Dario Ferrante & THIN AS MEMORIES

Dario Ferrante is a Sicilian musician, songwriter and sound engineer (HIAC Recordings) who moved to Edinburgh four years ago. He writes and produces his own songs for his solo band Thin As Memories. He plays an impressively wide range of instruments: guitar, bass, a bit of drumming, piano, harmonica, ukulele, cajon and is trying to learn the trumpet.

How many instruments do you own?

Too many: four acoustic guitars, three electric guitars, two basses, a cajon, five harmonicas, a ukulele and a mandolin.

Your house is on fire and you can only take one instrument with you. Which one would you take and why?

Can I say two?

Okay, fine.

I would save my beautiful Berta, which is my acoustic guitar. She’s a copy of a Gibson J45 from 1963 or 65, which is one of the guitars that The Beatles used while recording Blackbird. I would save that one and the Epiphone Riviera.

What is your usual song writing process? Are there any special places or moments of the day that trigger your inspiration?

A couple of years ago I wrote a song called “The Best Part of Me”, which comes from a long discussion with a friend. A couple of nights after the conversation, I was sleeping, I woke up at 2 in the morning and I had this music in my mind… I turned on my phone and I started recording very quietly. When I write the music, I don’t put the lyrics: just some harmonies and then I’m going to write the words. I kind of know the feeling of the song: what I’m talking about.

How do you get inspired?

In the past it was easier: you are young, you want to play, and nothing can stop you. Now I find it harder because I don’t want to talk about politics or race wars. I want to have lyrics that mean something to me. Every time I write a song, something happened before.

Are there any special themes that you like to write about?

The main theme is sad music. My songs from the first EP I recorded under my name were about giving up or not feeling valued. Now I talk about death, divorce and showing that you can do it.

Why so much darkness?

It’s easier to express sad stuff. There’s an Italian musician called Luigi Tenco. They asked him: “Why do you always write sad songs?”, and he said: “Because when I’m happy I go out”. I can relate to that, although when I’m happy I play games.

Do you write sad songs to channel your sadness?

I use it like a way of healing. I know there are people who can relate to my music. I play in order to help them go through whatever they are going through.

What musicians and bands have influenced your musical career?

My favourite is and will always be Elliot Smith. If I had to put them on a scale it would be Elliot Smith, Sigur Rós, Ryan Adams, Motorpsycho and an Italian band called Verdena.

How did Thin As Memories start?

It started off 8 years ago when I was in Sicily, my hometown, with Fabio Mineo. I was playing the guitar and he was playing drums. We started playing just for fun and then we started playing originals, and heavy music. Then I went to London and when I came back I went melo and that’s when Thin As Memories was born, 6 years ago. Later we played with a bass player and a singer: we made a tribute band of Muse. But I kept playing on my own with the drummer, and we kept writing songs. There were demos because we didn’t have money to afford a studio. Then I moved to Edinburgh, but I decided to keep the name for the band, which I told him, and he was fine with that.

So now it’s just you as a solo artist?

Yes, I used the name Thin As Memories because in the past we were skinny: I still am.

Why are memories thin?

That’s a metaphor because memories could be easy to disappear. They are thin because it takes nothing to get rid of a memory.

You also have some songs under Dario Ferrante, like the EP A Shameless Shape?

I wrote this album in two weeks. I spent another two weeks mixing it and I did the cover for the album. I used an old guitar that a friend gave me to fix, put a microphone on it and started recording. That’s my first experiment as a sound engineer. That’s why I kept it under my name, but now I’m trying to get rid of that because there’s another guy with my same name.

What’s the live gig that you’ve enjoyed the most?

I opened for Gareth Dunlop, an Irish musician living in Nashville. His music was featured in a couple of movies and ads. It was my first important gig, and the sound engineer was pretty cool as well, so I managed to have a decent sound on stage.

Do you have any upcoming gigs?

Yeah, I have one on Wednesday the 3rd of October: a charity gig against homelessness at The Three Sisters. It’s done in collaboration with Social Bite.

How would you identify your music in terms of genre?

It’s hard. Every time people ask, I say: I just play with a guitar. There’ve been debates about this style of music because it’s kind of folk but it’s not folk. Probably it would be sadcore.

You like to experiment with different sounds.

I used to experiment in the past: I had a pedal multi-effect and I was putting the voice in there and working with different sounds. Now I’m mostly working with the guitar, for example with Nashville tunings. The difference is that they are high strung. You have the same tuning as in a standard guitar, but you have the higher notes and it kind of sounds like a harp. I used to use a loop station but then I got bored. It’s pretty cool because you can make your own band, but it gets sad because you need someone to interact with. That’s why I play bass in different projects because I like the interaction with other people. I’m also trying to put more people in the Thin As Memories project.

What instruments are you looking for?

Bass and drums. It’s going to be a normal 3-piece band unless I find a decent pianist.

On the 30^th of July you released the EP Short Tales on Spotify with two songs.

They are weird themes and lyrics: they don’t match with the rest of the songs, so I decided to release them together. The new EP that I’m planning on releasing soon, is going to contain 4 or 5 songs. I’m still working on the cover art as well. It’s going to be Songs for a Broken Heart or something like this.

Do you want to eventually make people pay for your songs?

For a couple of years, I was making money out of gigging live, which I don’t like anymore because it takes time and it’s stressful. So, I decided to give my music away for free on Spotify, Deezer, YouTube, Amazon Music, Shazam… In the future I’d love to make a vinyl, and I would charge for it.

How would you feel about someone else recording and producing your songs?

I’m kind of jealous on my songs: my girlfriend is the first person who listens to them. She’s kind of honest. One day I recorded one song and it was genuinely terrible. She told me: “Scrap it and write it again”, which I did, and it came out better. I hardly let people produce my songs. Unless it’s a good producer. There’s one producer I would like to work with: Rob Schnapf. He’s an American guy who wrote with Elliot Smith. I like the way he records stuff. He is one of the producers that I would like to work with, and I would probably not give it to anybody else.