Formula Indie Sessions Interview with Juan Pablo Vitali
Born in Buenos Aires, Juan Pablo became interested in music during his childhood. From the age of eight, he began exploring guitar, keyboard, and accordion—his first instruments—until he finally decided to focus on keyboards, piano, and bass.
In his teenage years, Vitali started playing bass in different bands. His first opportunity to record a professional album came in 1998 with the trio Rompecabezas, a melodic punk rock group. Years later, as an adult, he traveled to Europe to take his songs and musical projects to Italy, France, and Spain with great success, marking a period of artistic self-discovery.
After some time, he composed soundtracks for theater productions and documentary series.
In 2015, Vitali received credit for composing the lyrics and music for the album Al Planeta Sin El Mundo by Orquesta Del Living, a group initiated and produced by Juan Pablo, formed by various musicians who rotate through albums and artistic projects.
Al Planeta Sin El Mundo is a conceptual album that accompanies a novel written by Juan Pablo. It includes elements of apocalyptic science fiction in its lyrics and blends various musical styles, such as progressive rock and tango. This album is one of Orquesta Del Living’s most acclaimed projects and one of Vitali’s most ambitious works.
Al Planeta Sin El Mundo by Orquesta Del Living was recorded, mixed, and mastered at Romaphonic Studios (formerly Fito Paez’s Circo Beat) by Mariano Bilinkis, while the track “Síndrome de Kessler” was handled by Tchad Blake.
The album was presented at the Festival Emergente, Coca Cola in Concert at Samsung Studio, and at Usina del Arte, as well as at the International Television Festival and the Caras y Caretas Theater, between 2016 and 2021.
Since 2022, Juan Pablo has been living in Mexico City and Puebla, where he has been preparing new material for the new Orquesta Del Living ensemble.
Among Juan Pablo Vitali’s solo works, notable titles include Tolhuin 2027, Astroviajante Vol. I, and Cristales, which draw influences from progressive rock, new wave, noise rock, and experimental indie. These albums, along with the singles “Casa Doce” and “Stellium II,” are available on Spotify, YouTube, and other platforms.
1. What is your earliest memory connected to music?
My clearest musical memory goes back to kindergarten. A music teacher played a rock and roll song called Monoliso on a big piano, and we all sang and jumped around with pure joy and energy.
2. How did your passion for creating music begin?
In my early high school years, I used to draw bizarre comics and share them with classmates. At some point, I began linking those stories to music through simple-structured songs. Some were about alien abductions, the apocalypse, and others about lost or violent love.
3. What’s the story behind your current music project?
I’m currently working on new material that acts as a synthesis. It’s deeply connected to the sound, energy, and beat of the Ramones, blended with the harmonic progressions of Morricone or Beethoven, and melodies rooted in Argentine tango and Chopin.
4. How would you describe your sound to someone who has never heard your music before?
Like a soundtrack where the sequence can follow the album order — or the listener’s own.
5. What is one thing you’ve learned that completely changed the way you make music?
Every attempt to learn something new, whether I succeed or not, shapes my music. Each of those moments becomes part of my albums, and of any form I give to sound — whether I’m alone or collaborating.
6. What tools, instruments, or software are essential in your creative process?
The piano and guitar are my closest companions. Any kind of recorder — computer, phone, or whatever is at hand — works too. But the most important thing is the idea itself. It often comes while I’m walking or running. Then I rush home, grab a guitar, play what I was humming, record it, and later let it take shape — if it ever finds one.
7. Which indie artist or song are you loving right now?
Three songs: Besar tus Ojos by Diosque (An Indie Artist from Argentina), Como un Faro by Todo Aparenta Normal (Indie Band from Argentina) Adam by Paz Lenchantin. Three artists I truly enjoy: Los Siberianos and Expulsados, both from Argentina, Maki Mori and Shonen Knife from Japan
8. How have your personal experiences influenced your music and artistic vision?
Deeply. Beyond traveling and performing across the world, I’ve lived through some experiences that took me even further. When I was 21, I had an accident and spent nine days in a coma. The memories from that deep dream have been imprinted in many songs and album concepts over the years.
9. What emotions or messages do you hope listeners take from your work?
It feels like a spacecraft where each passenger lives a unique experience — something untransferable, yet shared, like a coffee or a conversation.
10. What’s the most important lesson music has taught you so far? Music will always take us to places in a unique way.
11. What is a dream venue or festival you would love to perform at? I enjoy making music anywhere. I’ve been lucky enough to play in dreamlike places, but I’ve realized that what I love most is making music with friends — with friends and family.
12. If you could collaborate with any artist, past or present, who would it be and why?
With Bach — because he laid out the rules of a game that’s still being played. A sublime synthesis that transcends all genres we’ve developed over the past five centuries. It’s a game that includes us all, consciously or unconsciously. I’d love to improvise with him in the style of his preludes and inventions.
13. Where can our listeners follow and support your music? You can find me on Spotify under my full name — Juan Pablo Vitali. On Instagram, I’m @jpvitali.
14. Looking toward the future, what’s your dream for the next chapter of your musical journey?
That dreams inhabit the space of creative reality — with music as a medium and driving force for acts of construction across all possible levels of the world’s human network.
15. What do you hope listeners will discover about you along the way? That I’m the conductor of a humble machine inviting them on sonic journeys — and that each listener experiences the nature of that voyage in their own way.
3 Links: De Ronningen Piano Medley Rock!
