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Transcript

Franco de Vita

Welcome, I'm Leila Cobo and I'm excited to share with you this program for the fans of quality music. This show is a unique experience for me because each episode is a journey to the inner part of a musician's soul, where they confess their experiences, their artistic process, their history, or their dreams. I promise a powerful hour of programming, with an insightful look at an artist's heart. You will also participate and be the main characters!

Estudio Billboard starts now.

Do you mind being typecast in one category? How do you feel about this award? These are some of the typical questions that musicians answer in press conferences. Today, we are going to discover another face of musicians. I want to introduce to you a very special artist who has written songs that have become classics of Latin American music. Let's learn some of his history.

[crowd cheering]

Sé qué piensas marcharte, ya lo sé, y no te detendré...

De tenerte en mis brazos y poderte decir: ... te amo, desde el primer momento en que te vi....

¿Y qué le has hecho a los sueños que juntos tejimos hasta amanecer?...

Lleva sus años aquí, tratándose redondear sí, una manera más fácil, lo que quiere es cantar...

Y a pesar que fui yo a decirte que no, sin embargo aquí sigo insistiéndote: vuelve que sin ti la vida se me va...

A veces me lleva, a veces se detiene y vuelve a casa entre cálido y frío...

How many of you have sung his songs at any moment in your lives? Stay tuned, because in a few minutes we are going to meet Franco De Vita, composer, singer, and musician who has a thousand stories to tell.

What is the process you use when you compose, Franco? For example, do you make music first? Or, do you first write the lyrics?

I make the music first.

On the guitar, on the piano?

I have composed most of my songs on the piano. When I do that, three, four, five, five hundred, six hundred times, it is possible to get... Y te di no sé qué cosa... Or whatever. Then it is possible to get the lyrics right away.

Our guest was born in Caracas, on January 23, to Italian parents. He has three siblings, Bartolome, Ana and Fernando. He started piano lessons when he was 13 years old. This musical instrument would be with him throughout his entire career. During this time, his idols were The Rolling Stones and The Beatles. He currently lives in Madrid, and he crossed the Atlantic just to be here with us.

Let's welcome Franco De Vita.

[clapping]

Do I sit over here? Over here, right?

Okay, what's up?

You have a cowboy look!

Yes, I do.

You look like a cowboy from head to toe.

Yeah, yeah, from head to toe. I had to put a piece of tape on the sole of my boots because they are kind of new and I was slipping at the studio.

Cowboy-like, yeah.

And the belt.

I'm like a cowboy, girl! I've always loved country music.

Really?

I swear. This is the first thing I asked for when I arrived in the US... When I arrived, my uncle lived here in Florida, and the first time I came here I was about 16, 16 or 17, and the first thing I asked for was to be taken to see a country music band.

Do you remember who that was?

No, because it wasn't a famous group. I was taken to a... one of those places where they play country music, and I was there, daydreaming about country music. I have always loved it.

It is so wonderful, the violins... And, have you learned to dance, the...?

No, I didn't get that far because I'm not very good at dancing. But musically, I always liked it. I like Bonnie Raitt. I like her, and she comes from the country.

Yes, I also love country music. But, I like that you said that because you've always said that you like listening to a lot of music, right?

Yeah, I listen to a lot of music. Normally, there isn't a single day in my life when I don't listen to it. I mean, when I get in my car, or anyone's, I take control of the radio. I'm... the radio is indeed a necessary part of life for me.

You're not one of those musicians who say "I don't want to listen to the radio because I don't want to get influenced by the sound of others?"

Why would I? If I make a living out of this... No, I acknowledge that thanks to the other musicians, I keep on composing. Songs motivate me, I hear a good song, I mean a good song, a song I like, and that motivates me to create, write, compose.

How often does it happen that you're driving and listening to a song, and you say: "Oh, my God!"

Lately, it's happening less frequently.

Oh!

[laughing]

But it does happen to me. it does happen. There are songs, there are musicians, that really stimulate me to compose. That's why I always thank my colleagues and other composers who keep on doing creative things to stimulate me.

Are you one of those composers who needs two hours a day, from 5 to 7, to compose? Or wherever you are, if inspiration comes to you, it just comes to you?

Well, if it comes, it comes, but...

[laughing]

It doesn't matter when it comes.

