The very essence of Fredo Viola’s work to date lies on his vocal prowess, singing each and every melody and harmony on each and every one of his songs. The issue with this is that, while he can record or video himself many times, there is, ultimately, only one of him. The live environment could therefore have been well beyond his reach, his music too clever to be performed in front of an audience. The solution could well have been to take backing tracks with him and sing over them, and it is exactly as his set starts, with, fittingly on the night of the fortieth anniversary of the moon landing, a rendition of Moon Over Berceuse, where he sung the lead vocal over pre-recorded instances of his voice harmonising. This was however the only song relying entirely on the laptop that was performed all night. Right from the second song, he was joined on stage by Ben Evens (guitar/voice), Graeme Brooker (bass), and Jasper Walkinson (rudimentary drums – only a bass drum, a snare and a couple of cymbals to him to play with – guitar, voice) all three of Manchester outfit I Am Your Autopilot, together with French touche-a-tout Scalde, who added many textures and sounds by playing anything and everything from bells to flute and cythera.

The laptop was dropped all together for Red States, which followed, and suddenly, the delicate folk sound of Viola’s debut album, The Turn, with its electronic tints, came to life in entirely fresh and rich attires. Other songs also performed with no computer assistance later on were given new tones and hues. This was particularly the case of the playful The Original Man (a song resulting of a dream during a time when Viola was snowed under doing graphic design work) or the beautiful and delicate The Death Of A Son and Robinson Crusoe, which, despite a false start, still managed to draw some pretty emotional moments. Ben Evens and Scalde provided the bulk of the vocal harmonies, their voices in turn forming gentle motifs around, or strong counterpoints to, Viola’s leads, ensuring his multi-layered harmonies were exquisitely rendered.

At one point, Evens and Viola joined forces to give a rendition of All In Our Hands, a song taken from I Am Your Autopilot’s forthcoming debut album, their two voices circling around each other and weaving breathy threads around the delicate melody. Later, Viola called upon his laptop once again for Umbrellas, this time using it to loop and layer his own vocals for which the band carved a complex and powerful backdrop. After a quick permutation of functions between Ben Evens, moving to the drums, and Jasper Walkinson, taking on guitar duties, the evening concluded with a version of Petula Clark’s 1965 hit Downtown, here given, rather successfully, the Viola vocal treatment, and, as an encore, a pretty underwhelming version of The Sad Song.

This London stopover, coming on the back of a handful of successful dates in France, including one at La Cigale in Paris, represented British-born Viola’s first chance to play in the UK, and the crowd, piled up in the downstairs area of the Fly bar, was keen to show its appreciation. His highly personal work was never going to be an easy one to take on the road, but he has surrounded himself with excellent vocalists and musicians and, as a band, they have brought his songs to life, retaining their original flavours and displaying under totally new angles.

Fredo Viola | Fredo Viola (MySpace) | The Turn | Because Music

New York based audio visual artist Fredo Viola released his first EP, The Sad Song, to critical acclaim last year. The EP, including the video accompanying the title track, shot and directed by Viola, generated a lot of interest, especially from film directors and authors. Viola even received an offer to collaborate with Massive Attack. A few months later, he launched theturn.tv, a website collating more videos and new songs. The Turn is now being released as a full length album, and the CD also comes with a DVD featuring the videos showcased on the web. Here, Fredo discusses his artistic background, how he developed his particular blend of work and how the internet is a key part of his work.

What is your background? How did you come to music, and to video?
I come from a very artistic household… mom a writer/actress, dad a director. So there was always good music in the house, and interesting movies…  I’ve just always tried to find a way to be creative, express myself authentically.

Is there anyone in particular who has influenced your work?
Definitely Fellini. I soaked him up while in college like a sponge. It isn’t just his love of the phantasmagorical… It’s the way he builds his scenes, almost in a ritualistic, musical way, building to a cathartic climax. I’m thinking about the scene in I Clowns where the clowns begin a funeral march around the big ring, but being clowns, they start doing crazy clown things, and move faster and faster and faster around the ring until an enormous champagne bottle explodes, streamers fall everywhere, and the clowns break the circle and just start dancing madly with each other. This for me is perfection!

I think musically I have poured myself into so many singers and composers, and I think they have all had their influence.

The Turn is a vast project, which encompasses music, video and multimedia. How did the idea of it come and can you tell us more about the project?
I think The Sad Song started it all. The effect, which I will call temporal offsetting, just ignited something within me. And ever since that I have dreamt of pushing out of the familiar rectangular shell. One day I thought if I positioned these shots in a round composition it could be visually arresting, and being able to actually touch the shape to turn it brings the audience a bit closer to the experience of the music. This was something I was planning for about a year or so.

