Federico Rossi returns in the summer to kick off his new recording project. We had left him in 2022 with his latest single “Le Mans”, then silence. A year has passed, which in this musical era seems to last even longer. Twelve months in which he stopped, at the same time without ever stopping. Lots of music. The travels, the friends, but above all the writing, the need to have clear ideas about what this new part of his career should be, after splitting from Benjamin Mascolo into their multi-platinum duo Benji & Fede and those successful arena years that had been overwhelming.
A lot has changed since then, there was a strong need to stop and find one’s own space, especially personal. The perception of success has changed, but above all he has changed as he is now free to experience music as a companion in his daily life, without necessarily having to think about the numbers or the effect it has. All that remained was the pleasure of doing it, with the joy of being able to share it with others again today. Come back with “Cursed Sea” (Warner Music), a summer song with a melancholy aftertaste that invites you to live in the present moment, bringing the colors back to grey. Which is what he tries to do every day.
Federico Rossi is the new cover of Cosmopolitan Extra. Lanvin total look, stylist Rebecca Baglini
Sara Scanderebech
How are you?
“I feel a renewed energy. I had a good year, despite not having had the chance to get back into the game professionally. It’s been a year that has served me so much in building myself. I’ve worked a lot on myself, in general I’ve been doing it for three years, since I started to conceive the idea of taking a different path than the one I had taken in the previous ten years».
What did you find out?
“I started letting myself go. In general and in music. I began to love her much more, to experiment. I got carried away by things without wanting to control them at all costs. I have a wealth of greater awareness, and above all of serenity ».
Is it a new beginning?
«I really appreciate this gift of being able to start over, of being able to tell myself in a different, more mature and aware way».
When you say you love music more, do you mean you were starting to dislike it?
«At the beginning of everything, music for me was a need to let off steam. I had found in her a chance for revenge. In this new dawn of my life I started to see her with even more love. Without looking for it, I found in her the landing point that sweetened my journey, despite the fact that many things have changed. It has become a daily necessity. I put on headphones, I spend hours on them. Without schemes, without anything. It’s my favorite hobby.”
Besides music?
«I travelled, I started the year by proposing to go to Egypt to six friends, disparate from each other who would never have done anything together. It served to give me further momentum. I took a house in Milan last summer, a summer in which I was a bit unlucky due to the wakeboarding accident. But I lived it well all the same, always with hope towards the present and the future. I was in Milan a lot, trying to mix myself with this fast life, very far from my initial imprinting of the Modena countryside».
And are you succeeding?
«Just go at your own speed, what matters is not getting sucked in. You have to find your balance and I seem to have it, at this stage. But it is a journey in constant evolution and construction. I really like my house, it allows me to be very creative, it’s soundproofed, it has an open space, I walk, I sing… It encourages me to bring out my artistic side».
Is your new single “Maledetto Mare” born there?
«Yes, it was born from an improvisation, on an April night, singing to a musical idea from my artistic team with which real magic is being established. It was lightning, I said what I wanted to say ».
The song talks about living in the present.
“It’s a stream of consciousness. In this new way of writing I throw things out without writing them first. It’s like I find myself in what I say after it happens. I say things I feel but never write. They are flashes of who I am and what I experience, in the way I see things in that moment. I’m talking about the fact that I don’t mind labeling what we are, whatever the relationship, because what matters in those moments is just living it».
Are you talking to a real she?
«I am always affected by what I live, it is a phase of acceptance of a relationship that goes away, while you are living it, if we are to read it on a large scale. It’s a bit like going to look for what we want».
Do you know what you want?
“A while ago I couldn’t have answered, but now I’m putting the pieces together. And I’m in a discreet phase of creating this mosaic that we build ourselves. I know what I want, but in life you never know. I know what would give me serenity. And having the possibility of starting afresh with those who trust me, and who see the good in which what I do is already a great source of serenity».
The separation from Benji, the solo career, the arrival of the pandemic that changed the projects and perhaps also the results. Has he ever had second thoughts or regrets?
“I’ve never had second thoughts or regrets. The decision was not mine, now I can tell. I was in the studio, one day Benji arrives and he tells me that he can no longer stay within this relationship. He could no longer continue for obvious reasons of him. For me it was an awareness and acceptance. I usually convert what can be a boulder into an outlet valve that can be sublimed into something beautiful».
So did you accept?
«I said “ok, but do you know that maybe now I can give vent to who I really am? To start another conception of my personal life”. And so immediately afterwards I decided to look at it this way, also because I had no alternative to look at it any other way. But I’ve never suffered from this. If it happened, if he came to tell me, it means that there was a breaking point that would not allow things to remain as they had been until then. I took note and went on my way.”
Listen, did you comment on his collaboration with the Finleys?
“I have decided not to comment on what happened or anything, because I go my way, he goes his, everyone makes their own choices in life”
Have you had or do you have gray moments, which you talk about in the song?
«I think that this, which becomes a profession, for those who are lucky enough to do it, arises from a primary need to retaliate against those who have somehow accused themselves in life. There are always gray moments, even now that I’m talking about revenge. Revenge towards the most recent gray moments, but I’ve always had them and they have always given me the push to reach the beautiful and colorful moments. Seniors depend on sitting still, even though I really wasn’t because I’ve done so many things. But I’m finding the courage to find an alternative to these moments.
Now comes the summer. What projects do you have?
«I live the summer in a very open way, I want to leave room for improvisation, it’s difficult for me to organize things too much in advance. I usually take and from one day to the next I choose where to go. I know I would like to experience it mixed with writing. I haven’t done it for a long time but my ideal would be to take a house with producer friends and people I make music with and combine writing and living. My favorite moments.”
How strong is the desire to release your album?
“From zero to ten, a hundred. You create, you ferment, you create, I’ve written so much I may have so many albums that will never come out. In three years you do a lot, if music really becomes the soundtrack of your life. But I’m not anxious to release the songs. I changed my approach. Now I write for myself first and foremost. But of course, I think about the album. I’m already there with my head».