Feature: Moreno Viglione Decodes “The Fabulous Mustache”
What was the creative process like for this particular single?
This single, like the whole album, comes from an idea, that of representing with music stories that evoke the experiences of travellers of the past, journeys to exotic and mysterious places, crossing the entire Euro-Asiatic continent on a journey that starts in Japan and ends in Ireland. A past with steampunk atmospheres, populated by carriages, hot air balloons, trains and steamboats, gypsy caravans with their magic and travelling circuses with their attractions.
Could you discuss the lyrical themes or messages conveyed in "The Fabulous Mustache?"
“The Fabulous Mustache” is a fictional character, presented as “the strongest man in the world”, the main attraction of a grotesque French circus of the nineteenth century, dressed in his horizontal black striped costume and his big mustache. The song wants to evoke that tragicomic flavor of the circus and the characters that animate it, acrobats, clowns, jugglers, magicians and strongmen.
How do you feel "The Fabulous Mustache" represents your artistic identity?
For my artistic history this album is an exception, as a composer I have written many songs and published many albums but never like in this case have I had a clear concept from the beginning, the idea of the story before the music. Even though it is an instrumental album the aim is to represent images, places and a past but undefined time, like a novel or a film. Each song is linked to a geographical place, “the Fabulous Mustache” as I said earlier is linked to France, so I thought of composing a waltz in French style but with a melancholic and naive atmosphere that makes you think of the circus.
Can you tell us more about you as an artist?
I am a professional musician with a career spanning more than thirty years. My main instrument is the guitar but I play many other instruments, especially stringed instruments but not only. I am also a composer, producer and arranger. I have worked as a sessionman for many years with many Italian singer-songwriters and in the jazz field I have a long career as a gypsy jazz guitarist where I have played live and in the studio with some of the greatest musicians of this style. I am also a guitar teacher and I have written for the most important Italian magazines for guitarists, curating several monthly educational columns of different styles. In this album, recorded in my studio, I played all the instruments, guitar, mandolin, banjo, ukulele, bass ukulele, violin, flutes, percussion, kalimba and many others. I artistically produced the entire album, both in the recording and mixing phases.
Do you have a favorite piece to perform on your instrument that showcases your abilities?
No, I don't have a favorite piece because for work reasons and for my pleasure I play and have played in many different styles, my background is blues/rock but I also play jazz, country, bossa and pop, and then as I said I also really like acoustic instruments. So I couldn't choose a piece or a style, it is said of me that "I play many different things well" ((lol), I hope it's true...
