Interview - LIGABUE: I increasingly feel the need for an us, a saving us

“DEDICATO A NOI” is the fourteenth album of unreleased songs by LUCIANO LIGABUE, the twenty-fifth album in his extensive record collection.

In recent days, La Liga presented this new chapter in his thirty-year career. Here is the story and the conceptuality around which this “Dedicated to Us” unfolds.

THE STORY OF THE RECORD

In times in which general listening increasingly seems oriented towards the single song, many are asking: “Does it still make sense to write and publish an album?” As far as I’m concerned the answer is yes.

Ever since, more than thirty years ago, I was lucky enough to be able to write and publish my first, I can’t do without it and even if I remain a very passionate fan of the “song in itself”, it is through the completeness of an album that I feel I can express what I want and need.

It went like this this time too when, among the thirty-odd songs I wrote, 11 gradually made their way both for their individual content and for the overall picture they compose.

For this record I looked around and saw a pretty bleak landscape in the sense that having seen the beginning of six decades I can say that this is the worst I can ever remember.

The pandemic, the war on our continent, the climate catastrophes, the crime news which this summer was terrible with a rate of feminicides and rapes which mark a significant cultural backwardness and if we then put together that the kids of generation Z don’t have an idea of the future and perhaps they don’t want to have it, we see an overall picture that photographs us as increasingly alone and isolated by fears.

Therefore I feel a need for us!

In this record there are several us: the couple, the family unit, when I go on stage I share the we with my audience and then there is also an us which is made up of those people who always feel out of place, out of fashion, out as I wrote in the past in There is no time for us.

Here: how do we behave when fears, selfishness and mutual tensions increase? When do you lose reference points? I imagine that the answers may be different for everyone, but in “Dedicated to us” I tried to tell where I’m looking for mine.

Clinging ever closer to those close to me, relying on memory (but trying not to indulge too much in easy nostalgia), igniting again (and in any case, let’s face it, stubbornly) a sense of hope and belonging.
The need to be part of something, perhaps even that “us”.

A saving “we” for this time!

That “us” that I want to think has the same set of values, hopes, doubts and beliefs in common.
That “us” that despite the blows suffered continues to roll over its sleeves.
That “us” that doesn’t worry, and never has, about feeling: “Out of fashion, out of place, in short, always out, come on.”
This album is “dedicated” to that “us”.

THE RECORD AND ITS CREDITS

An album is signed for lyrics and music by Ligabue himself and produced by Luciano and Fabrizio Barbacci, co-produced by Niccolò Bossini, with the executive production of Claudio Maioli for Zoo Aperto

Recorded and mixed by Paolo Alberta at Zoo Studio in Correggio (Reggio Emilia) with additional recordings and mixing by Guglielmo Ridolfo Gagliano and mastered by Greg Calbi and Steve Fallone at Sterling Sound in New York City, the album “DEDICATO A NOI” it was played by Luciano Ligabue (guitars and keyboards), Lenny Ligabue (drums and backing vocals), Niccolò Bossini (guitars, bass and backing vocals), Guglielmo Ridolfo Gagliano (bass, keyboards, piano and backing vocals), Fabrizio Barbacci (acoustic guitar and backing vocals ) and Paolo Alberta (percussion) who were joined for some songs by Max Cottafavi (guitars in “Così come sei”, “La parole ‘amore’”, “Musica e parole”, “Una canzone senza tempo”, “Stanottepiù than ever” and “I would not change this life for any other”), Fede Poggipollini (guitars in “La mezzo della mela” and “Niente piano B”) and Luciano Luisi (piano in “La mezzo della mela”, “Dedicato a us”, “Music and words”, “Quel tanto che Basta”, “Who knows if God feels alone”, “Tonight more than ever” and “You will laugh”, keyboards in “Who knows if God feels alone” and backing vocals in “ Dedicated to us”).

After playing in “Taca banda” (“Goodbye, monster!”, 2010) and at the end of “La bad company” (“Start”, 2019), for the first time Lenny Ligabue, Luciano’s eldest son, played the drums in all the songs of a Liga album. For “DEDICATO A NOI” he was also a recording assistant.

Luciano-Ligabue-and-his-son-Lenny_ph.-Maurizio-Bresciani

THE TRACKLIST

LIGABUE_DEDICATED TO US_cover_album-2023

1. Just as you are
2. The word “love”
3. Half of the apple
4. Dedicated to us
5. Music and words
6. A timeless song
7. Just enough
8. No plan B
9. I wonder if God feels alone
10. Tonight more than ever
11. You will laugh

I wouldn’t trade this life for any other
Bonus track contained in the double colored vinyl versions

THE TOUR

9 October 2023: VERONA ARENA
10 October 2023: VERONA ARENA
14 October 2023: TURIN – PALA ALPITOUR
15 October 2023: TURIN – PALA ALPITOUR
17 October 2023: FLORENCE – NELSON MANDELA FORUM
20 October 2023: BOLOGNA – UNIPOL ARENA
24 October 2023: BRESCIA – BRIXIA FORUM
27 October 2023: PADUA – ARENA SHOWS PADOVA FAIRS PAD. 7
28 October 2023: PADUA – ARENA SHOWS PADOVA FAIRS PAD. 7
30 October 2023: RIMINI – STADIUM
3 November 2023: ANCONA – PALA PROMETEO
4 November 2023: ANCONA – PALA PROMETEO
6 November 2023: PERUGIA – PALA BARTON
7 November 2023: PERUGIA – PALA BARTON
10 November 2023: MILAN – MEDIOLANUM FORUM
11 November 2023: MILAN – MEDIOLANUM FORUM – NEW DATE
13 November 2023: GENOA – STADIUM
14 November 2023: GENOA – STADIUM
16 November 2023: LIVORNO – MODIGLIANI FORUM
18 November 2023: ROME – PALAZZO DELLO SPORT
19 November 2023: ROME – PALAZZO DELLO SPORT – NEW DATE
21 November 2023: EBOLI – PALA SELE
22 November 2023: EBOLI – PALA SELE
24 November 2023: BARI – PALA FLORIO
25 November 2023: BARI – PALA FLORIO
27 November 2023: REGGIO CALABRIA – PALASPORT
28 November 2023: REGGIO CALABRIA – PALASPORT
November 30, 2023: MESSINA – PALARESCIFINA
1 December 2023: MESSINA – PALARESCIFINA