Thanks to the advent of computer music and in the absence of major majors behind them, more and more independent artists find space in the mare magnum of the world music scene.
New and interesting sounds, hybrid musical genres, with the flavor of crossover, indie and worldmusic, for which the leaders of online streaming struggle to find categorizations. Let's meet today Dhenny Darko, former management engineer for Eko Music Group (today's French Algam Eko) who on June 14th published his irreverent Shakespearean dilemma on all streaming platforms, taken from the album I'm a virgin next exit.
Umberto Bravo: Hi Dhenny, welcome back! We stumbled upon the video of your song Shakespearean dilemma which intrigued us for its shameless irreverence. But before asking about the single, can you tell us a little about Dhenny Darko? How did you come to produce your music independently today?
Dhenny Darko: Hi Umberto! Thanks for the invitation first. But I think the right question should be 'why did I only get there today?'. I am Dhenny Casandri, aka Dhenny Darko, a management engineer who has recently and definitively understood that he is a musician above all else. Ever since I finished engineering university I realized that it would be vital to be able to apply engineering to my primary passion, music. Passion, this, that I have always cultivated since I was 12 years old. In fact, after the degree and the internship period, I had also started the master in sound engineering at Tor Vergata. In the meantime, however, I was hired by Eko Music Group for which I developed theapp proprietress ThinkQ for quality control on guitars and string instruments together with the luthier Robert Fontanat. For this and other reasons, which I would define contingent, I had to force myself to put aside my passion for music and to postpone the dream of proposing myself as an artist. I never succeeded because as soon as I could I ran away to the studio with the desire to immortalize the beats that came to mind on track.
UB: So you finally produced your first feature last June?
DD: Actually, no. I have to tell you that I'm not really at the beginning of my musical career. In 2013 I have already produced an album of 22 songs of which there is no trace around nor on the web. A self-produced and, I would say, homemade album. The fact that there is nothing around about that musical product already makes it clear that it served me above all to give vent to what was my passion, that I needed to gain experience, to understand how I could express myself and above all what they really were. the means at my disposal when I would have proposed myself to the general public, as I am doing now. I think that stage represents for me the same thing that Michimix represents for Caparezza, to be clear: a gym for something bigger.
UB: So you can't hear anything about those songs? Can't find anything online?
DD: No, there is nothing online because the intention is to give a new image of me, a more mature and aware image of the artistic path I am undertaking. I sold 300 copies of that album: few have and will be able to listen to it again.
UB: Passion has always been there, you say, but how did you find out you had it? Is there a precise memory of the moment when you realized you had it?
DD: I have been passionate about music since I was a child, but I remember one song in particular, Suspicious mind by Elvis Presley that captivated me from the first listening. From there then I had the stage where I listened to i Beatles and other greats of international music, then the rock of the 90s including i Guns N 'Roses. Thanks to these plays, I felt the desire to create something of my own very early on. I therefore approached the computer music using programs such as HipHop Ejay to create the first beats, then move on to FL study. My first musical productions were Hip Hop while loving and listening to the rock and pop/from punk, like that of Blink 182. At that time it was the genre I listened to the most. My father was fundamental in my training, I owe my artistic talent to him. Although his life took a different turn, he has always been a lover of art and had a passion for painting. Involuntarily it was he who made me understand that I was much more attracted to percussive sounds like those of the guitar and drums rather than melodic sounds like those of a piano, to the detriment, however, of his desire to see me as a pianist. I soon realized that Bach e Beethoven they didn't do it for me and I boycotted all the piano lessons of the course he had enrolled me in. I convinced him, therefore, and with no little effort, to let me play the guitar first and the drums. Speaking of drums, I had a real obsession with Travis Barker of Blink182 and in particular of his technique in setting the drums. Eric Cisbani he was my first drum teacher. I studied with him, however, only 6 months because, unfortunately for me, his career as a session musician took off, leading him to play with the likes of Ornella Vanoni, RonEtc.
UB: I understand that the lure of computer-music was fundamental for you. How did you manage this dualism of being an engineer on the one hand and the desire to create music on the other?
