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Char Heather: 'Musica leggerissima' by Colapesce Dimartino
61 Plays8 months ago
When does Char play this euro pop banger? “Every opportunity! I’ve become unbearable! I’m a very annoying fan of this song!” Despite really not wanting to choose it, this song is undeniably Char’s happy place, and one they are delighted to be forcing you to listen to! We really hope you enjoy this brilliant chat with the lovely, Char Heather.
Char Heather is a writer, researcher and workshop facilitator whose work examines the relationship between form, narrative and chronic illness. Char runs the remotebody, a DIY organisation that facilitates online arts events prioritising chronically ill and disabled people, and is a member of resting up collective. You can find their writing on Futch Press and The Polyphony, alongside in the New Gothic Review, Lighthouse Journal and Spam Zine.
Show notes:
Website: theremotebody.bigcartel.com
Instagram: @theremotebody
Welcome to Survival Songs, a podcast where each episode our guest tells us about a songs that gets them through the best and worst of times.
https://open.spotify.com/artist/286u8X9g8zCa5OODERzaPX?si=GK6SD3uhQt-2ztJ8ycCOOg
Help us a grow a community of survival song listeners by joining us on over on Substack:
https://survivalsongs.substack.com/
'Musica leggerissima' by Colapesce Dimartino can be found on our community playlist on Spotify along with our listener’s Survival Songs. Check it out and add your own!
This episode contains small portions of 'Musica leggerissima' by Colapesce Dimartino. Survival Songs claims no copyright of this work. This is included as a form of music review and criticism and as a way to celebrate, promote and encourage the listener to seek out the artists work.
Find out more about Colapesce Dimartino here:
https://open.spotify.com/artist/2KX2VLr3Eu6sn6EtxzCtvf?si=ADxoLWiSS_i-ZCbTWGqJkw
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Transcript
Introduction to Survival Songs Podcast
00:00:01
Speaker
I'm Lydia. I'm Ed. We're friends with a playlist for everything. And it turns out, we both have one called survival songs. And he got us thinking, what are other people's survival songs? So we thought we'd find out.
00:00:15
Speaker
Welcome to Survival Songs. A podcast where each episode our guest tells us about a song that gets them through the best and worst of times. Sensitive topics might be discussed. So look after yourself. The show contains portions of copyrighted material. We'd love for you to support and celebrate the artists by streaming, downloading and buying their brilliant music and go give our guests a follow on social media.
Community Engagement and Playlist Contribution
00:00:38
Speaker
Help us grow the community of Survival Song listeners by joining us over on Substack and add to our public playlist on Spotify. Links are in the show notes. We hope you enjoy the show.
Guest Introduction: Shah Heather
00:00:49
Speaker
Welcome back to Survival Songs. It's Lydia here again this week, and this week I'm talking to Shah Heather, who is a writer, researcher, and workshop facilitator whose work examines the relationship between form, narrative, and chronic illness.
00:01:06
Speaker
Shah runs the Remote Body, a DIY organization that facilitates online arts events that prioritize chronically ill and disabled people, and is a member of Resting Up Collective.
00:01:18
Speaker
you can find their writing on Futch Press and The Polyphony alongside The New Gothic Review, Lighthouse Journal and Spamzine. Shaw is an amazing human being and someone that I think I know fairly well. ah But I have to say this song choice really, really, really surprised me. I really hope you enjoy this episode.
Shah's Discovery of 'Musica Legarissima'
00:01:39
Speaker
We're going to be talking about Musica Legarissima by Cola Peixe di Martino.
00:02:05
Speaker
That was a clip of Musica, Le Giorissima by Cola Pesche and Di Martino. How did I do, Cheryl? Close, very close, I think, i from my knowledge. Tell me. I think it's Cola Pesche. Cola Pesche. Pesche, like the fish. We've had this. Yeah, the fish man. It's yeah apparently named after a character in Italian folklore, but I don't know much more about it than that, so I'll leave that there. Great. Well, we'll we'll practice i'm pronouncing this over the course of this, but it's not it's never going to sound right in a Yorkshire accent, is it? Anyway, Shar, welcome to the podcast. Thank you so much for doing this. How are you?
Listening Habits and Anecdotes
00:02:44
Speaker
I'm good. Thank you for having me. It's a real pleasure. I'm i'm delighted at this song choice. i say that I feel like I say that every week, but um you're the first person to choose a song not being sung in the English language, so that's exciting, apart from the nightmare of pronouncing it at the top of the episode.
00:03:00
Speaker
um Tell me about this song. How did it find you? Where did you first come across it? ah So I lived for many years um with ah three Italians who are also very, very close friends of mine. um So there is a thing in Italy called San Remo, which is the Italian song contest, which is, as I understand it, the the format and the existence of ah predates Eurovision and Eurovision is based on San Remo. ah So this song was a one of the
00:03:34
Speaker
ah entries to the song contest. um And if I remember correctly and haven't got my dates mixed up, I think it was not long before the lockdowns that this was in the Italian song contest. And I think it was like a big number one in Italy. I don't think it was a particularly like cool song in Italy. I think it was like a big banger. And my flatmate kept playing it.
