Pete Molinari

PETE MOLINARI
– the interview –

Richard Hawley once said of Pete Molinari: “He could sing the f***ing Yellow Pages and
make it sound cool“. A country/blues artist from Kent, Pete Molinari has a nonpareil vocal
style that was honed in New York and Tennessee. The influence of a bygone America is
evident, and Molinari cites Chaplin and Guthrie among his inspirations. Further enkindled by literary greats such as Steinbeck and Kerouac, Molinari is a trailblazer for honest, unpretentious art.

With his third album now in stores, the young musician is slowly starting to gain the attention he so deserves. His first album Walking Off The Map (2006) was produced by Billy Childish in his kitchen. Album number two came just two years later, entitled A Virtual Landslide, and this led to a MOJO nomination and critical acclaim and praise from within the music industry.

With his passion for blues and love for the old country singer-songwriters, it’s
perhaps surprising that Molinari also draws much of his inspiration from his homeland,
stating: “Nothing quite like seeing those forty shades of green, is there?” He goes on to
discuss his varied inspirations. “I like stories within things. As a kid I would always analyze
something to find the story within it – how John William Waterhouse painted The Lady of
Shallott and was influenced by Tennyson’s poem for instance. And how the Pre-Raphaelites were influenced by Victorian poetry and also by Greek mythology”. Struck by the romance within art, Molinari applauds Neruda and Wilde, “even with their whole melodrama”. The musician’s obvious passion for literature and art seeps into his work, and his latest album, A Train Bound For Glory, is a web of delicate storytelling.

How did a young musician from Chatham growing up in the Britpop era turn to country
and blues instead? The answer is perhaps linked to Molinari’s familial background – an
amalgam of Maltese, Italian and Egyptian ancestory. “It’s funny how Britpop never made any kind of impression on me. I grew up in quite an impressionable family. Mediterranean food, culture and music were handed down to me. I just seemed to be obsessed by the sound of certain songs and the imagery they brought to me – for example with Billie Holiday, or someone that great. When you hear her sing you don’t just hear her sing. It changes your whole way of thinking if you allow it to. It changes the way you feel. That in turn can have a deep effect on your soul. It’s not that what was going on with all my friends and what they were listening to wasn’t good or cool. It just didn’t move me. I learned very early on that music, art and literature is something that I needed, to help me to find answers and escape and dream. Something I needed to identify myself with”.

It seems that Molinari is spurred on by poetry fuelled by love and romance, by art created for no other reason than the desire to express oneself and by music offering a candid display of one’s emotions. Molinari himself agrees with this sentiment, stating that it’s important that he does what he does “with substance and content over style or form”. For him, it’s important “to keep close to the true spirit of creativity and be inspired and in turn inspire the people. That’s where it all comes from in the end”.

Molinari played at Hop Farm’s festival in early July, along with musicians such as Bob Dylan, Blondie and Ray Davies. There’s something of Dylan within Molinari – those thought-out lyrics and the simple desire for pure art, perhaps. When asked about Dylan’s performance at Hop Farm, Molinari hesitates. “It’s difficult to be impressed when you have listened to great records and songs by someone like him or Leonard Cohen since you were a kid then when you see a quite flat and unrecognizable performance – you can only try and justify it and excuse it. It’s too much to live up to. I like to think of someone like that being close to his audience in cafes and theatres. It’s a romantic view you have of such artists and really the only way an artist can be great is to be close to the earth and to the people. Once you detach yourself from that you’re in trouble. You don’t connect with society and what’s going on around you in the world like he once did. Woody Guthrie and Billy Childish always have. Dylan seems to be gated and more like Elvis now sadly. I love and respect him all the same”.

With his first novel With Good Intentions due to be released in autumn this year, Pete
Molinari is a very busy man. He will spend much of the summer in LA, before returning to
tour the UK later this year.

by Rachel Preece

Related Images: