On March 31, Gm DrumSchool had the pleasure of hosting the first clinic of a drummer who is making himself known in the Italian music scene: Francesco Valente, known to most for being the drummer of the Theatre of Horrors, Love in Elevator and many others.
Despite being very young, 31 years old, he manages to convey much of his experience, through his music, his inspirations and his words.
Despite the tiredness of the concert held the night before, Mr. Valente is immediately friendly and helpful at the beginning of the clinic, looking for an interaction with the audience, a kind of intimacy in which to create a serene and pleasant climate. The first surprise coming in is in his really minimal set: a case, an eardrum, a snare drum, two plates and the hit hat with which he will demonstrate later on to know how to create very interesting rhythmic solutions.
The clinic starts with an overview of the songs that inspired him the most, we move from Nine Inch Nails to Shellac with a stop on One Dimensional Man, in which he played at the beginning of his career. The thing that immediately strikes you is the power, the drums are hit with surgical precision to let the sound out at its highest volume and making each note recognizable, then you move on to the rhythmic interlocking, Mr. Valente proves that with only three drums you can they can create multiple joints by taking advantage of the rudiments learned. The highlight is the songs of the Theatre of Horrors where the rhythmic parts, seasoned with multiple interlocking, create an accompaniment never heard in any Italian song. The style is unique, starting from the handle of the chopsticks and ending at what angle the plate is hit make inimitable, or difficult to reproduce, its method of playing.
After another series of pieces of the Theatre it is time, unfortunately, to return to the Hiroshima where Mr. Valente waits for the preparation of another 2 hours and 15 of concert, and certainly not of jazz. We go to the door while we chat a little more about custom berries and tour life and we are dismissed with this phrase "Remember that it is very important to have dreams". It will hardly be a clinic that we will forget, of course, maybe it will not have been toed with hyper exercises or technical conceptions, but for sure we have met one of the great Italian drummers of our time.
Gigi Morello, president of GM Drum School said "We are not here to do what others have done before us for 50 years. The music is alive and is not only relegated to the dusty drawers of places that more than music schools look like cathedrals now deserted by their faithful.
Musical innovation is the only thing that keeps art alive and that distinguishes it from mere performance of covers for fear of experiencing something new and going against the rules, or simply for lack of ideas.
Mr Valente is the example of someone who does his own music, with his own inimitable style, and who in his music could not be replaced by anyone else without distorting the sound of the band for which he plays.
We are champions of absolute technique, studied for hours in front of the mirror, but we are also the ones who defend popular music, and I speak not only of pop, but of music that really expresses the tastes and preferences of ordinary people , of musicians for whom technique is only a means of expressing what is in his heart. And the heart of every real musician does not taste like pre-packaged foods that come out of the microwave taste plastic, despite having an exceptional look, it is a taste of its own, inimitable, gives you sensations that you had not experienced before, like that of a dish found by chance in a trattoria out of town.
An artist expresses himself, the only thing you can say about it is
A) I LIKE
B) DON'T LOVE
Mr Franz Valente is a living example of someone who has really invented something, someone who when he plays does not hide behind any mask and is himself.
I like it." Gigi Morello
Francesco Balzarro
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