Why Dave Stewart and Italy’s Pink Floyd Made a Modern Rock Opera – The Hollywood Reporter

At the beginning was a love story.

Dave Stewart and his former life and stage partner, Annie Lennox, transformed their personal romance into fantastic, evergreen classics like “Sweet Dreams Are Made of This” and “Here Comes the Rain Again.”

After their breakup, Stewart, working in parallel with his new solo career, cultivated his love of film by composing several soundtracks. Together with Mick Jagger and Daryl Hall, he co-wrote the theme song for the 1986 comedy Ruthless People and has contributed songs to a variety of movies, from Ted Demme’s Beautiful Girls (1996), Paul Verhoeven’s Showgirls (1995), and Robert Altman’s Cookie’s Fortune (1999) to animated feature Madagascar 3 (2012).

More recently, Stewart has formed a new group called The Time Experience Project, teaming up with Italian band Mokadelic — whom Stewart first discovered after their work on the score to hit Italian series Gomorrah — on a modern rock opera called “Who to Love,” with supporting lyrics provided by Italian actress Greta Scarano. The group presented their first 10-song album, along with a short film, directed by Giorgio Testi, at the Rome Film Festival in October.

Next year, Stewart will be joining Bryan Adams on a 31-date U.S. tour, starting in January.

Speaking to THR Roma, Stewart calls Mokadelic “the modern Pink Floyd” and said the video for the first song on the album, “Time is a Masterpiece,” just came out of him. “[It was] just like what happened with “Sweet Dreams,” says Stewart. “It brought to my mind the idea of someone losing track of himself and cognition of time.”

What does “Who to Love” mean to you?

It’s a project born out of spontaneity while hearing the music by Mokadelic on Gomorrah‘s score and me freaking out over the music. It made my imagination go wild and I worked, wrote songs, asked if I could meet a great actor or actress and now it’s amazing! We’re all here with a project finished with a whole movie and with 10 songs and drama! It is one of those things where it manifests because of intention, it’s the law of intent.

How did you manage to get the Italian actress Greta Scarano to sing?

Well, I knew she could play drums so I knew she understood rhythm and everything musical. And she’s an actress, a great actress. So I just did a test with her, just as COVID was happening. I sent her something and asked her to sing along with that, and she did and sent it back to me and I could tell, “OK, it’s going to be good.”

Is Greta better at singing or acting?

She’s an actress, I mean she’s an incredible actress, and like many actresses or actors, when they have to be doing something like singing or whatever, you know they have a strange way of learning and adapting and are usually pretty good, and Greta is really good at it.

This project has been called a rock opera but it seems more like an electronic project.

Rock has become a very obscure kind of label to call something. You can call Depeche Mode an electronic group but it’s like a rock electronic group. I think it’s because it’s a group of people, myself and Mokadelic. It is like an electronic opera but I’m also playing guitar on it, so it’s like, what do you call it?

Why did you decide to turn this record into a short film as well?

It was at the very beginning, as soon as I had the first song “Time is a Masterpiece.” As soon as I had that idea, the concept came to me about somebody losing track of themselves but then also losing track of time. I could see it in my head, and I did it like “Sweet Dreams,” one of Eurythmic’s songs. I immediately saw the video of Annie and the cow coming into the room and you know, the whole surrealism.

What does Adalyn, the protagonist of the video, represent to you?

I’ve worked with so many female singers throughout the years. From Sinead O’Connor to Aretha Franklin to Gwen Stefani and Annie. Many, many. And I’ve had lots and lots of talks with artists, female artists about moments, and I think with everybody in life, you know the idea of time can slightly disappear and you go into a memory of something. That’s how you write songs, basically. You write songs based on things that have happened in your life and your memories. But sometimes, for a second, you can smell fresh-cut grass and boom! you’re back to being six years old, playing football.

I think it’s all about pulling yourself back. You see, your mind is talking all the time. Your mind is constantly talking. And you talk about anxiety and PTSD. The thing is, to let all that talking happen. Just don’t bother trying to sort of listen, you know. It’s going on, that’s fine! But it’s about coming back into yourself. Breathing exercises, meditation and yoga can do the same thing. But I think music does it very well.

Please tell us about the Time Experience Project.

