Mauro Remiddi, aka Porcelain Raft, has been around the block and then some. Born in 1972, he toured all over the world before recently settling in New York City, where he recorded Porcelain Raft’s debut album, Strange Weekend. The reverb-drenched sonics and haze of nostalgia aren’t remotely singular (for those of you who might adore or disdain the recent chillwave trend), but Remiddi’s warmly impressionistic lyrics, which come off like the communique of a faraway friend telling us what it’s like to go there and back again, imbues his music with a more mature quality befitting of his life experience. Recently, Remiddi played at Chicago’s Metro to support Youth Lagoon, where we caught up with him before the show to chat about his travels and his ultimate settlement.
Thanks to Porcelain Raft for being so magnanimous with his time, considering he’d just gotten done with a photo shoot that had him and Youth Lagoon’s Trevor Powers carrying each other in arms like an overjoyed bride and groom (Powers is much, much stronger than Remiddi, who almost dropped the younger musician flat on his ass). I do really like his album, though I don’t think it came off nearly as well in concert. Layers of melodies were reduced to blocks of noise; all fragility was shattered by the first note. But I think you’re supposed to feel this one by yourself, not in a room filled with strangers.
