"I began a process of reevaluating the things I created, the people I surrounded myself with, and the ambitions I was pursuing." In other passages, 'Funny Little Fears' embraces a romantic tone: in the charming track 'Zombie Lady', Damiano likens himself and his partner to the ethereal couple seen in Tim Burton's Corpse Bride. The reflective midtempo song 'Next Summer' adopts a somewhat pessimistic outlook on a failed romance: “You had to discard our love / To discover that nothing compares to us.” Yet, at times, it reveals a deeper vulnerability than one might anticipate from a flamboyant rock frontman often celebrated as a style icon (having appeared in campaigns for Bvlgari and Diesel). The album opens with Damiano singing about voices that will “find me wherever I go” and concludes with a mysterious lament titled ‘Solitude (No One Understands Me)’. “I believe the lyrics of that song require two or three readings to fully grasp,” Damiano expresses sincerely.
At this point in his career, what does Damiano perceive as the biggest misconceptions about him? “I think it’s a mix of my responsibility and the audience’s – that I’ve only shown the highly confident and always pushing forward side of myself,” he explains. “Thus, I feel there’s been a lack of... not even curiosity, since I don't necessarily feel I'm worthy of curiosity, but a lack of understanding that a person has many different layers.” Perhaps cautious about sounding too self-assured, he lightens the mood with humor. “I hope people don’t think I go to Target completely naked to buy bread,” he laughs broadly. “There’s got to be a normal guy aspect to me, and for me, that’s the part that has really developed over the past few years because I started to take care of it.”
Damiano was raised in a "normal family" that "wasn't the richest," yet they provided him with an early advantage in life. With both parents working as flight attendants, he had the chance to travel extensively compared to his peers. “Since I was very young, I’ve always been among people of different ethnicities, sexual orientations, and religious beliefs,” he notes. “As a five-year-old, you just soak it all in. So later, when I began to think critically around 14 or 15, it all felt normal to me. I didn’t have to undergo the customary deconstruction of beliefs and the concepts of masculinity and white privilege that many white boys experience.”
Damiano also acknowledges, with a refreshing candor, that he was “fortunate enough not to be bad at anything” as a child. He excelled in football and basketball, which fostered an early belief that “if I really dedicated myself [to something], I would somehow succeed.” This sense of “endless possibilities,” as he describes it, became a significant motivator for Måneskin’s success. “When I started chasing music, I recall telling my bandmates, ‘If Justin Bieber and those artists made it, why can’t we?’” he states. He wasn’t claiming that Måneskin had reached Bieber’s status; rather, he believed they had potential. “What’s stopping us but our own sense of shame and failure?” he adds. “I’ve always believed that if I want to achieve something, I have the opportunity to do it. And I was right.”
Damiano applied this positive mindset to the band’s initial challenge – a “lo-fi” competition for emerging bands in Rome, which they dominated – and then to their second, the 2017 season of the Italian X Factor, where they placed as runners-up. He even felt assured four years later when Måneskin participated in the Eurovision Song Contest, a notoriously unpredictable event that Italy had only won twice before. “I think we were a perfect fit for that contest because Eurovision has this very parade-like character with a lot of color, dance, and noise,” he remarks. “In that moment, we embodied the right mix of the Eurovision spirit and the broader music industry, as we were glam, colorful, loud, sexy, and edgy. Yet, simultaneously, we delivered a genuine performance.”
Still, Damiano admits he never anticipated that Eurovision would “alter his life forever.” He and his bandmates thought it might lead to more gigs across Europe, but it instead propelled them to become “one of the very few Italian acts to achieve mainstream global success.” He expresses pride in how they handled everything but regrets not taking a break until his “screw it!” moment during their last tour. Creating ‘Funny Little Fears’ served as a means of healing, as it reignited his sense of purpose and allowed him to learn a lot about himself through his music. “Now my actual life is fulfilling enough that I can handle challenges in my professional life,” he reflects calmly. “The key difference now is
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