Full Throttle Rock!
Interview with Emanuele Semeraro
by Maria Teresa De Donato
Today I am very happy to host a teenager who, although very young, is a
musician, indeed I should rather say a 'guitarist' gifted with an extraordinary
talent: Emanuele Semeraro, 17 years old.
From the beautiful and evocative baroque town of Martina Franca, in the
province of Taranto, Emanuele has been working hard between studies and music,
building, through perseverance and determination and at the same time forging
ahead, what I wish him to be with all my heart his bright future.
MTDD: Hi Emanuele. Welcome to my Blog and Virtual
Cultural Salon. It is a pleasure to have you here with us today and to be able
to introduce you to my readers.
ES:
Hi Maria Teresa, thank you for your hospitality. I am really happy and honored to
have this interview with you, and congratulations for your Blog and Virtual
Cultural Salon where you admirably give space to culture and art at 360°.
MTDD:
I never interviewed a musician before and I am happy that you are the very first
one.
Why don't you start by introducing yourself to our
readers and telling us a little bit about yourself: Who you are, what you do in
life, your studies and whatever else you wish to share with our audience?
ES:
My name is Emanuele Semeraro, I am 17 years old and attending the fourth year of
the Construction Environment and Territory (CAT) course of study at the
Leonardo Da Vinci Institute in Martina Franca. At the age of six I started
studying classical guitar under the guidance of my mother, Mila Nardelli, and
at the age of 10 also the electric guitar. In 2017, at the age of 13, I entered
the Saint Louis College of Music in Rome, where I attended, under the guidance
of Maestro William Stravato, the three-year pre-academic course in pop-rock
guitar, achieving excellent results in all subjects and ending up being
admitted in September 2020 at the age of 16 to the first year of the Academic
Course. Accessing the academic course has been a reason for great satisfaction
and joy for me, which has repaid me for my constant commitment and the many
hours of study dedicated to the instrument, but also to all other subjects. I
was able to do all this thanks to the support of my parents: in recent years my
father has always accompanied me, since I am still a minor, in the long and
continuous train journeys to Rome and my mother has always encouraged and
advised me in this long and not always easy path. The guidance of my teacher
William Stravato was decisive, a great musician and a very good teacher, who always
supported me and was able to direct and interpret my artistic personality.
The passion for music in recent years has been a continuous crescendo and
discovery that led me to be inspired by the virtuosity and the shred techniques
of the electric guitar of guitarists such as Zakk Wylde, Paul Gilbert,
Malmsteen, Nuno Bettencourt, Michelangelo Batio.
I love being on the front line and having direct contact with the public,
in fact I collaborate as a partner and musician with the Castrum Martinae
Cultural Association and with other cultural associations in the area.
I participated in the 2018 and 2020 Editions of the talent "Stella
del Sud" (Southern Star), performing in the various Apulian stages and making
the finals. I always participated with pleasure in various cultural events
sponsored by the municipality of Martina Franca, the Puglia region and the
province of Taranto including "Picasso among gold, art and taste",
"Andy Wahrol: The secrets of a genius", "Homage to Frida Kahlo".
Music is undoubtedly my favorite art, but I also have a passion for
photography and drawing, in fact I made the "front cover" of some
books of poetry and fiction; I also love collecting rock and classical music
vinyls and playing sports, especially swimming, which I have been practicing
since the age of 6 and that, for the time being, I particularly miss due to the
closure of the pools caused by the Covid-19 restrictions. As a child, in
addition to swimming, I also practiced taekwondo, a Korean martial art, which
has now become an Olympic discipline, earning the black belt at the age of 12.
MTDD:
Your mother, my dearest friend Prof. Mila Nardelli, teaches music and plays
various instruments including the piano and the classical guitar. We can, therefore,
define you as a 'son of art'.
Do you think that having a musician mother has
contributed in some way to this passion of yours? And if so, to what extent and
in what way?
