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Mar 26,2006 - Apr 2,2006 |
The orchestral pop of The Old Soul
Luca Maoloni's project gets a new lease on life
By Kerry Doole
He is justifiably proud of his new record, but Luca Maoloni (aka the Old Soul) is even more eager to discuss what will be his next disc. That's understandable, given that the self-titled The Old Soul album is not exactly new. It was first released over a year ago on Luca's own label, Hand Of God, but the critical acclaim and underground respect it received prompted Universal Records to step in, sign The Old Soul, and re-release it.
"They're trying to get this going and I almost have the next one finished," says Maoloni over lunch in Little Italy. "I'm trying to get the record company to give me money to finish it off." He is not an artist who likes to dwell on the past, though the deal with Universal meant Luca could significantly change The Old Soul album from its first incarnation. He not only shuffled the track sequence, dropping two tracks "to make it more coherent," but switched to a less garish cover, and actually re-recorded the tracks.
The new and sonically improved version features both Andy Magoffin and Paul Aucoin (The Sadies, Cuff The Duke) on the recording and mixing side. The Old Soul becomes an often large band in performance (he threatens 17 players for their upcoming Horseshoe gig), but in its creative essence it can be viewed as a one-man creation. The over-achieving Maoloni produces, arranges and writes the material, and plays most of the incredibly wide range of instrumentation involved in his melodic yet offbeat brand of orchestrated pop.
For instance, on the album's opening track, "P Is For Protein," he plays guitars, bass, drums, trumpet, trombone, piano, moog, vibraphone, synthesizers and Wurlitzer, while on other songs he plays autoharp, clavinet, vocoder, accordion, mandolin, banjo, and steel drums!
Mississauga-born and raised (and an avid Tandem reader), Luca comes from a musical family. "My father and uncle were opera singers. I'd always hear Caruso and the tenor giants as a kid and I loved that type of music. I never went through a Zeppelin phase, and the blues and hiphop never really meant anything to me."
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