May 9th has arrived and for many it is the day on which Liberato manifests himself. Since the success of the masked Neapolitan singer-songwriter exploded it has always been about music, but today it is about a film, a documentary entitled Liberato’s secret. No, it’s not about his identity, it would have been simple and even banal, two concepts impossible to attribute to Liberato, because his adventure is unique. The film explains the true secret of the artist, the one that lies behind the composition of his music and not behind his mask, which in the end, if you think about it, hides only a name and a surname and not that wonderful and poetic cool narrative that he has conquered a huge audience. To talk about the film we interviewed the director, Francesco Lettieri, who is an integral part of the Liberato project, he is the one who created the visual imagery behind the project, giving it the shape that we, the public side, know and can do nothing but admire .
Let’s start from the base: who is Liberato?
«Liberato is a musician, a singer-songwriter… in reality I don’t know how to define him well either. An anonymous singer is the definition from Wikipedia, from Treccani, then in reality there can be many answers, because the element of anonymity opens up many scenarios and a lot of curiosity. In reality Liberato is a container of dreams, the fact that we don’t know his identity, that we don’t know his face, means that everyone completes him with what he wants. Everyone can see him as a singer, as a boy, as an adult man, as an elderly man, as a Neapolitan. Then there are those who want to see him as Milanese, there are those who want to see him as a loser who uses marketing to become famous. And even those who see him as a prophet, each one projects onto us what he wants and in some way this makes him different from everyone else.”
What is Liberato’s secret for you as you had to tell him?
«Liberato’s secret is exactly the opposite of Pulcinella’s secret. Everyone knows Pulcinella’s but pretends not to know him, on the contrary, everyone thinks they know Liberato’s but in reality no one knows him. Everyone has their own theory about who he is, everyone is sure of who he is. I, who have been living this project from the inside for many years, have followed all the theories there have been, from the most plausible ones to the most absurd ones, and one of the most incredible things is that there are people who, once they have decided their then that truth remained, despite it being refuted, despite it being absurd. For example, we went to Poggioreale for a live show and all the prison guards were convinced they knew him, «He was in Nisida, I worked there and I understood who he is». That is one of the most absurd theories, Liberato the prisoner who makes videos from prison, makes songs and then does concerts in Milan, or that of Livio Cori, who was one of the first names he made and he had to make live broadcasts during Liberato’s concert to prove that he wasn’t and in any case people didn’t believe it. Basically everyone has their own truth and this has allowed their secret to continue to exist, because if you are convinced of one thing and I am convinced of one thing, in the end there is never the truth. Even if there is a plausible theory in the end, among all the others, it becomes one of many.”
In this sense, are there any hypotheses about Liberato’s identity that are more plausible than others?
«There are certainly more plausible ones, there are no theories that get to the truth. Some have been better argued, but the interesting thing is that they are the least used. Someone did more in-depth investigations, went to try to frame Liberato, but then in the end this thing didn’t really interest us, it didn’t take center stage in the discussion, more absurd theories take center stage. In reality people want to dream, they want a fairy tale, they want a story, they want a myth and this is more interesting than Liberato’s name and surname.”
Did the idea for the film come from the project itself, from the story you had in hand or from Liberato’s desire to tell his story?
«In reality it all came about by chance, like all things that concern Liberato, they very often depend on the opportunity that presents itself. It has happened in recent years that many proposals for documentaries have arrived, even immediately, when the phenomenon exploded, they arrived as often happens, for the book, for the documentary, the film, the crisps, the trading cards… fortunately there is It was the foresight of giving up everything so as not to get burned, not to sell everything immediately. When the proposal for this documentary arrived, it was the umpteenth proposal they made to us and we rejected it like all the others, then at a certain point, talking about what we should have done from a video point of view for the subsequent phases, it came out an idea that had been there for a long time: to do something with animation, with the Japanese anime style, which was the only thing we hadn’t managed to do, so our counterproposal was “Ok, let’s do the documentary but let’s make it animated” and for the first time we were immediately told yes. It all started from there, we contacted Lorenzo Ciccotti who is the only one capable of doing this work in Italy with a high level of quality: he has done an enormous and almost pioneering job.”