DD: It wasn't easy. I went through various stages, but during all of them I always felt tension in showing myself as the artist I know I am today. First of all, because the first training was that of the engineering type, and this represented reassuring my parents, in particular my father, on the concept of a permanent job which he cared a lot about. Secondly, because from an early age on my insecurities there was the nightmare of remaining with my seat on the ground in a society where it is important to think first of economic sustenance and then of passions. But it happens that you realize you don't have a clear conscience and you get to a point where you realize that the life you lead is not recognized as truly your own. Today my artistic vein gives me the awareness of having taken a step that makes me sleep peacefully and makes me wake up happy. Every day I can't wait to get to the studio and start creating. It was a painful decision, but at a certain point it became an obligatory choice, dictated by the discontent I lived in everyday life. The only way to be happy is to pursue your dreams, and my dream was and is to make music.
UB: How does your music production take place today?
DD: In the software sector, the transition to Logic in the environment Mac, after a step with Cubase, it was fundamental to my music production. Consider that until recently there was not all the tutorials available on today YouTube and one was forced to study the manual. I had no idea how the monitors were positioned for ideal listening, so to speak, I had to invest a lot of energy to get training in this regard. And then, in general, I tend to get bored soon and immediately try to find new ways of expression. Among my first musical productions there are beats of all kinds, strongly conditioned by the mood I was in at that moment, often conditioned by love relationships. I have a home studio which makes me free to create as I want, at least for what concerns a skeleton of a song. Only when I take the piece from the raw stage to a stage where I am satisfied with sound level, do I move on to mixing and mastering.
UB: How would you define your music if you wanted to categorize it in some way? How much of the music you listen to affects your sound?
DD: I have always found musical inspiration dividing myself between rock, pop / punk and hip hop and I have been moving between these three genres for a long time, struggling to find my own identity. Today it's easy to say rapper o trapper but I believe that beyond the definition or category, the important thing is that the artist feels he has found an expressive and sonorous identity. As for my ratings, I have been and am very eclectic in tastes. The Slipknot and Classification, groups heavy metal Americans of years 90, then i Muse, up to present day groups such as Sticky Fingers, an Australian band that makes a genre characterized by a rock reggae/indie and you get an idea of the kind of sound that can permeate the whole 10-track album that I will present soon. With the musician friends with whom I created the songs the intent was to find a sound that carries the DD brand. For me this is a great achievement.
UB: And for Shakespearean dilemma in particular, which sonic direction did you follow? Can you tell us about the song?
DD: I deliberately gave an imprinting of crossover between the genres I mentioned earlier to the sound of the piece. If you think of the scratchy guitar on the very fast beat, the rap alternating with the singing, these are all stylistic choices strongly influenced by my listening. The resulting hybrid makes me proud of the uniqueness of the sound. The whole album is full of different sounds. On the other hand I have already told you before that I get bored immediately and if I have different means at my disposal to be able to express different moods, why not use them, right? For Shakespearean's Dilemma, there is a fairly long history behind it as it originated in 2012 gone through various stages of stalemate in production in which, with the bass player Matthew Tordini and the guitarist Marco Martellini, I was firmly convinced that the kind of sound that we had already given to the piece at the time, in 5/6 years from then, would be the one towards which the world of hip hop would have diverted. In fact, after a while, characters like Willie Peyote they became more popular, offering a very similar type of sound. Do you think that among the list of songs I have, Shakespearean dilemma it was the last in terms of music production, because it still didn't have the chorus that everyone can hear today and that has become the strong point of the piece. As for the text, taking inspiration from the famous Hamletic doubt, of being or not to be, in that case of living with suffering, that is, being, or rejecting life, thus risking dying, that is not being, I have tried to apply the same principle of indecision on identity, the individual one, strongly influenced by the collective one. The text implicitly invites, and above all in an ironic way, to abandon any form of competition that leads to the abuse of one over the other, especially in a verbal way. In the text, this aspect, I have translated into words lethal tongue, which is the first weapon to be used by those who, to affirm their own self over that of others, want to anesthetize and therefore silence. L'animal instinct instead it is the behavior adopted instead by these to bring out the worst in others in order to put them in a bad light. The text is full of allegories and metaphors to denounce what has been happening in society for too long, its contradictions, the good intentions of the slogans often exploited in favor of an opportunistic egoism. But it is not to be read as a text of denunciation or admonition. I myself, involuntarily, are often the victim of these mechanisms that induce the individual to oppose themselves and want to excel in some way rather than excel and shine with their own light. The target of the song is not the community, which is the victim in this case of the society, to which the song is addressed. It is therefore born from a personal analysis of the society in which I live and from a ferocious self-analysis that led me to understand many things about my personality, and that is why the text and the video are shamelessly ironic. I've been waiting all this time since 2012 because, in hindsight, I realize I wasn't ready yet. There were some obstacles on a personal level, I had to graduate and often self-boycotted my being a musician, but if today I was able to finally propose my music it is thanks to my determination and partly also thanks to the 'toxic' love relationships that I have had, engine source. The fact is that, strangely, the more these went wrong, the more inspiration I got for writing the lyrics. Today I have an album ready and I can't wait for it to be out.
