I came acress a very interesting rare interview given by Alice to Gioia magazine in April 2009, and decided to share some bits of it with you. How did she end to Sanremo in 2000? How her musical choices have effected her career (and income)? What is her relationship with Franco Battiato? And feelings? And what happened in 1984?
"At a certain point of my life I wanted to liberate me from being a slave to feelings" Alice explains her latest album, Lungo la strada, her first live album in her career that started over 30 years ago, "I'd rather call it pathos. And after listening the recording from this concert in 2006 I could find the same pathos I had with the audience that night. Often the live recordings are rather clinical, but this was different." And whoever hears Alice singing "io ti proteggeró dalle paure e ipocondrie" in Battiato's La cura, whispering like sister-mother-lover must get shivers.
A far cry from the elegant lady sitting in a cafe in Milan, Carla Bissi, 54, aka Alice born in Forli but living "somewhere around Udine" with Francesco Messina, her partner for over 25 years. The same lady who left the pop world being on ultimate top in mid 80's, after winning Sanremo 1981 with Per Elisa, doing Eurovision with Battiato in 1984, the same year enjoying great success in Germany and scoring a hit Zu nah am feuer with Stefan Waggershausen and selling over 1,5 million records. She went the other way, recording albums like Mezzogiorno sulle Alpi (1992) and God is my Dj (1999). She doesn't fill stadiums but has a very faithful group of fans. Interviews bore her but she smiles graciously even if giving an air of non chalance. She has gone a long way since she won Castrocaro at 17 but what happened mid 80's? "I had everything. Albums were selling, I was big home and abroad, scored hits, Sanremo, Eurovision, met the love of my life but I started to feel a total emptiness inside of me, teenage girls dressed up like me - something that I never wanted" she explains. "Life wasn't giving me much after all. A book, Incontri con uomini straordinari by Georges Ivanovic Gurgjieff changed my life. The ball started rolling from there, with all its conseguences..." What conseguences? "I can't explain more about that". When did decide music will be your life? "Music was a natural part of my childhood. My father was a musician, mys sister played piano. I started studying piano and singing at the age of eight. But to make a living out of it it has taken time. After Castrocaro to Il vento caldo dell'estate in 1980 I earned nothing. Without my family I wouldn't have been able to do it. I got a record deal after Castrocaro and released three singles, but they kept proposing me songs I disliked so it was the end of it. Instead I went to work in an architect's office as drawer. I didn't quite know what I wanted with music but I sure knew what I didn't want! Then I met my first producer and he suggested I change name and became Alice Visconti and started recording again. But once again by 1984 I didn't have a choice: either I stopped with music altogether or took another direction. Luckily I was able to do so with the help of Francesco Messina."
How about Franco Battiato? "We did two albums together, a very beautiful expenrience. Originally I needed someone's opinion on my songs I was writing. He ended up arranging the album Caponord with Giusto Pio, his violinist. Another album with Per Elisa followed. It was very important for me, I was able to sing my own songs!" There's some mystery around the people Battiato hangs out with... "I was never part of them. I hardly ever met someone!" Is he always so serious? "He is very funny actually, and intelligent". You have done Sanremo three times: as a young girl in 1972 leaving not much behind, 1981 you were the winner and in 2000 when it went not so great. "All three times have been very different. When I won in 1981 there was no orchestra, just the tape. In 2000 it was just a compromise: my record company asked me to do it in change to publish God is my Dj album, something that I really wanted to be published. So... "
Have you had to do many compromises in your career? "As long as I can choose it's ok. I don't do things that I really don't want to do. Of course it makes things a lot harder. It's not easy to reach out to people if you are cut out of the usual medias. If I only did more commercial music all the doors to traditional means of promoting would open. When you choose your own way.... " They don't invite you to TV-shows? "It's one way of putting it. But there's a whole lot of music that doesn't live on TV and radio, one has to look for it a bit harder." And you earn less? " A looooot less!"
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