Interviews

Capofortuna are brothers Riccardo Cardelli (Funk Rimini) & Francesco Cardelli, and Davide Santandrea ( Rame, Pastaboys) and they are an instrumental funk-jazz trio renowned for their ground-breaking productions and musical soundscapes. This week the Italian trio unveil a fusion of sounds with some heart felt nostalgia on their ‘Punti Di Vista EP’. In true Capofortuna style, this super classy record pushes boundaries and is a further testament to the band's constant evolution and commitment to musical innovation, all recorded at their boutique studio in Rimini. On the week of the release, we put some questions to the Italian trio.

Thanks for talking to us. Where are you this moment, what can you see from your window?

Hi, thanks to you! We are in our studio in Rimini, and we can see some beautiful chestnut trees from the window, we are very close to the city centre and the Adriatic sea.

Where were you all born? Where are you all based now?

Davide (Rame) is based in Bologna and the Cardelli brothers live in Rimini, we were born in these cities and decided to stay, we love Rimini and Bologna!

What do you love most about where you are living?

Speaking about Rimini, it is a seaside town, and we enjoy going to the beach also in wintertime! Bologna has some of the most beautiful sights in Central Italy; both are historical towns, full of art and culture.

How is the night scene in your town? Does it welcome an international DJ scene?

Rimini was famous in the 90's for its club scene, now it's still an important spot for great clubs such as Altromondo Studios; we also have Cocoricò and Space has just opened in Riccione. We have some important techno and house festivals like Galactica at the Rimini Beach Arena. There's maybe a lack of small-medium clubs where local DJs can grow, but we throw lots of underground parties in unconventional locations. Bologna, on the other hand, is a full-size city and it's the seat of the oldest university in the world, so it's always full of young people and clubs of all kinds. One of the biggest event venues in Bologna is Dumbo, but also Link club is huge. Many international acts played in these two cities!

What is the main club where you are?

We can say that Cocoricò is the main club in the Emilia Romagna region: it has three big rooms and one is the famous pyramid. Surely one of the most powerful places to dance in! It started in 1989 and soon became the point of reference for the House and Techno scene and still it is. We have played there often and every time it’s very exciting!

How long have you been making music together? What brought you all together initially?

We started making music together around 2017, we met at a party where we had to play some records together. At first we didn’t know we had the same music background, but after that set we became friends and after a while we decided to try and make some music together.

What were each of you doing musically prior to Capofortuna?

DJ Rame had been pumping out fine House with the Pastaboys trio since the early 90’s, while the brothers were young musicians making their first steps into music with their first band Rangzen and the Funk Rimini collective later, playing Rock and roll and Electro Funk. When we met we were all busy partying, playing, Djing and producing. And we still are!

So you are all DJs too?

Yes, Ricky is a Funk and Disco maniac, brother Franz "Crimson” is a Drum and Bass and Jungle head, DJ Rame, of course, goes for House Music.

What came first for Capofortuna, Djing or production?

Production and live, we actually almost never performed as DJs together because we want this project to be a live act and studio project.

When you are in the studio together, what parts do you all play in production?

We like to mix each other’s skills, there is no particular role, but to cut it down Ricky mainly plays keyboards and synthesisers, Franz is more into production and sound design, but he also plays guitar and bass. Rame is great at building song structures, beat patterns and always comes up with new ideas and inspirations.

What kind of artists, DJs, genres were you all into growing up?

Wow, we can spend hours on this! Our background is mainly filled with psychedelic and progressive Rock from the 60’s and the 70’s, Jazz and Fusion, Krautrock, Soul, Funk, Drum and Bass, Disco, House, Hip-Hop, Reggae, Afro and everything in between. But sure there is one Italian singer that will always have our profound love and respect, Ivan Graziani. When we travel by car going to a gig, we always listen to his music: we’ve felt deeply connected to him since our childhood, thanks to his music we travel in time and space. His voice and his lyrics are special to us and we are proud that Franz is playing the bass with Ivan’s sons, Filippo and Tommaso, who pass on his legacy.

Speaking about DJs and electronic music, we love the Italian Afrofunk/Cosmic scene and surely DJs like Mozart, Daniele Baldelli and Rubens along with many others have had a huge impact on us. The UK scene also influenced us with bands from Beatles to Clash, The Housemartins, Primal Scream, Underworld, Andrew Weatherall, Idjut Boys, 4Hero, Roni Size and many many others. Plus, many American DJs like DJ Harvey, Moodyman, Theo Parrish, and the pioneers Dave Mancuso, Larry Levan and Ron Hardy. We are music fanatics, it’s an endless research, we dig deep into everything we like to keep discovering new gems.

Who are the artists past or present that directly have influenced or inspired Capofortuna?

Genesis, Glenn Astro, Moodyman, Gil Scott Heron, Pino Daniele, Ivan Graziani, Todd Terje, Funk Rimini, Jimi Hendrix, LCD Soundsystem, Idjut boys, A Guy Called Gerald, The Egyptian Lover, Larry Levan, Manu Dibango, Fred Wesley, Miles Davies, Prince, Azymuth, Aphex Twin, Radiohead.

If you could choose a few words to describe the vibe of Capofortuna what would they be?

Lively, human, funky, and positive.

How did you connect with Polyamore?

