Yesterday I spent a beautiful day with a friend of mine recording some songs for him. It’s the first time I felt so good working in my little studio. Until yesterday I always worked on music alone, and it’s not a good thing because everything I do seems wrong to me. The same was for my friend yesterday, but there was me saying to him he was doing good. By the way I never expected he had that beautiful and soulful voice. He’s still a bit out of tune sometimes, but he has a very good timbre. The next time I’ll have to record something I’ll call him for sure! ^^

ITALIANO

Ieri ho passato una bellissima giornata con un mio amico a registrare delle canzoni per lui. Non mi sono mai sentito così bene a lavorare nel mio piccolo studio. Fino a ieri ho sempre lavorato sulla musica da solo, e non è una buona cosa perché ogni cosa che faccio mi sembra sbagliata. Lo stesso era per il mio amico ieri, ma lì c’ero io che gli dicevo che andava bene. Comunque non mi sarei mai aspettato che avesse una voce così bella e soul. Stona un po’ a volte ma ha davvero un bel timbro. La prossima volta che dovrò registrare qualcosa lo chiamerò di sicuro! ^^

In these days full of boredom I did something I set a little apart lately, watching anime. In detail, I begun to watch two new series, alongside Digimon Xros Wars which I follow since June/July/Dontremember, c’est-à-dire Bakuman and something with a huge title like Ore no Imōto ga Konna ni Kawaii Wake ga Nai (everyone shorten it as Oreimo). The first is about two boys dreaming to become mangaka, with a nice love story in the background. The second is way more strange and talks about a 17-years-old boy named Kyosuke discovering by accident the biggest secret of his 14-years-old sister Kirino, who works as a model and don’t have a good relationship with him at all: in reality she’s an hidden otaku of maho-shoujo anime and erotic games about little sisters. This unpleasant situation, which makes him the only one person she can talk with about her secret hobbies, will change the relationship between the two, I hope in better.

As you maybe already got I don’t want to talk about Bakuman right now (IT’S BEAUTIFUL, GO AND BUY THE MANGA *.*). Oreimo seems to me the first kawaii otaku-targeted anime (see Haruhi, Lucky Star, K-ON etc) which actually means something. See, Haruhi is a crazy series about a crazy person , Lucky Star is pointless slice-of-life self-celebrating otaku subculture, K-ON is even more slice-of-life and revolves around NOTHING (90% of the time they aren’t playing but having tea or doing terribly plain stuff). Anyway I love both Lucky Star and K-ON for the cuteness of the characters, both in looks and attitude (err, frankly after 20 episodes of nonsense K-ON really pissed me off regardless of the relative cuteness of the girls, Lucky Star is SOO better).

But geez, this Oreimo is more than that. First, is a lot more realistic. For example, in the world of K-ON boys doesn’t exist (ok, is set in an all-girls school, but I hear vaguely of boys only in a bunch of songs by Houkago Tea Time) and in Lucky Star they’re actually useless. There, indeed, a boy is one of the main characters. Second, the life of the characters in aforementioned anime is way too much plain (no, stuff like “I got fear of my looks in my yearbook picture” isn’t a real problem), in Oreimo Kirino suffers of her situation (take on her double life of first-class girl and otaku) and in the last episode (the best as of now IMO) she was about to lose her best friend for this. Third… I don’t have a third point, I just love Oreimo.

I feel like Kirino sometimes. Ok, I don’t play that kind of games and being an otaku in Italy is not that dramatic as in Japan, but to have everyday someone saying to me “sing Japanese” in that teasing way isn’t a good thing to experience. And it’s a bit sad being unable to talk with my close friends about the things I like, no one of them is into that kind of stuff. I can only talk about that lame Western pop music (ok, I enjoy it as I enjoy almost all music, but it’s not the point) and make fun of that b**ch of Lady Gaga (obviously I can’t talk about the music I actually like), but that is only a part of me and I feel a little incomplete talking about Japanese stuff only with my web friends. So, in these days I feel I need to make some otaku friends (JUST LIKE KIRINO, see? It’s all her fault).

