Mauro Iuliano is excited to announce his nominations for two Independent Music Awards. The categories he has been nominated in are: Best Producer for his EP Hidden Roots and best short form video for his song "Who Knows" - viewable via the link below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZFVNLT4j58
Listen to Hidden Roots:
https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/iuliano/hidden-roots
Intimate vocals and cryptic lyrics float above an orchestral palette; electric and nylon string guitars counterbalance complex harmonies and spectral electronica. With his first EP, Hidden Roots, Iuliano unlocks a sonic door to a modern artistry that is both elusive and accessible.
Born in Italy, Iuliano inherited both his mother’s inclinations toward culture and his father’s affinity for economics. Beginning his studies on piano, Iuliano --who was a fan of progressive rock, jazz and soul -- played in clubs, his keyboards augmented by sequenced backing tracks.
He tells that a dream sparked a dramatic journey. “I dreamed that I was in a classroom, and horn players were performing one of my arrangements,” he recalls. He made this dream come true in the United States when he moved to Boston, MA to enroll at Berklee College of Music. “It was like everything that had been explained to me could now be applied – the concepts became bright and clear.”
With his engineering and arranging expertise finely-tuned, Iuliano gravitated to the role of a producer. Having previously visited Thailand on holiday, he started collaborating and producing in all Southeast Asia. After a four-year experience in Malaysia where he directed a small label, he chose to launch his solo career as a world citizen.
While the guitar is a prominent instrument on Hidden Roots, it is not the instrument Iuliano is really familiar with, but the one he utilizes to write songs. “It was a deliberate peculiar choice made precisely because of not being a guitar player. This push me to explore ideas until I find something interesting, and then I free style the melody,” he notes. “I begin with an accessible melody, but then introduce the listener to different scenarios that evolve from the original idea.” While the intricate backing vocals on the project are a study in harmonic sophistication, the lead vocals are rendered in a poignant falsetto. “I use a smaller voice to increase the sense of dynamics and details,” he explains.
While Iuliano always begins with a concept, he prefers to realize his muse serendipitously. “Accidents are a very big deal in music, but you have to be able to hear them,” he reveals. “Some people might take them as a mistake, but most of them will lead you, one way or another, to an interesting place. Normally, these are the places that I like to wander.”
Having spent so much time arranging and producing for others, Iuliano’s personal vision as an artist comes full cycle with Hidden Roots. “It’s the sound that I’ve heard my whole life, together in one place,” he notes. “Everybody has a limit – sometime the wrong side of the limit keeps you from making music, but if you can go around it, it becomes a point of power. You can express yourself through your limits. It makes you different from other artists and it becomes your point of strength.”
