Kety Fusco

Helvetiarockt is a Swiss national association raising awareness about gender inequality in the music industry while supporting promoting and connecting professional female inter non-binary and trans artists. Through its grassroots projects such as producing, DJing, band workshops and songwriting camps, it offers platforms for young people of all levels to discover music and be part of an empowering community find out more on our website helvetiarockt.ch, sign up for the newsletter and follow us on social media. Musicians in Conversation is sponsored by SUISA The Cooperative Society of Music authors and Publishers in Switzerland SUISA is celebrating its 100 year anniversary in 2023. [Music] Hi everyone my name is Natalia Anderson and I'm a presenter content creator and DJ in this episode I took with harpist and composer Kety Fusco backstage at one of her gigs and after her sold out concert in London's Royal Albert Hall we discussed changing the reputation of the harp Kety shares her thoughts on music conservatories and making the harp more accessible to young people shares with us two songs and answers an audience question and remember if you have a question simply send a direct message to Helvetiarockt on Instagram in the meantime here's my conversation with Kety hi this is Kety Fusco and you are listening to Helvetiarockt Musicians in Conversation [Music] hi Kety thank you so much for joining me today how are you hi thank you too I'm good thank you well today's very special because we are backstage at one of your concerts this is the first time I've done an interview for Helvetiarockt Musicians in Conversation backstage so we've got the energy of the live performance here and so just for listeners in case you hear anything any noise in the background it's because we are in a working venue Kety will be performing tonight yeah are you excited yeah I really happy because I want to play yes I really want to play now so we will start our interview with the first question I ask everybody and that is how did you get started on your musical Journey. I started my musical Journey when I was very young I was a sixth years and I was a very hyper-active child yes and my energies it's too much so one day our psychologist suggests to my family for me to play any instrument so one day in early days with my family I see the harp and I fall in love I was sixth years and I said to my mom I want to play harp yes and from this moment I don't stop to play harp. You don’t really associate a hyperactive child with an instrument like the harp yeah yeah but when you saw the harp was it in a shop that you saw or did you see somebody playing it I was in in holiday with my family in a place in a little country in the mountain in Tuscany yeah and there is a show in a public place and I saw the harp with a singer but yes I fall in love with harp yes oh that is wonderful what did your parents think when you chose the harp my parents are for a part happy because my mom went to I am keep calm a little bit keep calm but the harp it's very important instrument for the cost and for to search a teacher is not not easy and but I'm really lucky because near my county in Italy there was a teacher and I started to play with her and two years after I entered in Conservatory I go to Conservatory I was 11. yes and I started my Academy in school Music Conservatory wow 11 years old yes in Italy it's different you can go to Conservatory very young and I degree in harp are 20 years and yes when it comes Switzerland I am I do another degree in Lugano and my second degree in harp yes yeah I read that you you describe yourself as a harp fanatic right so what are some things that we should know about the harp? the most beautiful things about harp it's the you when I play the harp I put my harp in my I don't know in English it is in in your heart in your chest yes yes in my chest and I feel the vibration of these instruments and with my hand I can hug the harp yeah yes and this is very important because I'm in symbiosis with my instrument with my body with my soul and I don't know if the people that see me feel that yeah I think so when people watch you on stage they can see that you are part of the instrument as well yeah it's a part of me the harp it's me and the harp it's one one of them yeah I love that what should people consider when they're choosing the harp as an instrument when if if there's a young person maybe somebody who's like you what are some of the things they should think about before choosing the harp I think in this historic period the important things it's you don't mean the harp like and see an instrument because I think the harp it's the most the first instrument to be invented in the world yeah but now if you want to play harp you I think you need a different attitude because it's very very difficult instrument, use left and right hand left leg and the right leg and yes it's very difficult and you must to change attitude and see the harp like an opportunity for to research for research new sonority or I don't know but you can take the harp now and you play the harp in a new method yeah yes yeah there's a lot of opportunity to explore the harp in a new way yeah absolutely right yes do you think is it necessary in your opinion to learn the acoustic harp first before going on to an electronic harp it's two different ways yes because I think for me I know the harp in all part I know classical art classical Repertory I study very long time the classical harp and with the electric harp perform it's very easy they are electric carpets more easy it's little there aren't there they're not used the legs and yes but I think you can start with electric harp it's a different I think I like to know all parts of the instruments and I like to study classical harp before and then okay now I can play Electric harp and I have my new Journey musical Journey but you can start with only electric harp if you want yeah I always have in my brain I always think that it's very good to learn the rules and learn the history and the rules before you rip it up and you do something else you know yeah and I feel like you have I mean you studied at the Conservatorio della Svizzera italiana that's