The Sound of Passion
If you scroll through the Instagram profile of Elasi, the singer-songwriter from Alessandria, Italy, with a degree from Bocconi University, what will strike you is a kaleidoscope of colors and dreamy landscapes, from her album covers to her stage performances.
“I have been studying music since I was six and composing since I was 12. The music conservatory served me well, but my experience of art has always been much freer and more curious. In between classical guitar lessons, I used to sneak off and play with my punk rock band, without telling my teacher,” she smiles. “Because I was so shy, I never thought that music could become a career for me. In fact, I decided to study Economics for the Arts: a way to work in the creative sector, but behind the scenes,” she adds.
Her years at university were an opportunity to develop management skills in the music business and to meet people with similar stories. “Today, my fellow musicians are surprised to learn that I’m a Bocconi alumna but there were actually lots of creative people in the faculty. At the university I formed a kind of family that I am still very attached to,” she adds. Between exams and a hectic study schedule, she also had an epiphany. “I was on exchange program in Maastricht, and I experienced an international and creative environment that encouraged me to finally follow my passion without feeling too afraid.” Elisa decided to overcome her shyness and take the stage with the name Elasi.
She wrote her undergrad thesis with the prophetic title “Self-Entrepreneurship of an Emerging Artist” while interning at a production studio for movie soundtracks in Los Angeles and working as a dog walker on the side. Back in Italy, she won a scholarship for a master’s degree in songwriting in Rome. “But I found myself with what seemed like nothing in my hands to start an uphill career. I went back to school: I studied, passed the state exam for financial advisors, and got hired by an asset management company.”
“But I kept writing and producing my own music. I was sending auditions tapes left and right; I won a call for innovative artists under 30 and I got a good management contract in 2018.” With these first steps, her artistic adventure begins. Elasi plays her first big stages, and she is discovered by a major record company, which offers her a contract in 2019 for her first record: Campi Elasi (featuring long-distance collaborations with musicians from different corners of the world: from Mali to India, from Bali to Brazil). “Shortly afterwards, the pandemic broke out and I had to reinvent myself again,” she adds. Even during COVID, she continued writing, and she collaborated with some of the leading names on the electronic scene. Then in 2022, she released the EP Oasi Elasi for a new major label.
“All the lockdowns made me see how important it is to network with other artists. That’s when I realized that there are only a few of us women music producers, and we don’t have much of a voice on the Italian scene.” So she founded Poche CLTV, the first Italian network of professional women producers. Her new venture quickly attracted the media, as well as cultural institutions and companies interested in training future music producers and in giving professional women producers greater exposure.
She currently collaborates with various fashion and design brands as a composer for installations and fashion shows as a music curator, and she has a show on Radio Raheem where she selects and mixes electro-ethnic tracks from around the world.
