What we are trying to do is a little shock our audience and bring them somewhere else, on the other side of the river, to see the world from a different perception. When we dress up and put up the mask is not the same anymore, it’s Saló!
Is this process working as a catharsis or as a therapeutic form for you?
It is both the idea of being someone else, a character, a witch a demon, and the process of transformation that is working as a form of catharsis for us. Our performances have also a physical aspect, one hour of playing, jumping, dancing, hugging the people, and trying to activate them to follow us physically and mentally needs the collaboration of our bodies.
How about the concept of the masks, are you feeling safe behind your mask?
I think is not about being safe, we are not trying to hide our self-identity as superheroes are doing, is more about the ritual. We are wearing masks because we don’t want to be identified as human beings during our performances, is not Tony, not Emiliano, Giacomo that is performing is Saló! A new entity, a new essence and the masks are helping us with this transformative almost magic process. Masks represent the change, not the need to hide ourselves. After our shows, we tend to interact with our audience by drinking together, talking exchanging opinions and not hiding our identity from them.
Three things you cannot live without?
I will talk as a representative of Saló as a whole. I am wearing the mask now. So the first is the weird and strong relationship between us as an entity. Is not always easy to mix different people, with different backgrounds, lifestyles, and personalities together however the result is an interesting and diverse crama named Saló. The second is magic or witchcraft we can say, something extremely important for our personal lives as well and the last one is….the fact that we love pizza hahaha.
Do you believe in god?
I am pretty spiritual as a person! I believe in a god that is everywhere in nature and in every human being around us. For me, god is everywhere in something you can see, in something you can feel even if you close your eyes. I believe we are all part of it and we are all interconnected in that way. My god is not a god that you should pray for and keeps you around with miracles and sacrifices. Beings are like little universes in a big universe that they are trying constantly to match together, and when this is happening, that’s Divinity that maybe sometimes I pray on.
I recently visited Kuboraum in Berlin and noticed your vinyls alongside a pair of customized sunglasses. Later on, they informed me that the 4th act of Kuboraum’s Digital Sound Residency features Salò’s ‘La Ballata delle Mosche’. Can you provide more insight into this collaboration?
The residence you mention was the first step of this Journey that Salò and Kuboraum are doing together. It resulted in “La Ballata delle Mosche” ( “Ballad of the Flies”) and the video clip made for this song. The great feeling between us, common aesthetic visions, an imagination to create and share, led us to continue and make our collaboration even stronger: Kuboraum Editions was even born and the first release is the double vinyl which collects our music in this beautiful gatefold artist edition. A really great start. But above all, so much to expect for the future!
Do you have any long-term goals or plans for the future?
After a few years, we arrived at our first album release. It’s funny cause this album contains work of years. The creative process was beautiful but at the same time complicated because we tried to include a lot of things together and is not easy to enclose everything in a vinyl. The result is just a small taste someone can have from us. On the cover, you can see our masks and is just a part of the work we deliver as the final result. For example, inside the vinyl, there are various drawings all handmade, one by one and by this, we were trying to share a sense of uniqueness that someone can find in our performances and our overall mentality. It looks like the beginning but is not! Our long-term goal is to spread the world of Saló globally.
Any other additional infos we should know about Saló?
Every Tuesday you can find us in a magical place, Il baronato quattro belle, which used to be the bar of the famous Italian legend Dominot. In 1984, Dominot opened this club in Rome, where he performed (into his eighties) en travestì singing the repertoire of chanson française, from Édith Piaf to Juliette Gréco. Dominot was an Italian actor, avant-garde theatrical representative and female impersonator. For many years he was part of the avant-garde café society in Rome and was portrayed in the film La Dolce Vita by his dearest friend Federico Fellini. Nowadays this bar is considered our studio and you can find us there performing, improvising with different instruments, and interacting with people all night long.