ES:
Yes, of course, having a musician mother has undoubtedly contributed to my
passion. Growing up among guitars, keyboards, mandolins, flutes, which have
become, together with others, my childhood games, I think it was a great
fortune. Seeing my mother play every day led me to imitate her, then at the age
of 5 she suggested that I try to play classical guitar and I, without a moment
of hesitation, immediately accepted. My mother, despite being a classically
trained musician, is also open to other musical genres and one day she
suggested that I listen to the song by Guns n' Roses "Paradise City":
that very moment, a world opened up that I began to explore with a growing
curiosity, so much so that rock became the hallmark of my music and a great
passion, so that I decided to study the electric guitar.
MTDD: Regardless of the interest that your mother may
have aroused in you since childhood, perhaps putting a guitar in your hand and
wondering if you wanted to give it a try, When did you realize that music is
your true path?
ES:
I understood this since I was in eighth grade and my professors asked me which
field of study I would focus on after the exams. Without any doubt I understood
that I preferred the artistic-musical address. At the same time, having a father
who is a surveyor, I was fascinated by the technical field, which is why I
asked my parents to be enrolled in the Conservatory (of Music) and at the same
time to let me attend the technical high school for surveyors.
MTDD: What musical instruments can you use and why did
you choose the electric guitar?
ES:
I play electric, acoustic and classical guitar, although among all of them I do
prefer the electric guitar. I find it to be one of the most fascinating and
most representative instruments of rock. Since I was a child it immediately
struck me in addition to the design, especially the sound, which gives me
inimitable sensations.
MTDD:
When you play your guitar you become one with it, you are completely immersed
in the moment and in total harmony with it.
What exactly do you feel in those moments and do you
have a different relationship with them depending on the various types of
guitar you play?
ES:
The guitar arouses in me an infinite range of feelings and emotions, through
which I have the opportunity to get in touch with my deepest self and soul; its
energy makes me feel alive and this is precisely what drives me to play it. To
get in real contact with my instrument, I need to be open and willing to let
myself be touched by the emotions it arouses and to tune into the rhythmic,
melodic and harmonic trend of the piece I'm playing. However, this is only the
first step, because, as a musician, it is not enough for me to be sensitive and
receptive, but I have the task of becoming a real creator of emotions, choosing
them, recreating them and enhancing the richness of feelings contained in
music. At the same time, my way of life is colored, impregnated by the emotions
that the music has revealed to me. As for the different relationship I have
with the guitars, in reference to the electric ones, it depends on the differences
in sound. The sound of a basic Les Paul is warmer and more full-bodied than
that of a Strat, while, on the other hand, the latter boasts a more shrill one.
In any case, one can find in the first a vocation for a more powerful sound,
due to the composition of the pick-ups. The Les Paul goes better with a
distorted effect than a Strat, but the latter boasts a more present clean
sound, as it is more shrill than the first. Technology today works miracles and
with the right effects you can work on both models. I prefer the Les Paul both
in terms of aesthetics and sound because it is better suited to my favorite
Metal genre.
MTDD:
The musical genres that belong to you are Hard Rock, Heavy Metal, Punk, Blues,
Funk and Pop. Can
you explain to those who are not experts in the field what are the main
differences between these genres, what each of them represents for you and what
feelings inspires you?
ES:
"Blues" is referred to a popular music, rooted in the spirituals and
often melancholy, born under the matrix of the work songs of black American
slaves, a current from which the Blues-rock of B.B. King also derived. I am particularly
fond of the much more sparkling blues of Stevie Ray Vaughan, king of the Texas blues:
his music was a mixture of all the influences of the existing blues scene, present
and past, and Vaughan had the extraordinary ability to convey the messages of
the fathers of the blues in his own personal way. Then there is Gary Moore,
lord of the Irish blues and more recent artists such as Joe Bonamassa and Jared
James Nichols who are those who, as for this genre, inspire me the most.
“Funky” is a music similar to hip-hop, coming from the USA, born in the
70s in the American ghettos. It is a genre that amuses me so much because it
has an engaging grouve; the artists that truly inspire me are James Brown, Reb
Beach, Nuno Bettencourt.
The "Pop music" is a contemporary macro musical genre that
includes some sub-genres belonging to the popular song. The term
"pop" derives from the abbreviation of the English-speaking term
"popular", used to indicate the musical and artistic trends that,
starting from the 1960s, have adopted new aesthetic criteria and contents aimed
above all at a young and mass audience. Pop music for me is synonymous with
simplicity and lightness. Among the artists I certainly particularly appreciate
John Mayer and Toto.
