Interview: Australian Singer Rico Garilli

It took one young Australian boy many trial and error sessions, but now that he has discovered his niche, he is not letting go. At a young age, Rico Garilli’s father first introduced him to music by placing him in voice lessons while his brother took bass guitar lessons.

“We had a band with some family friends, which I didn’t enjoy too much,” Garilli said in an exclusive interview with FanBolt. “I didn’t enjoy singing back then, so I decided to try piano instead. That lasted a couple of years and it was great until I decided to drop piano for guitar. I did about three terms of guitar lessons before I changed schools. I decided not to do music at my new school, so I have pretty much just been teaching myself since. I also re-kindled my love for singing and just brought the two together.”

Garilli best describes his music as “just him and his guitar.” He does not use any effects when he plays, only raw acoustic music.

The unsigned artist says he is content writing music that means something to him and is not too worried about pleasing the masses.

“I really am not fussed whether that sells records or not,” Garilli said. “I have no intentions of making money or getting famous from this.”

Garilli’s passion for music was personal, but he finally decided that it was time to share it with the world.

“December 2009, I sat down, took out a song I had written and just recorded it raw onto my iPhone,” Garilli said. “I decided to make the MySpace purely to get my music heard. I want people to listen to what I have to write and tell me how they can relate to my music. I want to inspire people and, hopefully, make them happy. I like to see smiles on people’s faces.”

The guitarist’s inspiration for encouraging others comes from his emotions.

“I don’t write music with the intention of writing a song,” Garilli said. “I’ll only start to write when I truly believe I have something to say in my music. Unfortunately, like many others, I have a lot of inspiration from the opposite sex due to the wide range of emotions they can send you through. But I try my best to move away from the sappy love songs and focus on intentions on other, less obvious emotions.”

His fans have responded positively on his MySpace page and Garili says that he is glad to receive so many comments. He says that his fans often write that they enjoy his music because it makes them happy.

“I think, away from the music, they [the fans] also love the fact that I’m not just another artist out to have as many MySpace fans as possible,” Garilli said. “I don’t add that many people on MySpace, purely due to the fact that I’d rather spend the time getting to know as many of my fans as possible and have proper conversations with them. If I add thousands of people up front, I’ll just be another artist. I don’t want that. I want my own individual personality so that each of my fans knows they can turn to me for help, cheering up, or just a general conversation.”

When he’s not interacting with his fans on the web, Garilli can be found playing local shows in Adelaide, Australia. After playing his first gig, at an open mic night, Garillli says that he instantly fell in love with performing live on stage. His preparations for his show often start before he even gets to the venue he is playing at.

“Usually I’ll go through some warm up techniques,” Garilli said, “go through my set-list one time through, talk to a few of my fans on the MySpace to get me into a nice, happy mood. Then as soon as I get to the venue, I’ll have a look at the crowd and psyche myself up to get ready to perform, get rid of my nerves, and then, it’s go time.”

Garilli’s favorite part of playing a show is the feeling he gets afterward, when people come up to him, shake his hand while complementing him on his performance.

“It is such a great confidence booster and puts me in a great frame of mind,” Garlilli said.

Garilli believes that he is currently unsure of where the future will take him and his music career.

“I would really love to meet and play for some of my fans around Australia and in the States,” Garilli said. “At the moment, I am just taking it a day at a time. I just want my music to make people happy.”

Garilli’s music can be heard at myspace.com/ricogarilli

By Kimberly Gallagher

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