Nice-Premium: Hello, thank you for welcoming us to Vianoland. When did these doors first open?
Viano: Hello to you and welcome.
These doors opened a little over 2 years ago, but it truly took off a year and a half ago with the arrival of the first fans, the “amifans” as I like to call them.
Vianoland was the desire to create a virtual place where I could offer something else, an alternative to the usual network around my music and compositions.
A new way to approach making music and talking about it.
From this virtual place, something quite incredible was born, real exchanges with the “amifans” through collective chats and deeper discussions on different themes that can affect all of us, but Vianoland also brought me great encounters and artistic collaborations I could not have imagined.
Somehow, I could say that Vianoland finally allowed me to offer my creations to a larger audience than on a regional stage, something I’ve been doing since music chose me, which is since I was around 15 years old.
Nice-Premium: So early! Is it a family influence?
Viano: Not at all! Quite the contrary, there is nothing artistic in my family environment, which is why I say that music chose me, not the other way around.
There may be an unknown generational thread deep in my genes, otherwise no family influence, apart from the fact that, like many families with Italian origins, there has always been a lot of music in the nearby environment.
As far as I’m concerned, it was more what I call “endured music,” as my parents listened to a lot of music of various styles (French variety, opera, classical, but also more swing like Gershwin or Glenn Miller); I’ve always been rocked by a sort of eclectic “radio” musical atmosphere.
That is my only real basic musical culture.
Nothing very artistic then, on the contrary, the family was rather grounded, working-class background… Therefore, music is abstract, at most a hobby, but I am proud to say I come from a modest background, where the value of each thing is known, where you know you have to work to earn things.
Nice-Premium: Where is Vianoland located? In Nice?
Viano: In a physical place, yes… but I like to say that Vianoland can be wherever anyone wishes to enter my sphere.
Sure, it allows discovering my compositions and lyrics, but also in a participative way by giving feedback, daring…
Hence, Vianoland can travel to everyone and for everyone; it’s no longer just in Nice, it can be anywhere it is desired.
An example?… For the closing of a festival on the heights of Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, in the old castle, the organizer chose to produce one of my concerts.
That night was not just a “concert,” the entire assembly was part of Vianoland, some amifans had come from far, very far: Normandy, Brittany, but also Belgium, Luxembourg… it was incredible.
But recently, it has also become a place for collaborative and participative creation via the net… the future is probably there as well. I know Vianoland can offer even more, I have proof of it every day.
Nice-Premium: After having a pop-rock and acid jazz trend, what musical color colors your universe?
Viano: It would be pretentious to say MY color, because we all have our influences.
Like many, I have been searching for myself musically for a long time, and I continue to make new experiences constantly.
My universe is a mix of everything I have loved and still love: Anglo-Saxon rock, blues, classical, contemporary… but where I am most often placed is between Michel Berger, Jean-Jacques Goldman, and Daniel Balavoine… there are worse places, right?
I am a child of the ’80s, so there is a strong imprint of that period in me. But I fight to detach myself from it… it’s a promise!
Nice-Premium: At 19, a first five-track CD hit the shelves. First success? 16 years later, what is the first image that comes to your mind?
Viano: Yes, a lovely success as they say!! At that time, I was world-famous in my parents’ building!!!
But thanks to that five-track CD, I had the chance to perform on quite a few stages all around and to do some nice “opening acts,” learning along the way.
16 years later, I still have images of the first studio sessions with Franck Rougier, an extraordinary musician and arranger (he notably worked on the latest Julie Zenatti).
At that time, he knew how to listen to me and guide me by putting concrete things on my textual and musical confusions.
But there are so many other images, 19 years discovering Paris alone, breaking through the barriers of record company assistants by posing on the phone as a major manager to secure appointments… and of course, the constructive (or not) critiques from Artistic Directors of various labels…
It’s during that period I discovered that there were two worlds: the world of those who come to applaud you at concerts and the world of those who “make” and “break” so-called artistic PRODUCTS.
There is a strong dichotomy between the two, let’s say that the music industry, because it is an industry, does not always take the public’s taste and opinion into account.
No matter if you’ve done 200 concerts a year, filling halls… if you don’t please a D.A who is more from a top business school than from an artistic background, your “product” will never reach the BIG BOSS’s desk.