Well, it’s an ongoing thing, that’s why I called it “The Time Experience Project.” It’s something that began as a song. As a piece of music, then a song, then more songs, then a 30-minute long-form film. I intend it to go onto something else, a full-length feature film. And then turn into another sound. I’ve already started this process, actually, so that’s the exciting next step.

What was it like to sing in Italian on the song “L’amore è sempre qui“ (“Time Flies”)?

What was it like to sing in Italian? Well, it’s just like Italians or French people speaking English. There are some things that are very difficult to actually get your mouth around, like “l’amore è sempre qui”! So when I said this, Greta was laughing. Because of “l’amore è sempre qui.” And she said, “no, l’amore.”

It’s quite tricky actually, and singing in French is quite tricky. And also in Italian, it’s weird. You have feminine names for masculine things, and everything’s like crazy. But then again, I’m sitting in Rome, one of my favorite places in the world. I like everything being crazy.

I’ve heard you have an Italian tattoo?

It reads: “Il tempo è un capolavoro” (Time is a masterpiece). Right here!

Has Annie Lennox heard this record?

I sent her the first little film that we did and the first track, “Bring Me Home.” I think it was a long trailer, like a three-and-a-half-minute trailer. She thought it was amazing, yeah.

One of your children is named Django. Are you a fan of Westerns?

No, it was really funny because I’m a fan of Django Reinhardt, but it wasn’t me who gave him the name. His older brother did. For some reason we were talking about Groningen, his brother was three or four and he said, “Django.” And I was like, okay, I love Django Reinhardt. But now there’s Django Unchained, and then Mokadelic doing the score for that other Django movie.

You also scored a lot of films. What is that creative process like?

Well, they’re all different. I worked with Robert Altman, doing a score for his film called Cookie’s Fortune. He wanted me to be with him while he was making the film, so I was on the set. During the night I was making the score with an old blues guitar, and a harmonium, and a woman I found on the street singing.

The complete opposite experience was with Paul Verhoeven [on Showgirls], who wanted a hundred-piece orchestra. So it depends on the film.

I loved doing a score for a film called Beautiful Girls, which was directed by Ted Demme with Natalie Portman and Uma Thurman. It was again a very different experience. That was just the director, Ted Demme and me, in the South of France.

At the beginning was a love story.

Dave Stewart and his former life and stage partner, Annie Lennox, transformed their personal romance into fantastic, evergreen classics like “Sweet Dreams Are Made of This” and “Here Comes the Rain Again.”

After their breakup, Stewart, working in parallel with his new solo career, cultivated his love of film by composing several soundtracks. Together with Mick Jagger and Daryl Hall, he co-wrote the theme song for the 1986 comedy Ruthless People and has contributed songs to a variety of movies, from Ted Demme’s Beautiful Girls (1996), Paul Verhoeven’s Showgirls (1995), and Robert Altman’s Cookie’s Fortune (1999) to animated feature Madagascar 3 (2012).

More recently, Stewart has formed a new group called The Time Experience Project, teaming up with Italian band Mokadelic — whom Stewart first discovered after their work on the score to hit Italian series Gomorrah — on a modern rock opera called “Who to Love,” with supporting lyrics provided by Italian actress Greta Scarano. The group presented their first 10-song album, along with a short film, directed by Giorgio Testi, at the Rome Film Festival in October.

Next year, Stewart will be joining Bryan Adams on a 31-date U.S. tour, starting in January.

Speaking to THR Roma, Stewart calls Mokadelic “the modern Pink Floyd” and said the video for the first song on the album, “Time is a Masterpiece,” just came out of him. “[It was] just like what happened with “Sweet Dreams,” says Stewart. “It brought to my mind the idea of someone losing track of himself and cognition of time.”

What does “Who to Love” mean to you?

It’s a project born out of spontaneity while hearing the music by Mokadelic on Gomorrah‘s score and me freaking out over the music. It made my imagination go wild and I worked, wrote songs, asked if I could meet a great actor or actress and now it’s amazing! We’re all here with a project finished with a whole movie and with 10 songs and drama! It is one of those things where it manifests because of intention, it’s the law of intent.

How did you manage to get the Italian actress Greta Scarano to sing?

Well, I knew she could play drums so I knew she understood rhythm and everything musical. And she’s an actress, a great actress. So I just did a test with her, just as COVID was happening. I sent her something and asked her to sing along with that, and she did and sent it back to me and I could tell, “OK, it’s going to be good.”

