Massimo Iovine: “From the punk” nail “to the 99 Posse, if I play I owe it to my brother who died at 19”

“That is a philosophy of life, it means being free and anarchic always. But I actually studied Accounting at De Nicola ».

It’s hard to remember that there was a philosophy behind colored hair.

«I was fascinated by music with its impact on the system, punk understood as sex, drugs and rock and roll: characters like Jonny Rotten and Sid Vicious (singer and bassist of the Sex Pistols) consider them my putative fathers. The philosophy, however, is the punk-Crassian one, from the Crass, an anarchist collective and strongly politicized punk group that opposed the English intervention in the Falklands, fortunately today the independent Malvinas islands ».

A path that led to the social centers and the 99 Posse.

«Yes, but if I am a musician I owe it to my brother Alessandro. There were three of us: Alessandro, from 1967, me from ’69 and Valerio (the singer Jovine) from 1975. Alessandro took him away from us in a motorbike accident, he was 19 years old and it was the experience that most marked me in the life”.

A musician too?

«The true artistic soul of the family: he loved drawing, he attended art high school while in middle school, at Vomero, he was at the Belvedere in class with Paolo Sorrentino, the future director. The first time my father asked him what he wanted from the befana, Alessandro chose a battery. He always thought that in his life he would be a drummer ».

What family was yours?

“Papa came from a family of cameo master goldsmiths from Torre del Greco. A cultured man, always up to date, he was one of Salvatore Accardo’s best friends with whom he traveled half the world when I was little. An artist in his own way. Mother teacher and then school secretary, he took care of everything: he never bought me Timberlands but he taught me to be myself ».

So the music.

«I started playing with my brother Alessandro and with Nick, a boy from Pomigliano d’Arco with a London mother and an Italian father, who sang. We went to the rehearsal rooms of Enzo Petrone, Osanna’s bass player in Spaccanapoli ».

Why the bass?

«A completely random choice, a magic. I was 14 when I started playing it but I would still choose it today. And I’ve always played my own music, I’ve never been in a cover band or tribute band. The friendship with Nick then allowed us to listen to English music two years before he arrived here, at the time the records were not released simultaneously all over the world ».

“New wave above all and post punk, like the Cure, Echo the Bunnymen and the Kajagoogoo group in which he also sang the Limahl of Never ending story“.

What happened then?

«Alessandro placed an ad from Tattoo Records in via Nilo and immediately they took him as drummer in Randagi, a punk rock group. I regretted not playing with him but then I was very happy to have been part of that project after his passing ».

And the meeting with the 99 Posse?

«I went to Officina 99 to listen to Luca and Giampiero. They put the cassettes in the cassette player, hit “play” and Luca sang over them. It was strange to me, a kind of anti-music. But I was very struck by the fact that they sang in dialect and Italian, I liked them for their content, they said things that seemed avant-garde and interesting to me ».

Love at first sight for them too?

«A person from Officina who was staying with me at the Tienament spoke to Luca who asked me to go and rehearse. On the appointed day, however, I forgot. The next one I met Luca and Giampiero in Mezzocannone, I confessed it to them with a bit of embarrassment… They invited me to the rehearsal room anyway and since that day I have never left this project ».

How did it go?

“We recorded two songs, Rafaniello And Guaranteed salary with a 33 rpm, a format more suited to low frequencies, as we liked it. When I joined the “posse” I was the only one who was already a musician, the others had much more experience in politics ».

What does “posse” mean?

“Posse was a group of people who in their own way tried to do justice. In the 90s there were several in Italy who made music and in Naples this collective coming from the social centers who wanted to tell the city and at the same time their own reality ».

Who were you?

«The first components came from Officina 99: Giampiero Pope JLuca Persico said ‘O Zuluand at the beginning also Rais, then me and Marco Messina from the Tienament ».

Then there were other artists, ten years of success, and at a certain point you “broke”.

«When you are in a collective that is musical but also political, everything is discussed. Sometimes we also had meetings to decide when we should have the meetings. In the period of union with the Bisca group, Meg entered and became engaged to Marco. They always had the same opinion, which therefore applied to two in the decisions of the group. Then Meg at some point during the making of Na9910 ° he started making statements that I disagreed with. ‘

Was Meg your Yoko Ono?

«Since the 99 Posse have existed, all the songs have been written by me and by Marco, she expected me not to work on them. So the first spark of the breakup came from me. I thought it was necessary to close because there was no common spirit and perhaps we were burdened internally also being so popular, after all we were the soundtrack of the social centers ».

Then eight years later you got together.

«In 2009 the activist Egidio Giordano of Insurgencia was arrested for the G8 in Turin. In protest we were invited to play: me, Jovine (my brother Valerio), Zulù and Marco Messina. When we all got together it was a natural act to rebuild the group ».

«Jovine Massimo, and then the R to tease the way of saying ‘he is the greatest respect brother’».

Have you ever thought of leaving Naples?

«At the time of the Randagi they invited me to play punk in London but I am very attached to my city and therefore I have always cultivated the passion of organizing events, including social ones, such as“ Terroni Uniti ”or“ Sanità tà tà ”. And I stayed ».

It also launches new talent.

«I have always had great attention for the new city music scenes. Naples is a gold mine, you turn the corner and you meet the shirtmaker’s boy who has no way of expressing himself. I try to give them opportunities for visibility and I dedicate myself to the production of records also for very young people like Gaiè and Tony King and I had the pleasure of collaborating with Plug ».

The difference with the 90s?

“Love does not exist, we often talk about sex and the themes of the search for a better life and society have taken a back seat. How I’d like to spend myself for a tougher and more militant group than the 99 Posse “.

The family?

“My partner, Yulia, is half Mongolian half Siberian. My two sons are named after the Napoli players: Lorenzo and Diego, little Greta Maria in honor of Garbo. And they receive a “Siberian education” ».

A good guy: no sex no drugs very punk.

“Drugs have contributed a lot to the breakdown of the movement but I have never hidden from the use of substances. However, I do not recommend this type of experience to anyone because you are not always lucky enough to live them with deep distance. And to be able to say: it’s not what I want ».

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