INTERVIEW WITH STEFANO MAINETTI
I performed this interview in 2006 with the italian composer Stefano Mainetti who has written music for such movies as Lucio Fulci's Zombie 3.
Could you tell me some about how your carrer in music started?
I started teaching music (classic guitar) when I was 18 and later, around 20,
I wrote my first soundtrack scoring a documentary film about Federico Fellini.
Later on I met Guido Anelli and we started to write music together (3 years) for
a production and one of the owner was Aristide Massaccesi Alias Joe
D'Amato.
Then I went in USA finishing my studies in composition and
conducting and there I wrote the score for several american movies.
How did you get involved in coring your first movie Voglia di
guardare?
Voglia di Guardare was written in cooperation with Guido Anelli , as I told you, and he introduced me to the Producer / Director Aristide Massaccesi.
What do you remember from working with Joe D'Amato?
Aristide was a great photographer and so like director he knew exactly how to shoot , that's why he was very fast realizing his productions. He was also a very nice man, we had a lot of fun working togheter.
How do you usually work when you write a score?
It's changed during the years, I mean I started writing music during the
academic studies so I only used pencil and paper but after a while I discovered
the computer and today I prefer to score a movie using my Mac G5 and Logic Pro
and then, at the very end, I realize the score with a real orchestra.
This
method let you hear sounds and rehearsals and you can test the final result in
advance without spending too much money for the orchestra. The Productions are
very happy about this and also they can check out the musical ideas in advance .
What kind of equipment did you use for scoring Zombie
3?
For Zombie 3 I recorded all the soundtrack with a DX7, a D50 and Emulator, also I worked together with a group which realized part of the score (Bass, Drums, Electric Guitar Keyboards and Lead Voice)
What was it like to work with Lucio Fulci?
I only met Lucio Fulci once becouse he didn't feel well during the shooting
so another director finish the movie (Bruno Mattei).
Which of your soundtracks is your favorite?
The last one, of course!
Is there any director you would love to work with that you haven't worked with?
I'm lucky 'cause I worked with very important directors overall in USA (Ted
Kotcheff and Russel Mulcahy) anyway I would like to create a "duo" like
Rota-Fellini or Morricone-Leone or Williams-Spielberg or Hermann-
Hitchcock
but since during this period I'm working a lot for Italian
television movies I often change production and directors too.
What are you working on at the moment?
I'm finish right now a TV serial called "A Voce Alta" it's a 2 episodes
movie about a real Italian mafia story. A couple of mounth ago I finished for
the third year a 13 annual episods neverending story about the Italian
history
during the first part of the 20th century. The Title is "Orgoglio"
and is a very successful Tv saga here in Italy.