The Many Faces of Joan Thiele
In Joan Thiele’s latest song “Proiettili,” which means “Bullets” in Italian, a verse recites: “I will stay closer and closer to my dream.”
With two albums, another on its way and “Proiettili,” the official song for the movie “Ti Mangio il Cuore,” which premiered at the Venice Film Festival in September, Alessandra Joan Thiele, aka Joan Thiele, is steadily making her dream come true.
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“I don’t remember when I decided that I wanted to become a singer and a musician, but since I was a little kid I always kind of knew that I wanted this to be my job and my life,” says Thiele.
Her journey to success hasn’t been all glitz and glamour. At 20 years old, after a brief period in the United Kingdom where she gained some experience within the music industry, Thiele came back to her hometown on the shores of Lake Garda in Italy.
“At that moment my parents rightly told me that if I wanted to turn my passion into a job I had to financially support myself,” says Thiele, who is now 31. “So from then on I started playing on the streets, in clubs and pubs — anywhere where I could earn some money. Then I was noticed by an agent and from that point on everything changed.”
It also changed the way she conceived her own music, as she decided to switch from singing in English to her mother tongue — Italian. Even though she was aware that it could close her off from a certain audience that she had built throughout the years, Thiele felt the need to link her “musical identity to my cultural identity and with English I could not find my own dimension.” She also explains that, “when I was younger I sang in English because I thought this could open up more doors and that was perhaps the only reason why I did it.”
Despite the unconventional choice, Thiele remains relevant thanks to the fusion of various musical styles and genres and the inspirations that she draws from her origins. “I was born in Colombia because my father lives there, then at the age of six I moved to Italy with my mom. I have always been drawn to various cultures and it’s funny because every time I take the plane to go to Colombia, changes happen in my life. So I always associate traveling with this.”
This year has marked an important step for Thiele, as she was chosen to write and produce the official soundtrack of Pippo Mezzapesa’s latest movie, “Ti Mangio il Cuore.” “Working for this project was a beautiful and interesting experience. My music is very visual and cinema is the sublimation of this, so it fit perfectly,” she observes.
The movie is based on the investigative novel of the same title written by Carlo Bonini and Giuliano Foschini and is inspired by the true story of Rosa Di Fiore, the first state informer hailing form the Gargano mafia, which mainly operated in the region of Apulia around the ’70s and ’80s.
Thiele explains that, “Even though it is a dramatic and violent movie, it also shows a sense of freedom as Marilena [the main character, played by Italian singer and actress Elodie] decided to do an act of extreme courage. So I wanted to focus the song on this.”
The song also features Elodie and was produced by Thiele together with Emanuele Triglia, who also curated the text in collaboration with another important Italian artist, Elisa.
Thiele’s multifaceted artistry also includes a “non-superficial relationship with fashion,” as she likes to describe it. Indeed, in the last year Thiele has been seen donning head-to-toe designer looks, such as the Trussardi black leather gown by Serhat Işık and Benjamin A. Huseby that she wore during the movie premiere in Venice or the Valentino Couture vintage set worn at Milan’s Sustainable Fashion Awards. She was also seen sitting in the front row at the Loewe runway show held in Paris during fashion week.
She “respects and admires fashion” and believes that “clothes can definitely enrich a musician’s work and what they want to express, especially now that everything has become so visual. I always say that my music is fanciful, not linked to an image and I believe that fashion often tells a story. My favorite designers are Antonio Marras, Gianfranco Ferrè, Jonathan Anderson and recently I also started to follow the work of Daniel Del Core [who is behind the brand Del Core].”
Thiele has just wrapped up her summer tour around Italy. But she isn’t taking a break.
“I am currently focused on giving my very best for the album I am working on. I still can’t say when it will be published, but it will be very soon.”
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