NeuGuitars Man
( english version )
Andrea Aguzzi was born in Milan in 1969, he lives and works in Mestre near Venice. He has a degree in Business Administration from the Ca 'Foscari University of Venice and has always been passionate about the internet, music and guitar.
He is the blogger of the NEUGUITARS Blog, dedicated to avant-garde, experimental and contemporary music for guitar. https://neuguitars.com/. He was also co-founder of the AlchEmistica netlabel dedicated to classical and contemporary music with a Creative Commons license.
Visionary Guitars. Chatting with Guitarists (2016), only in English.
Amazon.it: Visionary Guitars Chatting with Guitarists - Aguzzi, Andrea - Libri
John Zorn The Book Of Heads: Amazon.it: Aguzzi, Andrea: Libri
On his blog NeuGutars he publishes numerous articles on very often underestimated or too demanding topics, according to the points of view and commercial needs. In reality, Aguzzi's competence and passion make these topics very versatile and easy to understand. Certainly to listen to some of his proposals you need to have an open mind and a well-trained ear to listening, but nothing impossible.
From his proposals it's clear that over the years he has acquired a very effective method of analysis and understanding, with a strong focus on aspects such as composition, improvisation, interpretation and technological development of instruments.
Andrea has created a formula of 10 questions for his interviews, but I'm a little more curious and maybe I'll do at least a dozen, let's see what he answers:
How was your passion for music and classical guitar born?
About thirty years ago I decided to learn to play an instrument and bought a classical guitar. I didn't really want to play classical music, but more pop stuff. However, given my lack of talent, I decided to go to class with a teacher, luck would have it that I found Mrs. Liliana Amato, wife of Maestro Angelo Amato, who at the time was teaching classical guitar at the Venice Conservatory. She not only taught me what I wanted, but she also introduced me to the world of classical guitar and Brazilian music. I owe her a lot, she was a great teacher. I studied with her for 3 years, a beautiful formative period.
Do you play an instrument?
I play, intermittently. I still have my old classical guitar, a Yamaha CG 120 and two electric guitars: a 1996 Fender Stratocaster Mexico and a restored 1980's Eko Les Paul model. Two beautiful instruments, dear memories of a friend who is no longer with us. I also have a headless electric guitar, a Chinese kit, which I had turned into a fretless guitar. It has a sound of its own.
Have you studied composition?
No. I have a high school diploma and a degree in Business Administration in Venice. Never attended the Conservatory. For the rest I am self-taught, I listen, I read, I study, I am interested.
When did you start to suffer from the limitations of "mass market" offerings?
I don't really suffer from it and have never suffered from it. The first record, which I bought when I was 11, was The Police's single "Every little thing she does is magic" and I still have it along with all their albums that I continue to listen to with pleasure. I have never really suffered the distinction between underground and mainstream, I listen to what interests me, even if maybe I don't like it. I've never sided in favor of one genre over another, although there are things I don't listen to just like Italian melodic song and opera, for example. My musical training is definitely rock and from there I started to expand: jazz, classical, ethnic music, experimental, noise. More than the genre itself, I am interested in listening and understanding how musicians love to mix the cards on the table. I like prototypes, things on the edge of borders, even if they are unlistenable. I have nothing against trap and rap. I refuse to think that today good music is no longer produced, even in the "mass market". Those who say it remind me of the two old gentlemen from the Muppett Show. Today many beautiful records are produced, like 10, like 20 years ago. Except that we already have a selection of the past and it is easier to find your way around. Today the offer is huge. For the listener it is certainly not a bad thing. Has society changed? What's the news?
How important is it that there are creative composers who know how to break the mold?
I don't know if and how important it is, I'm glad they are there. I agree with what Scott Johnson writes in his essay "The Counterpoint of the Species": life changes, evolves in non-linear ways by adapting and anticipating the needs that the environment, nature and the desire for survival impose. For an artist these factors are given by the culture, the environment, society, the economic and technological situation that surround him and with which he interacts. Then each one makes his own choices, that are necessarily personal. There are those who feel the desire, the need to go against society, those to follow it, others to flatter it. Each choice corresponds to the results and to an audience that follows them. In addition to creative composers, there must be creative interpreters and improvisers and an audience interested in their proposals. We are not very far, even in this case, from a form of market segmentation.
What fascinates you more than composition: the methods for its drafting or the final result? a
A bit of both, but my musical training is based more on listening to music rather than reading a score. So I would tell you that the final result is what I aim for right away, then I try to deepen, to understand what lies beneath and here things get complicated, because the score is not enough for me. I want to understand the logic behind not only the compositional choices but also the interpretative ones, so I read, write and listen to again.
