20/11/2020
Before this pandemic went down I used to work at a music venue as bar staff. It's hard for me to believe that just a year ago, I would get back home exhausted and tormented, wondering "how can people be so rude? They listen to good music after all". How many times I would burst into tears while eating my dinner at 1 am, standing over the kitchen sink, thinking whether I'd made the right choice in attempting a career in music, in chasing my vain dreams. Well, I can hardly believe that just a year after I'd be crying with joy for the end of such an immense effort.
If there is something I've learned from this journey, a takeaway I wish everyone would understand would be to persevere and do the damn thing.
If you told me in 2016, as I was releasing my first solo album, that something like this could have been possible, I wouldn't have been capable to even process it. 366 songs don't create themselves. Now I know that for sure, I've seen them come to life. You have to wake up every morning at 8 am, get some exercise, eat a healthy breakfast, and get things done. Daily. Sundays included. All kinds of weather. All summer long. As a side, sauce, and dessert to the pricey entrée of university exams. All the while, the passion must stay alive, as you sacrifice yourself to accrue the funds, as you pray at the end of the month something will remain to be saved. But how many times have I doubted, how many times have I hated myself for what I couldn't do right, for things I wish I had the ability to do better.
Cause if I'd been all by myself, with all the closed doors we've faced, I would have quit long ago.
It is only thanks to Deborah if the songs exist, if the morale never went too low, if when something unexpected happened we could always count on her impeccable production notes to make ends meet. Deborah, the love of my life, put her soul into this project even more than I did. It was painful to wake her up from her blissful sleep every day of this process because there was work to do.
It is only thanks to Marta, if our crazy marketing ideas came to life, if the world was always within reach, if things were thought and done in a matter of days, hours, sometimes minutes. Marta, whom I didn't even know before I came to London, believed in us, she saw something true and worthwhile at the end of the road; she saw an Ideal where others saw madness and irrealistic goals.
She put her soul into this project and I can't thank her enough.
It is only thanks to Sebastian if the songs have a heart. When I asked him to join me on this adventure, he didn't think twice. With no guarantees, all he wanted was to play and create. He dedicated his free time to this project and went to work afterward every day. When he bashed on the drums, it's his heart you can hear.
It is only thanks to Eddie if the corporation has a face and a crusade, if the ads were just perfect and the device was realistic enough to appeal to thousands of people. He took a job that could have been a work of skill and poured his interest, ideas, and dedication into it, making it unique and whole to the brim.
Eddie, anything was possible and we never had to ask for it.
It is only thanks to Push if this project has a story. One that you can grasp and see, masterfully polished and presented to the world. With him around, everything made sense even if we had barely begun. In the summer of 2019, he would take the train daily from Bologna with his equipment, just to be with us and document the history of this adventure. Through thick and thin, he's been there for us. Push: our archivist, noodler, and director.
It is only thanks to Marlon if the essence of the songs is enclosed and distilled to the heart of the T-shirts that Diana impeccably hand-embroidered, one by one, to perfection.
Then as our crazy creepy ad campaign unfolded something unbelievable happened: some amazing, curious individuals started following us and created a community and started gathering information and dissecting the mystery. All this in a matter of days! Some of them even spied on the code of the website to find more information. They started a subreddit to archive all they knew, even streamed on twitch to breakdown the ads and talk about the music industry.
How I feel right now goes beyond words, and I am so grateful that this tiny family started so spontaneously and I love to see the engagement to the protest. I believe change can start from nothing, and well as little as it could be, this is already something!
I love you all and I hope that this album will stand the test of time and I hope it will be the soundtrack to at least a year of your incredible lives.
Screw gatekeepers, let's lead the change!
The Royalty Instrumentality Project is:
Deborah Verrascina
Sebastian Papà
Luca Pusceddu
yours truly
Management: Marta Teolato
Content production: Edoardo Giacomelli
Merchandising:
Diana Kononykhina
Marlon
Album cover subject:
Damien Hirst “Anatomy of an Angel”
https://www.royaltyinstrumentalityproject.com/Gi
