In this interview spotlight, I chat with Antonio Piretti about his music, challenges, technology and more.

Full Q&A along with links and music below.

Where are you from and what style of music do you create? (In your own words, not necessarily in marketing terms or by popular genre classifications.)

My life’s journey has begun in Italy and has led me eventually to Canada to follow my music project. I am a singer and songwriter. My songs are messages to communicate experiences & beliefs.

In general terms my music could be classified as “Pop”, “Pop Adult Contemporary” or “Melodic Rock”. Sometimes I also like to record a song just voice and guitar or piano and this is for sure “Acoustic”.

What led you down this path of music and what motivates you to keep going?

At one point I felt that something was missing in my life. I was working for clubs and organizing events, which was cool at that time. After years, I felt I had to add more emotions and meaning to what I was doing. Step by step I began changing my life. At first I was having guitar lessons, then singing lessons and progressively I have started to write my own songs.

How is this new release different than previous ones? Were you trying to accomplish anything specific?

I was much more involved in every step of the process on working on my new single as well as on my new album “Three” that will be launched next year. I started creating my full demos on Pro-Tools. I followed not only the guitars and the voices, but a good part of the piano’s tracks too. I edited the details of the tracks and worked aside the sound-engineer during the mixing and mastering. This time I was more into the project as the previous times, even if I was always the songwriter, I was less involved in the mixing or in the mastering for instance. My goal is to be able to follow all the steps by myself autonomously. In the end I want to say I DID IT.

Name one or two challenges you face as an indie musician in this over saturated, digital music age? How has technology helped you (since we know it does help)?

Social Media helps in great terms to be more independent for sure. On the other hand you are now depending on algorithms on which more or less all the social media is based now, including the music pages, as Spotify, etc. I’d prefer social media less structured and more free of algorithms. Years ago you only had to manage your “Myspace page” or your website. Nowadays you should invest a lot of time to run behind updating all the different social media channels. This is becoming too much.It’s true that technology is given you more options but at the same time it makes everything more complicated in that big ocean of contents in a heavy competition. I improved creating my posters or editing images for the flyers of my events with Photoshop. I improved also using a professional software for videos and I’m slowly learning also the usage of Protools. All of this to become more and more independent.

To summarize, I think that we as human beings are losing our dimensions and progressively we are starting to act as robots, manageable by who has the power (information, technology, money).

What was the last song you listened to?

When I do my sport exercises, I listen to Ed Sheeran or Bon Jovi on Spotify. These musicians are different to their competitors plus they have released so many beautiful songs.

Which do you prefer? Vinyl? CDs? MP3s?

For sure I prefer Vinyl but nowadays if you want to print your own record it is better to be sure about how many fans are going to buy it because the price to print isn’t cheap.

I can say for example that for my previous album, released in 2018, I used customised USB pen. I was able to manage the requests better, without having a big number of Cds in the basement that are there just hoping to be sold.

How about this one…. Do you prefer Spotify? Apple Music? Bandcamp? Or something else? Why?

I prefer my own website where you can listen to my music too. Why..? because I created it and at least I can manage it as I feel what and how to show. The page I like the most on my website is for instance my diary page. I would never post on social media what I write on my website on that specific page but I feel that if someone is interested in me, then it’s also ok if he/she can read my real thoughts. Among the options that you wrote, the best one is Bandcamp, because it’s the one that you can manage directly, so it is exactly as your own digital store.

Where is the best place to connect with you online and discover more music?

My website for sure. There you can subscribe to my newsletter, which is the best way to receive my news and be in touch. My ReverbNation profile would be another great place.

Anything else before we sign off?

Yes, Living in Italy, Canada and lately also in Germany and talking with sooooo many people from all over the world who are facing so many different challenges and situations, I am convinced that we (humans) should learn to live as “roommates of the some planet” caring truly about one another and cutting down our blind and selfish approach. This is what I am trying to send out through my songs. I write music that are messages to encourage people to live a better life and care about one another.. 😉