SixPM was looking for El Dorado in the USA: “Italians do it better”

He was born in Naples, he discovered El Dorado in the United States but then gold, in fact, (multi)platinum, he found in Italy, becoming a central figure in several symbolic projects of national rap, which led to its success. helped define. Now, while his voice conquers even pop stars from Jovanotti to Elisa, SixPM tries to see what lies outside the control room, in which he puts his face – so to speak – with a single.

“Puta”, with the participation of Gué and Gali, is the debut single of Andrea Ferrara, this is the real name of the 35-year-old musician, who signed a contract with Capitol Records Italy: “I went to Los Angeles at that time my Through the publisher I was looking for a breakthrough, putting together a series of sessions with local writers. The West Coast’s American songwriting, however, didn’t drive me crazy,” he explains.

What didn’t you like?
“It’s too cumbersome. There’s twenty thousand reads. The writers are working in the studio every day with nobody following the factory rhythm. You think you’re dealing with eccentric people, then you find out that They’re probably the guys who just hit a key on a Jay-Z record. I must have done about thirty sessions in Los Angeles where nothing interesting came out. The system of joint sessions between writers and producers is something that doesn’t excite me . But until a few months ago I also used to visit New York frequently, where I lived for eight years. Everything is different there.”

In what ways?
“In New York you have to sweat things out. Some circuits aren’t easy to break into. I’ve been blessed and privileged to meet hitmakers like Sydney Swift and B.B. Borelli, who worked with Nicki Minaj, Beyoncé, and Rihanna.” From those meetings, some interesting ideas were born that ended up in Rose Villain’s songs when she was still singing in English.

The collective session system has taken hold in Italy for some time: have you ever attended a session like this?
“Yes. But in Italy, unlike Los Angeles, the sessions are less cumbersome. There is more spontaneity. I got on very well with Davide Simonetta and Paolo Antonacci, who lead a tested and skilled work team”.

What do you want to display with “puta”? Is living in the button room of Italian rap not enough for you anymore?
“I wanted a project of my own at Three Hundred Sixty Degrees. When I’m at the service of artists, I want to enter their world. This time I wanted them to get on board, discovering me. Can define taste more”.

Which are they?
“I use guitars a lot. And at the production stage I try to postpone PC interference as much as possible, focusing on the instruments being played ‘in the flesh’.

do you play
“Yeah. Guitar, bass and keyboards”.

Self-taught?
“Yeah, actually I’m not a phenomenon (laughs). But I try to play everything myself in the projects that I lead. I call some professionals only when there is a special need to record. have complex properties.

Boy?
“To record the piano part in the outro of ‘Lamet’ by Rose Villain I asked for help from Ricardo Puddu, who collaborates regularly with Salmo”.

How did you choose Guay and Ghali for “Puta”?
“Guy is one of the artists I’ve worked with the most over the years. He was the first to believe in me more than ten years ago: I was a nobody and he opened the doors of the scene to me. When I started thinking about who to include, his name was the first to come to mind. I met Gali last year at the Loveme Festival in Fedez. Backstage I talked to him about what was on my mind and I saw him curious. I got the pair of ‘Follow Me’ back on their feet, made peace with the two of them, who had recently exchanged a few jabs.

Who would you put on the podium of the best Italian producers?
“In the first place is dat boi de, the creator of joliere. For the second Drillionaire. On the third Andrey the Hitmaker ”.

As a Neapolitan, how do you explain the vibrancy of the Neapolitan scene these years? Has she always been this active, only now is there more media interest?
“That’s it. It’s always been lively: now the spotlights are on and when something good happens, everyone notices it. In general, the whole urban market has grown”.

Jovanotti’s “I Love You Baby” was originally produced by Rick Rubin, but the original version was not really a hit. Then you got back into it and the piece became a triple platinum hit. what did you change
“I know the Italian market very well. Rubin is unsurpassed. An absolute master: God. It’s not that his production didn’t go well, it’s just that he didn’t follow the pattern, he knew about the market. Jovanotti told me that in his opinion he had an ability of another kind: I helped him to express it.

Italians do It Better?
“Sometimes (laughs)”.