00:03:59
Speaker
So I would just like hear it in the background, and I think I was just like absorbing it via osmosis for a little while. And then my flatmates ended up um basically not living with me for a lot of lockdown because of various other ah reasons. So I think it became a little bit of a like comfort blanket and for my like Italian family, whom I missed dearly. But also, just the song itself is like very, I find very, ah did I don't know, sunny day, makes me smile, happy vibes.
00:04:28
Speaker
Yeah, completely. I always listen to the song that the person chosen before we ah hop on and chat about it. And this one was, yeah, I couldn't help but do that kind of like the classic club dance, isn't it? You're like arms in the air, everyone's in in sync. it's a It's an immediate sunny song and I can completely see how it would end up being a comfort blanket. I did look it up. It was released in 2020. You're right. it was It was right at the beginning of all of that.
00:04:53
Speaker
So that was four nearly five years ago. Do you do you still listen to it now? what What kind of scenario is it cropping up in? Every every single opportunity I have to put it on. It comes on.
The Song's Impact and Versatility
00:05:07
Speaker
I'm awful. I get like that with songs anyway. i'm quite like I'm quite annoying, I think. I can like listen to a song four times in a row quite happily.
00:05:15
Speaker
um But I think this one I didn't really realise how often I was playing it. And then it's like, you know, you get a round up at the end of the year of like your most streamed songs and things like that. And it's been on like every single year as since 2020, I think in like my top five. Yet to the point of like the other day, I was at this really wonderful queer symposium and there was an Italian person there and I was talking about various Italian songs and then ended up playing this song for an Italian person who hadn't lived in Italy for a while and I think is also like very cool and counterculture and therefore probably didn't listen to like what was number one in 2020. Yeah, so i'm i'm becoming I think I'm unbearable maybe about this song, but I really didn't want to choose it. I felt quite resistant to it for this and was racking my brain. I think because it's like a more recent song in my life.
00:06:07
Speaker
um but it was the first thing that came into my head. I was like, no, first thought, best thought, like you play it all the time. I'm a very annoying fan of the song. I think probably my Italian flatmates don't listen to this song anymore either, they're like over it. It was just their gift to you and then they've moved on, but you're stuck with you. That's so interesting that there was almost, I mean, you didn't say embarrassment, but I'm sensing that that you really wanted your survival song to be something else, but it just has to be this.
00:06:36
Speaker
Yeah, I can't escape it. and we I've connected to this song on literally a level beyond language. Yeah, yeah, and I'm interested in that. i I had this conversation with previous guest Lucy Wright last week. We were talking about the music that we play when we're working and it needs to be music either with no lyrics or lyrics we don't understand.
00:06:57
Speaker
So this completely fits that category for me. I would I would totally have this on in the background if I was needing to concentrate on something. What kind of scenarios are you playing it in? Are you playing it to listen to dance or are you playing it while you're doing other things?
00:07:10
Speaker
well i think I was thinking about this and I think it's quite interesting having like kind of looked up a translation of the lyrics because I i speak like very perfunctory Italian, or I used to, but I hadn't really thought about what the lyrics meant particularly. I don't know why, but it hadn't occurred to me. i But I think because I'm such like a Like a words person, like a writer and a researcher, and I've literally analyzed words my all day long. Not being able to understand it is maybe intrinsically why I like it, because I don't have to think about it too much. And I think some like cheesy bangers, the lyrics are so like bad that that can sometimes lessen your enjoyment. um So not knowing what they're saying and it just being like,
00:07:58
Speaker
peer vibes is really nice. And then having looked up what musical education actually means are essentially, as I understand it means like easy listening music, which I think sums it up a lot. It's like an instant kind of break, like switch my brain off like I'm a very overthinking kind of guy. And and so being able to just like put on like because this should just be like pure vibes and like switch my brain off and just like have a little dance and because it's quite slow it's like not too energetic it's it's really suits like if you're feeling like shit and you're ill like having a little dance like in your chair or from bed and just like waving your fingers in the air or whatever it is
00:08:36
Speaker
yeah yeah Yeah, I was thinking about that when I was listening to it because you and I met via your your work with the remote body, which is a space for hosting and platforming the work of disabled people. And I know that we both have a shared experience of what it feels like for your body to be just completely out of beans.
