In 1994 the cyclone Irene Grandi hit Italian music, the rock girl with the combat boots climbed the charts and was the spokesperson for a generation of rebels. Thirty years later, that debut album returns, remastered for the vinyl version. Title: Irene Grandi. In sight there is an album under construction, the single of which has just been released proud of me, and the tour in theaters throughout Italy, from November 3rd. But let’s start again with Irene from her historic and collectible vinyl, beautiful to look at, to touch and to listen to.
We hear them as songs that have no time, da Go Go go to Get married right away!!, Out And TVB.
“Instead they are thirty years old! Incredible”.
Nostalgia effect?
“The songs bring you pieces of life, a year, a place, but this makes me happy, not sad. I always look ahead, I don’t think about it, at most I pause and then I let myself go. In this edition I added a duet with Levante”.
Already in the first album, at 25 years old, authors of the caliber of Ramazzotti and Jovanotti.
“Jovanotti was my first admirer. In the Sanremo young people’s dressing room, flowers arrived from friends, companions and relatives they had never heard of. There was also Lorenzo’s deck and a note: ‘You’re very good, I’m rooting for you’. I fainted. She had just written Rap serenade And Think positive. She was doing something new, I loved her singer-songwriter rapping. She wrote TVB and it was a great success.”
You started out singing in church: was your family very Catholic?
“No, my parents were agnostic, I was the white fly. I got up early on Sunday mornings because I liked the sound of my own voice in church. I performed in front of an audience and then there was no applause. I liked that thoughtful silence that remained in the air.”
That silence that he found in meditation. She is also a yoga teacher.
“I studied, yes. Because it is not just gymnastics but a life discipline, ethical teaching with breathing techniques and mental silence. A way not to identify with thoughts, not end up in the blender, realize, look at yourself from above”.
Does meditation save you from the blender?
“I have a very strong form of concentration. When I think and sing I am in one flow. I totally let myself go. I put all the energy I have into it. When I leave the stage I lose things, I almost don’t know where I am… I have to get back into the world. Resting and disconnecting with meditation helps me recharge.”
He is working on a new album. Of which a single manifesto has already been released, proud of me, in which he says: “I always paid the bill.” Which?
“In this world no one gives you anything. I have always dedicated myself to work, writing, touring… a half-run. To shoot for a long time you have to go without jerks. Always move forward but with a certain lightness. The first 4 albums were released in 4 years, then little by little I understood that I wanted to stay out of the mainstream, I loved theaters, I wanted to experiment. I didn’t necessarily choose the path of success, but to satisfy my curiosities. So today I produce my records, even with financial sacrifices. No mega productions and promotions. I am a small business owner. It is the price of freedom.”
When did you realize you had to change direction?
“In 2010. I realized that in 15 years of life entirely dedicated to work I had neglected family, friends and desires, I no longer knew who I was. I took a gap year, from a little girl I had become a woman. Who did I want to be? I felt like a juke box. They wanted my successes but I wondered if they still represented me. They took me for arrogant, but I had to believe it again. I wanted to make music for my own joy and not just for the public’s.”
She said that if she had been born in another time she would have been burned as a witch. Why?
“I was rebellious when I was young, I abhorred anything conventional, I went to Sanremo with amphibians, I wanted to be a free, contemporary girl who goes around alone and carries her own suitcases. I was elusive, sulky. Even on TV it was as if I was saying ‘what do you want from me, I’m a singer’. I wasn’t very comfortable as a guest, I didn’t smile.”
Didn’t he even obey Pippo Baudo?
“Not at all, and to punish me for a year he didn’t accept Burn the city in Sanremo. Every time he sees me again he says I remind him of that mistake”.
You’re Sanremo in the book: will you come back?
“Only if I had a right song at that moment. However, I prefer Sanremo to talent shows. I can’t stand such violent eliminations.”
In the video clip of proud of me there are only women…
“There is the younger one, the wounded one, the mature one that I would like to become. All the women I have inside are there. I really believe in the support of women: when they overcome the competition they can give each other true solidarity. We must all be more proud of ourselves.”
Do you believe in sisterhood?
“Of course, my sisters are my best friend from high school, my stylist, my manager, another historical friend who lives in Brussels, I need a feminine side dish”.
After 50, many “sisters” say they can do without men.
“There are ages when we give so much importance to the couple’s relationship. We invest the other with the responsibility of making us happy. It comes to us from culture, from parents who we have always seen together, always stuck together, perhaps arguing but staying together.”
You are through two marriages and two divorces, would you get married again?
“You can be close and in love but without being close to each other, which at this age and without children makes no sense. Stay more distant and see each other when you really want to, without suffocating each other.”
Didn’t you start a traditional family by choice or necessity?
“At the right age I had the wrong man, my second husband, who now lives in South Africa in a shack on the beach, makes pizzas, stays in flip-flops all day. In a while he will put the pirate flag on the sand. Very nice, we had a lot of fun. He was difficult to tame, he tried to keep up with me, but we weren’t able to establish a stable relationship.”
For many “sisters” not only a steady man but also the lack of children is no longer a taboo.
“They are right! It seems that a woman is not satisfied if she has not had children. But we also have so much more to do, we can also be ‘mothers’ of creative projects and young people to grow. Of course today I would like to have a child with whom I can go to the beach on Sundays or go for a bike ride… but he’s already grown up! Maybe one day when I’m old I’ll miss a child… But I have yoga, the ‘sisters’, and then we women are full of curiosity. I’ll be fine.”
We met Irene rap and rock, jazz and blues. What soul will you put into your new album?
“It’s a singer-songwriter album where we will also use electronics on my voice for some effects. A thoughtful pop. I like songs, classic ones. Not nursery rhymes, summer catchphrases, if you go in that direction you’ll never go back.”
She is a great singer but also an author. Give us a word for some of the greats who have written for you. Let’s start with Vasco.
“Wise”.
Pino Daniele.
“Passionate”.
Jovanotti.
“Researcher”.
Bianconi.
“Twilight”.
He wrote for her Halley’s Comet, about elusive happiness. What makes you happy today?
“Small things, moments of lightheartedness, when I feel clear in the morning. When you wake up do you know what the sky is like inside: clear or cloudy? I have more frequent little moments of happiness and so it is with pain.”
Yoga, vegetarian diet, house in the countryside: are they the ones who give you this wisdom?
“In reality I am impulsive and impatient, if I take a wrong turn I get very irritated! I always remain a gruff and rustic Tuscan. The one of Your girlfriend always. Nobody understood me like Vasco.”
You will be able to see the video interview with Irene Grandi in our Metropolis Extra studios on Thursday 20 June at 7pm at the end of Metropolis and on Sunday 23rd in a repeat on the Repubblic websiteto
