Name: Adriano Galante
Nationality: Spanish / Catalan
Occupation: Singer, musician
Current release: Adriano Galante's TODA UNA ALEGRÍA is out via Halley.  
Recommendations: I recommend all books written by Chilean philosopher Andrea Soto Calderón and the work of Spanish perfomer and poet Alberto Cortés.

If you enjoyed this Adriano Galante interview and would like to stay up to date with his music, visit his official homepage. He is also on Instagram.



When I listen to music, I see shapes, objects and colours. What happens in your body when you're listening? Do you listen with your eyes open or closed?

I do listen to music everyday, most of the time while I’m awake.

My body reacts to sound in many ways, sometimes moving, sometimes singing, sometimes making new music instantly … Sometimes experiencing things I don’t know. I love to let my body discover how to undersand unknown rythms, new textures, di!erent dynamics… It’s so inspiring.

There are certain notes that I do need to sing when I’m in particular places too… I guess I’m hearing these sounds somehow that don’t exist there and I need to express them in a way. That’s why it’s easier to write down new music every time I’m playing or singing in a new spot.

I also wonder what kind of music it’s playing when I’m sleeping.

What were your very first steps in music like and how would you rate the gains made through experience - can one train/learn being an artist?

I started working in music by accident. My parents had guitars at home, and used to listen to their vinyl LPs pretty loud most of the time. But my interests at the time were focused on sports and other topics until I had three severe injuries skating and playing volleyball and football. That’s when I started listening to music seriously, also playing guitar randomly on top of blues, folk and hip hop records … That was back in 1999, so no Internet at that time in the little town I grew up in. I was 16 years old.

Five years later, I was frequently attending jam sessions in my city, Barcelona. One day, some random guy approaches me, gives me his card and tells me he truly loves my performance and would love to make music with me. Days after that, he tells me he also has a job for me as a bass player in a theatre company he co-directs, so he buys me an electric bass and six months later we’re touring together all over the world.

That job suddenly becomes my music school, my record studio and my whole new career.

After six intense years of that adventure, learning a lot on and away from the stage, I founded my lifetime project / band / collective, named Seward —aesthetically the exact opposite to this first job—, with the musicians I loved most in the city at the time, playing banjo and guitar, but that’s a whole other story.



Seward made me the person I am, not only as a performer, but also challenging somehow all means in the current music industry, from the way we understand music and how we play it to the use of social media, the release of our albums or the presence or absence on streaming platforms.

So, yeah, if I could make it this way, I guess all the living persons in this world can be an artist.

According to scientific studies, we make our deepest and most incisive musical experiences between the ages of 13-16. What did music mean to you at that age and what’s changed since then?

I did not listen to music at that time, but my parents did so often at home. So, casually, at that age I was listening to classical music, psychedelia, English folk, soul and flamenco most of the time. Even though I did not pay close attention to them, they influenced me a lot, I reckon.

After those years, I guess blues records where the first I started listening to by myself: Skip James, John Lee Hooker, JB Lenoir … All those old time masters.

Nowadays, I listen to music 24/7. In my playlists and records, you can find very diverse names, as The Books, Los Sara Fontán, Rodrigo Cuevas, Juçara Marçal, Stormzy, Karen Dalton, Mans O, Childish Gambino, Silvana Estrada, Stromae, Richard Hawley, Noname or Roedelius, to mention just a few of my current plays.

[Read our Rodelius interview]
[Read our Rodelius interview about Ego as an Energy and doing IT]
[Read our Rodelius interview about collaboration]

What, would you say, are the key ideas behind your approach to music and what motivates you to create?

I like to evolve through music. I need music to challenge myself all the time.

That’s why I’m always looking for new music, regardless whether it comes from the past, the present or the future. I love to discover new music scenes and create ways of communicating and connecting communities through music experiences … Music is truly infinite and that’s the way I try to deal with it: embracing the unknown.

I’ve been working as a musician for almost 20 years, but, as an artist, I prefer to keep music as a mistery, as a musician but also as a listener. When it comes to define myself as a “worker” of the music industry, I do guess I might be an activist for the basic rights of the musicians.

This is essentially because I’ve been involved in freedom of speech rallies and differet campaigs related to labor rights, fair pay, regulated streaming platforms, etc.

