Today I’m accompanied by a musician, Daniele Ponziani, who has accepted to do an interview from me. Daniele is part of the group Scooppiati – diversamente band, a band active since 2012, formed by people with disabilities. Their last single, Un istante, came out last march, and tells of the terrible scenarios of war.
Hi Daniele, thanks for accepting this interview. Tell us a little about who you are.
Thank you Antonietta. I’m part of the group Scooppiati, I’m the drummer. The group was formed through a cooperative called H Anno Zero, a cooperative dedicated to people with disabilities.
So in your band, it’s not only you with a disability, I imagine…
Absolutely not. My band was formed from a drummer, me, who’s blind. Then there’s the keyboardist named Giammario Mascolo, he’s also blind. We have the singer who’s in a wheelchair, named Ketty Giansiracusa; the bassist is Peppe Salis, and the guitarist Andrea Curatolo.
This is the lineup of your band called…
Scooppiati diversamente band!
Why did you choose this name?
The name is a mix between “scoppiati” and “cooperative”, referring precisely to Cooperativa H Anno Zero, which has two o’s. Don`t forget, also “Scooppiati” has two o’s!
But now do you still go to this cooperative where the band was started or not?
Before I volunteered there, but now they have moved, and it got too difficult for me to go. Our cooperative will always remain, a reality that helps us, and we have a connection with them.
A connection that still brings you to do concerts today.
Exactly. Practically, it is the cooperative that organizes with the different cooperatives in all of Italy, then they call us there and we go to do the shows.
Before you told me that you’re searching for a sponsor, right?
Yes, we are searching for a sponsor that will help us for other shows, they are the most important thing to us. With the shows we can bring our voice and our themes around Italy; we are interested in this, not profit, really and truly.
They’re non-profit shows so… Now you use only social media to advertise, right?
Yes exactly. Six months ago we made a Facebook page, and then we added Instagram. So please, follow us!
I wanted to ask you just one last thing: when was the group started?
Scooppiati started around eleven years ago.
So you’ve known your colleagues for many years…
Yeah well… quite a long time! We went to practically all of Italy, Termoli, Sora, they almost called us to Verona, we were in Sicily… I truly feel like a different person with them, because what we make with music is a very particular thing, it’s very interesting. It is our music, in the sense that it is totally written by us. Words and music, all ours. Now a new single is out called Un istante, that discusses war, but we’ve made other songs that cover other strong topics, like violence against women for example, other than disability, obviously.
Daniele thank you for your time. Good luck for your next concerts!
– Antonietta Pantone, 2023
Translation from Italian to English by Sarah Jorgensen on the initiative of the course taught by Nives Valli using the Service-Learning pedagogical approach at John Felice Rome Center – Loyola University Chicago.
