After many years of silence, during which no one knew what happened to Mauro Repetto, for the first time, the singer-songwriter and man decide to tell his story in a book. It was released on September 19 by Mondadori and is called I didn’t kill Spider-Man: This is an amazing story of the artist’s life, written together with Massimo Cotto. The book was presented live in Ferrara on the opening evening of the festival. IMAGINATIONACTION, international video clip festival. In the dressing rooms of the Teatro Comunale in Este I met Mauro Repetto.
Mauro, your story became a book, I didn’t kill Spider-Man: How did the project come about?
It was an accident. It all started last Christmas when Stefano Salvati wished me a Merry Christmas. With this phone call, I think I’ll be able to turn what I’m writing to send to Los Angeles and London into my own synopsis and send the draft to Stefano. He likes this project and tells me that my life fascinates him, and that he has a journalist friend who could support me in writing: he hears Massimo Cotto, who supports this idea, and I leave Paris, come This is where I’m leaving.
Was it difficult to navigate through your memories?
The toys, as I call them, were not covered in dust, and I was delighted with these toys and the memories of 883. Everything was pleasant, the book came out on its own.
What are your first memories of Mauro as an artist?
I start with rap, and even earlier out of the desire to come up with sketches to offer a one-man show style in the resort villages of Trentino and Calabria.
Meeting with Max Pezzali?
Max was the most helpful person I knew, and I originally sang. He was the smartest and funniest friend of my friends. So, I go to Marillev to work in the village and ask him for cooperation for sketches: and we write together to pass the time. He is smart and needed to make a good impression in the villages while having fun. We have a great time together, buying drum machines and synthesizers: at the time when we sampled, we stole, for example, we took guitars. Like a prayer from Madonna for In the nightsomething by Van Halen for You’re too self-confident…this is the school that Rap learned.
Moreover, there was no Italian rap before you. Maybe Frankie hi-nrg MC was there.
We preceded Frankie and I would add that we didn’t know if he could exist in Italian music. In Bari we meet Afrika Bambaataa and give him a cassette with our stuff in English. At the same time, I ask him what he would think if we were rapping in Italian.
His answer?
She said but you’re gone, do it in Italian, everyone should speak their own language; at this moment I scold him with freestyle in English and two days later we meet again in Siciano, it’s time Reckless UB40. His first performance will take place at the Siciano Country Club, between Pavia and Milan.
What happens then?
We start sending tapes to Linus at Radio Deejay. And we call constantly. One day, exhausted, Giovanotti calls us and asks us to send him a tape, and we go to television to 1 2 3 Giovanotti. Claudio Cecchetto makes us imagine that we can make a record, but then nothing happens and in Pavia we are called failures. Warner Chappel employees do not want our works to be, among other things, Finally you AND With Deca. They killed Spider-Man they don’t want it.
But then something changes.
For me, Claudio Cecchetto is the Italian Walt Disney. We are leaving Not mebe with the Radio Deejay concierge. It was a fantastic time, I remember the wild and glamorous Kay Sandvik. Cecchetto tells us that he liked the naive style, the reverb, and ends with…you’re like a naive Ligabue painting, maybe we’ll record a record, maybe we’ll sell it. All the works rejected by the discography go into production, and he rejoices and immediately sends us to Castrocaro directly with Do not hit me and we’re making a Spider-Man album. There is Marco Guarnerio, who plays everything, and there is director Pierpaolo Peroni. Chechetto comes to the studio in the evening with the gait of an emperor, listens to everything and checks. He never changed anything in any song, not a comma, not a note.
Was there a specific moment when you realized success had arrived?
I went to university in Pavia, went to school a bit, passed two exams in 1992 and heard music Do not hit me. Today we would say it would have been viral, then it caught on.
Then you change your life and go to Paris.
I wanted to meet a girl I saw at a fashion show, we were doing just that. Years. Let me be clear: I didn’t run away, I wanted to go to Miami and live the American dream. Today I would go to Marrakech to the Mamounia Hotel. Then I needed New York and Los Angeles and I just wanted to keep flying.
Did you regret it?
I never regretted anything.
Sometimes Max invites you to his concerts.
It’s always nice to be back on stage, we laugh a lot. We remain friends, but we are no longer classmates.
What kind of music do you listen to?
Mostly rap, the latest shock was Doja Cat, he excites me just as much as he did in 1988. In general, living in France, I listen to more French stuff. Or Americans.
What will happen after your performance on the IMAGinACTION stage?
I’m considering turning the book into a musical. It’s in Italian. I want to play, sing and play with two artists that I think are worthy of the Champions League, and those are Marco Guanerio and Cely Angelon, who I met as singing teachers and wanted to have them with me. The director will be Maurizio Colombi.
What would you say?
My life ironically, like Spider-Man, appears before me in moments of sadness. An accordion show adaptable to any context.
In short, returning to the village…
It’s true, I didn’t think about it. Closing the circle and returning to the village could be the title of the show.
