Tananai, my city is music

"'Calmo, Cobra!' ('Calm down, Cobra!'), my manager told me when he noticed I was starting to lose touch with reality and let things go to my head a bit too much", explains the now thoroughly Milanese Tananai, born Alberto Cotta Ramusino.

A warning, CalmoCobra, which has also become the title of his latest album. He worked on it in his studio in NoLo (North of Loreto), taking all the time he needed to step out of the whirlwind and get back on solid ground.

The area is part of a new Milan, one of the working-class neighborhoods that have literally blossomed in recent years, becoming true (re)creative and cultural hubs. For example, the Beltrade cinema has recently hosted Maura Delpero, winner of the Golden Lion at Venice for Vermiglio, and Oscar-winning director Paolo Sorrentino.

Tananai (which means "little rascal" in Milanese) spent his childhood in Cologno Monzese, just a stone's throw from Milan, including his school years, but he began to feel the pull of the city when he was still a young boy: "I clearly remember the first times I took the metro with a friend to go there. In Cologno, there wasn't much to do, aside from the little park, and Milan, for me at the time, was a breath of fresh air. Meeting people from other schools, discovering that there were endless possibilities available to me, made me immediately think: "Wow, there's a whole world just a few steps from home!"

At first, approaching this world was not easy. Alberto read Crime and Punishment to pass the time on the subway rides that took him to meetings with promoters of the most popular clubs: "I was passionate about electronic music and would go talk to them, trying to convince them to let me play for just half an hour, before the big-name DJs arrived. I remember endless waits and many letdowns: I was the kid from the outskirts, and often they didn't consider me to be up to par. They asked me to bring at least thirty people if I wanted to play records, but the ones I brought were never good enough."

Despite this, he didn't give up: he was captivated by Milan and its multifaceted nature, where tradition and modernity coexisted, along with its atmospheres and contrasts. For him, it is not just a physical place, but also a universe of emotions, relationships, and stories that are part of his personality. While searching for his place in the world, the city of the "Madonnina" was where he also took his first musical steps. Among the venues of his debut are the Tocqueville, in the Garibaldi area behind Corso Como, and the Tropicana, in Viale Bligny, in the Porta Romana district, which has since been replaced by a disco-theater for events and shows. "They had kicked me out of the Hollywood (a top club on Corso Como, editor's note)… everyone hated the tracks I had chosen. I tried to play what I liked, not commercial music, but more niche stuff, like Gesaffelstein and Brodinski. I was really into that French movement, the darker side of techno. I also received a congratulatory email from SoundCloud because I had spent countless hours searching for music on their site.

Aside from work, he has always frequented the Porta Venezia area, even singing about it in his songs, like in Esagerata, for example: "Maybe it's time to get out of bed and head to Via Lecco. I'll clean up, perhaps I'll bump into you there." With a preference for Via Melzo: "It's the street where I felt most at home. If you walk down it from start to finish, by the end, you're either drunk or you've had fun: you've discovered new places and met people. I am very close friends with the owner of the Love Bar, a lady in her sixties whom I truly do love. We call each other "prince" and "princess". The first times I went there, at a certain hour, they'd ask us to lower our voices so as not to disturb the neighbors, but we just couldn't help it and kept making a huge racket. So, when she got upset, to lighten the mood and make her laugh, I would kneel and say, "Sorry, princess!". Also there, at number 12, in front of the Bar Picchio, is one of my favorite places to eat, the Osteria Alla Concorrenza. The wines are excellent and the food is just as good."
Today, Tananai lives in Milan, in City Hall 2, the NoLo area where he also has a studio. "If I want to grab a beer, I go to GhePensiMI, always packed with people chatting and toasting even on the sidewalk, whether it's summer or winter, it doesn't matter. If, on the other hand, I want to drink good wine and eat a little, Silvano is next door."

Even during a challenging period like the pandemic, Milan was, for Alberto, a refuge and not a limitation. While many, right after, fled the concrete in search of regeneration in nature, he seems to have found warmth and new energy in people. He describes how he watched the Ticinese area, particularly around the Colonne di San Lorenzo—long a symbol of Milan's nightlife—become even more crowded, with people finally eager to return to enjoying their city. "It was a very special moment in which each of us, I think, experienced conflicting emotions. Personally, that was the place where I experienced beautiful and intense feelings once again. Being surrounded by so many young people, popping open a beer between the columns, looking them in the eye, up close at last, made me feel great. And I'm one of the luckier ones, because during the Covid period, I lived in a loft on Via Tucidide, in Ortica, a sort of micro-village within the former Richard Ginori factories that had been completely renovated. There, we were together, almost like in a commune: we sunbathed on the roof, played soccer, and skipped rope in the parking lot. This is the other side of Milan."