Olly's World. "The world turns" and is constantly evolving
Olly talks about his relationship with fame, the way his music takes on new forms and his personal approach to writing.
Federico Olivieri , aka Olly, makes you think with simple words. 1.95 m tall, Taurus, born in 2001 and originally from Genoa. He defines himself as having complexes, but it is probably precisely that combination of words that, once filtered, are reduced to an extreme simplicity that reaches everyone straight away. He undertakes the Niccolò Paganini Conservatory on the advice of his parents: «As a child I tended to listen to them a lot, but I didn't study particularly and in the meantime I discovered rap. I enjoyed freestyling with my friends, we made music together in a studio apartment under the stairs». He made his name at Sanremo Giovani 2022 with the song " L'anima balla ", which gave him access to the Sanremo Festival 2023 with the song " Polvere ".
LO: What attracts or has attracted you most about rap?
O: What I've always enjoyed about freestyle is the ability to create interesting and on-the-spot conversations with friends, now I do it in a joking way. But my songs aren't rapped, mine is more of an approach. I like to put complex topics into music that require a second level of thought, but communicated in the simplest way possible. There are those who speak as they eat, I write as I eat, but my lyrics want to express concepts of a certain type.
LO: And how did you arrive at this formula of writing dense texts with a disarming simplicity?
O: I worked a lot, at the beginning I liked writing difficult lyrics in a difficult way because it made me feel confident. Then at a certain point I realized how interesting it was to explain and make people think in a simple way. It's a question of training and care. If I think about when I started rapping at 15, I never thought I would write lyrics like "Bianca" and "L'amore va".
LO: How is your “Il mondo gira tour” going?
O: Very good, thank you, I had some very nice dates with my audience in Milan and Rome. Finally after the pandemic and the first years when I was more independent I had a physical and lively response.
LO: How was the response from the fans?
O: You should ask them... Generally speaking, they also sang my older songs in unison, and I'm not saying this for convenience. I can say that I have a fan base that shows me with facts their love for my music, that when there are dates they come to listen to me and this is beautiful. Now there will be the summer dates.
LO: What do you expect from your date at Nameless?
O: It's a recognised and important festival since forever but it's far from my style. The thing that excites me the most is that there are artists who don't necessarily make electronic or dance music. So I can't wait to get on this stage because I think it can bring together a lot of people.
LO: And how would you describe your music?
O: Energy, it's also one of the things they always tell me, both when I do acoustic and when I do dance with a straight kick drum. I think there's a lot of life even in my saddest songs. I think there's a lot of naturalness in my music without superstructures, they generally come about sincerely with the work of two guys, me and JVLI (editor's note: Julien Boverod, Olly's producer) . My fear after the album was a bit like postpartum syndrome, the experience of Sanremo was like giving birth to 4-5 twins at the same time. After a month of difficulty I'm unblocking myself and I'm writing music that is taking on new forms.
LO: What is your relationship with fame?
O: Numbers are tangible data, they are written on a platform, we are talking about monthly listeners, following and so on... even though they are a fact, they always seem very ephemeral to me. And even though I was born in the generation that pays attention to digital performances, I try to pay as little attention to them as possible every day. Because even though they are indicators of success, they can change from one moment to the next, what really matters is selling tickets and doing concerts. I prefer not to be recognized at the supermarket but to have people who tell me: “I tattooed the lyrics of your ballad on my skin because it gave me encouragement to keep going”.
LO: How have you changed over time?
O: In many ways fortunately, for better or for worse. I had some difficulties with some things, in others I got unblocked. I'm still the same paranoid but a little more aware, now I have more responsibilities but I continue to maintain the same attitude very inclined to work and the desire to get involved. Dedicating so much time to work, I feel I've lost a bit of connection with my personal sphere, with family and friends.
LO: What is your relationship with fashion?
O: I've never paid much attention, but since I've been working with Lorenzo Oddo I'm starting to understand what looks good on me and how I can best dress this bundle of paranoia that I am. I don't have much culture in terms of fashion, but I'm starting to take more care of myself and become interested in aesthetics.
LO: However, you also like to take great care of your communication…
O: Yes, I do care about my images and music videos because people are used to seeing a lot of that kind of content. So I always ask myself, “Am I really presenting something special? Is it really well done?” The end goal is to present something different.
LO: Who were your teachers?
O: The Young Thug and Post Malone gang, very different worlds, but they have a very strong common denominator which is the truth and realism with which they tell their stories. Among Italians in adolescence I listened to a lot of Caparezza and Marracash, then in my later years I studied the songwriting of Fabrizio De Andrè, Francesco De Gregori, and more recently I discovered Vasco Rossi. This approach to songwriting is much more in line with what I would like to do at the moment, telling stories in a simple and direct way.
LO: And then at Sanremo 2023 came the duet with Lorella Cuccarini with the song "La notte vola". Who would you do the next featuring with?
O: Can I make a mistake?
LO: Savriona is making a mistake…
O: Beyond the success that the song had, I found the union between Blanco and Mina perfect, a bond between two eras that made it clear that we young artists are not doing things randomly as we hear so much around. So dreaming bigger, Gino Paoli or Luigi Tenco if he were still alive.
LO: And the new guard?
O: Achille Lauro, I wrote some songs that I would like him to hear because we wrote to each other after Sanremo and he was very nice, he complimented me and I think he is truly a gentleman. When I was little I listened to him a lot, and he also made a change of genre with grace and coherence.
LO: Your next goals?
O: I would like to release a song before the summer dates, enjoy the tour and then erase the tracklist of “Il mondo gira tour” from the board to work on the next one.
LO: What is your greatest satisfaction in your job?
O: I don't deny that there are many, but lately I have felt a lot of disillusionment, people only notice success, the real magic is on stage, behind the scenes is very methodical. For this reason, for me the greatest satisfaction is achieving results without falling into overly standardized dynamics.
LO: What would you like to see emerge about yourself?
O: That I am a person who really likes to talk to people and let everyone draw their own conclusions. I would like people to see how much I am not interested in instilling my music in people's heads. Today my will is this: if the music reaches people, good, if it doesn't, we'll see each other again later.
