Meet Camilla Battaglia | singer, composer, sound designer, teacher

We had the good fortune of connecting with Camilla Battaglia and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Camilla, we’d love for you to start things off by telling us something about your industry that we and others not in the industry might be unaware of?
Being a musician nowadays it’s a complicated mixture of doing what you really love for a living and splitting your time between many different professional figures in a world that makes you feel like you’re actually having an hobby. Being a musician it’s not only about writing, producing, experimenting, making and performing but it also takes you to the booking agent, manager, travel agent, accountant, publicist, content creator, social media manager, video maker and designer working plan.
Unfortunately only a couple of these jobs are actually paid for and usually not the way you would expect it to be.
The way through most of the people listen to music it’s basically the worst way to support artists you love, because as you may know already streaming doesn’t pay.
Everytime musicians produce an album it’s a huge investment and the only way to actually make it worth it, it’s to buy albums at shows you attend or on bandcamp-fridays.
Also touring it’s getting more and more economically complicated so that most of musicians need to get a stable income from teaching or different employments to support their shows.
We really need to care for the health of this art, if we don’t want music to become a hobby for rich people.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I come from a musical family. Music, jazz and improvisation have always went through my ears. When I realized I wanted to be a musician myself it wasn’t easy because I felt I had to prove a lot because I was 19 years old, I am a female, I am singer and my parents have been both in the business since the 80’s.
I am pretty proud I created my way my own path. I studied, I traveled, I made mistakes, sometimes I succeeded, but I know I made all the decisions and I’m proud to say that’s want you find when you listen to the albums I published.
Right now I’m beyond excited for the release of my next album for the Ropeadope label: ELEkTRA.
This work it’s the most difficult musical journey I’ve been since I started in 2009, but I’ve learnt really a lot through it as a human, as a female musician, as a professional, as a composer and a band leader.
I’ve learnt life it’s too short to share your favorite thing in the world with people who don’t really support you; I’ve learnt the importance of writing good charts for your fellow band members; I’ve learnt to become a little more pragmatic which it’s really hard for me; I’ve learnt to trust more and more the people I work with giving them the space to turn my ideas into something much more significant through their perspectives; I’ve learnt the importance of a good meal after a day in the studio but especially I’ve learnt not to rush.
It’s been 7 years since I started writing ELEkTRA’s music and now I can say I can’t wait for people to have it in their ears.
I always felt the urge to state something I strongly believe in through the music I write and this album it’s all about reflecting over the female figure in contemporary society by describing ancient female figures from history and myth.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I’ve never been a settled person but mostly nomadic. The question I’ve been asked the most it’s for sure: where do you live right now?
I moved a lot my all life and that made me a person whose heart it’s divided between many countries, people and activities.
I moved to Ferrara few months ago so now I’m all about that with my friends as I enjoy very much the small pleasant routine of a little town where you can go everywhere biking, buying fresh veggies and fruits and the local market, eating pumpkin-dough piadina and having tenerina cake for dessert.
As I travel a lot for work, I love to come back to this quiet little life where I really can reset.
Though if I should show my best friend the best time ever we would probably travel a lot.
We would have breakfast in Copenhagen so we could get all buttered up with kanelbullar, bread and salmon before taking the train to the Louisiana Museum and then walking in the cold to get to KoncertKirken in the Nørrebro district to listen to a couple of interesting sets of music.
We would walk through Neukölln to get to Tempelhof park and listen to at least 10 different dj sets walking around the vast space, watching people dance to amazing choreographies and roller skating until dark comes and then go to have dinner at Hamy’s, my favourite Vietnamese restaurant, which is very close to many interesting clubs where we could listen to some of the most interesting musicians on the european scene.
We would have the perfect italian meal at Fragente in Milan where I was born and walking then to my childhood neighborhood to get to Scaldasole bookshop to seat and look at some antique gems until it’s time for a coffe at the little bar around the corner.
We would go to Bimhuis in Amsterdam, my favourite club, to listen to a great set of music.
We would go to a yoga class by the banks of the Arno river in Firenze before going to lunch at Guscio in San Frediano and taking a walk to Palazzo Strozzi to catch some exhibition.
We would swim in the sea around Ischia, eating raw fish on the rocks and then lie down on the dark sand in Stromboli to watch a contemporary dance performance at sunset.
I’m not over yet but it feels it would already be a pretty tight-scheduled and also expensive trip!
As Eliot stated: we must be still and still moving!

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
My shoutout it’s dedicated to all the people that pushed me through my limits and by all means still do sharing their ideas, perspectives and music with me in and off stage. They know who they are because I’m pretty sure I never failed to remind them!
Thank you for being in my life.

Website: https://www.akamu.net/battaglia.htm

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/camilla888/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000130664472

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqDs7V6Kf7JFJas8vLv0-Sw