Anthony Dettori and Roz Pappalardo share many things – Italian heritage, a love of alt. country storytelling, and musical ability.
However a town, is not one. Despite Dettori laying roots in Brisbane and Pappalardo pursuing her dreams in Hobart, the duo still find the time to share their common, and uncommon, experiences through their beautifully crafted songs.Lontano means 'far away' in Italian, but in songwriting the duo could not be more on the same page. "Roz and I knew each other 20 years ago from different bands," Dettori shares.
"Then a few years ago, I was recording for The Sunburys, and wanted a duet. Someone suggested Roz, so I sent an email. Roz was in Kuala Lumpur doing a musical and also recording a solo album.
"She flew back to sing on my song, and I mucked around with her song. We kept sending songs, and within a month we'd written close to 20 songs together. So we recorded them, put the last record out, and kept going."
"It was an unprecedented burst of creativity," Pappalardo expounds. "It's great to work with people that aren't in the same city.
"When you're not working with someone in the same room, it adds to the excitement of writing, when you don't have things like body language and eye contact to infer what we're writing about. There's excitement, there's freedom. It's like we're wearing a blindfold."
Dettori enjoys the distance as a means to create freely, and then come together with a layer of trust. "Sometimes with writing, I find it hard to be open, so it is nice to send songs back and forth and develop trust.
"We don't talk about what we're writing, until we're recording the song, so Roz might be singing about something, I might be singing about something else. Often we're on the same page. It's like having a conversation over the songwriting process. It's a lot of fun."
With sparse time together, rehearsals are limited meaning every show is a fresh experience of music – both for audience and band. "It's really exciting," Dettori declares. "When we see each other, it's quality time.
"Our launch this weekend [last month in Brisbane], Roz'll be up on Friday morning, we're gonna do some radio, then rehearse that night and that's it. Then we do the gig. It keeps you on your toes.
"Every time Roz and I get to rehearse these songs, it's special because it's a rarity." "Often we're about to go on stage," Pappalardo affirms.
Lontano's newest single 'Deja Vu' centres around the taxing monotony of a stale relationship. The duo's unique perspectives, untainted by proximity to one another, perfectly support the narrative of two people mentally and emotionally worlds apart.
"The beauty of having a duet style is that we can sing to each other, emulate those characters and bring those characters to life," Pappalardo explains.
"It's a couple of people having a barney," Dettori shares. "Here we go again, deja f...ing vu. It's a conversation between two people who've probably been together a little bit too long."
The single comes from Lontano's new album 'Depending On You', a record exploring the physics of human connection. "We recorded in Jason Millhouse's studio, Recordworks," Dettori states. "Jason's an incredibly talented guy, and now we've got him playing in the band."
"He's a very talented artist," Pappalardo agrees, before Dettori adds: "Particularly under the circumstances. It's the first time Roz and I have sung these songs together, and we tracked that record in four days, including overdubs. So he's gotta work fast."
"Every time we come together, it's a celebration," Pappalardo recalls. "It's like performance on speed, but not on speed. We have to bring our top energy."
'Depending On You' explores many facets of life: Wisdom, experiences, synchronicity, and especially, time. Cherishing time is a unification the duo share. "It's not getting angry at small things," Dettori explains his personal methodology.
"Trying to remember what the important things are. Spending time with the people I care about, and being aware of how fleeting things are. People get focused on careers and envious and jealous of others, but when you come down to it, everybody's running out of time. You become more aware of that as people around you age, you get to realise these things."
Adds Roz: "Time is marching on and I don't want to waste a moment. If I want something, I'll go for it. If I want to write a theatre show, I will write a theatre show. I've lived in Cairns for over ten years, working in an artistic pursuit, but felt like it was time to change. I flipped a 180 and drove from Cairns to Hobart in five days to start a new life at MONA."
"Stopped in for a drink on the way through," Dettori laughs. "I did," Pappalardo confirms. "I feel that is one of the reasons Lontano works so well. Because we are keenly aware of human existence and human frailty, and how that contributes to the songs we write and our artistic pursuits outside of Lontano. It's all about, don't let a minute go by. Grab it!"
Lontano will be gracing Stones Corner Festival in Brisbane next month (5 May), with artists such as The Potbelleez joining the line-up. "It's a great family, accessible festival," Dettori remarks. "They've got a great music line-up and it's in a great spot."
"It's got a diverse line-up of artists," Pappalardo shares. "It's exciting and people from all walks of life are interested. It's a good way for families to spend time together." It will be a rare chance to see a gorgeous band before they are, once more, lontano.
Stones Corner Festival (Brisbane) takes place 5 May.
Stones Corner Festival 2024 Line-up
The PotbelleezScreamfeeder
Never Ending 80s
Vixens Of Fall
Lontano
Later Daze
John Hanley with Don't Shoot The Hurricane
