Fred Ventura was in Perú some weeks ago. During his visit and after his show in Lima, he took a moment for talk with us. Here this special interview done by Talking Forever Fanclub, from Perú to the world.
How was your concert on last Saturday? How did you find the peruvian people?
The show was nice because the people was very warn and nice, like most of the Latin American people and Central American people. These people are real italo-lovers, so they really appreciated my music, the atmosphere was very nice.
You are now for the first time in Perú, we know you have a lot of fans in Mexico. Have you visited other Latin American countries?
Actually I only went to Mexico before. This is the first time I came to southern, so is the first time in South America, here in Perú. I was in Mexico several times, I started to go to Mexico in 1994, since then, I’ve been there maybe six times.
Your first song was in german, in how many languages did you sing? Have you try to sing in Spanish for example?
No, I’ve never tried to sing in Spanish. Actually, this record, “Zeit” was a big mistake, because I tried to be and sound like a german, but was impossible for an Italian, so this song was a tribute to my love for some german electronic music, but I think this was not a very good idea, thinking now from my point of view of today. But I never know, maybe I will sing one song in French but I never will try in Spanish, never. Not even Italian, Because I don’t like Italian language for my music.
How many languages can you speak?
I only speak, Italian, English and a little bit of Spanish
I also understand a bit French, but I don’t speak French.
Come you from a family of musicians or you are the first?
My family in certain way, is a family where music was always present, because my father was a very passionated musician, he had a job but he liked music, playing piano and guitar, and he was also a singer when he was very young, so music was always in my home. This is maybe the reason, at the time I was rejecting the imposition of learning music. I prefer to be free to decide what to do, if I like or not to play music or to play instruments
How did you start your musical career? Is true that you started as a drummer?
Yes is true, I started as a drummer in a local band, but it was too heavy for me to play drums, my idea was always to be a singer. So when I had the opportunity to switch from a drum to vocals, I took it immediately because the drummer was not for me, is too heavy.
...and how did you discover that you can sing?
I know, I was singing on top of other artist records, when you try to sing somebody else records, you understand if you have a voice that can be serious or not. It was almost a joke, for fun. I noticed that my voice could reach the same tones of the singer, it was very good for me, so had this idea to me, why not?, why not the idea of be singer, I was very young, I was 18.
Last year you released The Years (Go By), for the 30 anniversary of this song. Which are your impressions after all this time and what brings you this song with its popularity?
The song is in certain way, my most popular song, everywhere in the world I go is the same. I thought that was nice to pay respect to the people who I made the song with my producers of that time Turatti-Chieregato, so it was very nice, to try to make something new out of it. It was not an easy thing to do because all of my fan djs and producers wanted to be part, the first idea was to make 4 versions, then it became 8, then became 12, so it was more like a tribute to the song and to my friends DJs and producers I collaborated since many years.
What do you think about the new productions of some of your old producers?, for example you just mentioned Miki Chieregato
Chieregato is an old time producer, he was my producer music in 1983- 1984. I know what he is doing now, but I don’t think anything about, I don’t listen to his music in nowadays.
We are not in a bad touch, but we don’t see each other since more than 25 years, he lives in United States, I live in Italy.
What do you think is the main reason the italodisco never dies?
Because the italodisco has a lot of melody and good rhytms, this is the most important part of the italodisco. Once you can dance and sing together, with one song, you have everything, so this is the main ingredient about italodisco, because usually the good italodisco records, have a lot of melodies, but also very good pomping rhytms.
We saw you together Ken Laszlo and TQ singing a song produced by Mirko Hirsh, Mirko belongs to the New Generation of Italo Disco producers. What is your opinion about the work of people like Mirko? and what do you think about the Italodisco of nowadays?
I don’t have an opinion, because actually Mirko is not so young anyway, he likes italodisco and he tries to make his own version of italodisco, but he sounds very german to me, he is actually german, so he sounds really german, you can make quality italo, you can make quality eurodisco, but it’s the same. For me now, the more important thing, is that when I listen a song, a new italodisco song that was made now, I need to feel that there’s something fresh, this is why I like Andy Romano for example, because he is a very talented producer, his new music sounds are pretty fresh, even in his very 80’s influence.
Have you any favorite italodisco band or record now?
My favorite bands are not italodisco, where is italodisco now?, who are the producers of italodisco now?, there are not so many, there are, but more of the records that come out now, are old records that were released 30 years ago. So the producers of italodisco now are just a few here and there. So I mostly prefer to listen different music. My favorite bands are New Order, Pet Shop Boys from 80’s, these were my real influences, Yazoo, Dépêche Mode. About the italo, my favorite records, my sort of playlist can be like Gaznevada - I. C. Love Affair, Joy Yellow - Lover To Lover, Den Harrow - Mad Desire, Gazebo - Masterpiece. I am more fan of back to those days, but about today, I don’t have any favorite italo records.