Then about half a year ago my friend Steph Thirion and I were brainstorming about how it would be best to design a whole site to hold these odd videos. We sketched out the visual structure of the site and its interface, and then my label hired Aer Studio with Guille Lopez to do the Flash programming. It was the most pleasurable, fruitful series of collaborations I have ever had.

How did you work on the project? Watching the videos, there is often a feeling that you capture moments live and then integrate them into something bigger. Were the music and video processes very linked, or are they totally independent from each other?
The music and video processes are as intricately linked as I can make them, and I’m constantly trying to link them more. Take for example The Turn (Ghost Cluster). The turning off and on of the noisy lights both affected the visual and created a percussive soundtrack. I like it when things work out like that. As well, you are right, I do like just capturing off the cuff moments and seeing what interesting patterns they yield.

My working process: First I get very inspired with an idea, sit on it for a little while, procrastinate, work on something else, and then finally throw obsessive energy into it and get it done very quickly. That’s usually the pattern.

First records are often the fruit of years of writing and recording. Was it the case for you?
Yes, The Turn was written over a very long period of time. I taught myself how to write and use Logic in that time. Some of the songs were started back when I first bought a microphone. For that reason, I had to rework the album at the end to bring it all together and concentrate on some of the tunes that had started off a bit too simply. K Thru 6 is a good example of a track that remained very rough until I got my head around how to fix it.

You have worked with quite a few people on the album. Are they people you have been working with for a while?
For the most part they are mostly folks I knew through the internet, many of which I still haven’t met. For example, the drum loops and keys in the beginning of Puss were created by a dude who calls himself Deltasleep. I have never met him, but we were really tight online for a while there. He introduced me to White Noise – An Electric Storm, for which I am eternally grateful. Also, the very beginning of The Turn has a bar sound… most of the voices were sent to me by my friends on em411.com. I had asked people to send recordings of what they might say at a show just before I start performing. Told them they could insult me, tell strange stories, whatever… Then I put it all together with sound from a real bar.

Your work is very much based on vocal harmonies for which you record all the layers yourself. How did you start working on this concept? Was it the fruit of trials and errors or was it more of a natural process?
Honestly, I don’t play keys well enough, so I was kind of forced to experiment with my voice just to get the ideas out fast enough and with expressiveness. But it was very magical from the start. So it quickly turned into something really addictive for me.

On your myspace page, you mention that, after posting the video to The Sad Song, you got emails from several film directors, and from authors and critics, all offering opportunities. How did you react to these, and were you tempted to accept some of the offers you received?
It was insanely exciting, emphasis on the word ‘insanely’. It just seemed out of control and demented. As excited as it made me, it also fed a part of my ego that was unhealthy. I began to obsess on seeing if there were new emails, etc.  I’m really glad to have gotten that pretty much out of my system. It’s the great thing about the internet, and the awful thing: instantaneous feedback.

But, yes, it was also really encouraging getting emails from so many folks that I admire. And I did take a few of them up on their offers! It led to my label deal, to my work with Mike Binder and to my meeting Massive Attack.

As you’ve just mentioned, you got contacted by Massive Attack, and you actually worked with them as a result. Can you tell us more about how this happened, and about the project?
I got emails from Dee and Neil about my Sad Song video and they asked if I wanted to collaborate. Of course I said yes, but inside I was shaking in terror. I find collaborations kind of hard, they are very hit or miss. You really have to be taken by what somebody sends you… Anyway, they sent me ten tracks, three of which I was really taken with. I sketched something out. They approved, sent me over to Bristol (for the ultimate in terror – I had never recorded in front of anyone before) and we spent two really nice days mostly just talking! I left them with a recording and I’m not sure what will come of it, if anything.

Visuals also seem important to you, and there is a definite style between the covers of your records, your website… Is it something you like to get involved with too, and who is responsible for the images?
Yes, I do have a strong feel for what my visuals should look like and prefer to have my hand in the designs as much as possible. That said, the excellent illustrations are by Richard Colman, and he did them long before my label contacted him! So it was just great luck finding his work which seems to work so well with my music.

Your first EP, The Sad Song, received a lot of attention and praises in the press, especially, it seems, in Europe. Were you surprised by how much it seemed to catch people’s imagination? How did you react to this?
I’ve been excited and really moved by how people have responded. I got an email a couple of months ago that a father sent me with a recording of his very young child singing the counterpoint line of Sad Song. Hearing that brought a tear to my eye. It’s really the best aspect of the internet, in my opinion, how easily folks can reach each other with no physical borders whatsoever… so you can get communication from folks in Tunisia one day and Texas another.

