Seriana Believes

Early February, in Italy, is Sanremo Music Festival time. For a few days each year, the country is buzzing with all things music.
So how could Seriana Edilizia not be part of the action?
What better occasion than the 72nd edition of the music festival to announce our company’s very first song release?

The song, entitled “Seriana believes“, is born of the passion and flair of our marketing manager Emanuela Federici and her trusted colleague Erika Vallone.

We’ve been talking with Emanuela at our offices just recently about how exactly the song came about, and want to share her story with you.
These are her words.

L’idea di creare una canzone da “donare” all’azienda e ai suoi dipendenti è nata dal desiderio di realizzare qualcosa che potesse The idea to create a song to present to the company and its employees as a “gift” stemmed from a desire to create something that would surprise the whole team, including the owners. Seeing the excitement, the enthusiasm and the amazement of our colleagues and the whole Assolari family was just awesome.

The Seriana Edilizia staff have a very wide-ranging skill set, and one of the team’s strengths lies in its ability to connect those diverse 360° problem-solving capabilities.

“We overcame our “fears” and launched ourselves into this project – Emanuela goes on to say – We handled the whole process ourselves: from night-time rehearsals in the studio to evening recording sessions here at the company; from the organization involved in procuring all the materials we needed to seeking a dancer for the video. We had an amazingly driven mini team handling everything with such energy that no obstacle could stand in our way! On that note, our heartfelt thanks go to Beatrice Mussetti, the daughter of our colleague Olivo, who agreed to be the wonderful dancer you see gracing the screen with her light and magnificent moves. We can safely say that making a dream come true starts with a bit of imagination and together, we’ve pulled it off.“

Seriana Believes

What about the music? How did that come about?

“Every evening, I would read and reread the lyrics, trying to connect them to the different melodic turns. Everything seemed to work, but the opening verse just wasn’t coming to me. Surprisingly enough, inspiration finally came while I was on the steps outside the old Seriana Edilizia facility. I was with my eldest daughter, Matilde, waiting for my younger daughter who was at dance rehearsal. Matilde started singing softly and those were exactly the notes I was looking for. It’s something of a magical sunset I will carry in my heart, well done Matilde! And well done Fausto Chigioni, an exceptional person and musician who lent his time and great professionalism in helping us put everything together, from the music to the arrangements, all the way to recording in his studio.”

What’s your musical background?

Emanuela: “Ever since I was 5, more or less, I always felt that, for me, singing was something natural and good, something I was drawn to. I waited for my vocal chords to develop at age 16 before enrolling in a music school in my city and then, while I was at university, I was in a band that did a mixture of pop, rock and soul.”

Erika: “I always planned to get into the music world, but it wasn’t until this past year that I finally got round to enrolling in a singing course and a guitar course, too. In terms of the song’s lyrics, ever since I was a little girl I’ve always been something of a bookworm. I loved the way writers (whether they wrote songs or books) were able to convey strong emotions through their words and it was this way of thinking — wanting to convey Seriana’s mission outside the company walls — that shaped the words to the song “Seriana Believes”.”

What’s the main message behind the song?

“On the one hand, we’d like to see more awareness around the seismic vulnerability of the building stock in our country and, on the other, we really love the idea of putting a message of hope out there. With awareness and a bit of proactivity, buildings can be a safe place.”

Was the idea of taking an excerpt from the news linked to this very desire to promote awareness around prevention, Seriana’s mission?

Was the idea of taking an excerpt from the news linked to this very desire to promote awareness around prevention, Seriana’s mission?
“Yes, it was Fausto Chigioni‘s idea to put that in It’s kind of his signature thing, a’ la Pink Floyd, a band he has a real passion for, which has spawned his Pink Floyd cover band: Sound Project.
For us, opening with the TG1 news programme with a series of excepts from RAI broadcasts from ’98 and with a face that will be familiar to lots of Italians — the journalist Giulio Borrelli — means metaphorically illustrating a process that has taken us from our origins in 2013 to grow to the team of almost 90 we are today.
We took our cue from a real issue, metaphorized by the news broadcast. Then we decided — first and foremost as people as opposed to a business — that putting all our efforts into tackling this problem was the right thing to do. The opening vocals actually represent a real wake-up call for an awareness that we hope will become more and more contagious.

And on that note, I’d like to thank Giulio Borrelli, who is now the Mayor of Atessa, for listening to our idea of featuring his voice in our project, as well as Rai.com for being so quick to formalize the use of that audio material.”

All that’s left now is to listen to the song.

With Seriana Believes

By Emanuela Federici, Erika Vallone

Directed by Seriana Edilizia

Emanuela Federici on vocals

Happy listening everyone!