“Punk rock”, is a genre of rock music that developed mainly between 1976
and 1979, from previous musical forms, derived from garage rock, now known as
proto-punk and, of all genres. I don't feel particularly close to it, because
it is not akin to my personality.
On the other hand, a genre that fascinates me a lot is
"Country" which is the result of the union of popular forms of
American music, developed in the South of the United States and is played with
guitars, banjos and violins and derives from folk music imported by English
colonists in America. This genre fascinates me so much for its particular
techniques, which is very complex and based on speed, such as hybrid picking,
which consists in plucking the strings of the guitar with the plectrum and with
the fingers at the same time. Among my reference artists, certainly Brent Mason
is the one that inspires me the most.
“Hard Rock” is a genre derived mainly from rock and roll and blues-rock,
born in the late sixties and early seventies in the United Kingdom. It
characterized not only the seventies, but also the eighties and part of the
nineties both in the United Kingdom and in the United States. From hard rock
derive other musical genres of great popularity, and in particular heavy metal,
literally "heavy metal", which is characterized by strongly
aggressive rhythms and a powerful sound, obtained through the emphasis of
amplification and distortion guitars, basses, and sometimes even vocals. This
is certainly my favorite genre of all, first of all because there are a
multitude of styles and subgenres, from the most melodic and commercial to
others with extreme sounds, which I particularly prefer and in which I love to
bring the guitar techniques of the alternate picking, sweep picking, tapping and
legato.
MTDD:
Have you already recorded DVDs, albums and the like, ie products ready to be
purchased? And if so, Where can they be found?
ES:
I recorded some singles that for the time being are published on YouTube and on
social networks: "Rock in the Midnight" is my first unreleased song,
completely self-produced. This song is only a very small part of a much larger
and more complex project that I am working on and which I hope to finish soon
so that you can also enjoy it.
Rock
In The Midnight - Emanuele Semeraro OFFICAL PLAYTHROUGH
I then recorded the single "THEORY OF MADNESS", this is also on
YouTube and social networks, with the "YOUNG METAL THEORY", composed
by five young instrumentalists: Lorenzo Gubbini (Guitar) 15, Emanuele Semeraro
(Guitar) 17, Riccardo Santoro (Guitar) 19, Simone Paolini (Drums) 19, and Matteo
Mosconi (Bass) 19 years old. It is a demanding project carried out completely
remotely and self-produced, without the help of anyone, born from an idea of
Lorenzo Gubbini, in which we all did our best and used all our creativity,
sharing a strong passion for metal.
OFFICIAL VIDEO
YOUNG METAL THEORY - YouTube
MTDD: Any plans for the future?
ES:
Among my short-term future projects there is my next Power Metal single
"Anacalgon's Hyidra" that will be released this summer. I shall also
make a video clip of it. This work is also completely self-produced in all its
instrumental parts. Then another single with Young Metal Theory is also in the
works and another project with two young artists from Martina: Nadia Marangi,
15, on keyboards and vocals, Mattia Francesco Pio Rubino, 19, on drums and me
on guitars and bass, with whom we are making singles and covers, hoping, Covid-19
permitting, to be able to perform in the summer events of our town and
surroundings.
As far as long-term projects are concerned, the priority is to continue
the academic studies at the Saint Louis College of Music in Rome up to the specialist
degree (Master degree); then there is the creation of an entire EP album and,
within a year, the creation of a Recording Studio, in collaboration with my
mother, for recording services, supply and transcriptions of vocal and
instrumental parts, mixing and mastering of tracks.
MTDD:
Thank you, Emanuele, for being here with us today. It was a great pleasure to
interview you. Those
who wish to get in touch with you, How will they be able to do so?
ES:
Thanks to you Maria Teresa for this accurate interview and for giving me the
opportunity to express and let the public know my art, my personality and my
future projects. Thank you very much for your kind hospitality.
Anyone wishing to contact me can do so on social media or by writing to
my e-mail.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAOp1FBWNsPXOhFH7VLs7mA
Emanuele Semeraro
(@michaelomfug) • Instagram photos and videos