it how do yeah. So just so going back to your studies when you were there how do you or how do people make the most of their time and resources being in a kind of a classical music school? I think it's a very good question because when I studied in Conservatory I'm happy but I'm not happy now because it's a very closed atmosphere and the conservatory don't accept the new attitude or don't accept the yes the research or I don't know you study Debussy stop you must study Debussy with this these rules and yes and I suffered because I want to interprete a song with a different mood because I don't know Debussy they see it's that and I want to interpret the I don't know dances with my mood yes and no in Conservatory you can’t and now because Debussy no the real is this yes but he is that yeah I'm here and I want to play like this and it's yes for me it's a problem the conservatory I don't know it's okay but I hope the mentality is more open in the future why yeah I'm trying to get an understanding of your personality through your experiences the fact that you pushed you know the fact that you you didn't just accept the rules for the harp and say okay you know you followed your heart or you followed your instincts to investigate and to research this instrument what does what is it in your personality pushes you to do that and for I'm for first time I really really really curious I am very curious girl and I am I feel crazy if I don't research all things what I want and with the harp I really curious to know why this part is this why this part is this why I don't know but for me it's important to satisfy my curiosity and I don't know because I don't know the Neanderthal woman who played the harp and now I want to yes I want to know the harp in this period yeah historical period with my curiosity absolutely and you are leading the way of changing the reputation of the harp is quite a bit of pressure is it do you think is it pressure no no because I'm free and you don't like my vision or you can say but what she do yeah yeah but I'm okay because it's mine I'm wondering what is there like a harp community is there like people who are like no the harp yeah yeah yeah there is a see all harpist I think hate me a big part of a artist yes when I go to Conservatory I really radical artist but I changed my mind one day a day not I don't want to continue with this mind and yes but I think with the change, we need time very time and I think in 100 years it's okay I think there I can change them ideal of the harp but now I don't expect you understand me did you feel like you needed permission to approach the harp in a different way even with making different sounds did you feel that you might be disrespecting the harp in some way you're hurting the harp I I you know you you sometimes hit it or and it's an expensive instrument there you know the first time you hit a harp did you think oh [ __ ] that's a thousand Euros yeah you know how how did you give yourself permission to experiment. I have a seven harps and all my seven harps are broken and my my heart is broken too but it's necessary yeah because if you want to experiment it's important to strike the harp and yes and it's very expensive instrument right and my mother hate me because she paid the harp for me when I was younger now or not now I pay the harp yeah yes but no it's necessary for the research and for created a new sonority the harp I can't play the art like classical harp it's not possible I must do change and if you need to play with the I don't know with metal I play with metal yeah yeah absolutely yeah If you are involved in music as a hobby profession or both sign up for free on the Helvetiarockt music directory. It's a platform for women, non-binary, trans and intersex people in the Swiss music industry. For singers, instrumentalists, bookers, managers, sound engineers, photographers and many more of all levels. It's about visibility, it's about community, it's about empowerment. 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For further information go to musicdirectory.ch I'm sure you are inspiring not just future harpists but I think anyone maybe with like a classical background or a classical instrument to approach it in a different way but was there anybody who inspired you to approach music in a different way yeah I have inspiration not more for the harpist because I don't know very artists I I know the artist like in Swiss very cool artists who try a different weight like Julie Campiche and Linda Vogel and yes I like these girls but my inspiration is for it's for another attitude and I don't know when I start to play my composition I saw the band like Peter Kernel it's a band from Ticini and they have a new attitude with the music and for me this is my inspiration yes and believe in our future with the music and believe in a in a change and perseverance it's very important because it's difficult for the first time when I try to change the vision of the harp it's not easy the people look me bad oh look me strange she is crazy yes okay no but I'm I persevere I perseve with this dream absolutely yeah absolutely you recently played a sold out gig concert in my hometown of London yeah the Royal Albert Hall and actually funnily enough I've been there and I saw Joanna Newsom yeah yeah yeah and she plays the harp and so when I saw that you were at the Royal Albert Hall I thought oh my God that's so amazing what was that like for you yeah it's fantastic I don't believe because when I am when I was a child I go to London to play at Royal College for lessons with my favorite teacher in London and when I turn my face I saw Royal Albert Hall yeah and I said my dream is to play there and when I go to London and I got two Royals Albert Hall to play I don't value it's well dream come true yeah yeah dream come true yes absolutely wow well I'm so pleased and it was sold out as well no less you know it's very impressive let us talk about your music the track that you will share with us is starless can you tell us how you came up with Starless. Starless it's a total deconstruction of the harp and with the with starless I imagine my before my death and I saw a world with the not natural with the fire