Cesare Basile starts his music career in Catania, Sicily, in the early 80s.… Read Full Bio ↴Cesare Basile starts his music career in Catania, Sicily, in the early 80s. Between 1987 and 1994 Cesare Basile plays with different bands like Kim Squad and Quartered Shadows touring in Italy and Europe.In 1990, after recording Quartered Shadows album Quartered Shadows, Cesare moves with the band to Berlin where they became part of the alternative scene in Prenzlauerberg for several years. In 1993 Quartered Shadows record The Last Floor Beach, produced by Mark De Reus, (Urban Dance Squad).
With the band splitting up Cesare moves back to Sicily and records his first solo record, titled La pelle (the skin), considered by the press the best debut record of 1996. A couple of years later the album Stereoscope (Blackout/Mercury) is released. Closet Meraviglia (ExtraLabels/Virgin), produced by Hugo Race (Nick Cave - True Spirit), is the third solo record and features also John Bonnar (Dead Can Dance) who wrote the strings scores and the italian cult band Massimo Volume. The album has a very international feel to it, and Cesare Basile plays also various shows outside Italy as part of the Closet Meraviglia tour.
The following album, titled Gran Calavera Elettrica, is another important step in Cesare Basiles musical journey. Now with an amazing backing band and produced by John Parish (P.J. Harvey, Sparklehorse, Giant Sand, Tracy Chapman, Eels, Goldfrapp) the record digs deep into the roots of rock and blues, with poignant lyrics that speak about love and death, and is made even more special by important collaborations like John Bonnar (Dead Can Dance), Lorenzo Corti and Nada Malanima. Shortly before the release of the album Cesare Basile leaves Catania and moves to Milan. Gran Calavera Elettrica (Mescal/Sony) is released at the end of 2003, and is hailed by the press as a real masterpiece; it is also followed by a long and very succesful tour that reaches also Belgium (where Cesare performs with Zita Swoon) and Germany.
The collaboration between Cesare Basile and John Parish developes naturally on the live side too with Songs With Other Strangers, a project born from the mutual vision of a group of likeminded musicians and songwriters. This open-band idea features Basile and Parish, Manuel Agnelli from Afterhours, Hugo Race (ex Bad Seeds, now True Spirits / Sepiatone), Marta Collica (Sepiatone), Stef Kamil Carlens (ex Deus, now with Zita Swoon), Jean-Marc Butty (P.J. Harvey- Venus) and many others. This bizarre big-band extensively tour Italy in some of the most prestigious locations and Festivals with a huge success. After producing various indie acts (The Jains, Songs For Ulan), Cesare Basile writes the songs that will be the core of Hellequin Song, his lastest album, again produced by now long-time friend John Parish. The album is released on Mescal/Sony in Jan 2006 and features, among others, Hugo Race, Kris Reichert, Jean Marc Butty, Stef Kamil Carlens, and Manuel Agnelli.
Hellequin Song is probably the best record of the Sicilian songwriter, with 5 songs in English, a fascinating mix of dark-blues (reminescent of Nick Cave and Johnny Cash), alt-country and Italian tradition. The result is unique and in a few months the sales of Hellequin Song have already exceeded the previous records, while Basile takes the album on tour to packed clubs in every corner of Italy. Highlight of the tour are the double-headline shows with John Parish and the unforgettable performance at Arezzo Wave Festival.
With a double headline Italian tour with Willard Grant Conspiracys Robert Fisher, a short European tour, both due in fall, and a live DVD in the pipeline, Cesare Basile is going to end 2006 being considered one of the most relevant and innovative Italian singer-songwriters. Line-up Cesare Basile (vocals, guitars and percussions) Marcello Caudullo (guitar and keyboards) Marcello Sorge (drums) Michela Manfroi (piano/keyboards) Luca Recchia (bass).

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Mayday
Cesare Basile Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

È solo questo che
Ti fa sentire umano
È il modo in cui
Ti trattano
Crescendo osserva
I maschi adulti
Finirai per crederci
Perch'è il Nirvana cronico

Dove i bisogni
Prima o poi
Si estinguono
E il desiderio brucia
Sulle pire dei
Pneumatici

Per lustro e per decoro
Ci vuole ben altra
Pratica di ordine
Che farsela coi morti
Ed ostentare un gesto
Di pietà
Mentre questa città
Di pupi ingravidabalconi
Si fa cogliere
Oscena mentre mima
Il suo
Spettacolo d'identità

E il mare è blu e cigola
Il mare cigola mayday

È solo questo che
Ti fa sentire umano
È il modo in cui
Ti trattano
Crescendo prendi il vizio
E non ti senti più
Ridicolo
Quando questa città
Di pupi ingravidabalconi
Si fa cogliere
Oscena mentre mima
Il suo
Spettacolo d'identità

E il mare è blu e cigola
Il mare cigola mayday

Overall Meaning

These lyrics from Cesare Basile's song "Mayday" discuss how certain experiences and treatment from others can make someone feel human. The singer observes how young boys grow up and learn from adult men around them, eventually believing that the chronic state of their needs and desires will never be satisfied. The phrase "Nirvana cronico" (chronic Nirvana) may be a reference to the Nirvana state in Buddhism that is characterized by the absence of all desires and suffering.

The second paragraph discusses the need for a different kind of practice when it comes to showing respect and honor, and how it is not enough to simply pretend to care about the dead. The city that the singer describes is filled with "pupi ingravidabalconi," a Sicilian term that roughly translates to "pregnant balconies," possibly referring to the typical Italian architectural style of balconies filled with potted plants that seem to give the illusion of being pregnant. The city is described as putting on an obscene "spettacolo d'identità" (identity show) where people pretend to be something they're not for show.

Throughout both paragraphs, the repeated line "È solo questo che ti fa sentire umano/È il modo in cui ti trattano" emphasizes the importance of being treated like a human being in order to feel like one. The final line "Il mare è blu e cigola/Il mare cigola mayday" can be interpreted as a cry for help, as "mayday" is the international distress signal.

Line by Line Meaning

È solo questo che
This is the only thing that

Ti fa sentire umano
makes you feel human

È il modo in cui
It's the way in which

Ti trattano
they treat you

Crescendo osserva
Growing up, observe

I maschi adulti
the adult males

Finirai per crederci
you'll end up believing it

Perch'è il Nirvana cronico
because it's the chronic nirvana

Dove i bisogni
Where needs

Prima o poi
sooner or later

Si estinguono
extinguish