Francesco Liccari: Music for me is freedom

What is the first experience you remember with music?
My first experience was playing my big brother’s guitar. I didn’t know how to play it, I just plucked the strings and listened to their vibrations. I was 8 years old and shortly after my parents asked me if I wanted to learn how to play. I said yes! 

This was my first experience with the instrument, I began to listen to music much earlier, I remember my brother and me listening to David Bowie when I was 5. 

At what time did you decide you wanted to be a singer?
I’ve never decided to be a singer, it was a necessity. I started writing lyrics and music before singing and then I realized that someone had to sing those songs and so I began.  

What musical personality do you think influenced you most in your beginnings? 
At the beginning, it was Bob Dylan. His lyrics taught me the importance of words and feelings, and through his music I learnt my own way of writing. The second greater influence was David Bowie. He taught me how to change, how to make my music different. 

As a songwriter, I can find my way of writing music and then continue all my life with it or I can change it, like Bowie always did. This is the most important lesson, do not copy what you have already done but strive to always be different.

What are your favorite singers or musicians? 
Long list… Bob Dylan, David Bowie, Lou Reed, Velvet Underground, Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, Queen, Cat Stevens, Neil Young, Donovan, Woody Guthrie, Leonard Cohen, Fabrizio De André, Francesco Guccini, Edoardo Bennato, Angelo Branduardi, to name a few.

In what repertoire do you feel most at ease today? 
Folk, Rock and Alternative but I also absorb musical influences from many other different genres that I listen to.

Tell us, please, any experience or anecdote that comes to mind that has to do with your voice or your professional experience. 
It was one of my first live performance, I was playing in a band and I was singing a cover. I was really tense and at some point the audience started singing with me. It was a beautiful experience and I think that day I decided to become a singer/songwriter, I remember that after it was hard to sleep because I was happy and excited and I’d have liked to play all night long.

What do you think about the current situation of musicians and singers? 
It isn’t a good moment for music. There are a lot of really good independent musicians and singers but we hear on the radio always the same music genre. 

Everywhere and at all time we are brainwashed by those commercial songs and at the same time we have a lot of unheard independent music on many online music platforms. 

This situation is disheartening for an emerging artist but it is important to remember why we begin to write songs, to share them with people, to communicate with our audience, so we have to be ourselves and not trying to be someone else to sell a product.

What advice or recommendations would you give to those who are now beginning to sing?
If I had to give an advice to an emerging artist I would say to him to focus on what he wants to transmit through his music and to be coherent and sincere. 

I’d also say to study, music can seem so natural but first you have to study hard harmony, melody, rhythm and the technique.

Do you want to add something more about your relationship with music? 
Yes, I think that music is very subjective and writing music is a way to express myself, without music I wouldn’t know how to unload my inner voice and the weight of all my thoughts. 
So first of all music for me is freedom. 

Where can our readers find more information on the net about you? 

They can listen to my music on Soundcloud https://soundcloud.com/francesco-liccari or YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCP9PzgCttvHeMGelWMjvgzA 

La brújula del canto

de la creatividad al piano