Founded in 1987 and active untill 2002the Venetian group of Pitura Fresco he unleashed the crowds with a sound reggae irresistible, scandalizing right-thinking people with irreverent and denunciatory texts that are not always understood (think of Black Pope brought to Sanremo in 1997). But the band’s frontman, Sir Oliver Skardyborn Gaetano Scardicchio, has not never abandoned his job as a janitor.
He confirms this himself in ainterview given to The Corriere della Serain which he says he is ready to retire (next year), after serving as janitor at the Guggenheim art school of Campo dei Carmini, Venice. Born in 1959, a true Venetian, Sir Oliver Skardy explains bluntly: «Whoever comes from a proletarian family like mine must think about bread first. I only had an artistic diploma, which is of no use if you don’t move forward. Without a degree I couldn’t be a professor. But better this way, less mess.”
Sir Oliver Skardy then denounces him teachers’ salaries are too lownot to mention those of janitors like him. «The truth is that I don’t even know how much I get exactly, I never check the account. Anyway, a pittance. And the earnings as a musician are also a pittance. I put one and one together and the result is complete misery.”
During the interview, the ex of Pitura Freska confirms that he isI always held onto the janitor job even in the band’s heyday. The reasons: «in those years the music wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t great either and I felt like it might end. Pitura Freska were divisive, contestedthey either loved us or hated us. Then came Sanremo, ‘a beautiful carouselwe thought: here either we enter the kingdom or they kick us out. They kicked us out: fourth from last. Black Pope it wasn’t understood, they called us a satanic rock band, while the message was anti-racist. Furthermore, we were prophetic because then they made Bergoglio seem a bit like a Black Pope.”
As for the upcoming retired lifeSir Oliver Skardy already has some ideas to put into practice: «Writing, playing, making stuff. At the time of the image, of the artifice, I go in the other direction and I plan to return to the streets, livealso because producing records costs money.”
Finally, a consideration on trap and rap music of the moment. «They imitate Americans, the lyrics are slogans, threats. The pacifist message is not interesting. I see too much individualism and consumerism».
