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An exclusive inteview with Louigi Verona |
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| roncli: | | First off, who is Louigi Verona? |
| Louigi Verona: | | Louigi Verona is Kirill Alferov, though the nick
really stuck. I mean, a lot of people from the non-Internet world call
me Louigi as well. I guess I have some mysterious connections with
Italy. I live in Russia, Moscow. I am 25 and at the moment do web
programming as my day job. |
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| roncli: | | How did you come upon that nickname? |
| Louigi Verona: | | I usually say that it is a long and boring
story... come to think about it, it is a short and boring story. I
liked 'Luigi' always, but seemed better with the 'o' in it, as for
'Verona'... I made it up. I had several variants and eventually chose
this one. I found it was actually a very well-known city in Italy only
when Microsoft Word didn't try to correct it and I looked it up. =) |
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| roncli: | | How long have you been working with web programming? |
| Louigi Verona: | | Erm.... around 3 years. |
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| roncli: | | Is this something you've always been interested in, or something you just got into recently? |
| Louigi Verona: | | It is just something that seemed reasonable to
get into. I started my job history by being a level designer for a
computer game company, but then I sort of thought that it is not
something that will give me a stable salary and I wasn't interested in
level design so much anyway. As for web programming - can't say it is
something that I would want to do all my life. |
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| roncli: | | What line of work would you like to be in, say, in five years from now? |
| Louigi Verona: | | Wow, what a question. Don't know. I guess I am
still in the process of searching, trying to understand what my thing
is. But in general, I'd like to have my own company, no matter what it
will do. I find it more satisfying to do your own project than to go to
work everyday and do somebody else's project. Who knows... maybe I'll
be working in the sausage industry...
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| roncli: | | "Louigi's Sausage" has kind of a ring to it, I think! :) Moving on, how did you get started with composing music? |
| Louigi Verona: | | I guess it all started somewhere in 1997 - I
began playing an old piano we had, trying to compose songs, organize a
band. I actually did and we recorded ONE song. Anyway, our singer, a
girl from the same class, was shy and I remember her asking us to leave
the room while she was singing into Gold Wave,
and after she was done we would return and listen to the results. Then
the computer thing started. Me and my friend composed music with Scream Tracker 3. I still love that piece of software though I've never done a decent tune with it. Magix Music Maker, Fast Tracker II, Modplug Tracker... eventually FL Studio. |
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| roncli: | | In addition to composing, you are also quite involved in the scene community. Currently, you are among the staff at CTG Music. How did that start, and what is your role there now? |
| Louigi Verona: | | It all started with an article on CTG about CTG.
Everybody from the staff seemed to be impressed with that or whatever
and they offered me to become part of the staff and share ideas. As Randor
said - "we need fresh blood". Now the situation is uncertain. I was
made admin of CTG after it was decided to close CTG. I then said -
don't close it, give it to me. We had plans to remake CTG into a very
different community, but eventually decided to leave it as it is and
just redesign it. At the moment, I feel no inspiration from the staff
group and I can hardly find it myself. The way I see it, amateur music
communities the way we saw them all these years slowly start to die. |
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| roncli: | | That certainly is a sad reality, as many communities
have come and gone over the years. Another activity of yours that you
just recently began is the entertaining Weekstarter series. What made you decide to work on this series, and do you plan on continuing it? |
| Louigi Verona: | | I was inspired by the character from Star Trek Voyager - Neelix.
He was making a program called "Good Morning Voyager" and this somehow
triggered me - you know, a simple idea of doing a small, unpretentious
show, just for fun and to unite everybody. Also, I wanted to involve
myself with a regular creative process, like it was with Cheap Newspaper [ed: 2.86 MB download].
Having made only three programs, however, I find it difficult to keep
up. It is difficult work and usually takes up almost the whole of my
weekend. Additionally, the show didn't get the amount of interest I
thought it would. So - I am not sure the show will be as regular as
promised, but do expect more episodes! |
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| roncli: | | Good to hear, I find Weekstarter quite fun! As for your
music, it seems you really have an advanced understanding of the
ambient genre, and I can't think of a place where this comes across
better than in the Window In The Sky series. Can you tell me about this series, and the inspiration behind it? |
| Louigi Verona: | | It is difficult to speak about the inspiration
because there were so many things. First of all it was the desire to do
something that would be not limited by any rules - absolute freedom,
pure creativity. I wanted to make an unstructured song, a soundscape. Brian Eno, the Orb, Saafi Brothers
- their influences can be heard in the tracks. Part 1 actually has a
very straightforward reference to the Orb in the form of a chicken
sample. Generally, ambient music and drone music are styles which I've
been searching for. This is where my most creative ideas lie and I am
so happy I found my thing! But I do admit that the styles are specific.
The other thing is that most musicians don't understand them. Ambient
music is far more complex than just long notes and sound effects, and
as for drone music - it's just one of the most magical styles of
contemporary music! |
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| roncli: | | Ambient is not the only genre you have composed in, as can be evidenced in the song Satellite. Is this style something you will be working with again in the future? |
| Louigi Verona: | | You mean songs like Satellite? Well, I have even less electronic sounding tunes. Take The Breeze Dance,
for example. I like world music, you know. Playing a tinwhistle from
time to time. Actually, before I got into ambient in 2007, I was known
to be writing in lots of different styles. So yeah - I'll be working on
more usual music. Actually, I have an album going called Personal Diaries of an Arrant Space Cowboy - very oldschool sounding stuff. Pretty melodic as well. |
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| roncli: | | Indeed, I see all kinds of music on your page, including
Techno, House, Pop, Classical, even Chiptunes. Which of your current
releases would you say are your favorites? |
| Louigi Verona: | | Space Cowboy project is very inspiring - due to
my regular Star Trek watching - and all the stuff in the ambient genre,
Window In The Sky, Daydream Sessions, and Simplicity.
I don't enjoy my earlier works, to be honest. That was a period of
search and though there are some nice tunes, I would want people to
associate me with my latest works. Besides, they do sound different
from the "old Louigi" style. |
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| roncli: | | You certainly have developed your own sound with your
most recent releases, and it's working out really well for you. Where
do you see yourself going as a musician over the next five years? |
| Louigi Verona: | | Five years is a long period. Only a year ago I
was a person who thought he gave up music for good. 2007 seems like a
very productive year for me, but who knows how long it will stay that
way? So I simply don't think about it. At the moment my concern is to
complete the Window In The Sky album and then I've had plans for a
dronescape album Existance. Then... who knows? |
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| roncli: | | Which musicians have influenced your music over the years? |
| Louigi Verona: | | Saafi Brothers - my most massive influence. An absolutely amazing band and I love 'em. Two Lone Sworsmen
is the project that triggered my active search for a new style. Of
course, the Orb, and the wonderful ideas of Brian Eno, which I like
even more than his music. Lately - Steve Roach and other dronologists. |
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| roncli: | | Some very unique influences! Any final words of advice, or anything else you would like to add? |
| Louigi Verona: | | Yeah. I would like to add that I am happy to be
AotM. I really am. I appreciate the attention greatly. As for the
advice - it comes out of my own experience: keep searching for YOUR
style. Only then will you start getting satisfaction from your music
and only then people will start to actually like it. Don't be afraid to
put out material which is something you really want to do but which you
suspect is not going to make the charts. Oh.... and PIE! :-D |
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| roncli: | | Yes, pie indeed! Thank you very much for your time, and good luck in the future with your music!
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