I'm afraid I don't understand the question. What do you mean by "facilitating them"? Facilitate them to choose that repertoire or support them from an economic point of view? In the first case, I really don't know what to answer: it depends on them, I have never dared to suggest a particular piece to an interpreter. It's up to the interpreter to find and perform what interests her/him most, what she/he finds best suited to her/him sensitivity. I think it's up to them to find the artistic, economic, cultural and social motivations to do this job. As for the economic aspect, I always think that the best way is to buy their records and go to their concerts. Unfortunately at the moment the second thing is still impossible due to Covid-19. But we'll be back.
What quality do you appreciate most in an interpreter?
Expressiveness. This is regardless of the genre she/he plays and the type of music she/he makes. Expressiveness is the first thing, then come tine, phrasing, ideas, capacity for innovation. But expressiveness always remains in first place, it does not change if it comes from Allan Holdsworth, Eric Clapton, Julian Bream, Elena Casoli, Jimmy Page ...
You have published four books on interesting topics, I think each of them required a lot of effort, what was it like to enter the world of publishing?
I really don't think I got into it, in the sense that I chose to produce the books myself, thus doing translations, editing and corrections myself. I learned a little by little and I am still continuing to learn. I have never proposed anything to a publishing house and therefore I don't know that economic and cultural context. I write only for the pleasure of doing it, not to follow an economic activity: I earn practically nothing from my books, they are on sale at cost price. Same thing for the blog, not surprisingly there are no advertising banners. My profession is another and I must say that I like my job and that I will continue to do so. I don't want to be a professional blogger.
Despite the idea, of many bigots, that blogs are uninteresting and unprofessional, you passionately manage a blog that is always updated with articles and information that is difficult to find elsewhere. How do you manage to acquire so much information for your "little blog" ... have you created a network of contacts with the various players in the sector?
I listen, I read, I study. Simply because I like to do it and try to do it as best I can. It's a question of attitude. When I approach a musician, perhaps on a social network, I show him/her that I know his/her music, that I buy his /her records, perhaps from himself/herself, on his/her Bandcamp platform. If I interview him/her I avoid banal and closed questions, I try to write reviews that explain what is inside that record and that provide as many cultural coordinates and connections as possible, because my goal is not the artist reading the review, but the music lover who reads my blog and who wants to know, maybe, if it's worth spending 20 euros for that cd or LP. From this point of view I don't consider myself a critic, but a music lover. I don't like to cut off a record or an artist. This is not in my education: I am not able to perform even 5% of what the musicians I follow can do, so I do not allow myself to enter into technical executive issues, which among other things would be of little interest to my audience and followers. . I also avoid entering the territories of taste, my personal taste. A music, an album has every right/duty to be listened to regardless of whether I like it or not. I hate controversy, I keep away from it as much as possible, even when I am offended, blocked or provoked on social media, because this also happened. And then I publish almost everything in English now. This choice allowed me to broaden my horizons in an incredible way. Currently Neuguitars.com makes an average of about 7,000 visits per month, only 15% come from Italy, the rest is the world, the United States and Germany first. Every day I receive an average of ten between emails, whatsup and messages that suggest me, offer plays, videos and records. Nothing, then, makes me more happy than reading emails and messages from musicians who report other musicians and records to me. I get 15-20 CDs and LPs per month. I do not hide my collecting and archival vocation. Yes, I think I managed to create my own network of contacts that grows every day. And it makes me happy, because I have the opportunity to listen to crazy things and meet incredible people, outside my daily horizon. I believe this is the strength and potential that is hidden behind a blog. For the rest, the same thing always applies: in every environment there are some excellent things and others that you can gladly do without, it's true for blogs, for music, for work, for television, etc ... the important thing it's choosing well, looking for content, quality. There are fantastic blogs that should be read: I follow Guitar Moderne, The Quietus, The Rest Is Noise by Alex Ross, The Free Jazz Collective, a Jazz Noise, Percorsi Musicali, Tone Glow, Pitchfork, which host high-level content and are very transversal. There are excellent blogs for all tastes, for lovers of cooking, books, architecture… why not discover them? There is so much to learn. Then there is another aspect: a blog is a personal world and as such I live mine. Among the ones I mentioned there are professional blogs, with an editorial staff and multiple people writing. For my blog I do everything myself. Sometimes I receive emails, all from Italy, with the words "Dear Director ...", "Dear Editor ...", they make me smile a little. I try to do things in the best possible way, but I am neither professional nor professional. I think this is the big catch: often those who misjudge blogs expect, for free, the same professional, graphic, editorial level of a newspaper or magazine, which they are rightly paid for. For me, it doesn't work like that: my blog was born as a personal story, as an outlet for a passion, therefore necessarily unprofessional. It's useless to expect something that, for its DNA, is not there. There are certainly blogs that are well done, well cared for and a problem can arise here: some amateur, specialist blogs have higher content than many newspapers and magazines. But this is not a problem of the blog, but of the professional publishing sector. I am silent on political blogs.