00:08:55
Speaker
um but It's a all kinds of of health things so um I was thinking about this as a perfect song to be in a club and going for it with a bunch of people but actually it's also the kind of song you could listen to on the sofa and be dancing with one finger and it's still working for you. Yeah and I love that idea of um survival in this case sounds to me like peace, like a pause. like a it It sounds it's like it's almost on a ah wavelength that just cuts through the noise and kind of irons things out for you. that Is that fair to say? Yeah, i think yeah it's a break and because it's you know it's a
00:09:33
Speaker
however long song. It's not like a big break, it's not a way of ignoring what's going on in the world or anything, but it's just like giving yourself a little moment of respite before we go back into the hell or the hustle and bustle or whatever it might be. Not that it's lyrical-less, but for me not really knowing what it's saying helps with that. Having looked at the lyrics, I wish I hadn't read the lyrics in translation. I really think it's changed it for you. Well, I like that it's I'm not going to read them again. I'm not going to sit and like analyze and get into my like critiquing analytical mode. I want to just remember that it's something to do with the easy listening and leave it there. But I do think the lyrics maybe are kind of in keeping with what I'm saying. like you know Everything's kind of difficult, so let's just listen to some easy listening music and have a break.
00:10:22
Speaker
I'm interested if the lyrics haven't been particularly part of your experience of listening to it until now, or won't be in the future by the sounds of it. Is there a bit that you wait for? Ed and I are always interested in the bit, or um a kind of in this case maybe a ah musical quip that you you go out, there it is, or there's the break, or the bit I was waiting for. Is there a bit like that in this?
00:10:45
Speaker
i think quite a few I think in a way this is maybe a quite like not to lessen the artistry, but maybe a little bit of a formulaic song that is kind of designed to be a very likeable pop song, so it has a few of those little hooks in it. There's the little guitar like danny Danny before the chorus comes in. and Then the first bit of the chorus isn't like the full music and it all comes in after a bit, so it feels like a little bit of a drop.
00:11:16
Speaker
Yeah, that I find very satisfying. I think that's when my arms go in the air and I start to wipe them around. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm also really struck by this being a song that you perhaps enjoy most on your own. It sounds like your flatmates left it with you, you don't share it widely, and when you do, maybe it's a bit cheapish, like, oh, it's a bit corny or it's a bit cheesy, that you don't have to... Is this a song where it's just you and the...
00:11:44
Speaker
You and the noise? I don't know, because I do like to share it, but I also feel like it's one of those things where so you know that you really like something and you know that the other person isn't going to like it as much, and it's always a little bit disappointing. You have to prepare yourself for that a little bit. Yeah, I mean, at least like with a song, it's not so bad as like trying to make someone watch a film and you're just watching their face for two hours, like clearly not like it as much as you do. But yeah, I think it's...
00:12:11
Speaker
I don't know. i think I think because it maybe is quite a formulaic-ish song, but it kind of suits like lots of different occasions. So I guess I probably do listen to it mostly alone, but that's probably because I also am mostly alone because I like work from home and don't leave the house a great deal. and But also great like driving in the sunny weather, passenger in a car song, I think.
00:12:35
Speaker
a great I'm a bit drunk song and I used to work at a like cool wine bar for a while and pretty much all the kind of music on the playlists tended to be like from around the world so I used to kind of slip it into these is like very cool playlists of like I don't know, a vineyard and I can't think of the names, it's Cessa and people like that. And then just slipped my little like Italian pop song in there. um
00:13:07
Speaker
So, but like subtly trying to infiltrate the mass and mass of your gay culture through one wine bar and being in a car. And get you to the end of your shift by the sound of it. Amazing. Well, I feel like I've learned a whole new side to you by you choosing this song because it's not one that I'd have paired with you as I know you. But I'm um i'm really glad you chose it and I'm going to be dancing in the shower to it for a long time to come, I reckon.
Connecting with Shah Heather and The Remote Body
00:13:34
Speaker
How can people learn more about the work that you do, Sharon, be involved in it and and find you and all those sorts of things?
00:13:42
Speaker
Yeah, so I run The Remote Buddy, which is a kind of remote DIY platform creating kind of connection, doing arts and writing events, mostly writing ah through basically Zoom and Instagram. So we are we have a substack, theremotebuddy.substack.com. An amazing substack. Sign up, sign up, sign up.
00:14:04
Speaker
ah We have ah newsletters every month and guest writers. ah It's good fun. At the remote body is our Instagram. So if you want to see what we're getting up to there and then my my personal stuff, which is research into illness narratives, you can find over it.
00:14:22
Speaker
whatever my Instagram handle is. I think it's r-app-shah-heather with two r's at the end end or something like that. Thanks so much for doing this, Shah. Really, really grateful. Thank you for having me. It's so nice to possibly make other people listen to this song even more so.
00:14:47
Speaker
We really hope you enjoyed the episode. If you want to support the podcast further you can choose to upgrade your subscription on Substack, but most of all we'd just love it if you told your friends about what we're up to. Thanks for listening.