As well as three original songs, the EP also featured three very different remixes, by Tunng, Roland Appel and Prins Thomas. How did these happen, and what did you think of the result?
The label worked it out for those to be made. I am a huge fan of Tunng and thought their remix was excellent. I was equally surprised to hear that song made into two dance remixes! But before I was signed I had a bunch of talented internet friends (Scott Bruzenak, Mickey Eats Plastic, Lowlifi to name just a few) who remixed the same music and I was a little sad those didn’t get formally released.

There is also another EP, Red States, available on iTunes. Why only release it on a digital format, and do you think that this is the way forward for musicians?
I don’t really understand why labels are doing things this way now… Perhaps to gauge popularity of the music? That’s just a guess…

What inspires you to write songs? Are there particular things that inspire you more than others?
I’m inspired by emotional states. That’s really the most important aspect for me.  I’m inspired by ambiguity as well. Britten and Bartok do it often in their music… You aren’t sure what key you are in… Two keys seem to shimmer around you.  It’s a very exciting feeling because you feel rooted, yet somehow loose, floating…

How would you describe your music? There are hints of traditional folk music, in its medieval form at times I think, perhaps due to the vocal harmonies, and there is a pop edge to your songs too, but you also use electronic instruments. Do you recognize part of your work in this?
I would describe my music as a kind of hybrid style. I like mixing genres a lot, and different mediums. I’ve used this album as a vehicle to represent my filmic aspirations just as much as musical ones. So when it comes to arrangements, sometimes I try to think of the instruments a bit like symbols or elements of mise-en-scene. But truly the most important aspect of my music is the emotional catharsis.

Do you intend to play the songs from the album live, and if yes, how do you think you will get round the fact that there is only one of you. Would you rely on other vocalists, or work with videos?…
It’s the next big challenge, actually, figuring out the show! Yes, I’m going to have at least one or two other vocalists. Ideally, I would have six!  But more than likely we will be paring down the tracks and doing very different versions of the songs.  Also, I have been developing an improvisational style using a series of delay pedals which is part of the plan. And of course, a interactive visual style is in the works. But that’s going to take some time, because streaming live video is much harder than streaming audio.

You were born in England, and spent the first few years of your life in England and Italy before your parents moved to New York. Do you have any memory of your time in Europe, and do you think it has affected your work in any way?
I actually do. I have quite intense memories of both Italy and England, both quite abstract though. For England the memory is of the smell of Lavender and for some reason purple velvet wallpaper (?!). My early memories of Italy are wrapped up in the smell of garlic and anchovy cooking in good olive oil. And absolutely these two memories affected my work, as they provided almost a magnetic pull towards these mysterious and significant sensations. It’s probably why I became obsessed with Fellini and White Noise!

If you had to select 5 records of movies as your all-time favourites, what would they be?
Rosemary’s Baby, Fellini’s Casanova, The Night Of The Hunter (soundtrack with spoken accompaniment by Charles Laughton), Fantastic Planet, Oh Brother Where Art Thou (which is a bit of a cheat as it’s just a collection of amazing songs!)

What is the last record you bought?
Moondog – The German Years

What’s next in your diary?
Practice for my show, work on a few new videos and an iPhone app.

Email interview April 2009

Fredo Viola | The Turn | Because Music

FREDO VIOLA
The Turn
BEC5772438
Because Music 2009
12 Tracks. 45mins19secs

Buy: CD | iTunes
Stream: Spotify

Fredo Viola makes pop music like no-one else. Fearlessly rejecting traditional forms, he uses vocal layers to build songs and harmonies, but instead of relying on other people’s voices, he works with multiple instances of his own, adding line after line, variation after variation, to eventually surf on the strength of a choir of which he is the sole defining element.

Born in England, where he spent his first few years before his parents moved to Italy then, later, to New York where he still resides, Viola released his first EP, entitled The Sad Song, last year. The title track was accompanied by a video, directed by Viola, which expanded on the vocal concept by using multiple sequences of himself singing different lines. Shortly after he posted it on his myspace page, he began receiving emails from directors and film critics, and even got an offer to collaborate with Massive Attack. The EP featured three original songs plus three radically different reworkings of the title track from Prins Thomas, Roland Appel and Tunng.

The Turn first materialised at the end of 2008 as a dedicated website, where users were invited to play with shapes, each one representing a song and its accompanying video. Now released as a CD/DVD set, the CD featuring twelve songs, and the DVD eight videos, including Viola’s rather beautiful version of Silent Night, recorded with Christian Fossdal, which appeared around the time of The Sad Song on the web, the album acts as a strong showcase to Viola’s many talents. Developing further his vocal concept and applying it, at times in full, at others in much more discreet fashion, Viola has created a totally unique record here. Infused with elements of pop, folk and, occasionally almost medieval forms, supported by gentle electronic brushes propped up with more traditional guitars, drums, brass, stings or acoustic bass, Viola’s songs are often very progressive, developing from one vocal line into many, or starting as a simple pop song before bursting into something more complex.

