With roots stretching between Italy and Argentina and residing in the United Kingdom, Alfredo Salvati is the creative behind the musical project, Colourshop, which began with his brother in 2012 and continued as a one man show after his brother moved to Spain.
Alfredo joins us to talk all about his latest single release, ‘Northern Lights’ and who the man is behind the music.
Colourshop is influenced by classic artists such as Bob Dylan, Simon & Garfunkel and Neil Young and some more modern artists like John Mayer, Damien Rice, Jason Mraz and Jack Johnson.
The latest single from Colourshop, ‘Northern Lights’ was written and recorded by Alfredo in his home studio and then mixed and mastered by Ian Barter, who also worked with Amy Winehouse, Paloma Faith, Rhys Lewis and Allman Brown.
The song relates to that last minute impulsive decision to head out on an adventure, to go and see the Northern Lights and unknown discoveries made along the way. Its about the ultimate discovery, that you may just find yourself on your journey.
“I have always been amazed by the beauty of the northern lights, which I saw for the first time few years ago. Also I am a huge King of Convenience fan and the atmosphere they create with their music. They are from Norway and I have always imagined those Scandinavian landscapes and the cosiness of a fire place in a mountain hut while listening to their sound. That it’s the sound I wanted to recreate.” Alfredo Salvati (Colourshop)
The track, featuring stunning acoustic guitar and the raw and warm vocals of Alfredo has a laid back feel that will have you visualising your own travels and journey to see the Northern Lights.
You can listen to ‘Northern Lights’ below:
Would you like to let us know a little about your background?
Italian born, with south american roots (my mother is from Argentina).
I moved to the UK in 2009 to pursue a career in music and in general to experience a more stimulating music environment.
Joined by my brother 3 years later, we began to play many concerts all around the UK and Europe (Moscow, Latvia, Poland, Germany, Netherlands, Spain to name a few), all while having a day job and auto producing our music.
My brother left for Spain and I continued to compose, record and play gigs on my own as a solo artist (still as Colourshop), opening for Tom Walker in 2019 and touring California during the summer of the same year.
After the pandemic I organised and played the Northern Lights Tour in Denmark through the low-fi concert platform.
How did Colourshop come about?
It came from an idea of our producer Max Ciccarelli – he said one day: “all your songs have such a different character and vibe, you guys are like a Colour-Shop, every song is a different colour.
It was a great idea especially because at that moment we were looking for a new name that would represent us better.
What was it that first got you into music?
Me and my brother were always singing cartoons songs in the car and our parents spotted a potential in that (or maybe they just wanted us to practice in a different “environment” for their ear’s sake) so one day our father came back home from a business trip in Hungary, carrying a red – sunburst cheap guitar.
It was so painful to play, especially for the delicate fingers of a 10 years old boy ahah!
Despite that we grew fond of the instrument and we later signed up at the music school in our town and started taking piano and composition lessons.
We formed our first bands at school and started writing our own music.
I would say that in my artistic career my mum’s music influences (mainly 60’s and 70’s great classic such as Pink Floyd, Credence, Neil Young, Deep Purple) and the Italian singers songwriters (Lucio Dalla, Francesco De Gregori, Lucio Battisti) formed much of my music foundation upon which I built my own style.
How would you describe the feel of your music?
I always see my music as a delicate summer breeze that accompanies the listener’s thoughts taking him/her through different places, smells, sights and reflections.
The objective of my songwriting has always been to deliver an honest and real message to whoever listens to my songs.
My idea (or illusion) is that my music and lyrics could trigger a train of thoughts in the listener generating ideas, feelings and emotions.
You have released your new single, ‘Northern Lights’.. tell us a little about how this song came about.
For many years I have been fascinated by the northern lights, this sudden, elusive natural phenomenon that not many people experience for obvious reasons. These lights have an aura of exoticism mixed with mystery.
Their unpredictability at times reflects my character and impulsiveness, so I imagined myself packing a bag and embarking on a spontaneous (maybe disorganised even) trip to see them.
While walking in these immense, virgin, scandinavian landscapes surrounded by the untouched nature I eventually discovered new things about myself I didn’t even know about. Discovery.
What does ‘Northern Lights’ mean to you?
The courage to step out of the comfort zone into the unknown is sometimes what we really need to discover ourselves. The whole point of the discovery is in the journey, not in the actual destination.
A fun fact about this song is that I actually booked a last minute trip to Iceland (of course without much planning and preparation) just a few days after the release.
I have walked lengths to see the northern lights, getting out the city and walking for hours after the sunset, but guess what – I have not seen any northern lights, but exactly as in the message of the song, the discoveries I have made are the real reward of the journey,
What is your creative process like, when you are creating your music?
It is quite an “expensive” process for me to write a song, especially from an intellectual point of view. They, unfortunately, don’t flow seamlessly through my mind as I wish they would.
The most difficult part is actually to “get in the mood” of writing a song, especially because nowadays we have so many distractions and things to do around us that disrupt the process.
Creativeness comes, as many know, from boredom. Surely nowadays we are hardly bored thanks to the constant connection to the internet and electronic devices we carry with us everywhere.
I tend to focus on a melody that I usually compose with the guitar or piano and I gradually add lyrics on it according to the mood the music inspires me.
Has there been anything along the releasing process that you would do differently next time?
In the last couple of years I have been following the same kind of pattern while releasing my music and at this point I would not know what to do differently.
I reckon I could handle the social media engagement better, trying to boost the interaction with my fans, but the reality is that I do think more than twice when posting any content, I feel nobody would really be interested in what I am eating tonight for dinner, I tend in fact to only post content related to my music hence the little engagement on the media. Any suggestions ? 🙂
What would success in your music look like to you?
Over the years I have asked this question to myself in my head many times.
I finally understood that what matters the most to me would be to be able to focus on my music full time and travel with it, getting to see places and know cultures.
I am jealous of those musicians that can play their music in different cities for a full year long. That would be my dream for sure!
Is there any message that you would like to share with your audience?
To my audience I say: life is full of colours, pick yours !
Is an invitation not only to try to see the world around us from different perspectives, but also to try and listen to different songs from my catalog since they are all so very different and could easily fill a pleasant morning/afternoon of discoveries
Where can people go to find your music?
Spotify and the other streaming services are the easiest I guess under the handle: colourshop
I do also have a YouTube channel (again as colourshop) where I upload my videos. Most of them have a good quality and nice story, thanks to my favourite video maker Gareth Kay who has been working with me for the last 4 years.
Karen Harding is a Melbourne, Australia based singer/songwriter, founder of Sounds On The Couch, and founder and operator of boutique music PR service for emerging and independent artists, Rise Indie.