Dear readers, it is with pleasure that we offer you in this article an interview with an Italian musician, composer, arranger, music producer and mastering engineer. We welcome Mr. Putiferio.
Hi, it’s a pleasure to have you among our pages, how are you?
“Hi everyone, Iām very pleased to do this interview for you guys; Iām busy but everything in my life is
really well, thank you!“
You cover different roles and professions in music, how did your passion for music start and how did you take your first steps?
“I started playing guitar in my childhood, around 14-15 year old, mainly driven by the influence of Queen; Iāve always been a creative person and very prolific, so in the following years I felt the need to capture my first compositions, hence my father bought me a 4-track tape recorder, which I still have. I squeezed it like a lemon to make the most of that piece of hardware and to record my more and more demanding music. At the same time I founded the first bands to perform live covers from Metallica, Iron Maiden, Dream Theater, Fates Warning, Aerosmith, Mr. Big, and so onā¦“
You chose the pseudonym Mr. Putiferio under which you present your music, how did the project and the
choice of this moniker come about?
“Thatās a nickname Giammarco (Zacheo) came up with 40 years ago or so, while we performed in a rehearsal rooms complex we play in; the very reason of that is because we played āPutiferioā (a song from my first album: DEC ā Superimposing Memories) over and over again. I kept this nickname since then because it suites me perfectly, considering that Iām a troublemaker, especially in my childhood.“
Your new work āThe Closest Dreamā was released in February 2025, how would you describe it?
“Well, Iām used to dream parts of my compositions, sometimes melodies, other times arrangements, even the whole song; unfortunately I donāt have perfect pitch, so when I wake up (usually in the dead of night) I try to remember what I dreamt to record it with my phone; months later I review the collected material and start arranging the songs. This time the number of songs born from this creative process was greater than the previous works, so I decided to use that āfeatureā to title the album.“
A mixture of Progressive Rock and cinematic sounds, how does the creative process of your music take place?
“Iām not a fan of progressive rock in a strict sense, nor I enjoy boring music either, so I compose and play music I like, trying to avoid parts I find dull in Rock and Pop styles; probably you can define progressive this kind of approach (where my goal is to amaze the listener, myself in primis), but itās more a consequence than a genre. I love classic Rock and soundtracks; Iāve collected movie soundtracks since I was a kid: Westerns, Sci-Fi, Adventure, Comedy, you name itā¦ My second greatest passion is Cinema. What emerges is a blend between Rock and soundtracks – my personal dream soundtrack.“
Being a technician, what equipment did you use to make the album?
“I donāt know how much time your readers have to describe the entire recording process, but I try to summarize: We record the Drums (Gese Marsico) first in Sonolab Studio (Bari), the sound engineer (Tullio Ciriello) is a friend of mine since the very beginning of my career; the facility is a top class recording studio we build from scratch 12 years ago w/ premium equipment, including a 1987 Allen & Heath Brenell Sigma series 24L 32Ch analog console; we recorded there the vocals (Vito J. Pepe, Fabio Cacace, Jana Campanella), the acoustic guitars and the Violins (Marco Misciagna) too.
Piano, Hammond and Rhodes were been recording in Fontainebleau (Paris) at Stefano (Bruno)ās home. The Bass was recorded by Giammarzo (Zacheo) at his home in San Jose (CA), whilst the Electric Guitars and the Ukulele (me and Danny Trent) were been recorded at my Studio in Bari (THE PLACE Mastering Studio). Those guitars are Fender Stratocaster and Telecaster, Gibson Les Paul, Ibanez Jem 777 GMC, Ibanez TOD 10N, Chapman ML1 Pro Hybrid and ML3 Pro, MusicMan
Luke, and we mainly used Friedman and Diezel amps, recorded in hybrid analog/digital environment by splitting the source signal through a passive LELE P-Splitter. The acoustic guitars are Ovation, Takamine, Maton. Every signal is recorded by Universal Audio Apollo interfaces at 96KHz, 24bit. Other equipment used is various mic-preamps such as Neve 1073, Universal Audio 2- 610, Avalon AD2022. I personally mixed and engineered everything in my studio with the remote collaboration of 3 Grammy Awards nominated mixing engineer, so as the mastering which is enriched by Apple
Digital Masters certification I own. As you can see, the entire process has been taken a huge amount of effort to coordinate the whole group of persons, countless work hours, but I wanted to definitely fill the gap between the sound of a common self-produced Album and the professional records I ever loved.“
In your previous works other artists have participated, did you have collaborators in this work?
