Interview with Special Guest Fabio Frizzi

Fabio, we love your music. Obviously your scores are phenomenal, but I just want to listen to you talk. I just feel more cultured, just listening to you.

No, but I I don't know. I mean, we are I mean I am like the the man who does uh work uh with the with the hands. I mean a composer is somebody who puts uh something on then uh correct uh correct and in the end there is uh a sound and somebody maybe loves it.

Well you've made so many that that have stood the test of time. I will say that. My vinyl collection is to the brim with your works. So and I I am really looking forward to your tour this fall, especially when you come by my neck of the woods in September in Brookline Mass. My friend Mark is gonna have you at the Coolidge Corner Theater, I believe.

Yeah, Mark is a good friend of me as well, you know. So uh I'm very happy to go back, uh be back there.

And then in our neck of the woods, you're going to be at Transplants in Palmdale, California on my actual birthday, October 23rd. Best day of the year. Yeah. Shout out to Transplants, Matt and Sarah and Carlos. They're the ones who connected them a little bit as an amos, of course. The podcast.

It's a long tour because uh at my age thirty days all over America. But uh it's it's nice. I mean, I enjoy with my band, it's uh every day a new place. The only concern I have is that uh I would like to visit the towns, but there's uh never some out of time, you know. It's always uh faster, faster than fast. But anyway, anyway.

Yeah, you basically wake up in a new city every time, new venue, new city.

Yeah, new.

People think touring is really fun and glamorous, and it's very exciting for the show is amazing, but the travel is hard.

Yeah, I I consider those kind of uh uh of tours uh like you know, a a class uh with your friends, a class tour. You go, you see, because uh the basic thing is uh being well with your musicians and and people around you. So all day you you travel, you tell things, you you you tell stories uh, and then at a certain point you enter the theater and it's uh the magic, let's say.

Yeah, exactly. That's when it happens. Nice, and you're gonna be in Los Angeles as well, like up in Los Angeles proper, which yay, Bonnie and Date! Welcome to see you.

By the way, uh obviously uh all of you will be on my uh guest list, so uh it's uh it will be a pleasure.

Uh this would be an honor to be on your guest list. An honor, yes. We'll be framing that that pass.

They start going, we're not worthy, we're not worthy. Well, because people, I mean, especially in horror, don't really think about it until they think about it. The score sets the entire mood. I mean, I in some films remember the music more than some of the scenes, to be honest.

I think uh that that is our the strong the strength that we have. I mean, if you think to some Morricone uh movies, uh Sergio Leone movies, and you think you're there, you're in the movie. And when you go back uh home or after a television show, you go sleeping. You you bring with you some something. It's uh the only thing you can bring directly in your head. Then maybe you can re-look at the re-watch the movie, but uh that thing is yours, and and this is uh very important for us.

You give you give a part of yourself with every composition that you make. I remember going through your history and seeing that, you know, you've been quoted saying Sergio Leone recording the score for Giuliatesta was the moment you decided to pursue composing. What did you see in that room that affected your trajectory?

You can imagine. I just uh took a look uh the year. I was 19. So uh yeah you can imagine. I'm uh I was born in a in a movie family. My dad was uh the director of the distribution of a very important uh group in Italy. Every day he taught us uh uh this actor, this story. So we we have grown with uh this uh virus, you know. When you have this, you cannot lose. And uh yeah, I had ended the school, and that day I asked to my dad, can can you ask uh Sergio if I because I was in love with uh many musicians, I mean Morigone, Nino Rota, uh many, Trovaioli and many others. And some of them I had uh got to to know just before. But that day was uh the day they were recording the last uh SP on uh Gula Testa. And in particular, they were singing. Maybe you remember that movie, there was uh a track that sang Shon Chun, Sean Chun, that just that one. So I went, I was uh so shy, you can imagine. The Sergio was a friend of my dad, but it was a great um man. He was really great, and it was a huge man. And then uh I entered, he told me, nice to meet you. And I heard, because the the orchestra had ended, the voice was uh was going to be recorded. And it was uh it was a shock. Think of something like a shock, a positive shock. Because I was in one of the most important studios in Roma, with one of the most important composers in Italy. And I decided that I wanted to try because it's not like this thing. You hope you will have the chance to do it. But anyway, and uh I had the chance that my a new friend that I had known a publisher known Carlo Bixio, um Ennio, Ennio wasn't wasn't a very easy person. I mean, it was a little tough. But he asked him, you know, this is a young guy, he's a young musician, he would like to follow you. So I for more than one year, I think a couple of years, I went to the recording of Ennio, seated uh beside the guitar, the guitar player. Obviously, like this. But uh obviously I could learn a lot of things, I could uh steal a lot of uh ways uh of uh of being in studio. And did so that day was very important in the end also for what happened after.

