A ruin in the sea off Alghero and a fisherman who continues to sit next to his wife's empty chair, in the exact spot where their bedroom once stood, now swallowed up by time and storm surges. "Burrasca," one of the most intense tracks on Willie Peyote's latest album, speaks of storms but above all of affection, memories, everything that remains when the storm passes. It's no surprise, then, that the 40-year-old rapper from Turin, winner of the Critics' Choice Award at the seventy-first edition of the Sanremo Music Festival, feels perfectly at home with this year's theme chosen by the Marina Café Noir, "Changing Course." Tomorrow at 10:15 PM, he will be among the stars of the event, which kicks off from the lagoon of Giliácquas, an ancient fishing village in Elmas, after releasing "Anatomia di uno schianto prolungato" this spring, an album that combines his usual lucid perspective on the present with a more personal dimension. And it is precisely in the sea off Alghero that he found one of his most powerful images.
What inspired “Burrasca” and why Alghero?
The credit goes to director Stefano Carena, from Alghero, and it draws inspiration from a story he heard firsthand. In the very little house where the video was shot, last summer an old fisherman talked about sitting there every day in his deckchair next to the one that had belonged to the love of his life. It struck me immediately. It was perfect for the meaning of the song, a vocal and guitar ballad written with Fudasca, for that idea of a bond that endures time and hardship. We've wanted to shoot something in Sardinia for a long time, and I'm very happy to be returning now.
She is Piedmontese through and through, yet she seems fascinated by the sea.
"I didn't grow up there, but I love it. The sea is a powerful metaphor: it represents uncertainty but also the possibility of evolution."
In "Burrasca" you say we need someone to hold on to when the highest waves come. Who do you hold on to?
«To my family, to my collaborators, to those who have contributed to making me what I am today».
His first publications date back about 15 years. Who was Willie Peyote then and who is he today?
"Back then, I was a guy working in a call center and dreaming of getting to where I am today. Today, I consider myself very lucky because I've achieved the goals I set for myself. It wasn't a given."
When you started out, you were a voice that went against the grain. How do you feel you're positioned in the current music market?
"The truth is, I'm not very interested in cataloguing myself. I don't feel like a foreign body, but I don't feel like a follower of trends either. I try to observe the historical context I live in and work with it. Everyone finds their own place in the world."
In the new album there seems to be less room for controversy and more for introspection.
I like satire, and it still exists. I take a lot of inspiration from stand-up comedy. But this is a more intimate album, about a world where everything seems to be heading toward the end without ever really getting there, and about the slow and inexorable "fall" of the human body from 40 onwards. Maybe it's age that makes you see things with more nuance. I don't think I've abandoned satire; I've simply grown up.
We're living in a time of constant turmoil: wars, economic crises, political tensions. Are you optimistic about the future?
"I've never been particularly optimistic. But today I feel a little more hopeful. I feel like people are responding, and seeing so many young people taking an interest in politics and voting again gives me confidence."