Is Greta better at singing or acting?

She’s an actress, I mean she’s an incredible actress, and like many actresses or actors, when they have to be doing something like singing or whatever, you know they have a strange way of learning and adapting and are usually pretty good, and Greta is really good at it.

This project has been called a rock opera but it seems more like an electronic project.

Rock has become a very obscure kind of label to call something. You can call Depeche Mode an electronic group but it’s like a rock electronic group. I think it’s because it’s a group of people, myself and Mokadelic. It is like an electronic opera but I’m also playing guitar on it, so it’s like, what do you call it?

Why did you decide to turn this record into a short film as well?

It was at the very beginning, as soon as I had the first song “Time is a Masterpiece.” As soon as I had that idea, the concept came to me about somebody losing track of themselves but then also losing track of time. I could see it in my head, and I did it like “Sweet Dreams,” one of Eurythmic’s songs. I immediately saw the video of Annie and the cow coming into the room and you know, the whole surrealism.

What does Adalyn, the protagonist of the video, represent to you?

I’ve worked with so many female singers throughout the years. From Sinead O’Connor to Aretha Franklin to Gwen Stefani and Annie. Many, many. And I’ve had lots and lots of talks with artists, female artists about moments, and I think with everybody in life, you know the idea of time can slightly disappear and you go into a memory of something. That’s how you write songs, basically. You write songs based on things that have happened in your life and your memories. But sometimes, for a second, you can smell fresh-cut grass and boom! you’re back to being six years old, playing football.

I think it’s all about pulling yourself back. You see, your mind is talking all the time. Your mind is constantly talking. And you talk about anxiety and PTSD. The thing is, to let all that talking happen. Just don’t bother trying to sort of listen, you know. It’s going on, that’s fine! But it’s about coming back into yourself. Breathing exercises, meditation and yoga can do the same thing. But I think music does it very well.

Please tell us about the Time Experience Project.

Well, it’s an ongoing thing, that’s why I called it “The Time Experience Project.” It’s something that began as a song. As a piece of music, then a song, then more songs, then a 30-minute long-form film. I intend it to go onto something else, a full-length feature film. And then turn into another sound. I’ve already started this process, actually, so that’s the exciting next step.

What was it like to sing in Italian on the song “L’amore è sempre qui“ (“Time Flies”)?

What was it like to sing in Italian? Well, it’s just like Italians or French people speaking English. There are some things that are very difficult to actually get your mouth around, like “l’amore è sempre qui”! So when I said this, Greta was laughing. Because of “l’amore è sempre qui.” And she said, “no, l’amore.”

It’s quite tricky actually, and singing in French is quite tricky. And also in Italian, it’s weird. You have feminine names for masculine things, and everything’s like crazy. But then again, I’m sitting in Rome, one of my favorite places in the world. I like everything being crazy.

I’ve heard you have an Italian tattoo?

It reads: “Il tempo è un capolavoro” (Time is a masterpiece). Right here!

Has Annie Lennox heard this record?

I sent her the first little film that we did and the first track, “Bring Me Home.” I think it was a long trailer, like a three-and-a-half-minute trailer. She thought it was amazing, yeah.

One of your children is named Django. Are you a fan of Westerns?

No, it was really funny because I’m a fan of Django Reinhardt, but it wasn’t me who gave him the name. His older brother did. For some reason we were talking about Groningen, his brother was three or four and he said, “Django.” And I was like, okay, I love Django Reinhardt. But now there’s Django Unchained, and then Mokadelic doing the score for that other Django movie.

You also scored a lot of films. What is that creative process like?

Well, they’re all different. I worked with Robert Altman, doing a score for his film called Cookie’s Fortune. He wanted me to be with him while he was making the film, so I was on the set. During the night I was making the score with an old blues guitar, and a harmonium, and a woman I found on the street singing.

The complete opposite experience was with Paul Verhoeven [on Showgirls], who wanted a hundred-piece orchestra. So it depends on the film.

I loved doing a score for a film called Beautiful Girls, which was directed by Ted Demme with Natalie Portman and Uma Thurman. It was again a very different experience. That was just the director, Ted Demme and me, in the South of France.