That is incredible to hear your beginnings. And it's kind of fortuitous in foreshadowing that you were sitting right next to the guitar player, too. Because you don't just play guitar, right?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's uh this man uh unfortunately passed away. His uh name was uh Bruno Battisti da Mario. And he was uh the guitar player for for anyone for every every and I learned many ways also of playing the guitars, a distortion on uh trombones, many, I mean many ways uh of arranging because when you are there sitting silently, it was really really something that nobody could do. And I had the chance to to to be there.

We shall dedicate this episode to Bruno.

Bruno Battisti da Mario. He was also my teacher for a little moment, and then I passed to another Segovia. Maybe you know that uh Andrese Segovia was uh a very important, uh maybe the most important uh people for classical guitar. And uh also also Bruno had studied with him. So he can't in a good room also in that uh in this situation.

Yeah. The guitar is an it's an amazing instrument. How many rather than I mean of course you can strum and you can pick, but there's so many different sounds that you can get from a guitar. I don't know, my favorite instrument might be a cello, and I think cellos are so effective and more.

Yeah. I love it.

The way you can like tap on it and turn it over. I have a cellist friend named Zoe Keating who's phenomenal, and she loops herself, she'll have like 16 tracks of cello. And she's done some haunting scores, really cool stuff.

You know, the cello is uh in a way is the brother of guitar because if you put them together, they're very similar. I mean, as a as uh obviously it's is uh is bigger, but the the voice is very similar. If you consider that uh the the bass string of cello is uh uh C, as we say in Italiano, though. And the guitar is the E just on that. Very, very similar as a range, but the cello can play every kind of melody. I love it so much. I worked a lot with with cello.

I love it. That's my favorite. But also, if you think about it, like now, you know, some of the most iconic guitar players, Jimmy Page, was playing guitar with a bow. So it's like, hey, they are kind of similar.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But my guitar, you if you come to my concert and I hope, you will see Francesco, Francesco Seguto, my guitar player. He plays with an e-bow, which is uh like uh an electronic uh bow. And uh he does something like it's uh like uh more or less like the voice of the cello. It's more electric, electronic, but it's fantastic as well. And I I really hope you you will find the moments uh in which we use it.

That's so cool. That's so cool.

You also use the Melotron. Yeah, I love it. I love it so much. I have one. I have one. I never use it now, you know why, uh Tony. Because uh nowadays we have the computer with uh billions of sounds, so it's easy to go in studio, open the computer, and choose. But my my my Melotron is very not very happy with me because he's in the other in the other room. He doesn't play. But every now and then I I say to my sound engineer, one day we must take this one, prepare, and record from that directly.

It has such a distinct sound and contributes so much to the composition. That in your MOOC, the the MOOC is it it's holy to me. So could you tell me tell me what brought you to that and introduced it to your sound?