And from general music?, maybe is there anybody with whom you would like to work?
I like some songs of contemporaries artists, the british records are the first, but there is a lot of good music now. So I really would like to work with some artists that belong to the best as, Billie Ray Martin from Electribe 101, or the singer of the Human League, Philip Oakey, or Paul Haig, I have some favorite artist with whom I would like to collaborate, but is not easy.
This next question, I am very interested in your opinion. Disco music has been always undervalued and even margined in the mainstream music. However singers as Donna Summer and composers like Giorgio Moroder have influenced a lot marking complete chapters in the story of music. What do you think is the more important reason that the disco style and its variations still don’t get enough respect?
Because people know the disco was music for fun, very easy to do, that is not true, but this is the opinion of people that like rock music. There are many people that don’t care about rock, just care about disco, it’s about an attitude that we have in life. If you like to go to clubs to dance, you like disco, you are in love with disco and you respect the producers of disco. If you don’t like to go to clubs, you don’t respect the music, you don’t respect the producers, you consider that they are inferior to other musicians.
I think that in the disco field there were many genious in the past, people like Giorgio Moroder, Gino Soccio, Bobby Orlando, people like Patrick Cowley, this people really made, they invented, they created something. Now we are still all dependent on these people's music, because this music is an influence also for the producers of today like Daft Punk, it’s a bit like... the history of electronic disco is being made already 30 years ago. What we do now, it is just to repeat, what was done before. I would like to try to do, and produce with good quality, but is very difficult to be totally innovating now, because technology is not giving you new sounds, or new technology. You still can't make a revolution with the electronic music, we are still using the same sounds, that we were using in the 80’s, the synthetizer, the drumb machine, to produce the sort similar music.
What do you think about latin music?
I don’t have a catch about that latin music in general, it’s just music that sometimes I hear in the streets or in the clubs, also in Italy because many Italian people love to go to dance latin music, but honestly I am more interested in the latin electronic, or rock, alternative rock side of the music. I know when I go to Mexico, I found, there is a lot of very good electronic or alternative rock, this is what I usually try to check when I go abroad.
The media offers many advantages for the release of new music projects, it also improve the communication between the artists with their fans and viceversa; however it also has a negative side that has been damaging the music industry, when a new record is released, the songs can be easily pirated. Which is your opinion regarding the illegal downloads that can be spread by the network?
The problem now is not the illegal downloads anymore for me, the problem is that people don’t buy music anymore, because they can stream it, on Spotify or on Youtube, and it’s for free, not even pirated, so this is not giving back the right amount of royalties to the producers and to the artists. When we think we sold the soul of musicians to new technologies, mp3 players, computers, laptops or i-pads, this is the new rock’n’ roll, and I don’t like.
I think technology is very important to us, is giving us the promotion, the image to make people know about that, but that is also taking our art, our production, our music. People just play a song on Spotify, thinking that they are also respecting the artists, but this people don’t know that behind there is a machine working that is not giving the right payment to the artists, this is why more artists have to find a new job or they quit from music, because they can’t survive anymore.
Continuing with this subject and regarding the distribution of new releases. The production of physical records is not the same than before since many years already. It made more popular the digital releases. But also some options like the streaming platforms don’t bring the right retribution to musicians. How do you think should be the music distribution and purchase process in nowadays?
This is the reason, the record label only release in vinyls, because the market for vinyls in Europe or USA, is going bigger and bigger, every year. So for me is very important to release vinyls because the people who love italodisco music, love to buy vinyls. They are into collecting the music, they are collectors. So this is the best way for release music, because once you have the record out, people buy and then other people check on Spotify on Youtube. First I release in vinyls and then after a couple of months I release the digital.
To release in physical form is better, this is part of the history of making music, I am not into digital release, digital for me is just something that you know is there but then you forget about it, is not part of your life, is not in your room, it’s virtual, you never know what can happen, maybe you lost everything and what you would do then.
Currently we have many young enthusiastic generations in all continents trying to produce their own music based in italodisco 80’s sounds and to continue with this legacy. What you would say to them?
I would say to them, to try to forget about the past and to try to think in something new in their music, in the music. I think you can listen the italodisco, get the influence, but then make something new, because if you just make simple italodisco, or exactly how was made 30 years ago, there is not point, nobody will notice you, people will always look for the original...
The second part will be published in the next months. We thanks to Fred Ventura and Discomania Perú for allow us to do this interview.
