Cemetery Poet Mauro Petrarca, the composer of macabre music and lyrics also appears in this dark place to give it his funereal touch. With top hat, dark clothes, white face and dark circles under his eyes, he has made his sad and decadent ballads public by bringing them to light by participating in media programs such as X Factor, Italia's got Talent, I fatti vostri, TG2 Insieme, Blob and others, including radio, on which he has been a guest.
An artist pockmarked with a taste for the macabre, he is the undisputed star for the 2010 “Pose in Peace” calendar where he is also photographed inside a coffin. In 2009 Mauro Petrarca is the author of Canzoniere Crepuscolare, a music CD in which he edits lyrics and music, while 2013 is the year of Testamento di un poeta cimiteri, a book of macabre-ironic poems published by Neo Editions.
But now let us take a closer look at who this obscure Poet is.
A: Who is Mauro Petrarca? When was the “Cemetery Poet” born?
B: He was born with me. He grew up differently from me, though: me caught up in pretending to be a normal person, him in the midst of always researching and experimenting with all sorts of things, as long as they were of twilight.
A: Who was Mauro Petrarca?
B: One like many, a musician suffering from the cultural crisis that plagues us.
A: You are a poet, a musician and a writer, but what do you call yourself?
B: I would call myself a songwriter or rather a storyteller. I think I accomplish the best I can when I can manage the not easy balances of words and musical notes. It is also true, however, that everything starts with poetry.
A: What does dark culture represent to you? Is the macabre a game to you?
B: Yes, I would exactly call it a smart game, for the chosen few who I hope one day will be many chosen ones. Solar, the one that pleases the masses, depresses me. It's not to feel superior, also because in this society making such choices corresponds to being seen as inferior unfortunately. Imagine a good songwriter proposing his own project in a club in any city, and imagine in contrast a very banal piano-barista or the like humming well-known songs: the former will be accused of insanity, the latter will go home better paid and applauded. Sadness cubed.
A: Why did you choose to convey your success by starting with TV? Did you know that programs like X Factor and Italia's got Talent were not suitable for promoting your art? Did you already know what the reaction of “ordinary” people seeing you and listening to your songs?
B: If I were to start from the eye of the people, I would never put my snout, and the beak of Marta the crow, outside my studio. Of course I am aware of the reception that awaits me from time to time, it is all budgeted. It only displeases when the apathetic or negatively critical attitude is taken by music journalists, who instead would have a moral duty to foster the new voices of Italian song. They all invoke originality, uniqueness, complain that there are no longer the brave songwriters of the 1970s. But then, in the end, they only praise the usual knowns to the detriment of all the emerging ones who do not resemble the usual knowns.
A: A lot of people ask you if you are jinxed-what do you say? Why do you think that about you?
B: Jinx aside, people (I am talking about a high percentage of the population, not everyone, of course) are no longer used to thinking and evaluating. I was a guest on a famous radio station and I recited a macabre lyric that was not easy to understand, and I remember the speaker taking me back and telling me that I should always start from the fact that people don't know anything and that nothing should be taken for granted. He was right. Over the years I have improved the communication component of my musical art and feel a little better about my conscience. Those who want to follow and understand me, do so and they will get satisfaction and more. For others, let them do as they please; it is their right to repudiate the weirdness.
A: What do you want to express with your art?
B: A new world, made up of old things like crepuscular poetry or cursed poetry, artisanal cinema from b-movie Italy, nineteenth-century fiction and so much more, including the avant-garde (which are now old too).
A: I have seen several videos on youtube. Some of them are instrumental and reminiscent of Goblin music. Are you familiar with the Goblins? Is there any band or singer you were inspired by?
B: I loved the Goblins at an early stage. Then there were the great singer-songwriters, De Andrè above all, and going forward the 20th century composers like Ligeti and Arvo Part. But the sources of inspiration are countless, and growing every day.
A: The name of three bands (or singers) that you like best. Or the title of a few songs that drive you crazy.
B: A masterpiece of melancholy and formal perfection for me is I giardini di marzo, by Battisti. For bands I would say PFM, Le Orme, and more recently Afterhours.
A: Would you like to make a soundtrack for a horror movie?
