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Beetween dream pop and synth pop, “Something (you don’t need)” is the new song by SOLO feat. Nobody

Posted on By Chris Relkneus

After theelektronische musik of “Stati emozionali” and the psychedelia of “Don’t shoot the piano player (it’s all in your head)”, SOLO changes direction again with a song poised between dream pop, synth pop and dance: “Something (you don’t need)”.

Born as a commissioned song for producer Lup Ino, “Something (you don’t need)” had a long gestation, even passing through Cosmo‘s hands.

«When Lup Ino asked me to write something for him I initially made up for a certain house. Cosmo’s arrangement, on the other hand, was aimed at a more modern sound. The final version, arranged and played entirely by me, turns more towards dream pop, synth pop and dance territories, where electroacoustic and electronic mix».
Acoustic guitars and electric guitars that turn into synths, two basses, guitars played with e-bow and digitally programmed arpeggiators, a continuous kick drum, form the basis of SOLO‘s singing that intertwines with Nobody‘s voice, in a dialogue intimate, sometimes in response, sometimes harmonizing.
«The song, from the very beginning, was conceived to be sung with two voices, one male and one female. What I was looking for was a subtle voice, sometimes childish, but at the same time adult, sensual: Nobody interpreted the piece perfectly, as I had already imagined it from the moment I performed it alone».
“Something (you don’t need)” stands as a harsh criticism of the society of appearing, which pushes us to always have to be aesthetically “perfect”, according to pre-established canons, which involves a gradual loss of individuality, of one’s personality and uniqueness, in favor of an “aesthetic conformity” that makes us a copy of the other, a concept also taken up in the cover art of the single.
«In the cover art, the mannequin head symbolizes the loss of personality derived from a conformist act, while the parts of the face, hair, eyes, mouth, glued on the impersonal and empty face, represent the unsuccessful attempt to find one’s own personality using parts of the body of others, by external influence and not by one’s own choice, in an attempt to emulate characters erected as a model by society, a society that makes us perceive them as unattainable, just to remind us where our place is; on the background, or on the bottom».
The video accompanying the song, directed by Alberto Cammarano and performed by Giulia Sarubbi, takes up and underlines the concept.
«A girl, who we never manage to see entirely in the face, puts on makeup before going out in an alienating Milan. As alienating as the big cities are, where the individual gets lost in the crowd and among the skyscrapers, becoming one in the midst of many, a product of the society in which he lives, a cog in a machine that wants us all to be insecure, to then being able to “reassure” us. In the end, we try to be aesthetically “perfect” so as not to feel inadequate to a world that wants to make us feel inadequate; a world that makes us insecure in order to be able to manipulate ourselves more easily and, at the same time, push us to fill that sense of inadequacy through what others have decided can somehow make us satisfied».
Recorded entirely by SOLO at The Bordello Rock ‘n’ Roll Studio and mixed and mastered by Edoardo Di Vietri at the Hexagonlab Recording Studio, “Something (you don’t need)” is the second single, after “Don’t shoot the piano player (it’s all in your head)”, from the album “The importance of words (songs of love, anti-capitalism and mental illness)”, forthcoming.
«As an omnivorous listener, I have always appreciated albums where multiple genres coexist with each other; I think of the Beatles’ “White album”, for example. “The importance of words (songs of love, anti-capitalism and mental illness)” will be a very varied album, with songs ranging from psychedelia to art rock through punk, dream pop, shoegaze, grunge, dance».
Synth-pop

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Synth–pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop) is a subgenre of new wave music that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features
Electropop

and pop genres. Writer Hollin Jones has described it as a variant of synth–pop with heavy emphasis on its electronic sound. The genre was developed in
ebm, EBM Station, electro, electronic, postpunk