AUTORI-tratti: #3 Fred Montgomery

For its third appointment, the rubric AUTORI-tratti presents Fred Montgomery, author and host of Tristeza: Sad Music Makes Me Happy on RBL Torino.

1. Tell us something about you. Who are you, where are you from and what do you do in your life?

I come from the land of contrasts: sea and lava, hospitality and distrust, natural and historical excellences and decay. To me, growing up and getting an education in Sicily has meant filling my heart with crazy experiences and wishing to leave and go far away at the same time. I studied art direction and graphic design at Etcetera studio in Catania, with the most creative person I’ve ever known, Jacopo Leone. I’ve been a busboy, I learned by observing, listening and doing. Afterwards, according to the screenplay, I left home and I went to explore the worlds of photography and post-production all over Europe. Since 2016 I’ve lived in Turin, where I’ve established my studio – Yuki Creative Studio – and the project of sad-themed musical diffusion, Tristeza.

2. Which experiences pushed you towards radio as a medium of expression? How did you get to know about RBL specifically and why did you choose to join it?

My parents met each other in a radio station, they had a house full of records and a special memory I’ve got from when I was a little girl is the one of my father with his headphones, listening to music while sitting on his favorite armchair. To me, music and radio are home: a familiar world that you never finish exploring. I don’t remember exactly how I discovered RBL, but the way it is curated, the work on graphics and on communication, and the place where it is reflect so much about my way of considering projects. If I had to start a radio project and/or find a place like Imbarchino, I’d go exactly for those which they are already. That’s why I believe that RBL is the right home for Tristeza, I have the feeling that they’re in harmony with each other.

3. Where does your nickname come from?

When I used to live in Germany and I introduced myself to people, they tended to pronounce my name like “Frederica”, at first: it was too hard for them to call me “Federica”. So, to simplify it, I decided to introduce myself as “Fred”. I started liking my new name so much, so I kept using it also in Italy and on social media. “Montgomery”, instead, came out randomly during a night out with some friends because my coat was a Montgomery.

4. In 2017 you established your communication studio, Yuki Creative Studio, from which also the show you host on RBL came to life. How did you conceive Tristeza: Sad Music Makes Me Happy?

One day I was chatting with Lia Cecchin from Open Studio (CCN Studio) on the possibility of doing something at her workplace because it was “open” to new projects. Reflecting on what I could propose to her, I thought to create a space that could contain all those tracks, which I had to cut off during the DJ sets I had done in the previous years at parties, because they were “too sad” and inappropriate for entertainment. All those pieces actually belong to my life’s listenings, as well as the happier, so I wanted to build a “place” where all these tracks could find a shelter and be spread more and more. Tristeza is a refuge, yet a place of discovery.

5. Do you believe that your experiences in creative fields might have influenced what you do today with radio? Are there any aspects of Tristeza that you think reflect your own personality?

Yes, of course – every virtual centimeter of this project has been influenced by what I luckily had the opportunity to experience: from the places I’ve lived in to the people I’ve met. It came up from a creative need and from a huge passion of discovering music and listening to it. My job is very often based on being precise and extremely careful about details. Tristeza has been and keeps being my creative vent, the moment when I can finally dedicate myself to something that’s only a passion, something that somehow must not follow the rules set by someone else. It’s the place where I can be myself, with my merits and flaws.

6. What has RBL given you in these years?

The way those who are behind RBL believe in the project, supports the way I believe in Tristeza. I trust the idea of a circular energy giving strength and consistency to all our projects, and this is the basis to find the right energy to keep believing in what we do, also and more than ever in moments of crisis and tiredness.

7. Are there any shows on RBL that you particularly enjoy? If so, why do you like them best? Are there any conductors that you admire in particular?

I very much like Nicotina because of Marco’s hosting skills and the careful and exploratory music selection. Two more shows I enjoy are Famosini – because of Claudia’s voice and her way of holding the radio scene – and Radio Rumenta because of the themes it deals with and the hosting/conduction.

Definitely, yes! It’s Life in a Glasshouse by Radiohead, the band that musically formed me. I love this piece because it has an incredible weaving revealing itself little by little (eventually exploding in a wind-instrument crescendo at the end). It has always struck me to visualize the lyrics – this idea of the speaker living in a glass house, seen by everyone, deprived of his privacy (observed even during an intimate moment when he’d like to talk with his “only friend”). What this song wants to tell us is that people experiencing success in life, often end up living as if their life was hell. Their life becomes a public domain (the band covers this topic also in We Suck Young Blood) and a one-way-criticized object: those who expose themselves are criticized by an audience, but succeeding people can’t criticize their audience as well, or they’d risk to receive even more critics. It’s a song that claims all the discomfort of contemporary life in its lyrics and music: the exhausting pursuit of success leads us to be consequently defeated by success itself. Somehow we all live in glass houses: social media, for example, are a window on a fake perfect life that none of us really lives. To discard what’s ‘ugly’ in order to only show what’s ‘beautiful’, the perpetual effort of always being right, unassailable, having fun at all costs, putting on a smile. Tristeza’s main theme returns: (also) sad music makes me happy / sadness is part of my life and exploring it is beautiful, as well as fundamental.

AUTORI-tratti is the series of interviews dedicated to getting to know better the hosts from all RBL’s hubs.

Project curated by Valeria Alimandi
Graphics by Chiara Manchovas