After closing a loop with Coma Things, Fausto Lama he moves in a more instinctive and less programmed area.
The new songs released in recent months are emotional photographs of a period of personal and artistic transformation. No rigid strategy, no concept album architecture. Just songs that surface.
We met Fausto who told us about the need to escape compulsive planning, he reflects on “disposable” love, emotional consumerism and the loss of identity in the contemporary music industry. In the background there is also the live debut at the Mi Ami Festival.
The new songs seem to anticipate a larger project. Each has its own identity, but there is also a common thread. Has a record already been born in your head?
The word “single” always leaves me a little disoriented. Formally they are, of course, but not in the classic sense of the term, that is, the song conceived as a promotional object. They're songs that I'm just letting out.
When I closed the Coma Cose chapter I had ideas, fragments, intuitions, but I wasn't really clear what I wanted to do. And the truth is that even today I don't fully know.
But I really like this, because for the first time in my life I'm letting the songs speak, without wanting to control everything.I have always been very analytical. I like to plan music, build it, give it an order. It was almost a form of therapy. But then I realized that, over time, I had lost some pieces. I had drifted away from why I do this work. From the pure pleasure of spontaneous choices, from doing something without necessarily expecting consensus.
A few days ago I had something of an epiphany. I was at the piano writing yet another song and I said to myself: “But why do I keep procrastinating?”.
After all, the record already exists. It's this year of my life. A year of changes, rebirth, questioning.
And maybe it's not even necessary to arrive at a definitive solution.Today the unknown keeps me company. And it's a wonderful feeling.
Chapstick talks about relationships consummated at the speed of a swipe. Yet your music seems to seek the opposite: something that endures.
Yes, that song actually talks about lascivious loves, consummated quickly. I think it's a very contemporary theme. Today we are inundated with opinions, advice, sentimental gurus. Once there was the friend at the bar. Now all this happens publicly, continuously.
However, when we talk about relationships we enter the most subjective territory possible. No one truly has absolute truth. In fact, “Burrococoa” does not want to give a moral. It's simply a photograph.
We live in the age of fast food, fast fashion. Everything is fast. And now fast love also exists. Relationships end in one night. Then of course, if a person really seeks stability, perhaps he also develops a predisposition to find it.
But it is clear that this historical time makes us all more greedy, more accelerated.Quantity has become the new quality.
Having said that, within this speed you also gain many experiences. You meet people, cities, situations.
If you are curious, if you are hungry for life, collect a lot of human material. And you learn something about others, but above all about yourself.
In one of your posts you wrote that “art is not a marathon and needs its time”. It's a speech that seems to tie music, love and even your visual imagination together.
Yes, absolutely. Even on aesthetics I'm trying to reinvent myself. I come from a mainstream pop project, albeit with alternative and underground roots.
Today I also find myself reconstructing an image, but I'm trying to do it by letting things flow, without too much superstructure or forced storytelling.I believe that today, more than ever, the fundamental thing is to be yourself.
Beautiful music still comes out, yes. But sometimes what I miss is the uniqueness of the artist.
I see very carefully crafted works that however seem to belong more to a team than to a person. It's not necessarily a bad thing, the way of working has really changed.Once upon a time you immediately recognized a creative body. An aesthetic, a precise identity.
Today processes are often collective. Beautiful records, perhaps, but every now and then I ask myself: “Where is the artist?”.Maybe it's also a thought from someone who grew up in another era, but I feel that a bit of individual personality has been lost.
Is there anything in contemporary music that still excites you?
Yes, many things. Even though I realize that I too have become a very “victim” of the single song. We are all bombarded.
Lately I've been listening to the latest album a lot Gorillazwhich remain an absolute beacon for me.
But there are many interesting artists. You just need to have patience and curiosity.
I was also very struck by the imagery of “Giovanni Bukowski”. There is also a visual narrative.
That video was created by Giuliano Buttafuoco who is part of the new team I'm working with. I deliberately chose to surround myself with people who were perhaps less in the spotlight of the record industry, but with hunger, enthusiasm and the desire to build.
In the song the refrain about “drugs” is actually a narrative device.
The drug is consumerism. It is money, luxury, addiction to everything that distracts us.Today we are dependent on communication, on the telephone, on continuous input. The song talks about the attempt to rediscover purity, a dimension less corrupted by the ephemeral.
The live debut at Mi Ami almost seems like a declaration of intent rather than a simple concert.
It will certainly be very exciting. Also because it arrives after a rather troubled year and therefore for me it represents a kind of emotional harvest.
When they proposed this date my first reaction was: “But what am I coming for? I've only released two or three songs.” But then I thought: “Who cares”. I play them the same. Even those that haven't been released yet.
Maybe someone will actually listen to them, maybe they will get lost in the chaos of the festival. That's fine.
I won't be doing a real tour right away. They will be scattered appearances, almost in fits and starts. But I like this idea of returning to the authenticity of the live performance. You on stage, in front of people, without too many protections.
It is a luxury that I can allow myself today thanks to all the journey I have undertaken. Years of apprenticeship, of mistakes, of experiences. And so I want to live this moment with enormous respect for music and for the stage, which is the thing I miss the most.
How do you imagine the live show?
I show up with a band. And I have to say, the guys are doing an incredible job. We are trying so hard.
The other day I stopped for a moment to listen to what was happening from outside and I thought: “Damn, but this concert is really beautiful”.
Beyond the songs, I feel like there's a real energy. And that's what I was looking for.
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