Yeah the basic um the basic uh reason was a negative. I can tell you why. Because we did not have money for having a big orchestra. So in the beginning, when I was an 18, 19, uh 20, I needed to do uh tracks in my in my room, but I could not uh bring a quartet uh string sometimes, but not every day. So uh many of us, uh you know, McCartney used to play everything by himself in uh in that the first album after Beatles. And uh there's an another play another another Tumular Bells was recorded uh completely by by um I will tell you in a while, but I mean it was a moment in which people understood that with a small multi-track could uh do it uh by himself by himself. Obviously, you could not play everything uh the best. They we we started to have the drum machine, the the first, and and you could uh have uh some rhythm and so. So obviously was uh was uh was incredible. I I have a Moog now 72, the first one, but I bought it uh a few years ago. Uh I I found in a shopping room and said, This is mine, because I wanted to. But uh no, the the the Melotron I bought maybe 10 years ago. But the first time was was uh funny because uh I loved Melotron a lot, uh, Genesis. Uh every every every group from England, and not only from England, they use it uh also Beatles in many songs that they they started. And uh I I had to do, I don't remember which, maybe maybe it was a city of the living there, maybe. And I called a shop in Roma, they had one, and I said, I need uh the you know the cartridge. A cartridge is uh like this. It's maybe maybe you know. It's uh very heavy and very very large. And I uh and you can use many, many of those buttons of those cartridges. So I asked for strings in that situation and choir, because um, you know, the melodrone. I use a lot a lot in that situation. And uh and I was happy, you know. When the when when the uh they they they rang uh the door, there is a melodrone. It was it was my dream really come true.

Yeah, it's amazing what you can do with the choir with just human vocals are just gosh, they can be so creepy. And I don't know if I don't they can be. I mean, it's so beautiful, but I don't know if it uh maybe has something to do with like a lot of there's so many amazing religious horror films, and we kind of associate choirs with church. So I wonder if it's a subconscious like, ooh, okay, what's about to happen kind of a thing.

I I I used to tell that it was the voices of the dead, but yeah. When you think oh the theme, uh the theme of uh Zombie.

Right.

Is it not but by Melotron, but it's something very similar. But next one I started with Melotron. Because uh we needed uh something very deep, something f strong, something uh exciting in uh in this kind i in a negative uh sense, but uh very and uh that sound was great. Just a technical thing that maybe you can Melotron is not a low octave because it gets uh still uh let's say a medium low octave. So we used to record the the melodron at the double of uh of speed, then go back with the with the machine, and we had the octave the lower octave. So it was really uh not uh the normal, which was uh for me not not uh enough low.

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You know, when you when you do recording, you are always uh a boy. And you have to find uh things uh to to enjoy and to play. I mean, Tusk and it's magic, like many places in the world. But you know, for us uh it's uh it's uh peace. Uh it's sometimes when when we get to to the to our house in uh it's uh near Volterra, maybe you know it's uh Etrusque uh city, very beautiful. And uh we go there, uh Roma. We are here we are in Roma, now it's uh summer. You cannot hear many many uh cars uh in the in the room in the road, but uh in the w in winter it's uh terrible. You go there, you you sit in front of the house, and there is just the stars and nothing else. And it's really it's really great.

Yeah. That sounds so nice and peaceful. No, doesn't it? I can start crying right now. That sounds so amazing. All right.

Is there a difference between scoring for film and television? Do you approach it differently?

Technically, there is something different. I mean, when you do um a series, a TV series, the first uh the first uh show is uh like a like a movie. I mean, uh you treat it uh like a movie, many themes. Then obviously, when you go ahead, you you keep some of the themes uh for the for the characters uh that you wrote for, and then you you go ahead. So the second, the third, it's uh always something different. As uh I I treat it also with in Italy, the beautiful thing is that uh the budget uh for TV show TV series is always uh good because they know that you need an orchestra. So I till uh seven, eight years ago, I I had uh more than uh a decade with uh another great uh friend of director, Vittorio Cindoni. I did a lot. For 13 years, every year two, three series. And uh the beautiful was that all the musicians in Roma loved me so much because I needed them. Almost every month I was in studio with them. Nowadays I I went back to movies uh that are with less uh budget. Wow. Unfortunately, yeah, but you know, many short uh many American independent uh and over there you you you cannot have uh the same uh situation. Imagine that in in new worlds, just to let you understand a little bit, if I had to do a six uh six show uh series, uh six uh puntate, you know, uh it was more or less uh ten thousand for each. So it was sometimes you could uh get uh some more, but you could uh absolutely have a good orchestra for that, you know, for for a con. Also because the recording uh of a series is all in the beginning. I mean uh three, four days of orchestra, and more or less you have everything. Then maybe later, if you need something, you go one more day. But it's not uh for for movies, it's terrible. They ask, please, Fabio, can you do this for that? And this it's a tragedy. But I love my job, I love movies, so I I I do it. I mean, uh in a way or another, I get there.