We’ve known Bruno Belissimo since 2016, when we played our first gig together in Rimini’s Altromondo Studios: that night we jammed together on stage and it was instant friendship. Since then, we’ve played many gigs together and we made the long remix of “Disco Eccezionale”, the 2020’s collaboration between Bruno and Funk Rimini. When he decided to start his new label, he soon contacted us to ask for some new material and we were very excited about it!

Talk us through the new EP Punti Di Vista.

While still building our new studio, just after the lockdown, Rame could move again from Bologna to make music and started coming again to Rimini. We were excited about the new studio and during our session, Ricky installed a new synthesiser Casio CZ3000 in another room: it became the first instrument to be recorded in “Punti Di Vista 3000”, the first track made in the new studio. So, with just one audio drive and a couple of speakers, the main riff was tracked down. After some time our friend and producer Andrea Recla came to visit the studio and together we completed the first raw track, adding guitars and fixing the song structure, but it was just an idea at the time. In the meantime the studio was set and we began to work on other productions like, “Acido Basico”, “Pianobar” and “Venusian”. After a couple of years of sessions, we put together this EP for Polyamore, but we missed something, so we decided to return to that first track, put vocals in it and making it the focus track of the whole EP. We liked it a lot and decided to release also another version, more dubby, spacey and Dj friendly. So it became the “Punti di Vista 3000 EP”!

What was most important for you to convey through these tracks and do you feel you accomplished what you set out to achieve?

We like to make music that is trippy but also want to make people dance and we hope with these tracks you will feel this approach.

What are you most proud of with this release?

We are happy to have such a beautiful connection with our friends at Polyamore and we are proud to have our work released on vinyl, with a beautiful artwork inspired by library record’s covers from the 70’s. But it also sounds good and that’s the most important thing!

Were there some challenges involved in bringing this release together?

The main challenge was to put together an EP with a track with vocals on it, because we usually make instrumental music: At first we reached out for another singer but he didn’t really come up with any ideas for the song in almost two years! Sometimes it’s just not gonna work! So we eventually decided to write and sing the lyrics ourselves; that was the right idea from the beginning and we had lots of fun doing it!

Are there some other musicians on the EP you want to shout out?

We’d like to thank our friend Jacopo Buda who played the trumpet in “Pianobar”, he’s a very nice guy and a talented player, he jammed along with the track and came up with beautiful melodies and riffs!

What drives you all to keep making music?

Music’s been the driving force of our lives since we were kids, it’s just natural to continue and never, ever to stop. There is always a need to keep on experimenting and evolving with instruments and everything that surrounds us.

What has been one of the favorite moments from the past year for Capofortuna?

We had this gig in a beautiful club by the sea called “Pata Pata”, in Sampieri, Sicily. Very nice people and we had a lovely time, chilling around and tasting local food! Sometimes it is really the bright side of life!

Where do you find the most inspiration when it comes to discovering new music?

Fortunately we have lots of friends who are music maniacs like us and we always chat and talk about some obscure record the other must listen to: it can be an old disco record, a progressive rock band from the 70’s that we missed or a new album. It’s beautiful to be part of the community that loves to share information about records. And, of course, the web and tools like Discogs help us all.

Who do you think is making great music right now? What artists do you admire and follow?

In the club scene definitely DJ Harvey, Moodyman, Theo Parrish as always, but also Ben UFO, Toytonics, Prince Thomas, Tiger and Woods, Marvin & Guy, Soichi Terada, DJ Rocca, Dam Funk, XL Middleton, Maurice Fulton, Daniel Wang, Greg Wilson, also Sofia Kourtesis and PPJ are making interesting stuff. In the Italian funk and jazz scene we admire Tommaso Cappellato, Calibro 35, of course Nu Genea and all the new Neapolitan scene, they are amazing. Other Italian producers and friends like Clap Clap and Mace are making great new things, experimenting and pushing the boundaries of musical genres. We also like international acts like Khruangbin, Tame Impala, Thundercat.

What is the most recent record you bought?

Rame: Peace Carnival - Use Knife (2024)

This album has been remixed by artists from Palestine, France-Ireland, and Lebanon, namely Muqata'a, Zoë McPherson, and Rabih Beaini. This collective project, titled 'Peace Carnival', has been released on Morphine Records, a Berlin-based label.

Franz: Instra:mental - Watching You / Tramma (2009)

Found this record a couple of weeks ago in a little shop in Bologna just before a gig. This tune is a seminal half step Drum 'n’ Bass tune, infused with beautiful synth textures, pleasing vocal melodies, Techno elements and some Synthpop / 80’s kind of vibes. It was released on the London based Nonplus Records. This vinyl has become quite rare, so I bagged it immediately!

Ricky: Platinum Hook - Platinum Hook (1978)

I was looking for this record after finding out that they are the backing band in Lucio Dalla’s funk number “Stronzo”. Very solid Motown disco/funk, it contains a super version of Funkadelic’s “Standing on the Verge of Getting On”.

Is there an amazing record shop in your town that you recommend?

In Rimini you can find Disco Più, an institution of Italian DJ culture of the 80’s and 90’s, still open and still working as a point of referenced for DJ’s. While in Bologna, a bigger city, there is the historic “Disco D’oro”, but also” Discobolandia” and “Archivio180” are good spots for digging.

What can we hope to see next from Capofortuna?

A full album with lots of featuring, different styles, artists and friends.

Check out the latest release from Capofortuna.