To quote a question by the great Bruce Duffie: When you come up with a musical idea, have you created the idea or have you discovered the idea?

Both, I guess, somehow. For me, music is a constant search, even when I seem to know what I’m doing. Even when the audience sings with me, they’re also both creating and discovering multiple musical ideas inside them … Also memories, images, roots. Music an inmense collective memory we all share somehow through imagination.

Many people say “it’s all connected” … Well, yes, ok … So one of its channels might be music for sure.

Paul Simon said “the way that I listen to my own records is not for the chords or the lyrics - my first impression is of the overall sound.” What's your own take on that and how would you define your personal sound?

When I listen to my own records, I always find new things there I did not know about my music. I try to approach them this way, as if this person singing and playing were not actually me.

Regarding my sound, I’d say it could be both intimate and expansive at the same time. Haha. Multiple, challenging, direct, unstelling, fragmentary, diverse.

Sound, song, and rhythm are all around us, from animal noises to the waves of the ocean. What, if any, are some of the most moving experiences you've had with these non-human-made sounds? In how far would you describe them as “musical”?

Oh, I’ve had loads of these experiences and I think they’re all music, indeed. Everytime I do a music workshop, I ask this question too and answers are always surprising.

The most recent experience like this I had was on the island of Formentera: A big pine tree “played” beautifully by the sea wind, right next to one of the beautiful lighthouses that piece of land has. It had a low, deep, honest tone. Good old soul, that tree. I loved listening to their voice.

From very deep/high/loud/quiet sounds to very long/short/simple/complex compositions - are there extremes in music you feel drawn to and what response do they elicit?

I do love them all, truly. I welcome them in my music in all forms possible. Extremes are necessary.

In all my projects, dynamics are as present as they are in classical or avant-garde music. I want my music to be as close as a lifetime experience as possible, so I try to create some sort of uncertainty and be near that complexity life can offer at times when I compose, record or perform live.

Could you describe your creative process on the basis of one of your pieces, live performances or albums that's particularly dear to you, please?

With my band, Seward, we always record our albums live. This experience has been challenging in many ways, as we hardly got “there” where we get when we do shows.

It was only on our 4th record that we finally found the way to reproduce what we do on stage playing together, thanks to a session of 20 intense days of recording in Texas with Matt Pence (producer of John Grant or Midlake) and Scott Solter (producer of Dirty Projectors or St. Vincent).

Do you conduct “experiments” or make use of scientific insights when you're making music?

We’ve been always “conducting” experiments with our audience when we play live, performing in all kinds of formats: surrounding the audience many times, but also the opposite, with them all around the band … or in the middle of the countryside, in full darkness and no PA system, to enhance the way people can listen.

We also did a 442 hz tuning show … It was a mess, really!

How does the way you make music reflect the way you live your life? Can we learn lessons about life by understanding music on a deeper level?

I do try to live my life the same way I do make music. Music can help human beings in many ways. In my particular case, it has “saved” my life on numerous occasions.

If a person is able to understand how to comunicate through any kind of music, this person will be able to reach other people and other cultures in a much more open point of view. There must be a balance, though, ‘cause many musicians use music to escape from their “real” lives.

In my case, it’s the opposite: I need music to live a plentiful life, in all senses.

Do you feel as though writing or performing a piece of music is inherently di"erent from something like making a great cup of co"ee? What do you express through music that you couldn't or wouldn't in more 'mundane' tasks?

I would never stop composing, recording or playing everyday of my life the same way I do cook or eat three or four times a day. I’d love to have this non-stop relationship with music, but sometimes I just need to stop and forget about making or playing music for a certain time. That helps me to get back to music with more ideas, energy and inspiration.

Silence is an essential part of music … That’s my silence, then.

Every time I listen to "Albedo 0.39" by Vangelis, I choke up. But the lyrics are made up of nothing but numbers and values. Do you, too, have a song or piece of music that a"ects you in a way that you can't explain?

There are many things I can’t explain about my music and that’s what I love about being a musician the way I am.

But there are certain parts of my songs where this happens to me everytime I sing or play them. It does not matter if the tune is old or new. I just get there and something happens to me.

If you could make a wish for the future – what are developments in music you would like to see and hear?

Infinite wishes, please. I imagine the music of the future with no limitations, nor borders or forms.

I picture it as multiple language formed by thousands of realities.