That's so funny. That's what I say all the time when I'm going to like a gig, I'm driving three hours for like, you know, not a huge budget, and I'm like, I love my job, I love my job, I love my job.

This is uh I think that uh everybody of us, even great actors, even if they are asked to do something they love, they're available for for less than what they they would like. No, I think.

Yeah, I think so. Yeah, we've all taken jobs because we're like, okay, maybe it's not gonna be like extremely memorable or perfect, but hey, I'm glad to be working. And then there's jobs when it's like, oh my god, don't even pay me. I just want to do it. You know?

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, definitely. Or like this job might open up this avenue and this networking with these people. Like it may not be as up much upfront now, but it could lead to greater opportunities down the road. And that's something that I think a lot of artists look at. You kind of have to leverage, is this worth my time? Are they a pain in the ass? How are we gonna, you know, personalities and everything? And like, is this worth the ROI? When it's something really exciting and something that you just want to be a part of, you almost don't care about the payout for it.

I can tell you that uh one of the one of the points I always look for is the quality of the people.

Yeah.

Not only of uh because if you work well, it's uh something all always almost always great. Uh even with my musicians, I prefer uh not call a geni uh a genius I can I cannot stand, but maybe a good musician that is uh works well with me because uh he will give me everything everything he can. Yeah and uh and I say that uh this is a so beautiful job why do it uh worse? Let's be to good together. I mean it's uh this is very important.

Yeah it's so important. I just did so I I'm a stand-up comic that's what I do and like hey you're going to get gigs by being fun to work with by being lovely by supporting the rest of the comics. Like if I have two comics I'm choosing from and one of them's like an amazing comic but a pain in my ass and then another comic who's also very very good but but will put their all into it. I'm going with that one every time.

Yeah yeah totally on the same page I think uh that nowadays that the world is at one and that's what this industry is all about is finding our people and the people we love to work with in any capacity. We love to have great people like you on our show. We started this podcast because we met great people so it's all about those relationships.

Absolutely yes absolutely but in creativity as you pointed out and it's as Sam and Bonnie have too very very non-negotiable part of creativity is the joy in it for me. You need to be happy and content and celebrating the work that you have put in because if you end up mourning it it really knows how to extinguish that flame real quick. So always be with the people you want to be with in that journey. And to know that you carry that a as an ethos as well it's just incredible to hear. And it really inspires me too.

I think it is absolutely true.

Absolutely yeah and I think what I'm really enjoying right now Bonnie you can back me up on this is Anthony is like a kid in a horror music candy shopper the joy on I mean we're all we're all we've all been so excited about this for a long time now and Anthony is just like what? Like it was just this is just giving me all the energy that I need right now.

Well and and the reality is it it's like I was introduced to your work through other art through the art on the box of a VHS tape that was a gateway to a film which is a piece of art which contains your art. And to see that domino effect through my life where it goes from composed by to actually speaking with you it's all of those years where you as you mentioned earlier that musical beat just sticks with you long after the film is ended to be able to have that opportunity to actually speak with you and talk about your process and share that joy and creativity of course I'm smiling. You kidding me this is an incredible opportunity to connect and I'm having such an incredible time hearing you speak about your journey and being with my friends Sam and Bonnie creating this too.

Yeah and now we're all going to Italy and we play together indeed indeed I haven't picked up a guitar in many years but I mean don't threaten me with a good time I have a tambourine I can bring I don't know it's a Stevie Nicks tambourine I don't know how to play it but I'll try and and and Sam you what will you play? Uh I will I will play the fear out of my body and attempt to pick up an Insta You might have tried a hundred platforms each with hidden costs, plugins, multiple logins, but now there's Beamly drag and drop website podcast hosting online courses memberships digital products and 0% platform fees all your tools in one crypt Uh please head to beamly.com and raise your creator studio from the dead in the best way.

