Andrea Mangia aka Populous is a musical mystery. Looming over the international scene as a luminescent Italian beacon, he’s a pioneer when it comes to exporting more than la bella vita. Musically balancing between world music, pop and abstract beatmaking, he is going to be performing live in Florence on September 24 at Florence’s Odeon Cinema on the occasion of the Lattex+/ Feline Funk combo night. The stage will also feature up-and-coming electro projects Q*ing and YOUAREHERE, under the revealing Lorenzo de’ Medici motto ‘Chi vuol esser lieto sia, del doman non v’è certezza’ (Let him who would be happy be so; Tomorrow’s sun may never rise).
Michelle Davis: You’re quite a mysterious music phenomenon. Your first albums were released by Berlin-based indie label Morr Music, your collaborations have always been more international than national, and this year you were invited to play at the prestigious SXSW festival in Texas. Finally, with the recent release of ‘Night Safari’, it seems you’ve managed to attract the Italian spotlight. How would you explain this non-linear walk of fame you’ve been following since 2002?
Populous: The Italian music tradition tends to be very attached to words, to melodic structures. My sound has always been mostly instrumental and my interest for more international vibes has long since taken me outside of Italy. People started talking about me abroad before anyone noticed me in Italy. I think it’s also because Italian music journalism sometimes needs a push from international media, a kind of reassurance when it comes to non-Italian genres. The online community is of the uttermost importance. Many of my collaborations come from casual internet connections, like New York producer Mike McGuire, with whom I formed the pop-IDM duo Life & Limb. I love this democratic and fluid dimension of electronic music. Italy should be more courageous in showing its underground richness. My hometown Lecce alone is alive and pulsating with new interesting artists: Catalano, Jolly Mare, Luminodisco, Congorock and Matilde Davoli. You’d never expect this kind of music scene in Salento, the land of pizzica and taranta.
MD: You’ve always displayed a very modern, appealing and colorful image, both musically and fashion-wise. What are your biggest style inspirations?
P: I know this might sound silly but I’m a Libran, and I’ve noticed that other people of my starsign feel the same drive to find original color combinations, brands and textures. I travel a lot so I often find new influences on the road. I’m not particularly obsessed with my image, but I like to keep my eyes open; I’m a keen observer. I find being present is one of the keys to a successful image: it’s not all about spasmodically being on the lookout for new trends, it’s going with the flow that makes you a part of the present, that gives you a historical connotation. I think that Pitti in Florence is a good place to be. When it comes to packaging, I think you have to make interesting choices in collaborators. I like to give 100% freedom to the people I work with, so when young Serbian designer Kae showed me her idea for the album cover of ‘Night Safari’ I totally went with it.
MD: As a young boy, you started listening to all kinds of different music, from noise rock to electro-pop up to the world-music tinged rhythms of your latest album. What is music to you and how do you combine all these influences in your unique personal sound?
P: More than a musician, I consider myself a listener. I need that wellbeing that comes with listening to music, I need that sense of empathic union that sound enables. My entire life revolves around this desire. I’ve listened to about any kind of genre and sucked the very marrow out of all the music that has crossed my path. I’ve been a beatboy, a metalhead, an intellectual admirer of German drones and Swedish micro-waves, a fan of Japanese noise, Motown grooves and classical music. I was actually lacking a more ethnomusicological approach, so I started studying world music for the creation of ‘Night Safari’. I have a degree in musicology, so my life has been based on this kind of research. For my next album I’m already set on exploring South-American sounds, cowbells and folkloric rhythms. I’m fully immersed in the dissection of Andean pan flutes, Venezuelan harps and the entire discography of an Argentine record label called ZZK. I just love their stuff; I also use a lot of it for my djsets. No one really knows these kinds of sounds in Italy…Come to think of it, the only world music connoisseurs I know in this country all come from or live in Florence.
MD: Really? Tell me more about your Florentine impressions!
P: There’s producer Clap! Clap!, an omnivorous human being and internationally renowned producer, and global bass experts Ckrono & Slesh. I still remember one of my first trips to Florence, where I met producers Colossius and Biga. At the time they were working on a musical partnership called Ether. We’d spend days listening and talking about music, and my mind was just blown away. I had just earned a lot of money with a commercial, most of which I spent updating my music collection with all the wonderful albums they hooked me onto. I guess Florentine musicians can seem kind of closed, but the truth is that their houses and heads are filled with music. They don’t really need to get out there and explore and support the birth of a scene. They already have it all. But times are changing. We are all part of a growing network and the Odeon event is just an example of this boisterous new electronic surge.
