Surely his name sounds very italian. Yet when I asked him if he could speak in our language, he hesitated a bit and answered ” Well, Si.. Buongiorno una birra grande per favore”. Good starting point, I thought.
Fabio Friendli sometimes makes films (is obviously very reductive) and sometimes music with the name of Pablo Nouvelle For sure, he is an interesting personality in both worlds. After having taken part to a film festival in south Korea, he talked a bit with us.
Right Fabio we don’t have a beer in front of us but… would you like to tell us a bit more about Pablo Nouvelle?
Well, it’s always a bit hard to say when it all started. It was like one year ago when I finished school, I studied art and animation, after that I just took my time to write and make music. Luckly enough I won a prize with my films and I didn’t have to work and had enough time to work on music, like every day. Actually there were so many people I would like to work with but…they didn’t want to work with me! So I decided to work on my own. My nickname Pablo derives from art, from architecture. It’s an omage to the architect but also to a french movie genre of the late 1950’s. It’s a combination of these two things.
What is Pablo Nouvelle up to (aside chatting with us)?
Well, I’m working on new tracks to come up with a whole album to be released at the end of this year, hopefully.
Influences when writing your album?
Oh dear, luckily enough nothing linked to when i was a teenager because I was listening stuff like Backstreet Boys. Well, my father used to listen to Rolling Stones so there was good stuff around my place. I can’t really tell.
What are you listening at the moment?
Oh I have to look at my Spotify play. Surely I really love ALT-J.
Your other soul deals with film-making. You actually won a prize with the film “Bon Voyage” and you released also another one called “éstranger“. The two have surely something in common which is the feeling of a person who doesn’t feel like you, why did you focus on this?
I just felt the need to talk about it actually. Here in Switzerland policies against foreign people are getting more strict.
How does it work? And did you show this film abroad?
I drew all the frames and there were people helping us. It took like several months. I brought it n South Korea late in july.
What was the reaction?
Well, actually it never happens that someone who doesn’t like the movie comes and says what he thinks. So I guess the reaction was pretty good. It travelled a bit around the US, Brazil, Spain. Not very much Italy though.
Do you feel more like a musician or a film maker?
Well it’s hard to say. Yet, I can describe the feeling when I write and compose some music at the end I feel empty and that’s how the process of film making helps because it inspires me a lot. I get back to music full of interesting ideas. That’s why I don’t have spare time.
Any place you would like to visit in Italy?
Well… I really like the name of Palermo (which he spelled really slowly). Plus my flatmate’s parents were from Sicily, so I would love to go there.
