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The Obelisk Questionnaire: Daniele Murroni of Gramma Vedetta, Aliceissleeping & Mandrone Records

Daniele Murroni of Gramma Vedetta, Aliceissleeping & Mandrone Records

The Obelisk Questionnaire is a series of open questions intended to give the answerer an opportunity to explore these ideas and stories from their life as deeply as they choose. Answers can be short or long, and that reveals something in itself, but the most important factor is honesty.

Based on the Proust Questionnaire, the goal over time is to show a diverse range of perspectives as those who take part bring their own points of view to answering the same questions. To see all The Obelisk Questionnaire posts, click here.

Thank you for reading and thanks to all who participate.

The Obelisk Questionnaire: Daniele Murroni of Gramma Vedetta, Aliceissleeping & Mandrone Records

How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?

I will define myself as Jack of all trades, master of nothing. I’m a software engineer from 9 to 5 day and a musician, sound engineer and record label owner from 5pm to 9am. (occasionally video editor).

This is because I like to do different things, I get bored quickly, but also because I’m a geek and I’m pretty curious about how things work.

I’ve always been interested in science since I was a kid and I’ve been raised by music-lover parents, so in the ’90s I started playing the guitar with friends in a small town in Sardinia, in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and since then everything I wanted to learn was something that could have been applied to music.

I started Computer Science at Uni because I wanted to learn how to develop audio plugins (tried, put together a distortion, sounded like shit).

I develop an interest in sound engineering and music production because I wanted to record my band’s first demo back in 1998. I learned how to edit videos because I wanted to edit video for bands.

Money was scarce, time was in abundance.

I married a bass player, actually, she married me because I’m a guitarist.

We opened Mandrone Records because we wanted to release our stuff and friends’ stuff.

So I do a lot of things and I am a lot of things, I’m not mastering anything but I enjoy life being like this.

Describe your first musical memory.

I have two early musical memories that I remember very well. I was like 4 or something.

“Dad, please put the disc with the thing that spin!” It was me asking my dad to put the Vinyl of Gentle Giant, Octopus, Side B, where the label had the full-size Vertigo logo printed in it.

With the vinyl rotating, the logo generated a 3D Optical illusion. I was hypnotized, I spent hours staring at that drawing.

Second musical memory: “Dad, please, put the music where there are kids singing, an ass with wig and eyes and hammers walking”. (The Wall)

Describe your best musical memory to date.

Guess the best musical memories are related to gigs I’ve seen.

I’ve been an avid music listener in my teens but haven’t seen any big band live because no one came down in Sardinia to play music.

Finally, at the age of 17, a couple of friends ad I organised a trip to Milan to attend the gig of our idols: Dream Theater!

To leave the island we needed of course to take a ship, It was an amazing experience, first time travelling with no adult supervision, seeing new places, watching your heroes playing your fav songs few meters from you, people jumping, moshpit.

Amazing. Sometimes I’d like to revive an experience like this. It was something completely new that I’ve never seen before. Real musicians, wow!

When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?

This question is not easy. Honestly, I don’t have absolute beliefs, I always question myself, thanks to the experiences I’ve had in my life. Human history itself has shown that certain assumptions, certain beliefs deeply rooted in society for a certain period, have turned out to be incorrect or otherwise limited.

Perhaps the only thing I believe at the moment is that the human being is evil and that in order to justify himself he had to create someone above or there responsible for his behaviour.

But I want to be clear, I don’t think ALL human beings are bad. There are many good people, like me for example, otherwise, we would have been extinct with an atomic war in the ’80s to the sound of Rust in Peace by Megadeth played by Vangelis on the synthesizer.

(I know Rust in Peace was released in 1990 but if I have to imagine the end of the world I imagine it in my own way.)

Where do you feel artistic progression leads?

The artistic progression does not happen to everyone. There are many artists who have been repeating themselves for decades. The absence of artistic progression makes you an assembly line product, sterile and rigid made for mass consumption.

The artistic progression, which in my opinion consists of evolving, in developing new skills and therefore new ideas, in breaking out of the mould, takes you to unexplored, inaccessible territories, lands to conquer, where your survival skills are put to the test. In short, it makes you suffer, it makes you feel alive and unique.

How do you define success?

My definition of success is when you look at what you do and who you are and what you see it’s exactly what you wanted to do and be.

It’s not a matter of numbers or money.

It’s having no regrets, it’s being able to say “I wanted to do it so I tried” instead of “I haven’t done it because I don’t know if I’m capable” or “I wish I’d be like this but I can’t.”

What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?

Racist, ignorant, misogynistic and corrupt people rise to power. It hurts even more when you realize they have been voted on in regular elections.

Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.

I have an idea for a book/novel. It’s a dream I had once it was weird because the story had a twist towards the end that I wasn’t expecting. My brain played it very well during that dream.

I still remember it.

Also, I’d like to create a fictional universe, like Gene Roddenberry in Star Trek, George Lucas in Star Wars. I’m working on it, but’s not easy when you waste your time doing all the shit I’ve mentioned in question 1.

What do you believe is the most essential function of art?

I’m related to this. As I said I like science and math, I work on computers, on machines that follow rules I impose on them. In this field, things have to be done in this way, with this sequence of operation, catch the exception, what If, then else.
Science is something that grows, but laws of physics are that one, you can’t defy them and we are forced to follow them.

Art is exactly what let us deviate from this, Art is something that his not tied to anything, let you build links between phenomena and parallel path. Art is the chaos that makes us non-machine, that scramble the numbers and give us guidance to create something new.

Art is what makes me feel alive after hours spent watching on a screen.

Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?

To see my family again. To gather together at a table, eat our favourite food and drink the best wine we have, telling each other stories about how we spent the past years.

https://www.facebook.com/grammavedetta
https://www.instagram.com/grammavedetta
https://grammavedetta.bandcamp.com/
www.aliceissleeping.com
https://www.instagram.com/aliceissleeping
https://www.facebook.com/aliceissleeping
https://www.twitter.com/sleepingisalice
https://www.aliceissleeping.bandcamp.com
https://shop.mandronerecords.com/

Aliceissleeping, Completely Fine (2021)

Gramma Vedetta, A.C.I.D. Compliant (2020)

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