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Giamba
Class of 1994, from the province of Varese, approaches music thanks to his father's passion for guitar and blues. He takes his first steps with the drums, but at the age of 14, he is drawn into Hip Hop culture.
Rap, freestyle, graffiti tags, and a lot of music shared by older friends contribute to his musical growth.
A few years later, he steps into a dancehall, and his heart remains there. An Hip Hop mentality with a beat in his veins. All of this is realized with the project of Into The Groove Sound System.
The crew was born in 2014 when, fascinated by the art of DJing, they attended a course with DJ Vigor from Otierre at CFM in Barasso. In February 2015, they found a space at Arci Mama Africa in Malnate (VA), where a solid collaboration began.
They make themselves known by participating in various Reggae Roll Call events in the region. They organize the first Varese Reggae Roll Call in collaboration with Ragga Fanza, giving life to the Varese Stand Up project together with Powa Flowa Family and DJ Wood, with guests of the caliber of I-tal Sound, I Trees, Rising Hope, Bom Chilom, I-Shence, Villa Ada Sound, Nothern Lights, and One Love Hi Powa.
In March 2016, they started hosting a show on Radio Gwendalyn, an independent Swiss streaming station, where they took turns with the Jemani Jahka crew on a program called "The Garden," which aired every Wednesday evening on www.radiogwen.ch. In April, they participated in the Mortal Kombat Soundclash 2016.
During the summer of 2016, they were invited to participate in the Salento Summer Clash. By organizing events in the province, they met Dancehall Queen Sara Sheba, a talented young international dancer, with whom they began collaborations at numerous parties. From the coolest parties to activities with La Portineria in Malnate (VA), from the Sunday Medz DJ sets on Radio Gwendalyn to the self-built sound system, from riding Powa Flowa's floats in Varese's street parades to Hip Hop nights with DJ Napalm, the guys stood out for their versatility and adaptability in various contexts. In 2019, Viky joined the crew, adding the skill of spinning 45s to the sound.
With five friends, the reggae/hip-hop/black music selector crew was founded, with Giamba as the master of ceremonies. From there, their passion for SoundSystem Culture, SoundClashes, and organizing dancehall events was born.
Growing up in the province, they got to know veterans in the underground scene of Varese such as Vigor, Kaso, and Powa Flowa, from whom they learned a lot. This led to a collaboration between Giamba and Grime Vice (MC, Producer, DJ from Powa Flowa/StreetArtsAcademy), which materialized in 2018 with the recording of Giamba's first EP.
During these years of hard work and experience, they have had the opportunity to open for notable artists such as Kiave, Ensi, EasyOne, Brusco, Manlio, Babaman, Lord Madness, and Enigma, always demonstrating their comfort on stage.
In January 2019, they released the official music video for "Origine," a collaboration with AresAdami and GrimeVice over a dub/digital riddim produced by the latter. The video served as a preview for the upcoming release of the VERBALIZE EP on January 28, 2019, under Gatto Pirata Dischi.
Process Creative
This album cover is one of those works that holds immense significance for me. You should know that I have known Giamba for many years, and during this time, I have witnessed his personal growth and artistic-musical development.
The love for music has been and still is the bond that connects us in a brotherly relationship. I was fortunate to have met him towards the end of my adolescence, where his strong interest in Hip Hop and later Reggae culture was already evident.
From that precise moment, it has been a continuous journey of growth, enriching his cultural baggage and expressing it through a microphone, a console, and speakers to promote the message of intrinsic social values through his music. Promoting positivity with the help of the warm sounds that only Into the Groove dancehall can deliver.
Finally, the time came to materialize the entire journey summarized so far into a project. I had just returned from a ten-month trip to Australia, and I needed to immerse myself in something that would give me a "creative oxygen" after challenging months. I was at a farm in the province of Melbourne.
After visiting Giamba to catch up, he told me about this project and proposed that I take care of the graphic design for the cover of his EP. I immediately got to work with a charge of energy that I hadn't felt in a long time. The images started coming together in my mind like a puzzle, albeit still in a somewhat confused manner.
The most challenging part was to focus on the key points to work on and not get carried away by quick and reductionist ideas. At that point, I "constructed" a plan for myself, as follows:
- Creativity
- Time
-Work
This led me to depict these three concepts as if they were garments to be worn by the protagonist of the EP, capturing details related to his life. For example, I portrayed a shopping center (representing work) engulfed in flames with people crowded on the opposite side in protest.
In the central area of the cover, I focused on the concepts of creativity and time, intertwining them. I incorporated tentacles emerging from Giamba's head, exploding from a clock. This emphasized the idea that creativity cannot be constrained and cannot be determined by a specific time.
The analog recorder (a symbol with a dual meaning: firstly, capturing the act itself, the recording of the tracks for the EP, and secondly, representing the love for music passed on to Giamba by his father) and the train (a metaphorical symbol of the journey) concluded the visual elements.
To conclude my description, I borrow the words of Paulo Coelho, who wrote:
"Our life is an uninterrupted journey, from birth to death. The landscape changes, people change, needs transform, but the train continues. Life is the train, not the train station."