LIVE BY EAR

Interview with Max Casacci, guitarist of the Subsonica group and organiser of Traffic Torino Free Festival (www.trafficfestival.com), by Maurizio Maschio of www.digi.to.it.

Until a few years ago twenty-year olds left Turin for London and Berlin while today they come here from all over Europe. What has led to this change?
The city in the eighties wasn't appealing to young people. It was a depressing place, which hindered initiatives and youth vitality suffocating them with its narrow mindedness.
People were more interested in other aspects of life: industrial production which determined their working hours, their lifestyle and conventionality.Therefore music was a way of escape. People formed groups and crowded recording studios, even if the city didn't provide the means or facilities able to encourage a qualitative leap. If you played an instrument you were considered weird: the sooner you gave it up and started to think about a serious future, the better. But however music was the turning point of the cultural transformation begun in the early nineties and still in act. It was in the clubs where concerts were held and in other community centres crowded by people of the so-called X generation, it was the bands that were touring Italy dominating the national scene to show the transformation that was happening. Cheap entertainment, long opening hours, no restrictions concerning etiquette, new ways of socializing were offered by small clubs along the river bank. Also the recording studio Casasonica on a corner of piazza Vittorio has produced a large number of albums and groups before becoming the headquarters of Subsonica, a structure for bands that now come to record here from all over Italy.
We must give merit to the local City Council for supporting this spontaneous transformation, which is a mixture of culture and entertainment that the town has longed for. Thanks to this transformation Turin today is considered one of the capitals of youth.

Traffic is a leading event which attracts the young from all over Europe. Will the 2010 edition be connected in some way to the nomination of Turin as European Youth Capital?
As Traffic mirrors the city, there will surely be a connection with this event. Moreover we are the most popular event for people from abroad (about 10%). We're waiting to see what the intentions of the administrators are, concerning the festival. For the 2010 edition we will do our best to create an event worthy of international attraction, which highlights the citizens' talent and creativity.

From eco-friendly concerts to events aimed at sensitizing the public awareness on social issues, like "Torino Non Ha Paura", "No Nuke" and "La Mafia Non Paga La Crisi", there will be events in which the music is the tool for having fun, but also talking about serious problems. How do you consider Turin from this point of view?
Turin, like the rest of Italy, must face a deep cultural crisis. It's true, there are a lot of people out and about, but too often this ends up in a big mess, which is less and less enjoyable.
So in the end you may comment: "Much Ado About Nothing". From this and from other considerations the actions of "Torino Sistema Solare" are born; it's a kind of spontaneous movement with which I often collaborate. This association fights the negative energies in the city, like oil, nuclear energy, narrow-mindedness, indifference, mafia, cocaine, trafficking. The disturbing and communication actions are carried out with electronic music, new means of expression, intervention in clubs as well as in schools, web, social network blogs, etc. Club owners, musicians, architects, student groups, anti-mafia organizations, environmentalist DJs, who belong to this association, hope that Turin will continue to be an ideal youth capital also in the future.

The web compilation "San Salvario da mezzanotte alle quattro", which you can download for free from the website of "Torino Sistema Solare", originates from "Torino Non Ha Paura". What's your opinion as a musician and producer about the new bohemian lifestyle in San Salvario?
More or less ten years ago San Salvario was described by the press as a sort of hellish circle. It was the typical multi-ethnic district which developed near the main railway station and was therefore characterized by all the problems that this implied. If compared to it, the infamous Zen district in Palermo or Scampia district in Naples were similar to the Principality of Monaco. As a matter of fact the problems here were really countless. So the City Council administration, to solve the safety problem, opted for one of the wisest and most enlightened policies ever carried out in Italy. Many licences were granted and the opening of clubs and meeting places was encouraged, in order to contend for the area with traffickers and criminals, metre by metre.
Creating places of aggregation in order to defeat fear. This was undoubtedly the right solution. And as it happened in then nineties for the Po Murazzi - an area inflamed with tensions - the measures aiming at favouring citizenship, music and social life transformed this area into an art scene. It's not surprising that today's music scene is brought to new life in the clubs and meeting places of San Salvario, where the cosier and less chaotic atmosphere favours more relaxed communication, far from the rowdy "movida".
The lyrics of these new singers and songwriters are the expression of a poetry of disillusionment which suits the atmosphere of the end of this decade.

The Po Murazzi have changed a lot since the 1990s. In your opinion, are they still the main place where projects and artistic trends meet and are born,or is there another place, San Salvario for example, which is more open to innovation?
The Po Murazzi, with the exception of Puddhu Bar - one of the best clubs in the city - or some occasional musical night events held in other neighbouring places, are in decline at the moment. The lack of attention on safety and maintenance and the excessive number of clubs recently opened just for having fun ("fun factories") have contaminated the magic atmosphere of this area. However the above mentioned "Puddhu"is still the most important club for trends and creativity in the field of electronic music, while "Giancarlo", even though not at its past levels, preserves its early spirit intact.
As for the other clubs - Doctor Sax, The Beach and Jam - the only thing that matters are their specific night events. San Salvario has been able to create a suitable environment for the qualitatively exacting student groups. In fact a lot of students, creative people and artists have decided to become residents of this area.