UB: What is the title of the album and how many tracks is it composed of?
DD: About ten track and it's called I'm a virgin. I called it that for two reasons: the first because when I introduce myself to someone, I add the zodiac sign to the name and surname and that of the virgin is never received with much enthusiasm, the second reason, the most truthful one, is because it is like I feel when I intend to leave after any experience that has left its marks, almost like wanting to reset everything and make sure that my predisposition to human relationships has not been compromised.
UB: Who did you rely on for mixing and mastering?
DD: Paul Ojetti at Castaway study he took care of the mixing and mastering, while Leonardo Fontanat he enriched the musical productions and collaborated with Paolo in the mixing phase. All the raw part I did in part by myself, I have a home-studio of the basic ones that allows me to be independent in the production of tracks, other times with the help of Matthew Tordini. I still collaborate with them. I am very satisfied with what has been done because I am one who is not satisfied and I know how I would like the piece to sound. Especially for the voice, I am always afraid that the nuances or accents that are important for the closing of the rhymes are lost in the master.
UB: The song is accompanied by a video in which you seem to have had a lot of fun, right?
DD: Absolutely! I couldn't help but ironically treat a theme like the one the song is about and try to snatch a smile from the audience. I tell you right away that the badget, a very important aspect for those who self-finance like me, was certainly not what Lady Gaga he had available for his latest video, so first of all he had to ... reckon with that. The video was shot in 5 different locations in two days, directed by Alessio Giorgetti. I did not follow a storyboard and I did not feel the need to entrust the representation in images of what I say in the text to extras or actors, so I was myself, running, dancing and ... jumping with a parachute! The idea of the interrogation spotlight came during the making of the video, to highlight the dualism I experience every day, that of an individual who is divided between being an engineer and being an artist who, like a metropolitan superman, just there is need to stop the clothes of one to wear those of the other. One, the engineer, is the serious and square one, the other, the apparently hidden musician, can't wait to be able to go outside to give vent to his creativity. Both are in the video. The video, in addition to the production of the entire album, was fundamental to finally give body to what I believed to be the alternative soul, that of a musician, of my personality. Today I know that I am basically a musician who tries in every way to make this passion his profession, and be known for it.
UB: Ritual question: what are your plans for the future?
DD: I just passed the smart audition for the Tour Music Fest and on September 12th I will have a second audition in Pescara. I am taking care of these aspects of the career as a musician a little above all to make myself known because I think it is important to associate the face of the person who composed it with a song and a voice, to better convey the music. I don't intend to launch the whole LP yet but 4 more singles accompanied by video, first of all the song My head is in a loop which will be released at the end of July / beginning of August, to propose another musical world of mine in terms of different sounds compared to the first single, with a turn towards a more dancehall/reggaeton but still contaminated by my background. I haven't told you yet that I'm also a dancer, and adoring it dancehall and having also taught hiphop dance and breakdance for 6 years to be able to support myself during the university period, I want to bring together all those who can be considered talents in the 'construction' of my image, of what I can do on an artistic level.
UB: Any advice for those wishing to pursue a career as a musician?
DD: Arm yourself with a lot of determination in pursuing the set goal and know that the proverb 'he who is satisfied enjoys' is false.
UB: Where can you follow you online?
DD: I'm up Facebook, Social media coordinator, YouTube and Spotify!
UB: Then see you next Dhenny!
DD: Thanks a lot, see you next time!
