Michele, His Egg and a Soundtrack
Posing for the obligatory photos snapped at the opening of Non è tempo per noi, Michele had something in his pocket that he never leaves home without: a sort of maraca shaped like an egg, which he carries around partly for good luck and partly as an instrument to keep the beat in his life. Michele Sodano, a 22-year old Argentine student enrolled in the Bachelor of Business Administration and Management, composed the soundtrack for the film that was directed and produced by Bocconi students. It was a challenge that took four months and it has been the latest step in Michele's study of economics and experimental music.
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Music has always been a part of the young student's life: "I was told that when I was very young, maybe around three years old, I went around the house keeping time to songs by Renzo Arbore with my rattle," he says. This interest led him to study music for several years when he was older, but it also allowed him to discover a certain opposition to the strict rules of solfeggio and scores. "So I stopped studying theory rather quickly and haven't touched a score since I was 13 or 14 years old. Then Queen sparked a passion for piano. I continued studying on my own since then." Today Michele records most instruments on a keyboard hooked up to his computer, and at university he collaborates with BStudentsTV, where he is musical director.
His versatility and love for orchestration allowed him to compose music for the film. "Alessandro Valbonesi and Walter Rauti, the screenplay writers, thought of me right away to work on the soundtrack and in late May they gave me the first cut of the film," he says. In Michele's mind, his job had a very specific starting point: "The scene when love blossoms between the two main characters. When emotions are involved, everything else is a lot easier." From there, he went from scene to scene, creating the structure on the piano and then building it around the theme with other instruments, giving a nod to electronic music as well.
Non è tempo per noi is the first feature film that Michele has composed for, but it's definitely not his first experience working in show business. At Bocconi, it all began in 2009, when he worked with the musical Chicago, put on by the Bocconi Art, Culture, Theater and Music Association. "It was a very interesting experience, and it was the first time I had complete liberty in arrangements and I could even play a few songs on stage." His work with the ACTMB continued the following year with Across the Universe, the show inspired by the Beatles, for which he arranged several songs, and where he also had an acting role.
Michele Sodano has had plenty of experience in musical production, and he also tried out a career as a singer in 2009, when he tried out for the vocal group 'Spencer Wifi' on the third edition of X Factor. "We performed live on stage during the show, at one of the competitions that allow new performers to compete on the program after it has already started. Unfortunately, I didn't make it."
More recently, Michele Sodano wrote the music for new commercial for the 118 emergency number, his first truly professional experience: "It's a campaign for the Ministry of Health, about how to correctly use the medical emergency number. Working in advertising is very complicated because you have to work with clients who you can't always contact and talk to. You can't get in sync with the director or create a relationship the way you can when working on a film."
In the meantime, Michele continues to both work on music and study at the university (click here for his page on soundcloud), even though he does admit "that it's not always that easy." Though it's too early to make decisions about the future, he is sure about one thing: "I believe that distribution and use of music should be free. That's why I uploaded the entire soundtrack of the film online, so that anyone can listen to it and download it without restrictions."