Interview - NASKA: Unpredictable, cynical, irreverent here is his “The Freak Show”

“The Freak Show” is the new album by the prince of Italian punk NASKA.

Irony and provocation, romanticism and reflection, pop melodies and pure rock energy: there is all this in “The Freak Show”, the third studio work by Naska – born Diego Caterbetti – who once again demonstrates that he knows how to talk about love as of alienation, of excesses as well as the search for oneself, of freedom and love.

We met Diego and asked him to tell us about his “Freak Show”!!!

THE VIDEO INTERVIEW

THE RECORD TRACK BY TRACK

I feel like playing blink: the album opens with the energetic punk manifesto, in sounds and words, of “E mi diverto”, a praise to a reckless life, without brakes and without reservations.
This narrative continues and is completed with the irresistible riffs of “Scapati Di Casa (62015)”, a true generational anthem that screams the search for a place in the world and the redemption of those born where there is nothing, who have nothing to lose and who are never satisfied.
The story of excesses passes through “Berlin”, a song that combines Naska's punk-rock, Gemitaiz's rap and Greg Willen's techno, and which describes a wild night at Berghain, and “Corona di thorns”, a piece with grunge sounds about bad examples and models not to follow.
Love, unconventional and anything but obvious, is the theme that links “Baby Don't Cry”, a distorted ballad that reveals Diego's more punkromantic side, “Non me lo merito” and “Horror 2”, tales of painful stories coming to an end.
The album is completed by a playful parenthesis with “La Mamma Di ****”, an “American Pie”-style story of a sex story, the more introspective one of “Piccolo”, a song that addresses the theme of mental health and which stay here a little longer gives voice to the requests for help of those who suffer from it firsthand, and the more reflective one of “Pagliaccio”, the last track of the album and a metaphor for life that reminds us that each of us wears a mask behind which, often, our most intimate fragilities are hidden.

THE ANIMATED FILM

“The Freak Family”, written and directed by Diego Naska and Alessio Stigliano (theShow), is an animated film that completes the story of the album. A cartoon centered on the figure of Diego, a young aspiring singer who dreams of becoming famous, around which a universe of dysfunctional characters revolves between social satire and black humor: there is Polly, his girlfriend, who brings him to Mark Lucifemberg, the lord of Influerno, who grants him extraordinary social powers in exchange for his soul; there is his dysfunctional family, made up of his mother, under the constant influence of psychotropic drugs, his father, an eccentric and bizarre cocaine addict who does everything to avoid working, his sister Bea, who sells photos of her feet on OnlyFans, and Dobby, the talking dog; and then there is Simo, his best friend, who tries to save him from difficult and unpleasant situations.

Produced by Thamsanqa, “The Freak Family” was designed by Pietro Cascavilla and animated by Pietro Cascavilla, Onderod vision and Panick, and soundtracked and set to music by Lussorio Piras. The voices of the characters are by Diego Naska, Alessio Stigliano, Simone Panetti, Homyatol, Nello Taver, Sdrumox, Daniele Calise, Susan Bonotti, Ilaria Tonali, Valerio Dibitetto, Alessandro Orgiato, Emmanuel Losi, Lussorio Piras, Riccardo Vignola, Filippo Ricchiardi.

“THE FREAK FAMILY” is available on Prime Video

THE LIVE

The double project of “The Freak Family” and “The Freak Show” thus brings together cinema and music, underlining Naska's versatility and his now widely consolidated and recognizable communicative style and stylistic code, and anticipates what will be the great live event next December 7th at the Unipol Forum in Milan (organised and produced by Vivo Concerti), where Naska will arrive for the first time after last year's double sold out at the Fabrique and after the long summer tour which saw him protagonist in main Italian festivals.