No, it is fantastic when inspiration comes, the thing is you never know when a song is about to come. Lately, I sit fixed at the piano, or I feel required to play the guitar because I am under pressure to record a CD and turn it in. But before, I sat because I had like... a need to say things, to express myself, to reveal myself. So you don't always get a song when you think. Songs are very whimsical, they come when they want.

What is the process you use when you compose, Franco? For example, do you make music first? Or, do you first write the lyrics?

I make the music first.

On the guitar, on the piano?

I have composed most of my songs on the piano, but I have also composed songs on the guitar.

For example, can you give us, like a short course on composition, "Franco De Vita 101", showing us... okay, this song was born here, from this bass line, and then it turned out like this...?

There are songs that are born from a bass line. Who told you that?

I know it all.

Ha, ha, ha. Yes, yes, there are songs that start on a bass line. Where do I sit? At the piano?

Wherever you want. Make yourself at home.

I don't know why I'm wearing these boots today. I'm gonna take them off. These pants are tucked inside, too... Look, I usually start... How do I start? I start to play a little bit with the piano. And I don't know...

So, do you sit without knowing exactly what's coming out? You sit to see how it will go? Or do you sit with an idea already?

No, no, no, at least I don't know what's coming out. And suddenly I am... and I play... and I don't know, I start with a melodic line over some chords I like.

And...

[humming]

Hey, this is good! Why don't we record it?

I was gonna say: Is it new? Is it known?

No, no, I just got it.

We inspired you.

Yeah. So, at that moment, I need a recorder handy. It is usually my cell phone, and I record the idea.

So, this is not in a studio or in Pro Tools or anything?

I am normally sitting at the piano, or I am with the guitar, practicing chords, practicing melodies, and it suddenly comes to my mind, what I just showed you. Then if I like it, I record it.

When do the lyrics come around?

Lyrics come around when... there are things that maybe here... I just did this.

[humming]

It is possible when I do that, three, four, five, five hundred, six hundred times, it is possible to get... Y te di no sé qué cosa... Or whatever. Then it is possible to get the lyrics right away.

Is that possible?

Do you know what has helped me a lot? Music has helped me a lot because usually when I have the melody and the music... the music itself shows me where the lyrics should be. I usually feel that my songs... the lyrics seem to go well with the music. Have you heard songs where the words seem not to go with the music?

A lot of times.

Today it doesn't happen all the time. We have learned to make a good marriage between lyrics and music. But it used to be that, when we were beginning in rock music that...

[frantic piano music]

And singing words, something that didn't have anything to do with what was played. So it was a little outrageous.

Have you ever received the lyrics and someone says to you: "Franco, compose the music for these lyrics"?*

Yes, I have received lyrics, but I really...

It doesn't make you happy?

Not really, because I think that the public became accustomed to a Franco De Vita that sings and makes his own lyrics. So, it doesn't make me happy, and I think that it doesn't appeal to the public.

I'm going to cheat a little.

What?

Because there's a very famous song that you told me you wrote, that you had not finished because you couldn't, and it remained stored away for years and years. Until finally, it saw the light of day... I think it is called "Vuelve".

Oh! You didn't tell me that before. And I'm not ready for that song. Let's see...

Algo me dice § que ya no volverás... I don't remember that one.

It doesn't matter.

[humming]

I forgot it.

It doesn't matter. This is a song of yours that a lot of people know, and that you... It took much time to write it, to finish it.

I had this...

Algo me dice que ya no volverás...

No, no, I had this.

[humming]

That was what I had for a long time. And when Ricky Martin was going to record his album, he called me and he said: "Hey Franco, I need a song with this, this, and that and that..." So, I did it... I started... And the lyrics began to come out "vuelve, vuelve, vuelve", ta, ta, ta, and it worked!

That means that the great hit "Vuelve", that a lot of people know, took ten years to be written?

Like ten years, yes. I remember that we used to create some sound samples. And I played around with that song, only with pim, pom, pa. I played it, and one day the lyrics will come out. And fortunately they came out.

And luckily, they did come out. Keep that in mind. We´ll be right back and you'll be able to tell us more about yourself.

Sure.

Stay tuned, because when we come back we will continue with the wonderful music of Franco De Vita.

Algo me dice que ya no volverás...

Do you remember something that you used to play during those times? Something that can give us insight into Franco at the age of 17?

Oh sole mio! stare in fronte a te. I swear I used to play that.

Really?

I used to sing it when I was drunk.

[laughing]

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