Posted on June 14, 2010 - by Mark Zonda

Give Den Harrow a break

A decade before the Vanilla Ice incident, yet another music hero arising from the vivid scene of poppy Italo Disco, was ready to step out of picture magazines to come alive in our videos. His name was Manuel Stefano Zandri, but we’ll always know the Italian response to Simon Le Bon as Den Harrow. This bad boy was driven by future brains by the mad desire of breaking as many heart as possible with his fashionist songs. Did he build his own destiny? Maybe HIS voice’s got something to say! To expand your knowledge on the Neo Italo Disco project Mark Zonda is interviewing Thomas Barbey, who also had his moment in the Italo Disco scene moonlighting with the name of Tom Hooker. Here’s the interview so far.

Mark Zonda: Thomas. How was like living the Italo Disco era in Italy? Wasn’t a little bit strange living this mania in Italy far from home?

Tom Hooker: I was signed to a record company and paid to do shows. It was an ideal situation, that’s why I was in Italy.  I loved the enthusiasm the Italian people usually have.  They get very excited about doing projects.  I also felt very popular because first, I was an American and also because I could also communicate in Italian.
The truth is, I wasn’t aware I was living in the Italo Disco era.  I always thought that Italians were very into Dance music as opposed to Americans who are more into Rock, especially in the 80′s.

Mark Zonda: Look or music: What counted the most?

Tom Hooker: I remember seeing Boy George in concert in front of 20,000 Italians singing off key for the whole concert and nobody cared. They were too busy looking at his silly hats.

Mark Zonda: How it happened that you lend your voice to Den Harrow?

Tom Hooker: Miki Chieregato’s studio was just down the street where I was living.  They were looking for a new singer because maybe Silvio Pozzoli had argued with them? I don’t really know why but I did the lyrics of every song for Den after “Mad Desire”.  The residual income comes with writing songs and I liked the idea of making money while sunbathing by a swimming pool.

Mark Zonda: What do you remember about Canale 5 and SuperClassifica Show?

Tom Hooker: I remember doing long interviews on Superclassifica Show in Italian and everybody thought I was an Italian pretending to be American like most other Italian singers.

Mark Zonda: Do you think that Italo Disco is still relevant in our days? What do you think of our attempt to engage new musicians from the indie scene to create their own vision of that estetic?

Tom Hooker: I listen to satellite radio in Las Vegas and I think there is a return to Italo Disco in the songs that I hear today. It’s the same beat with the same bass line. The only different thing is the Antares and the auto-tune that all the rappers are using today because they cannot sing.  Will.I am of the Black Eye Peas uses it a lot. There will always be music stars who cannot sing, so I think people could give Den Harrow a break. He can’t sing, but neither can Sean Combs, Kanye West and Jay Z. I saw these guys sing live on TV and they were probably worse than Den Harrow and yet they are Superstars… That’s Show Business… where everything is possible…

Tom Hooker – “Looking for Love” (Excerpt)

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