The film also tells the origins of Liberato and Liberato is also quite unsure of his abilities… You immediately recognized his abilities, more or less like everyone else, but him? Did he believe it? Would he ever have expected all this?
«I believe that everyone has their own path, now maybe there are talents and this path is enclosed in a single moment, but Liberato’s is a classic story for all artists who are looking for their way of making music. In my opinion, having built this anonymous, imaginative character, he found this security. Knowing him, seeing him even outside the guise of Liberato, I believe that he is a normal person, an ordinary person, then when he puts on Liberato’s mask, he becomes a superhero who is convinced of what he is doing and who probably also has the courage to do things that he wouldn’t do otherwise. For example, from a musical point of view, the fact that it plays with the Neapolitan tradition, the taranta, the tarantella, is something that a Neapolitan musician with a name and surname would think about for a moment before setting himself up as a continuer of the tradition, with the mask for him everything is easier, everything is more of a game. There is a whole series of paranoias that he doesn’t have if he has the mask.”
To your knowledge, has he ever fallen for the temptation of fame?
«In my opinion, no. Many do not consider that with his anonymity he is precluding himself from many things, even just success with girls or boys. All the common desire there is in being famous, he doesn’t live it. I, who have achieved a bit of fame thanks to him, can confirm that it is pleasant. He actually manages to have great lucidity and genuineness, he manages to maintain this and it seems that his notoriety doesn’t interest him. He enjoys it during concerts when he becomes Liberato and makes those enough.”
How do you keep such a secret?
«Eh… it’s a mess. In the initial phase I practically became his secretary because it was the only contact with him that was online. Today there is a structure but every time you have to sign a contract it’s a mess of delegations to keep his name from getting through, for Siae it’s a mess for rights… Today there are people who work for this. Every time he has to fly for the live shows, even to mix the film we had to go to a safe room, all the people who work on the mix are selected, known people… chaos. It’s also a lot of fun.”
How many people currently know Liberato’s identity?
«In reality very few, maybe people from the outside don’t expect it. We did some things with brands and then maybe the boss was expecting to go backstage and meet Liberato. No, it doesn’t work like that. He doesn’t make calls, we don’t talk to Liberato, ten people have his number. Sometimes there isn’t even a need to do it but we have now entered this mechanism. Very few people know his real name and we no longer use it, we use a nickname to name him which in any case is secret.”
The film emphasizes that his success does not depend on anonymity, but what would happen if Liberato revealed his identity?
«I honestly don’t know, but I don’t see why I should do it. I read articles that said that with this documentary he will reveal his identity, but that’s something he has no interest in doing. If he were to ever reveal his identity, it would be like letting Liberato die, because Liberato is Liberato and then there is the person behind Liberato who is another person.”
What can you tell us about your communication strategy, which is a fundamental part of your work?
«In my opinion it was all poorly thought out. The communication strategy is entirely hers. There is no strategy, no agency. Many say that his success comes from anonymity, yes, but his spontaneity does a lot. I believe that in the Liberato case, marketing was confused with ideas. He has his own ideas: it’s his way of doing things, his language, and that works. It works because it is very natural, direct, spontaneous, mysterious, ironic.”
Why did he first contact you, who are a director, at the beginning of his project?
At that historical moment there was the explosion of YouTube, I had made the video What do I miss doing of Calcutta, the first independent video clip to reach one million views. I think at that moment he realized that he had a song but needed a video, so he looked for a director. He didn’t want a label, which he still has, because he wanted to self-produce. Everything we do is self-produced, sometimes there are some sponsors but we use the income from the live shows.”
As a Neapolitan, what does Liberato’s work mean to you?
«He gave a new image of Naples: contemporary, free from stereotypes and also international. Liberato brought together the history and tradition of Naples and put it together with youth slang, with ultras imagery, he made it communicate with the ultra-contemporary. Naples has always been a representation of the old and the new together, and Liberato has found a way to tell it and take it out of Italy. I feel lucky and proud to be part of this project, to have stumbled upon it and to have immediately recognized and embraced it”
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