Leonardo the Space Pianist Interview on Nagamag

Nagamag:
What are the genres that describe better your music style?

Leonardo the Space Pianist:
My music style’s roots are a crossover of different experiences, the seed is in my background as classical pianist and metal keyboardist. I describe my music as Contemporary Space Music, where there are influences of cinematic, experimental, neo-classical, progressive metal and wave genres.

Nagamag:
Few words about your musical background and career?

Leonardo the Space Pianist:
I was born in Venice, Italy, and discovered the piano at the age of 6 and astronomy at 9. At the age of 12, by reading Isaac Asimov, playing Beethoven and Bach, listening to Queen, Steve Vai and Robert Miles, I decided I would travel the Space and play my music outside planet Earth. So I became a professional pianist AND an aerospace engineer.
As a pianist I graduated at the Music Conservatory in Italy, studying composition and developing my passion for synths and electronic music. I was mentored by Jordan Rudess, Dream Theater's keyboardist. In the meanwhile I graduated with a PhD in Aerospace Engineering at the University of Padova, researching on hypervelocity impacts and space safety. During those years I did a concert at the ESRANGE Space Center in cold Sweden while taking part in his first space mission with the SCRAT Project, a very important milestones of my Journey.
In 2006 I created the Music House to develop my View - the project 'Nullo Die Sine Nota’. The Latin sentence means 'Not A Day Without a Note'. I recorded four studio albums and two EPs, with always new music in the flow. I played in several countries like Italy, Germany, UK, Netherlands, and Turkey. I teamed up with many artists during the years, like Yossi Sassi, Aliki Chrysochou and Anna Utopia Giordano. In the last nine years, I have worked with several dancers too; the latest chapter of this experience is 'BlackShip', an innovative show for contemporary music, contemporary fusion dance and visual art.
In 2016 I moved to Malta. I wanted to deeper discover myself, islands are the perfect metaphor of our planet, and an excellent place for freediving…and it is actually working!
Currently I am developing further my space music and researching and lecturing at University in aerospace.
Nearly forgetting, I am also passionate about martial arts and photography.

Nagamag:
Do you remember your first connection of love to music that was the right impact to be a music artist now?

Leonardo the Space Pianist:
The very first memory I have is of myself at 3 years old with a yellow toy-piano. I liked to improvise (clearly!) with it and sometimes to disassemble (maybe an early sign of engineering). Besides this I realized that I wanted to become a pianist when I was 6 years old, I remember there was another kid playing an old upright piano at school, seeing the other school mates around happy and smiling. When he finished I have vivid in my mind that I played my first real piano key, thinking: Wow! I want to play it and share music with people!
So a few months later, I started my musical journey.

Nagamag:
How did the Covid19 pandemic influence your artistic activity?

Leonardo the Space Pianist:
I am seeing it as an opportunity of growth, despite the difficult moment that everyone is facing. I increased considerably my online activity, publishing every week vlog episodes on my YouTube channel, starting to stream regularly my music performances on Twitch and releasing with a higher frequency new music on the main music distribution platforms, like Spotify. The effects of the pandemic will take quite a lot in my opinion to be completely managed and society and music industry will be quite different in the near future. 2 new EPs and 4 singles are in the workflow for the upcoming months.

Nagamag:
Who is the Space Pianist?

Leonardo the Space Pianist:
I am a Dreamer that step by step is designing his way to perform the first piano concert on Mars.

Nagamag:
Most artists have a favorite song from a different music genre than the one they are producing music for... Which is yours?

Leonardo the Space Pianist:
IGORRR "Downgrade Desert"

Nagamag:
Of Course Nagamag would love to listen also which track from a similar artist you admire?

Leonardo the Space Pianist:
Infected Mushroom "Heavyweight"