and I saw the the new music catastrophic music like catastrophic harp you see the harp and you think oh the Angelic instruments no with starless you see the harp and you think the harp tell about the death and yes I want to use the comparison to the destruction world and the death of the world and the death of the harp your perception of the harp let's listen to starless Could you tell us about your harp sound research and specifically what made you want to go in this direction of of not per se just performing and of composing but doing sound research and making sounds from the harp yes I am one day I decide to split the harp and I take the part the structural part like wood like the material of the string and like metal the mechanical part of the harp and with this separated part I search the harp sound it's a same the harp but it's a different type because you see the harp in different parts and decomposed harp and I use I don't know like violin world for example for because the harp events are long sonority you pick the harp and the sound death foreign to use a long sound with harp for example and I use or the scotch in the string yeah yes and it's absurd because I found the sound like a bell Bells yes yeah so and I am I scared in the box resonance ah and I you feel this the reverb and yeah you shouted you screamed inside the box wow yeah and I use all sound with the harp it's the harp but it's a different absolutely and you're recording these sounds and you're building a library yeah yeah in this Library there is a 400 sounds and yes you can listen in the internet and you can create a new music with the part of the harp I love that I love that so much so people like who do you expect to use this can producers use this is it or is it more people making maybe like sound design for art pieces it's for all and because yes for producer or for documentary I don't know you can use the sound for what do you want yeah yeah I listen to some of the sounds and they do I mean you I think you mentioned somewhere about like horror yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah and there's an absolutely very kind of that you'd expect to hear from maybe a horror film soundtrack that sort of thing quite quite dark quite menacing sounds super interesting like you said before usually people's perception of the harp is this sort of angelic. And there you are, Kety is like grrrrrr Are you designing a new harp can you tell us about that? yes it's my my dream to design a new harp I have just draft for the yes for the new my idea of the harp and I would like so much the people I don't know in this age I have 25 age or for teenager said okay I want to play harp and I can because it's not difficult like a classical harp because electric carp it's an hybrid for me now because it's difficult for a non-musician but it's easy for a musician and I would like to create a new harp easy for for all you can you want to play you can play harp like guitar I don't know yeah I play guitar so yeah it's just the cat it's just the rhythms though with the harp like the counter rhythms and things yeah but that is what blows my mind yeah like it's like tapping your head yeah tummy at the same time it's another kind of brain but I love watching the harp maybe you can show me one yeah absolutely but I love that I love the kind of Mission to make it more accessible to anybody especially because sometimes like you said it's not cheap it's quite expensive yeah absolutely it's an investment yes it's this is the problem because now for to buy an harp you spend money minimal for 4000 Sfr. yes and that's like entry level of beginners yes yes yes or electric harp it's six thousand yes it's too much because I don't know but I would like to play harp if I don't play harp but for the beginning it's I I would like to approach with harp to know if I like the instrument yeah and if you spend more money I don't know it's I think it's not the right way it's true it's true okay we're gonna take this time to listen to our audience question it's from @shara.sway the question is as a newcomer when you're on your way how can you find these people like manager or someone who's helping you to like do all that stuff to touring or to make gigs or bookers yes that's my question. So how do you find when you started how did you find these people to help you book concerts or managers what did you do what advice can you give okay I'm a little bit lucky because I started to play with with a band in Ticino and they introduced me in this world and I'm very grateful to to this band Peter Kernel so with this band they presented me the promoter they present me this world he teaching me to prepare the dossier the post in Instagram and now in effect I I really Bravo like Peter Kernel and now I teach to them yeah you're their teacher yeah no but yes I'm really grateful because it's important I think for the other band if you start and if you have a support you can yes you can go more faster so do you think it's important for people to try to find other musicians the community yes the community is really important because from I don't know with artist it's our jealous and he don't help we don't help the art piece and I don't help you I want to my career and stop for me no if I don't know one guy come to me to ask a suggestion I really happy to help this guy and it's important yeah absolutely absolutely so I think it's good that's really good for people to find a community find other people and maybe share information and absolutely and that way they can get more bookings and get more connections yeah Kety thank you so much for joining me thank you thank you too can you introduce the second song Now you listen my song 2072. [Music] If you want to join the Helvetiarockt community or find out more check out the website, sign up for the newsletter and follow us on social media. If you'd like to support Helvetiarockt you can also become a member or donate and if you like what you heard today please share it with your friends. Helvetiarockt Musicians in Conversation is a concept by Natalia Anderson in collaboration with Helvetiarockt. It's presented and produced by Natalia Anderson music is by Jackie Brutsche and The Jackets.