanuele Ricci, my bandmate in Satirus (where it all started) he arranged ‘Big Sleep’ and his final guitar solo is epic. Enrico Zennaro plays lead and acoustic guitars on ‘Coffee’, he was the man for a job like that. ‘Coffee’ is a 12 minute song and when Enrico closes his eyes he can play for days. Emilio Veronese did some ethereal and magical guitars on ‘Flower’; he also was so kind to record some of my vocals in my small house by the sea. When I wasn’t at ease with my tracks he always knew how to calm me down and re-direct me, especially the vocals on ‘Wisdom’ and ‘Coffee’. Last but not least Enrico Varagnolo. He’s been called at the very last minute to add flutes on ‘Flower’. The album was finished but I wasn’t completely happy with that song that was my homage to Gato Barbieri’s ‘Bolivia’. Gato’s flute in ‘Bolivia’ is probably what I love more in music. So I called the label to stop the release of the album till the flutes were done. I couldn’t believe my ears. I was about to cry. With those awesome flutes on, my album was finally complete. After so many years of trying I had finally achieved something to be proud of.

In the end I want to thank you Klemen for giving me the opportunity to talk about ‘All The Seasons of the Day’ and my world in so many aspects. I’m so grateful, believe me! Thank you so much! Tommaso Varisco

Klemen Breznikar

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