Everytime I have a singular feeling, as now, I feel the need to write a song about it. And everytime I get nothing. Solinsieme was one of those songs, but I wrote it one year after the fact XD. Ah, about that Spring Project, I have nothing to continue it in the same way I started it. I’ll keep that wonderful idea for better times and better lyrics

P.S. I changed my hairstyle. I don’t like it. I’m waiting for my hair to grow again. For the time being, I look like a maybe beautiful but surely uncute bad guy. I FEEL MYSELF SWEET, SO I WANNA LOOK KAWAII TOO! >.<

P.P.S. Why I continue to write English-only? Maybe my soul speaks English. More likely, maybe I feel uneasy to write about my feelings in Italian. Maybe this is the true reason why I write songs in English…

Today I got the inspiration for a new song. The last time happened in June, meanwhile I had only bits of ideas I didn’t managed to make something from. Straight, this morning I was talking with a friend about the same girl I wrote フラッシュ！ for, I felt a little jealous about him being greeted by her with a kiss and me not. He told me that maybe she don’t do it because she knows I liked her in the past. As I thought “yeah, she can say nothing face to face as usual”, I felt also happy in some way because she doesn’t want me to suffer = she’s fond of me . I already knew it (ok, she doesn’t greet me with a kiss like before, but she says hello with a kindness- I love it), but having one more evidence is always good ^^.

Then the bell rang, people flowed out from the school. The umpteenth TAKUYA∞-like rap comes out from my mouth. But this time it had an energy and a lively charge I never heard before. I thought “WHAT KIND OF MAGIC CAME OUT FROM MY MOUTH” and in ten minutes I was already working around it to get something from.

What I have right now? An explosive intro with an always-changing time signature and full of… I don’t find words. Temporarily I codenamed it Spring Project, it’s not because of the previous Summer Project XD but for the positive charge it brings (I mean this kind of spring ). I hope this song can continue to grow even more beautifully

No Italian today, I have to sleep. Goodbye my friends!

P.S. THIS SUMMER I WANT TO GO IN CANADA SO I CAN MAKE NEW FRIENDS AND WRITE ENGLISH THERE AND HAVE SOMEONE ACTUALLY READING XD

The seven songs were フラッシュ！, Lovely Face, Wanna Be A Jonas (the first three song on the album), Driven, Solinsieme, HER and the newborn Summer (even if it won’t be in the album). I had no notable surprises, except for Driven which I thought to be longer and I had to lengthen the breakdown more than I was planning to have it nearly 4 minutes long. Anyway, this is the ranking as today:

1. フラッシュ！ (07:32), as I thought. It can seem long at first but I say, every second of this song is worth listening. Structurally is the song I’m more proud of (musically it’s quite simple btw).
2. HER (06:41). You can’t imagine what I had this evening thinking about how to set the solo of this song I make it in the end. Maybe the solo will be a little boring, but I must show my anger there _|–|.
3. Summer (04:46). This song would be shorter if I made it a little faster, but that’s it. An enjoyable uptempo hard rock tasting song (even if doesn’t have a solo O.O).
4. Lovely Face (04:30), one of my best songs. Similar to Summer in the mood, maybe less interesting lyrically, but I love it, especially the bridge and the subsequent solo with modulation from D to F major.
5. Driven (03:50), maybe the least inspired song of the album. Short but SOOO heavy. Except the ending, it’s in cut time (2/2) even if I didn’t get exactly what it means… I felt it better than 4/4 for this song.
6. Wanna Be A Jonas (03:25). You MUST know only the title of this song, it’s top secret . Subject aside, it’s a really nice song even if I shortened it intentionally to make it worth of the Jonas Brothers LOL.
7. Solinsieme (03:18), the shortest of the album, I think. You can say it’s short, you can say it’s simple, you can say I’m the umpteenth raper of the Pachelbel Canon , but this song IS ME, it’s all my world. If you don’t LOVE this song you aren’t my friend.

And by the way, I  saw Toy Story 3 a week ago. If you don’t cry at the end YOU’RE MEAN. I don’t have any affective link with the series, I just saw the two previous movies in the two days before, but it was the first time I cried in a theater. And I am the type of person that usually exits from a theater astonished, and I got the main concept of Solinsieme right after seeing a movie, but that was the most tearjerking movie I ever seen. Go to see it.