B: Yes I would, and I have done that in the past with several short films. To this day, however, I would say that perhaps, rather than being the author of an original column, I would rather have a director use my accomplished works in his film. I don't know why but I prefer myself when I work in total autonomy, when my world is contaminated only by the suggestions I research.
A: Do you love horror cinema? Can you tell us the names of your favorite directors or the titles of the films you love most?
B: Brian De Palma above all, but Cronenberg and Carpenter are certainly not to be outdone. The Phantom of the Stage is the title I would put over all the others.
A: Does music or genre cinema play an important role in your life? Have they ever inspired you in the creation of your own work?
B: All my inspiration is indebted to genre cinema. I also organized festivals that allowed me to meet in person Lamberto Bava, Luigi Cozzi, Sergio Stivaletti, Antonio Tentori and many other professionals who were protagonists of that formidable and unrepeatable season.
A: I listened to your Dedication to Lucio Fulci. What Fulci's films have impressed you the most?
B: Perhaps underlying my willingness to write is That Villa Next to the Cemetery. Maybe the master Fulci did better, but in that film there are all the elements that totally enraptured me, making me fall in love with that cinematic world.
A: Who are your favorite writers? Is there any writer who has
Shaped your essence?
B: Edgar Allan Poe, one cannot ignore his work. Then the Italians Pirandello and Svevo, in order to understand and develop that irony that is now a mainstay of my texts.
A: Who is your muse of inspiration?
B: Sometimes my companion, when lyrical verses slip into the universe of love.
A: I listened to Il Cafone (I am good with needle and straw). Music and lyrics mesmerized me. Many of your songs have a retro feel that take you back in time, your voice sounds like it came out of a gramophone. What do you want to bring to the present that belongs to a time that is no more?
B: I have always thought that the beauty of artistic works is precisely the fact that they seem to be timeless, so they are less likely to age badly. The present is not the best for artistic disciplines, so let's invent a parallel time that can contain new research.
A: Who is “the flatbread man”? Why are the lyrics of this song so simple compared to those of the others?
B: Flatbread Man, like The Dog Actor and other songs in my repertoire, originate as grotesque musical expressions, playing on minimal nonsense, the surreal. They are only distantly related to the beloved macabre. I exhibited the grotesque on Italia's Got Talent, and it seems to me that my relationship with absolute nonsense has been exhausted. My nature is graveyard, back to basics.
A: What are you currently doing? Do you also perform in clubs?
B: I try to do that. Among many difficulties, I take my songs on the road. Sometimes with backing tracks, sometimes piano and vocals, sometimes with full band.
A: How did your life change after your move to TV? Did the youtube channel make you a media phenomenon?
B: I owe my little popularity to TV, I thank it for that. But the price to pay at the talent show was being laughed at. Nobody gives you anything.
A: The music video clip Nancy was produced by Filmhorror. How did the collaboration with them come about?
B: They are wonderful guys, I hope to come back and do more things with them. We met through an Internet portal of theirs, and they gave me confidence. I went to them in Arezzo and in one day the video was made.
A: Last month your book Testament of a Cemetery Poet came out. Can you tell us about this work of yours? To whom would you recommend it?
B: I recommend it to those who are curious and intelligent. I have been working for years on the manuscript; it is as good as I can do as a poet. I find the text funny, mocking, edgy. Neo Editions has packaged a nice little Halloween product that is good for the whole year.
A: I noticed that you always carry an old book with you. What is it about? What are the most common themes in your texts?
B: It's a book my mother gave me, of prayers in Latin. I contaminated it with my texts, I never part with it. The most common theme of my texts is obviously death.
A: What are your future plans?
B: Scarecrow-themed book and CD. I love the straw puppet too much, I am devoting myself to him totally, I am proud and happy of him.
A: What do you think about this interview?
B: That I am lucky to receive such attention.
A: Do you have a message for the horror people of DarkVeins?
B: I would say that all of us together need to hang in there, make ourselves heard, and not be afraid to break out of the niche that seems to compete with us. After all, there are more of us than we think, eschewing the mundane everyday. Hi DarkVeins!!!!
A: Thank you Mauro!
