Art & Life with Marco Perfetti

Today we’d like to introduce you to Marco Perfetti.

Marco, please kick things off for us by telling us about yourself and your journey so far.
I was born and raised in Massa-Carrara, A small town in the north of Tuscany, in Italy, and I actually spent most of my life in a village with 900 people in the tuscan mountains, called Forno. When people ask me when did I start singing, I don’t know what to answer, because I feel like singing has always been part of my life, since I can remember. My mother would say that I sing since I’m 1 year old! When I was 3 I asked my mom to buy me a cassette player and since then I never stopped listening, singing and recording myself. I would learn all the songs from tv shows, commercials, and cartoons, my family was very surprised and impressed because none of them is really passionate about music.

I started studying and performing professionally at the age of 17, I have two diplomas from two music academies in Italy and I also graduated at the University of Pisa in “Cinema, Music and Theater”. For years I performed actively in all kinds of bands, pop, rock, blues, soul, full band, duos and trios. In 2008 I made it to the “judge’s house round” in the first edition of the talent show X-Factor, and in 2009 I won the national competition “Tour Music Fest”. In 2010 I attended two weeks clinics with Berklee professors held during the Umbria Jazz Festivals, one of the biggest jazz festivals in the world, and won a scholarship for Berklee College of Music. I always sang and wrote in english, and I’ve always been listening almost exclusively to american music. Moving to the US was a dream of mine since I was a kid, and I honestly never though it would have happened. I live in Boston and work as a singer songwriter since 2012, performing in local venues and festivals and events all over the USA. I feel at home here in a way I never felt before.

Can you give our readers some background on your art?
I’m a singer-songwriter, voice instructor, performing and recording artist. When people ask me who are my main influences, I always reply “How much time do you have?” because I’m such an avid listener, and I could name so many people from so many genres who inspire me one way or another. I always say that curiosity is one of the most important qualities in an artist. My art, both when it comes to writing and singing, is often the result of a mix of all the many different artists I listened, both in my younger years and currently. I’m basically a pop-rock singer songwriter, I like strong alternative-rock arrangements, balanced with acoustic atmosphere typical of folk music. The acoustic guitar is my favorite instrument to accompany my voice. Vocally I like to combine powerful rock vocals with the nuances and finesses of soul and R&B, which were my first love in terms of genre and vocal style. I believe that as a songwriter, honesty is the best way to get to the heart of the listener.

My best songs are the ones who came out in the most spontaneous way, without trying to sound in a certain way, without an actual purpose. The creative process always starts and develops in different ways for me. Sometimes I write a chord progression and improvise a melody on top of it, sometimes a melody would start playing in my head, even in moments when I’m not actually thinking about writing, so I record it on a voice memo on my phone and work on it later. I feel like my head is like a radio that is always on, I have music in my mind all the time. At times I have a chord progression, a melody, and lyrics, all written in different times, and they magically fit one on top of the other. That’s probably my favorite way of writing a song, it’s like putting pieces of a puzzle together. I’ve always loved writing, since a very young age: poems, thoughts, lyrics, giving a written form to my thoughts and my feelings has always been “therapeutic” for me. That’s why lyrics are very important to me, and I tend to give an extra care to not sounding basic or predictable with what I say.

The inspiration can come from anything, but I usually write about my own thoughts, feelings and experiences, and I try to make them relatable for others. I use a lot of metaphors in my songs, and the listeners can find their own meaning in it, and I actually love it. I have people telling me that a song moved them, or made them feel emotional for reasons that maybe don’t have anything to do with what I wrote about, and that makes me feel great, because when that happens, the meaning that they give to it, becomes part of the meaning of the song as well. I believe that we create art so that others can use it anyway they want, we give it to them so that they can make it theirs. There’s no biggest reward for me than hearing someone saying that they got emotional because they connected to one of my songs. That’s the whole purpose of making music for me. The musicians I listened to changed my life, inspired me, made me laugh, cry, think, motivated me, made me a better artist and a better person, just through songs. Art can make the world a better place, I strongly believe that. I feel that it’s almost a duty for us to inspire as much as we can, I feel like I have to give back what I received and contribute with all I can give.

How do you think about success, as an artist, and what do quality do you feel is most helpful?
We live in an era when people associates the concept of success with fame, and that’s absolutely wrong. I think success for an artist means finding an audience and being able to live with your art. Internet changed the music world, we have access to so much music right now, and it’s way easier to find specific things that we like. Some of my favorite artists are absolutely not mainstream, but they tour the world and have millions of fans. You’ll probably never see them on tv, or at the top of the charts, maybe they’ll never sell out arenas, but who cares? In every city they go, they have a group of fans who will fill up a theater, or a club, but regardless they get to tour, travel, make money, and connect with so many people around the world. That’s definitely success for me. To me, the main characteristic for an artist to be successful is to be unique. That doesn’t necessarily mean to be different, to try to do something weird or particular; it just means being yourself. It might sound cheesy, but it’s true. We’re all unique individuals, and if you honestly speak your own truth, you’ll create a unique artistic world of its own, that will stand out, and that will definitely resonate with an audience.

What’s the best way for someone to check out your work and provide support?
The name of my project is Perfect Mark, which is the literal translation of my name from italian to english (my last name is Perfetti which means “Perfect” in italian). I chose it because I love that the translation of my name has such a strong meaning in the english language, and I thought it was a great name for a band. Under this name, I released an album called “Flesh & Voice”, and that’s on every streaming and download platform, like Spotify, iTunes, Google play etc. I’m of course on all the main social media: facebook, instagram, youtube, twitter Soundcloud. on those you can also watch videos of me singing acoustic covers of songs that I like to re-arrange, and pictures of my everyday life, my travels, and things that inspire me on daily basis.

Itunes: https://itun.es/us/b_uB0
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/6vzsaBqz3p9ByyRlefr9F9
https://instagram.com/perfectmarkofficial
https://www.youtube.com/perfectmarkmusic
https://www.facebook.com/perfectmarkmusic
https://www.twitter.com/perfectmark1

Contact Info:

• Website: www.perfectmark.net
• Email: perfectmarkmusic@gmail.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/perfectmarkofficial
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/perfectmarkmusic
• Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/perfectmark1
• Other: Itunes: https://itun.es/us/b_uB0

Image Credit:
Lorenzo Devoti

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