Every day we run so it there is not a lot of time I think that uh if we could have uh five uh lives uh not long but uh aside no yeah I mean I mean uh I think how many things we would like to know better to to study to to to ask because uh let's it's it's not today it's not so easy but uh I think that uh many things you you you see you would like to to know more for example cello I would like to play as well I played violin a little bit very very badly because I studied uh yeah I I have a school here in Roma uh a music school the the um the musicians that come with me the three that come from Italy this time are three of my teachers classical guitar uh yeah yeah yeah because we live together I mean in my school is near my house and when I have to write when when they they teach we are very often together maybe smoking a cigarette in the fr uh from a lesson to the other you know the five minutes and uh so uh I I mean uh and I'm studying now I'm studying drums really judo see absolutely no but because it's very gives you uh freedom you know drums is very it's gym it's something very and if you have uh good ideas you like to go to the gym without going that is correct as somebody who has attempted and failed miserably at playing drums it is at minimum a workout yeah absolutely I when you have a school and you are I I would not to say but I mean you are the boss you can say I would like to do some to have some lessons of that of the other and you learn and you uh writing music is my job it's 50 and more years or so I know what to write. But sometimes it's uh interesting to know what my musicians, you know my first violino and prove when I write for them. So try the the the keyboard of a violin and then you know what uh Elvin my first violin knows when I write this is uh funny and and I love it so much.

Obviously it's uh it's it's not so no no it's not like this but uh it's very very very difficult by the way your your friend uh will tell you uh that uh the most uh difficult thing is not uh the left hand it's the right one the bow because bravo that technique is so important this is more important than the other one yeah because the other one is a mechanical that one is uh the the the art is here is in that yeah yeah the the the finger you know that's like muscle memory eventually yeah but the bow hand yeah that that's everything comes from from here comes from the heart yeah that's one yeah some things in art you cannot be taught I mean they can be explained in the sense of well here's the practical way of you need to look at it but either you feel it from the heart or you don't feel it and that that I I feel a most art forums yeah there's a lot of people who were technically good at it but the soul isn't there for whatever reason.

Is something else. Absolutely something else.

Right.

For example you were tell telling about the reading no really writing and reading music is not what we write. Music is what we listen to and what we produce. So we started to write because uh we had to give uh to other people the possibility to know what we are we we we we wrote but uh but I think that uh the the most important thing for a musician and for a listener is that one because if you don't have a good ear you cannot do a a good musician according to me.

Yeah and that's what I tried to tell my teachers who tried to make me read music they didn't go for it.

They were like nah figure it out they threw you right in the fire didn't they? Yeah. Yeah but you know I I in some ways that connection by just having to learn means that you're connecting with that instrument on your terms that's uniquely to you. And you get to know all of the placement you get to know okay is the sound better coming from this way it allows you to experiment more. And then the fundamentals can be brought in but I my gosh Sam like I know that feeling because that's what it was like with guitar for me because my my instructor was like listen to your favorite songs try to play them and then we'll work off of that. And it took a couple years but it worked.

Yeah yeah yeah yeah now now nowadays it's like this yeah I tried to play guitar because you know I wanted to be a rock star when I was 12. And then like I don't know if you can tell my hands are not big so it was really hard to get around the neck and actually be able to hit all the chords. So I'm like I have little tiny baby hands.

