Carmelo Alfano
In this interview, Carmelo Alfano discusses “Is This You?”, his classical vocal training, unexpected industry twists, musical collaborations, and the resilience required to navigate a lifelong career.
1. “Is This You?” brings together Carmelo Alfano and Sundae Club in an eclectic blend of indie, alternative and electronic sounds. What inspired this collaboration, and how did the song first come together?
Sundae Club had a piece of unfinished music, and I thought to myself, I can basically make this into a song. I asked Hamstall to give me a copy, and I wrote a song on top of the music.
Then I arranged it with various vocal breaks, and they took it to the studio and put it all together.
2. Your musical journey began with your father’s love of opera and eventually took you to Modena, where you studied voice with the teacher of Luciano Pavarotti. How did that classical vocal training influence the way you approach your voice and songwriting today?
In contemporary music, I only use about 50 to 60 percent of what I was taught, because you don’t need that kind of discipline and structure when you’re not singing lyric or operatic phrases. But one of the things I learned was discipline: in vocal tuition, vocal structure and vocal delivery, and also self-discipline, like preparing for a sport. If you turned up to a lesson unprepared, my teacher, Arrigo Pola, would send you home. He’d say your mind’s not on your work, and you’d travel the two hours back. He’d give you firm instructions like: don’t talk for a week, drink plenty of water, go for long walks. Remember, singing is a physical thing. You use your whole body. And you can’t put your voice away in a box in the corner of the room like a guitar. You carry it with you throughout your life.
3. You’ve described Sundae Club as part of a fascinating network of musical connections stretching back through your family and career. What makes your creative relationship with Hamstall and George Shilling special, and how did those shared musical histories shape “Is This You?”
Hamstall was in my band back in the day, as my keyboard player. But he was so much more than that. Because he was also the local piano tuner, he knew everybody. He introduced me to musicians, producers and recording studios. In fact, one of the reasons I was in Abbey Road recording for three months was because of one of his connections, so he was extremely important to my career and my musical trajectory. Hamstall also brought George in to produce and mix the songs when I was recording. When I started Kookaii Booth and disbanded the band, Hamstall and George started Sundae Club. So we have plenty of history there.
4. More than 20 years ago, you were experimenting with live music streaming at a time when dial-up internet made the idea seem almost futuristic. How has your relationship with technology and the way music reaches audiences changed since then?
I wasn’t too savvy when it came to the internet back when I was experimenting, but I was asked to do certain things. I used to play at the Kashmir Klub in Marylebone, and they were doing gigs with cameras on the walls so they could stream them, which was unheard of at the time. It was the invention of Tony Moore. One day they asked if I would do a gig with this new technology, because potentially we could have more viewers and more listeners. It was back in the day of dial-up. There’s a video of it, because Sky News decided it was newsworthy, so we had a camera crew there as well, interviewing us. It was an interesting time, but no one was doing this, so we didn’t put too much onus on it. However, I started to think that technology was going to play such a big part in the next 20 years, and we really needed to be involved. Streaming was also making music almost obsolete, because no one was paying for it. That was a real worry to me. Now we have the streaming services, which prove it. For each stream, I get less than a penny. That’s nothing. No artist is valued these days. But you have to go back to those early days of streaming to see where the rot started.
5. Your story includes an extraordinary moment when a demo you sent to Tom Jones in 1993 resurfaced ten years later after people had spent years trying to find you. What did that experience teach you about persistence and the unpredictable nature of the music industry?
In those ten years between 1993 and 2003, I became much more cynical about the industry, but much more positive about my own abilities. You must understand, back in 1993 you sent demos on a tape. You’d put the title of the song on the tape and on the cover, write your contact details, and send it throughout the world. I did this, and I sent one to Tom Jones’s people in LA. I was waiting for an answer. Back when I was that young, if I did something like this, I was usually very sure I’d got the right product to the right artist. I was convinced, I was cocky, and I was very young. When I got no answer back, I was surprised, so I made a call. I believe it was the cleaner who picked up the phone and said everybody was away for the holidays and she’d leave a message. I never heard anything back, and I must say it knocked my confidence, which I had to build up over the next ten years. It was a slog. The music industry is not for everybody, because it doesn’t pay you back. It’s like a mistress who scorns you at the wrong moments.
Then a call came on December the 30th, 2003, from Mark Woodward, Tom Jones’s son and manager. I’d sent some more songs out into the ether, and he got some of them, saw my name, made the call and asked, “Are you the Carmelo Alfano who sent me a song for Tom in 1993?” I said yes, of course. He said, “That’s such a shame. I’ve been looking for you for ten years. I wanted to use that song on an album called The Lead and How to Swing It, but we lost your cover, so I couldn’t contact you, because I didn’t know who you were.” What a bittersweet pill that was to swallow.
You have to be resilient. You have to be dogmatic, dedicated and almost obsessed. That’s the way to do it, because moments like this will really test you. Imagine me thinking, wow, if they had taken my song, which I knew was right for him, where would I be now?
6. With “Is This You?” marking another chapter in your musical journey, what do you hope listeners discover in the song, and what can we expect next from you and Sundae Club?
Sundae Club will do their own thing, which they do brilliantly, and we have no plans to do anything else at the moment. I think “Is This You?” is a great song because it’s very eclectic, with many different styles and genres in it. It was one of those kismet moments where everything was aligned. I also got another version out of that session: AJ Lambert will be doing the duet version on the album, which I have coming out next month. It’s a thrill to have AJ Lambert as a vocalist with me on the song, because she comes from arguably the most important musical heritage of the 20th century. So Sundae Club, myself and AJ got together again to do a duet version of this song, and the results are great.