That's a world I can't form an opinion on.
Why did you decide to publish your latest book, dedicated to John Zorn, only in English?
I write practically everything in English by now. Even the previous book made in 2016, “Visionary Guitars. Chatting with guitarists ”was in English and is not a translation of the Italian “Chitarre Visionarie” released in 2012. It will be more and more like this, I am not very interested in publishing books in Italian and the reasons are different. As for the blog, I can reach a wider and more interesting audience, even without resorting to the bookstore circuit. In Italy people don't read books so much. It's useless to waste energy for a limited audience. Better to focus on a wider and more passionate audience who, in the case of my Italian reader, often also reads texts in English too. I also avoid a sea of controversy and insults. If those who, in the past, wrote, blamed, insulted me for what they said they read in my Italian books, had bought and read them for real, by now I would be a millionaire in bit coins. My English books have been criticized, even severely, but I've never been offended or blocked on Facebook for it. If I publish in English I cut out a large portion of the public that I gladly do without. Same reason why I left, with rare and precise exceptions, the Facebook's groups of Italian music and guitar enthusiasts. For example, about the book "John Zorn The Book Of Heads" I received several messages and emails asking me where to find the Italian version. So far, so good. The problem is that often, after replying that there no Italian version, I was asked to send the proofs of the book in Italian, because “otherwise how can I do without… how can I understand if the book sucks…? " We are at these levels. I take this opportunity to answer another nagging question: there are no scores of The Book Of Heads in the book, I don't distribute them, I don't sell them, nor do I give them as a gift. If you want them you have to buy them from John Zorn himself.
I promised twelve questions, so this is the last one, what do you think of the economic situation in which the world of the Arts has plunged?
Here, too, I am afraid that I have not understood the question: what are you referring to precisely? To the art market? To the situation of artists in general? The market does not seem to me to suffer from a crisis, while many artists are not doing well at all. The crisis triggered by Covid-19 has certainly accentuated the difficulties given that it has reduced the possibilities of social encounter and art thrives on sociality, exchanges, encounters, which in turn feed a market made up of art exhibitions, concerts, masterclasses. In this context, music is not already doing very well, due to the social changes that have pushed more and more for a vision in which music is not just a commodity but a gratis thing, not free, gratis. Music streaming, which is perfectly legal, has resulted in a significant loss in musicians' income. I was reading recently that only about 12,700 artists manage to exceed the figure of 50,000 dollars in annual revenues on Spotify and that it takes about 120-130 plays of a song to generate a profit of 1 cent. 1 cent! Many of the musicians I follow have abandoned Spotify in favor of a more profitable platform like Bandcamp, where the primary purpose is not streaming but the direct sale of CDs and LPs and where the earnings are higher. For many of them, concerts and teaching are the real sources of income. For teaching, often private or in priority schools, the obligation of the absence of attendance has meant a reduction in lessons and the absence of concerts not only reduces earnings, but also the possibility of directly selling one's records and creating new contacts for new concerts, masterclasses, collaborations, etc. The income crisis due to layoffs and job losses will also lead to a reduction in consumption. Many people will think twice when choosing between cultural goods and goods of primary necessity. The art market is different: our economies have been flooded by a sea of liquidity that seeks new alternative investment opportunities to the financial, banking and insurance markets. Hence the boom in the electronic currency market, see Bit Coin and auction houses. Try to look at how much the classic car market has grown, for example. The art market is no exception. Cultural assets, especially tangible ones, are often seen as an interesting form of alternative investment, with a different allocation of savings assets. That sector, like that of luxury, knows no crisis. Furthermore, this crisis has highlighted how little consideration artists enjoy at the political and social level: I have not seen any country shining for aid in the cultural, artistic and entertainment sectors. Already the neoliberal political wave of the last 25 years had made a clean sweep not only of welfare, but also of many subsidies in the cultural sectors, I fear that this crisis will complete the work. Furthermore, the world of art has never shone for efficiency and transparency in economic management. Most of its institutions are cut off from the market and live more from public and private subsidies than from the sale of tickets or merchandising, how many orchestras have disappeared in the last twenty years because they were no longer able to cope with operating costs. ? We need new managerial figures, new curators, a new vision at the system level. Other than that my eyesight fails to go. There is so much, perhaps too much, to do and to renew and there is a big lack of skills.
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