FRIEDO VIOLA

Hello Fredo, what’s this cover all about then?
Being from the United States where everything that’s old gets knocked down and replaced using some kind of plastic-concrete hybrid, I’m really charmed by the older buildings in London. So, this is London through the filter of a cornball American tourist! Anyway, I like to do these circular studies wherever I am. The space gets warped by the speed at which I’m turning and it always ends up creating a very unusual pattern.

How many fingers do you have in how many pies?
It’s true, I suppose I’m a bit of a hog. I like making stuff and it keeps things interesting (and challenging) to try out new forms. That said, of course I’m working with some talented experts. For example, I don’t really do flash. I tried it a while ago and found it really hard. So for my flash site I worked in collaboration with Aer Visual Studio.

If, and it’s highly unlikely isn’t it, you could only use one media for your creativity, what would you choose?
Music. I really love creating music with my voice. And as an art form I think music leaves more to the imagination of the individual listener than film. It’s also a lot easier to create, as it doesn’t rely on the involvement of too many others and doesn’t require a budget. So definitely music.

Your first music video ‘The Sad Song’ became a huge hit online. How does it feel to be a bona fide Internet star?
Ha, I don’t think so. I don’t think you can consider yourself an Internet star until you are spoofed in Southpark. But the video did have a pretty strong reaction, and I obviously feel really grateful and lucky.

Who’s your favourite internet ‘celebrity’? Is it that chubby guy who did Star Wars? I like this at the moment
First of all… those camels don’t seem particularly happy, do they? I have to admit, I suppose I’m a bit of a sadist with my internet clip taste. It’s a toss up between the grape stomp lady and pinky the cat. In the realm of great talent I think that guy Henry Hey is pretty amazing.

Where can we see more of your work?
Most of my video work is on my interactive flash site. But if you don’t have a super fast connection you can see many of my videos on my vimeo page: http://www.vimeo.com/fredoviola, or you can listen to music, get info and download a few treats at my main website.

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