Nice-Premium: Can you tell us about the work of Vianoland?
Viano: The main work of Vianoland is to showcase the artist Viano’s work, through blogs, chats, forums, free listening of tracks, and all the exchanges.
But for the past year, Vianoland’s role has expanded with the arrival of other artists: it has also become an artistic link between authors, composers, and recently some producers wanting to go beyond the 20% of authors and composers sharing the 80% of the current market without necessarily offering real artistic diversity. I hope it will become a meeting platform offering an artistic alternative to what we currently know.
Nice-Premium: Your name seems to appear on several albums of French and Canadian artists?
Viano: Yes, but not only because of my work.
This is mainly thanks to two people who trusted me when I needed it:
Sandrine Roy, a French author who has written for people like Garou, Bruno Pelletier, Daniel Lavoie…; and the indispensable publisher Jehan Valiquet (Quebec publisher of Jean-Jacques Goldman, Charles Aznavour, Grand Corps Malade…)
Thanks to them, I have been able to access projects of another stature, giving my compositions a different dimension. But the best is yet to come.
Nice-Premium: It mostly appears large on your first opus. An opus nourished by a beautiful assembly of words and notes. How was this assembly born?
Viano: Yes, large… an ego issue that I try to cure!!!
It was born from collaboration with two other artists from our region: Christophe Croc, who has incredible vocal talent and knew how to vocally draw out what I didn’t dare to seek, and Jean-Marc Loucky, who accompanied me in composing this opus.
Even though I am an author-composer-performer, I can’t conceive of working alone in my corner… how to have the necessary perspective? How to know if you’re on the right track?…
Artistic collaborations are so enriching that it would be a shame not to use and abuse them!
Nice-Premium: A certain sweetness diffuses when the notes of your songs soar.
Viano: Thank you, a compliment that touches me. I try to be as faithful in my music as I am in life. Each song is a story, more or less autobiographical (it’s up to you to imagine the rest…), but in any case, each title is purely “me.”
Not having a true musical and vocal training, I prioritize emotion and interpretation as much as possible… as the song goes, “sing life, sing as if you were to die tomorrow”… You have to give the best of yourself and offer the fullest emotions you can… that is primarily what we offer the public: happiness, emotion.
You can’t imagine all the emails I receive every day from people who recognize themselves in my music or people whom my music helps in these quite difficult times… When I read all that, I know I have done my job well.
Nice-Premium: “On n’existe pas”, why such a title, such a song… Doesn’t everyone exist, shouldn’t they shine a little to realize it?
Viano: Have you walked through a big city? Seen an older couple evolve? Witnessed everyday dramas???? The list goes on… the list of crazy things where everyone lives in a kind of saving indifference. There’s no longer a wholesomeness, at best a pale side by side… even less.
Even if one of us wanted to shine, the question is: would the other notice?
Yet, everyone, in my opinion, has a propensity to love, to give but also to receive, if only they want to.
Nice-Premium: Why an “Unofficial” album?
Viano: Broad topic, so I’ll try to be concise.
Because a time comes when, after waiting for an official album to be produced by a “Parisian” producer, you are tired of never having the right track, the right lyrics, the right melody. Too much of this, not enough of that, as many excuses for not doing things.
I decided that if the official album didn’t come out, I would ensure that the “Unofficial” album could be released through my will and that of the people supporting me.
And given the result and all the feedback, I think I did well! … All that’s missing is the media support that will come by 2010, and we’ll see what future this new baby has in store.
Nice-Premium: When will Vianoland open during the week?
Viano: But it is… during the week, at night, during the day, 7 days a week, 24 hours a day, weekends, and public holidays… art and passion have a relative view of time… When the desire to share and create exists, the doors of Vianoland are always open.
Nice-Premium: Thank you for giving us a glimpse of Vianoland. To conclude, if Aladdin’s lamp genius appeared to you, what wish would you ask?
Viano: To be able to continue giving happiness, smiles, tears to those who listen, discover my music, and come to see me in concert… and if the genius grants it to me, to be able to offer this to a wider audience… but who knows what tomorrow will bring?
Thank you to you
Viano’s Myspace: https://www.myspace.com/vianoland