No Italian today, it’s too late to rewrite everything. Byee! ^^

Anyway, I finished the song I started earlier in June. It’s named simply Summer, I didn’t find a better title. The song has a SO COOL hard rock style, a SIAM SHADE-ish chorus and… sorry, I fell in temptation, a rapped section upon an altered 12-bar blues (it has 16 bars instead) with the main riff made funky . Overall I like lyrics the most, they turned out very good.

About other songs, I found a way towards the end of The Attack Of The Clones, the only thing missing is the final chorus. After that… I write all the lyrics for the album! Wow! Can’t wait to record something and write some music.

Oggi è il quinto anniversario degli UVERworld dal loro debutto major! Congratulazioni! ^^

Comunque, ho finito la canzone che avevo cominciato a inizio giugno. L’ho chiamata semplicemente Summer, non ho trovato un titolo migliore. La canzone ha un fighissimo stile hard rock, un ritornello alla SIAM SHADE e… scusatemi, sono caduto in tentazione, una sezione rappata sopra un blues a 12 battute variato (con 16 battute) con il riff principale funkizzato . Più di tutto mi è piaciuto il testo, è uscito molto bene.

Riguardo le altre canzoni, ho trovato una via per finire The Attack Of The Clones, l’unica cosa che mi manca è il ritornello finale. Dopo di quello… ho scritto i testi di tutte le canzoni dell’album! Wow! Non vedo l’ora di registrare qualcosa e scrivere un po’ di musica.

To read in English, go to page 2.

ITALIANO

Oggi sono andato ai provini di X-Factor Italia. Adoro scrivere in inglese per certe cose… quando sono davvero contento comincio a parlare inglese, scrivere in inglese… non so perché accade. Ma se accade è un buon segno. ^^

I provini si sono tenuti a Torvaianica, vicino Roma, in un bellissimo parco chiamato Zoomarine. Non c’erano nuvole nel cielo, e il mare non molto distante portava un venticello davvero appagante. C’erano all’incirca mille persone venute lì apposta per X-Factor, ma c’erano anche altri venuti a visitare il parco, e un curioso mix di persone con o senza costume ha attirato la mia attenzione. Uh, ragazze in costume… ogni estate ho bisogno di un po’ di tempo per abituarmici (no, oggi non era abbastanza XD). È uno degli argomenti della canzone sull’estate che sto scrivendo… prima che questi pensieri mi portino fuori argomento (dovrei riprendere a scrivere quella fanfiction sui pok- NO) andiamo oltre.

Il conduttore del programma, Francesco Facchinetti (meglio noto come il figlio del tastierista dei Pooh e l’ultima persona rilevante che mi ha aggiunto su Twitter ), ha ripreso alcuni filmati con la gente: cose come “al mio segnale urlate tutti insieme” o “quanti anni hai?” “diciassette” “bene devi sapere che quest’anno ci sono quattro categorie… i gruppi vocali, gli over-25 e gli under-24 suddivisi tra i maschietti e le femminucce… e tu sei una femminuccia giusto?”. Ha anche fatto alcune foto con la gente, ma non sono riuscito a farmene una con lui né ad avere il suo autografo . Comunque, sono arrivato MOLTO vicino a lui, e come TUTTO oggi gli ho fatto foto e video. Pubblicherò un documentario su Youtube su questa giornata al più presto .

L’attesa è stata TERRIBILE: prendevano 50 persone alla volta ogni mezz’ora per controllare tutte le scartoffie e le mandavano ad aspettare vicino al tendone dove si sarebbero tenuti i provini. Poi chiamavano 10 persone alla volta dentro il tendone. Ho aspettato tutto il giorno per entrarci, ma quei 25 minuti mentre attendevo il mio momento, scherzando con le altre persone che aspettavano con me, sono valsi tutti gli sforzi che ho fatto. Voglio dire grazie a tutte le persone che stavano aspettando con me, casomai qualcuna di loro dovesse leggere queste righe. Grazie a tutti, non vi dimenticherò mai!

Com’è andato il provino? È la cosa che conta di meno per me comunque ho cantato Angelo di Francesco Renga e Dear God degli Avenged Sevenfold e nulla di più. Di solito ti intervistano se gli interessi.

Questa giornata stupenda è passata, ora ho tutta l’estate davanti a me…
DIVERTIAMOCI! \(^-^)/