Eugenio Finardi
Born of an American operatic singer and teacher and Enzo Finardi, a sound engineer from Bergamo, Eugenio Finardi has both the Italian and US passports. After recording a children song at the age of 9, his career starts in the 70s as a rock musician in bands like Tiger and Il Pacco, with the young guitarist Alberto Camerini.
His contribution to music extends since then until today: from the first album for the Cramps label (“Non gettate alcun oggetto dai finestrini”, 1975), his style evolves constantly in “Sugo” (1976), “Diesel” (1977), and “Blitz” (1978), recorded with the band Crisalide, up to “Roccando Rollando” (1979).
In 1981 he releases “Finardi”, with the lyrics of Pooh’s lyricist Valerio Negrini, and “Secret Streets”, an album sung in English which revisits some songs of the previous album. In 1983, “Dal Blu”, dedicated to his daughter Elettra, born with Down’s Syndrome. In 1985 he takes part in the Festival di Sanremo with “Vorrei svegliarti”, which leads to the album “Colpi di fulmine”. “Dolce Italia” (1987) and “Il vento di Elora” (1989) follow.
In 1990 he revisits some of his songs (“La forza dell’amore”) with the participation of artists like Ligabue, Ivano Fossati and Rossana Casale. The albums “Millennio” (1991) and “Acustica” (1993) follow. In these years, Finardi starts to get bored with the music industry. “Accadueo” is the album of 1998, released again the next year with the song “Amami Lara” (Sanremo 1999). After this, he returns to the alternative music world and starts to work in several niche projects.
In 2003ì “Il silenzio e lo spirito” is released, a live album where he explores the relationship between Music and Absolute. In 2005, with “Anima blues”, Finardi celebrates his love for the genre: the album is highly praised internationally. In 2007 the anthology “Un uomo” is released with liner notes by Fernanda Pivano. In 2008 he makes his theatre debut with “Suono”, a show of monologues and songs where the artists tells tales from a more than thirty years long career. The show will be released on DVD. Always in 2008, he collaborates with Carlo Boccadoro and the Sentieri Selvaggi ensemble, singing the songs of the Russian poet Vladimir Vysotsky: the album receives the Tenco Award for the best interpretation. In the following years he collaborates again with Boccadoro and the Entr’Acte ensemble in two different projects: “La storia del piccolo sarto” and “I cavoli a merenda”. In the meantime, he takes part in productions of other artists – including Mauro Pagani and Claudio Baglioni. In 2010 he also produces “L’occhio della Luna” by Roberta Di Lorenzo, a young singer-songwriter he discovered.
In 2011 he dedicates an album to Fado (“O Fado”) with Francesco di Giacomo, singer of Banco del Mutuo Soccorso, and Marco Poeta. In January Rizzoli publishes his first book, written together with Antonio G. D’Errico: “Spostare l’orizzonte – Come sopravvivere a 40 anni di Rock”. In the same period, the tour “Eugenio Finardi Electric Tour 2011” starts: it’s a return to the rock of his beginnings. He opens the Concertone del 1° maggio in Rome, and in September he plays a tribute to Cramps Records, the label of his debut: with him, Claudio Rocchi and the reformed Area (who had played on “Sugo” and “Diesel”).
He goes back to Sanremo in 2012 with “E tu lo chiami Dio”, written by Roberta di Lorenzo. The song makes it to the final evening. In those days, “Sessanta” is released: a triple album with five unreleased tracks. One of these (“Nuovo umanesimo”) is written with Max Casacci of Subsonica, and marks the start of a collaboration which will last into 2013. The song inspires the name for the tour which will last until the autumn Nel 2012 he goes back to the Concertone del 1° maggio with Mauro Pagani, and the next year with Elio E Le Storie Tese.
Some heart-related health problems bring hin to compose and record the album “Fibrillante”, released in January 2014. The album is produced by Max Casacci and co-produced by Giovanni Maggiore.
In 2016 he celebrates “40 anni di musica ribelle”: a major project born of the unexpected recovery of the Cramps archive with the original tapes of the first 5 albums of Finardi, but also unpublished images which show a unique view of the future, able to generate a unique sound. The project becomes reality through the recovery and reprint of the original tracks of his first albums, and with a TV special for Sky Arte HD. After the tour started in April, the album becomes a special box released by Universal Music Italia.
In 2018, a new theatrical project: “Finardimente”, a show of music and words which starts at Blue Note in Milano in January. Since the previous year, he collaborates with Radio InBlu. The program “La musica è ribelle“ is an hour of free music selection, chosen and commented by Eugenio in person, which revolves around the most diverse musical, artistic and social themes.
Towards the end of the year, he lends his voice to a few narrations in “DNA”, Deproducers’ third album.