“Yes, both the previous and the present participants are all hired-guns yet friends, of course; the reason for that resides in the method I use to compose: I write all the parts for all the instruments, we transcribe everything for the score (Domenico Bello took care of that), I hire the musicians which have to play the parts; then we rehearse the whole project to test the playability and the musicality: we agree on any changes dictated by the players interpretations and finally we record.“
Many of our readers and your fans wonder if there will be a chance to hear your music live, do you have plans in this regard for the near future?
“Unfortunately, due to project nature, we canāt perform live because all the musicians involved are engaged in other projects, therefore I would be forced to hire new musicians only for the live performance and I cannot effort the time consuming rehearsals.“
You have had several experiences in your career, how do they differ from this project and how has your sound evolved over time?
“Besides the composer/musician role, I used to be a hired engineer or arranger for projects from different clients; those could be amateurs or professionals. Every single one of them I think it was useful because meeting the needs of others, allows you to expand your goals, even those you would never have achieved; my sound evolved over time because of those experiences, indeed.“
Italy is one of the main exponents of modern music, how do you see today’s music scene in our country and more generally in your genre?
“The music I love isnāt in Italy and it never has been, except Ennio Morricone, Nino Rota and the composers of the past. I prefer to not comment about the actual quality of the music we can heard on radio and televisionā¦ I could be very unpopular. Rather than that, I think thereās a lot of good music everywhere (in Italy too) but it doesāt matter to anyone outside of the mainstream context, because Music is more entertainment now, rather than Art. Paradoxically, nowadays making music is more accessible than back in the days, nevertheless is much more childish than in the past: melodies are more like āchantsā than āthemesā; if you think of Star Wars theme by John Williams or Back to the Future theme by Alan Silvestri or The Good the Bad & the Ugly by Ennio Morricone, those are singable: even without any other instruments involved, you can recognize them everywhere! Now, the melodies in all the mainstream compositions, you can hear 2 or 3 notes tops in the whole line; try to play those lines (verse or chorus vocal parts) without the instrumentals; you can recognize which song are you playing? On the contrary, the technical level of the musicians nowadays is on another level: they are all astounding but probably they lack creativity.“
What advice would you give to young artists approaching music in a more sophisticated genre such as yours?
“The only advice I feel to share is to transcribe everything by ears; no YouTube tutorials, no sheet from the web; transcribe by your very ears. What you can advantage from this practice you cannot gain from anything else, because you improve the way you are listening. Taste must be educated, hearing (in the case of music) and learning to distinguish what an instrument play compared to another. Thatās what Iāve done when I started, transcribing all the music I could.“
As you are also an expert in studio equipment, how do you see this new and massive technological input in the
making of Rock and Metal music?
“I believe technology is a tool to achieve a result that doesnāt involve a creative process: you can use a calculator to perform a calculation, but the use of that data is up to you; if you want to use that to build the Eiffel Towerā¦ well, certainly the calculator canāt build that alone, it needs YOU, your creativity. AI and every other technology are tools at the service of human kind, they cannot – and must not – replace the creative process.“
Do you have any other activities or artistic passions outside of music?
“Sure, as I mentioned before I love Cinema and go skateboarding.“
I thank the artist for the interview, wishing him all the best for the promotion of his new album and the continuation of his artistic career.
“Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak a little about myself!“
Stream the new album “The Closest Dream” here: https://music.imusician.pro/a/cU1wux54