The album opens with The Turn (A Pagan Lament), undeniably one of Viola’s strongest songs to date. Like a miniature symphony, it ebbs and flows, swells and retracts, slowly gaining momentum before finally exploding in rich and powerful vocal flourishes. Later, he creates similar effects on the luxurious Robinson Crusoe, and, to a lesser extend, on K Thru 6, Moon After Berceuse, and once again on the stunning closing Umbrellas. At the other end of the scale, Viola disarmingly simple pop songs are equally touching. Whether through the summery tones of Red States, the playful The Original Man, which heavily references his activity as an audio visual artist, or the moving drapes of Death Of A Son, the delicate melodies and vocal restraint give a chance to better appreciate Viola in his songwriter/storyteller guise. In between are pieces such as the tender Friendship Is… or Risa, or the sumptuous Puss, placed at particular points on the album to link up between the more elaborate pieces and the ones showing more temperance.

The DVD showcases Viola’s work as a video artist as he applies the principle developed on The Sad Song in a variety of ways on seven other pieces. Occasionally, he invites the viewer into the process as he is seen and heard specifying exactly which voice is placed where, while on other films, the focus is entirely on the visualisation of the music and of its emotional aspect of the work. While the simultaneous use of similar shots as originally developed on The Sad Song is also used on Test For Friendship, on the second of the two versions of The Turn, Viola’s face is super-imposed a number of times and the exposure changes according to which voice acts as the lead at any particular time.

A rather ambitious project, The Turn is also a strongly accomplished piece of work which combines audio and visual in a totally unusual way. Each part of the project can be experienced and appreciated in its own right though, putting the emphasis on the listener to choose how to appreciate it. Fredo Viola is equally at ease with music and image, and has found an effective way to combine the two, making The Turn a rather magnificent and thrilling album.

4.7/5

Fredo Viola | The Turn | Because Music
Buy: CD | iTunes
Stream: Spotify

FREDO VIOLA
The Sad Song
BEC5772159/BEC577216
Because Music 2008
04 Tracks. 16mins23secs / 02 Tracks. 15mins36secs
Format: Digital, 10″ / 12″

Fredo Viola was born in London where he spent the first few years of his life before his parents moved to Rome and then New York and Los Angeles where he spent most of his formative years. He studied to become a film director, but music took him on a different path. Strong from a recent collaboration with Massive Attack, Viola follows a couple of MP3 releases with his debut EP, The Sad Song EP, on French imprint Because Music.

The Sad Song EP features three of Viola’s delicately crafted songs, showcasing quite a wide range of styles, starting with the elegant vocal layering and melody of the title track, with only discreet electronic textures added in the background. Found somewhere between Simon & Garfunkel and Animal Collective, The Sad Song swirls and develops from just a few vocal swathes into a dense ethereal construction. The piece’s melancholic tone is further highlighted toward the end with a wash of bleeps which draw in for a moment as the melody ebbs away. Hogwash, the second song, is a much more upbeat and playful offering. While poorer in vocal substance than its predecessor, the song captivates by Viola’s constant twists and turns, driving it from a fast paced intro to a much more subtle middle section to an even more energetic last part. Ether shows a much darker and demanding side to Fredo Viola’s work. The melody is much more complex and, at times difficult to pinpoint with precision, and the arrangements are at times manic, making it a slight oddity here, but one that curiously works and gives an insight into what a more extensive release could harbour to. The EP comes with a stunning remix of The Sad Song by folksters Tunng, who give the song a more acoustic feel by replacing much of the electronic textures with guitars, only retaining the gentle bleeps of the original but echoing them with their own instrumentation. Once again the voice is placed at the heart of the piece and

The 12″ offers two additional reworkings of The Sad Song. The first one, courtesy of German producer Roland Appel, whose recent release as Dark Soldier has gathered a fair amount of attention, is a slick and graceful exercise which uses Viola’s vocals as the basis for a rather splendid deep house piece. The driving beat and additional keyboard brushes only serve to unleash the most outgoing nature of Viola’s original and turns it into a superb dance floor filler. In contrast, the Norwegian Prins Thomas creates a brooding piece of electro which never veers much from its original path, yet manages to remain captivating all the way through. Thomas’s mid-tempo approach sticks to Viola’s original and allows Thomas to create a superb atmospheric version of the song.

Fredo Viola’s three tracks all showcase a very different side to his musical persona, but somehow, they all have a strong bond and have a definite personality, which has been captured in various ways by the three remixers, all adding to Viola’s sonic universe without disturbing it greatly. If this EP is anything to go by, Fredo Viola’s debut album, due out later in the spring, could prove a stunning offering.

4.7/5

Fredo Viola | Because Music