The shark scene you know but that uh Tarantino was crazy for that scene because he says uh he always says to his actors that it uh what Lucio Fulci did uh was uh impossible because uh the the zombie it's uh the the the and uh it's uh really incredible and uh I tried to understand but uh because I I met recently one of the one of the the the actors that did the zombie maybe I don't know who of you have seen zombie zombie uh zombie flash eaters for sure uh Anthony does yeah you know that because when there is uh now the the the zombie that comes from the earth and and goes and and can and and kills and uh the lady but he told me that uh the those scenes uh with uh the the shark and uh the and the zombie were shoot in America and they weren't in America just Lucho was there so he he didn't know how they did it and the Tarantino is crazy for that scene when he was doing a movie in in Europe in Berlin one night uh he he asked but you don't know uh to the actors the important excerpt and they said no we don't let's go to a cinema a movie cinema a movie theater and he rented the copy and they after dinner were there like this looking at the zombie flesh eaters incredible that sounds like Quentin that sounds like yeah yeah that tracks yeah so I I know that uh it's late for you over there so we we have a couple more questions here absolutely with pleasure I would say till till cappuccino tomorrow in the morning with you because you're great guys love it love it I've got iced coffee right here and it's not the same it's not the same I I drink a lot of American coffee when I'm there because you know I need a lot in Italy just one small and you're right you're okay.

You know the Frizzi to Fulci tour it it has such a cult following and folks are so so grateful when you're able to come over to this side of the ocean to see the American fans. Leading a live ensemble through expanded suites of your work does playing this material live decades later change how you hear it?

Obviously obviously yes uh consider that uh I with Lucho no you are you are in the the show business all of you so you know that uh maybe to now you we are very well here then maybe for uh five years we we will not meet uh again you must to come to to my concerts but I I mean we could uh still lose each other because it's like this so I did those uh beautiful things uh back then with Lucho then uh life uh went ahead and uh when uh when the internet came I understood that there was something that I did not know many many people all over the world loved Lucio and uh for some reason loved me for the music I had written for him. So for the idea of doing uh Fritzi to Fulci was uh a celebration of our friendship. Lucio was no more with us but he was for sure one of the directors that taught me the more of the what I know about doing music for movies. So I went to listen again what I wrote and consider that back then I was uh 30, 35. I think that the last one is uh 90. I am 51 so I was 39. And uh meeting Fabio, a young Fabio and a less young Fabio was very interesting because doing the same the same job I do today, the same job I did then but with obviously nowadays with more experience with um with the more uh you know uh getting older but uh I had the chance to meet myself in a way why I had chosen that solution why had I had uh I'd done this uh chord and it was really uh like psychologia it was like a meeting a psychological uh meeting with myself of 35 years before it was really interesting and uh every now and then still now when I play in the concert I think about that I mean it's a gift that Lucio and myself gave to me of today I mean it's uh it's uh something that I could not imagine because I I always uh worked every single day and I still work at it but nowadays uh one of the projects uh comes from there it's uh really something magical and beautiful so sweet yeah that is amazing to be you know that's such a powerful statement to make too we're so busy trying to get to that next level to trying to to chase the dream but after a while we're like we're living it and but our feet are so running so fast we don't have a chance to realize that we're living our dream the way that you just put that is amazing and it really gives me such great perspective to actually go back and revisit the relationship I had with myself at that age. This is this is absolutely with uh you you can imagine thinking to my musicians uh that I had like uh my friends from Goblin that I uh I worked with uh in that moment and and suggestions and uh moments uh in the recording studio and uh to be grateful to somebody that gave you some said ideas uh some some sounds it's it's something very very big but it's uh you can you can you can taste the best way it's a long story. I mean Fritz Fulci was born uh 13 years ago and after two years of reflecting with friends with the daughter of Lucio Antonella she is a great friend of mine and she was uh one of the people who obviously voted for for that because she was uh very happy every now and then she asked me how it's going the situation so I mean uh it's uh it's something that I I could not imagine and nowadays it's uh a a big a good part of my actual life this is not a test this is your emergency broadcast system announcing the conclusion of the Horror Nerds Comedy Podcast sanctioned by Horror Nerds Productions all authorized screams laughter and unhinged opinions of class four have now been safely contained during this broadcast all tangents puns and unsolicited horror takes were permitted without consequence emergency podcast services will resume after this brief transmission blessed be our final girls and our horror nerds founders a podcast reborn may humor be with you all delightful thank you so much for staying up late to join us and we are so grateful and we cannot wait to come see you we've had a lot of people but this is like we've been doing this a couple years now this is one of the best this is one of the things you're gonna give us coffee we mean it