GIORS INTERVIEW
Giors is a singer-songwriter from Piedmont who has decided to remain anonymous.
The artist has in fact chosen to focus his listenersโ attention on the lyrics and music of his songs, thus avoiding the possibility that his person might detract attention from the words and their deeper meaning. Hence the desire to create songs that portray an โalternativeโ reality, in which people can find harmony and identify themselves and others, freeing them of the tendency to conform to the thoughts and behaviours of others.
Giors' latest single is "Pietre" (Stones), inspired by the pleasure of the mountains and the significance and history of the rocks that surround us.
In this interview, Giors' love for the mountains emerges in all its nuances. Starting from his music, we will embark on a virtual hike together to discover new emotions, interpretations and sensations that are highlighted in a photo, selected from the singer-songwriter's personal archive, as the closing point of this journey.
Happy reading.
Letโs start with a brief introduction: who is Giors?
They say he is a person who works hard, who takes what he does very seriously, who loves music and, from time to time, writes songs that take their cue from what life has to offer. He prefers listening to talking and is not particularly attracted by appearances but rather by the harmony of words and the tangibility of actions inspired by dreams. He loves the mountains, skiing in fresh powder and many other things.
I think you can sense the rest from the songs I wrote..
We know that you love to live and breathe the mountains, how do you prepare, both physically and psychologically, for a mountain hike?
I keep fit by gardening; I follow mostly a Mediterranean diet; I read to learn more about the areas I haven't visited yet; I follow the weather forecasts for the area where I plan to go hiking; I always try to bring some sort of photographic equipment with me to take photos; I prepare a 'light' backpack and set off for the planned destination.
How important is silence, even while walking, and what emotions emerge and inspire you during a hike?
For me, silence during a hike is comparable to the silence needed to listen to good music or a good song: a silence that allows you to interiorise images and sounds from which you can perhaps extract some good combinations of musical notes.It is thanks to silence that I can hear the wind in the leaves, the sound of a stream, the birds singing at dawn, the whistle of a marmot, the dull sound of ibexes butting heads higher above, the rumbling of an avalanche.These are all things that I collect in my memories and recall when I feel the need: have you ever tried to evoke the colour and sound of a mountain stream on a hot, sultry day in the city? I find the memories of certain nature scenes truly invigorating.Also the rhythm of my stride as I walk helps me think.
Let's talk about your music, what was the "spark" that triggered the making of one of your latest singles "Pietre"?
Rather than a spark, it was a combination of several factors: re-reading R. Macfarlane's "The Old Ways ", an ascent of Maledia above the Pagarรฌ hut, the memory of a trip to Iceland, the recurring thought of a late friend who, as a geologist, passed on to me an interest in stones so much so that I brought some home from every trip I made, and the 'magic' I attribute to archaeological sites. And the common denominator of all these things is the silent way stones have of delivering feelings, emotions, information and memories.
When did the song come to life and what were the stages of the creative process?
The pieces I write are created, with the help of a piano or a guitar, by putting together those memories and emotions that I think can help shift, if only for a moment, the almost obsessive attention placed on daily tasks towards a viewpoint that is perhaps ''useless for the purposes of market growth'', but that I believe could instead help open up to different perspectives on more rewarding paths, and not only for the panorama they provide.
To quote your song: "Stones are memory / silent paths / fabric of yesteryear / that we very often try to interpret / to affirm ourselves / rather than to reveal its meaning". What fascinates you most about stones and their meanings?
Stones have witnessed history, without pretence or manipulation. They are reliable witnesses of times past and they guard secrets. Knowing how to read them gives us an excellent opportunity to better understand our roots beyond all the ideologies that often cloud the truth. "They tell me where to go" recites the song and, in this manner, they can become xenopia for our journey towards the future.
When I am in the mountains, I am fascinated when I feel them rough yet secure under my hand, or as a sure foothold as I continue towards my goal or think of them as the bricks of giant cathedrals that stretch toward the Heavens.
Did you manage to 'reveal the meaning' of our time?
I donโt think the sense of our time is different from what it was in past centuries:the manner in which things are manifested is different, but the matrix remains essentially the same because the anthropological components of humans have remained unchanged and are struggling within us.It is a period characterised by a strong pressure on life; by the search for better conditions; by the determination of groups of people to substitute others who resist change; by the denial of the value of competency except for what I call 'relationship skills'; by a sense of disorientation in the face of the inability of Politics to work for the res publica;by a growing pool of fears that leads us to close ourselves in the 'vacuum of our uni-egoverse' and then explode with the violence of 'keyboard warriors', basically a type of circus where the real gladiators are those minorities that have the courage to express their ideas with factual reasoning and not with insults or other forms of violence.
A time, therefore, of good things and not-so-good things, in search of common sense that is in short supply and in realising that life cannot be reduced to a single click. But it is also a period where mediocrity and know-it-alls seem to be on the rise, along with the virus of denial, aided by the rise of short thinking.
What stone - or stones โ are you most symbolically attached to? And what 'stone' do you love to climb or feel under your feet?
Symbolically, the rock from which King Arthur drew his sword.Among those defined as 'precious', the emerald because it has the colour of hope.Among the others: all of them, because no matter how big or small, they allow me to reach new viewpoints and new horizons on each of my trips. Well, to be honest, the ones that bother me a little are the crumbly rocks on difficult routes but, as the saying goes, โno one is perfectโ not even rocks.
The single stems from your passion for walking: which are your favourite routes? And are there any that frighten you or which you have not yet managed to tackle?
I prefer those where I can reach good altitudes without long commutes.With regards to the second question, this all depends on the external and psycho-physical conditions on that day. There are days when everything works out well and you find the courage to overcome your fear and other days in which you have to give up and try again another day.
It is important to not get too carried away and underestimate the risks you encounter along the way: the mountain, like all things of value, must always be respected and for me it is a great training ground for common sense and courage.
There are still many paths and routes that I would like to take, even though I often like to repeat those I already know:I experience the same pleasure as when I watch the same good film over and over again and each time discover things, dialogues, colours and shapes that I missed earlier.
Lastly, we asked you to choose a photo from your personal archive that represents what the mountains mean to you; can you tell us about it?
I chose this photograph which I took on my return from Maledia.
I must confess that for me, the mountain means reaching the summit without missing out on the beauty of the whole route travelled to reach it or the beauty of the descent when off-piste skiing.Maledia is in a beautiful location; it offers different levels of difficulty; the panorama is breathtaking; the positive sense of dizziness you feel when from the summit you see the Pagari Hut on one side and the incredible blue lakes on the other, down there at the bottom, and then your gaze broadens to other 'cathedrals', from Argentera to the Gelas, from Monviso to the Matterhorn and Rosa, to the point where you feel gratified with that moment of Paradise achieved without cheating.
You can sense today, in the silence, a strong warning as you walk in the mountains:the sight of small patches of ice where up to forty years ago there were sizeable glaciers should convince us to speed up on all sustainable efforts to preserve our Mother Earth.
With this hope, I wish everyone a wonderful 2021.
Listen to the song: PIETRE
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