Louis Donnarumma of Donnarumma
Firstly congratulations on the debut single Love Your Man. An absolutely great
track and one that has a real confluence of styles. Mixing horns, rolling drums &
such strong vocals. Can you give us a little insight as to the back story that went
into making up the lyrics to the song?
Thank you so much!
The song’s about jealously that warped my perception of a relationship I was in.
It travels back to the time where I felt betrayed by my partner, what an innocent
boy I was.
The day I wrote it was months after the relationship had ended. I found out that
she blocked me on all the socials which naturally made her an ice queen. When I
was writing the song, this interesting guitar pattern was under my fingertips and
the title ‘Love your man’, just came out. It was one of those songs where it was
fully fleshed out by the end of the day.
A fantastic video clip to match the single and one that sees you bound and tied.
How did the concept for the video come about?
Originally the idea came about when I was listening to the final mixes of the song.
This image of something punching me in slow motion popped in my head, weird
right? But it couldn’t just be just that, so our bass player Anthony Costanzo and I
collectively came up with the concept and storyboard for the clip.
In the lead up to working on your new EP Billy Billy, were there any particular
artists that you were listening to and ultimately inspired your musical direction?
I was heavily inspired by Nina Simone at the time, I tried to incorporate some of
the elements of her music. I can thank her for the group claps, horn lines an
driving aggressive feeling in this EP.
You recently performed Grace: The songs of Jeff Buckley as a part of the Adelaide
Fringe Festival. It is an album that only increases in cult status and Gary Lucas
who originally wrote Grace and Mojo Pin with Jeff was in Australia not so long
ago with A State Of Grace and brought out some amazing artists to perform with
him. Jeff Buckley’s work has influenced artists wide and far, what was it about
Grace that really resonated with you to perform the album yourself at Fringe?
I wanted to try and do something different and challenge myself in the process.
Buckley was one of the biggest challenges I could have picked, not only was his
music trying on the voice but the compositions really make you work to play them
like he did. He’s a huge influence on me and I really wanted to celebrate his life
and music. No one really speaks about him that often, yet there’s a huge Buckley
fan base.
On Billy Billy what life events and situations did you address that shaped the rest
of the EP?
All of the songs on Billy Billy tell a personal story of mine which is painted in this
‘Billy Billy’ character. Each song tells the tale of a hopeless boy being too young
for love, trying to grow up and becoming a man. Songs like “The Anxious Dance”
and “All Night Long” express paranoia, anger and feelings of isolation,
“Love Your Man” is begging to be loved by someone. It really covers the full
spectrum of feelings going from Boyhood to Manhood.
What does the rest of 2017 have install for Donnarumma?
Touring will be huge thing for us, we’re really excited to go on the road in July
and travel around as much as we can. We’ll be supporting with some incredible
national acts in Adelaide and we’re heading back in the studio and work on some
new tunes for you guys!
SAT 1 JULY | GRACE EMILY HOTEL, ADELAIDE SA | 18+
FRI 7 JULY | WHOLE LOTTA LOVE, MELBOURNE VIC | 18+
THURS 13 JULY | RAD BAR, WOLLONGONG NSW | 18+
FRI 14 JULY | THE TOWNIE, SYDNEY NSW | 18+
