THE SOUNDS VOL.2 GIANFRANCO NEUMANN
Using music as the blueprint to the lives of each of our guests Rosa Glen Farm invites our muses and people who we have got to know along our journey to share their experiences with music and how it has shaped their life. Music akin to wine, is a sensory memory - we’ve all had those experiences where we hear a song and we’re transported back to an exact moment in our life.
All filtered through the universal language of music, our special guest for ‘The Sounds’ in March is Gianfranco Neumann, a creative muse who again by chance we got to know through Rosa Glen Farm. Gianfranco came in our first season to harvest our very first grapes and then later came back to tender our precious Gamay in 2023/24. Now he is a permanent part of our Rosa Glen Family. Although we love his work on the farm, it's his passion outside the farm that captivates us in film.
Farming is quite meditative, especially in this area where you are quite remote and being at one with nature, using your hands and having a lot of time for thoughts to run in and then out of your mind. Music often is used to start conversations or used as a way of connection on the farm. Soon after meeting Gianfranco we knew he was one of us! Outside of Rosa Glen Farm he is an amazing videographer and surfer with a big love for music. Which I think goes hand in hand with both surfing and being creative. Though Gianfranco’s roots are in Peru and Italy of which music in both cultures is an integral part of life.
So Rosa Glen farm took some time to get to know Gianfranco a little bit more through the gaze of music.
Tell us a little bit about you, outside of Rosa Glen Farm?
It’s always hard to define oneself, but I think I see myself reflected in what I enjoy doing. I really enjoy surfing, and I’d say that’s the main reason I moved to Margaret River. That’s why I try to take advantage of the offshore winds just after the sun rises. In the afternoons, I like to take my time cooking slowly at home, a hobby I inherited from my dad when we used to go camping in the '90s. Whatever I do, I always try to keep a camera nearby—not necessarily to record everything all the time, but rather to make sure I don’t miss it when I need it.
Growing up in Peru, was music important and how did it shape your life?
In Peru, everything is celebrated with food and music for dancing. From a very young age, you learn to dance, and almost everyone ends up enjoying it. Over time, you realize that dancing is almost like a reflex, and you do it whenever the music is right. At parties, we talk while we dance. It’s easy to tell who we Latinos are when we go to the tavern here in Margs. It’s not just that we follow the rhythm with our feet. We dance. And I think that living now in Australia I enjoy cumbia or salsa even more. It’s like being a little closer to home. Everything helps when you live four planes away from your family.
What was the first song you remember that holds a particular memory and what was that memory?
Everything I learned as a child, I learned through songs—the days of the week, colors, the senses, etc. My mom and her twin sister are both early childhood education teachers, and together they wrote many songs for kids that many from my generation learned in childhood. My older brother sang in one of them, "Rap For Dad" (or "Rap Para Papito" in Spanish). I’ll never forget the day they played it in my preschool class, and I screamed, “That’s my brother!” I think that was the first time I felt proud.
When filming a video do you often create a video then think of what music will go with the imagery or do you think or hear music and then film? Are the inseparable?
One of the requests that video editors struggle to accept is the one to change the song in a video. Ask anyone. Some might choose the song at random, but trust me, those who really enjoy editing go through a more complex process. As for me, I prefer to produce more intimate videos, ones that allow me to be present throughout the entire process. Many times, I know that I’ll be editing what I’m filming myself. And so, while filming, a small editing window opens in my head, cutting and joining shots. Soon, I realize the tone of the video and the probable emotions it will convey. That leads me to imagine what music could fit. I’m not a musician, and creating a song is very difficult for me, but I think we all have the ability to imagine what a melody makes us feel. And that’s what I try to look for. It’s a very special moment, even addictive, when you combine music with images, and suddenly everything clicks. You don’t need to be an editor to understand this. It’s very much like when you’re wearing headphones and the right song comes on. And even though there are many options to choose from, there will always be one that perfectly matches the emotion the images convey. Perhaps it’s because emotions don’t lie. They’re complex, but you don’t need to decode them—just feel them. In an attempt to complement the idea, I'm sharing a couple of videos I filmed some time ago, but it still make me feel the same as the day I edited it:
"Mind The Gap"
"2016-2017"
Growing up in Western Australia, I learned to swim and surf from the age of 3. Music and the ocean seemed to go hand in hand. Was this the same for you? And what song do you like to listen to before you surf?
Everything has a rhythm, or a beat. Sometimes, it’s not obvious at first glance, but with the ocean, it’s very clear. Waves are, after all, just waves. And just as sound waves have different frequencies and amplitudes, swells behave in the same way. The swells here in Western Australia are very powerful. Some collect a lot of water and break just a few centimeters from the reef. That’s why it’s easy to compare them to heavy music, like rock or punk. But everything changes when you’re part of that energy, when you surf that wave and know how to ride it. What I feel is more like a controlled madness than a violent chaos. That’s why, when I’m heading to surf, I try to soak up that sensation. Lately, I’ve been listening a lot to "Los Mirlos," a psychedelic cumbia band from the Peruvian Amazon. If you listen to "La Danza de los Mirlos," maybe everything I’m saying will make more sense. (The YouTube video completes the image, so I’ll leave it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAap4MCq6WY ).
What song are you listening to today and has living in Australia influenced what you are listening to?
I worked in advertising for a long time and was always very busy, usually tied to some kind of project. And in my free time, I’d end up working in one way or another. Moving to Australia, and particularly to Margaret River, changed my rhythm of life a lot. While working in the vineyard can be physically hard, some tasks allow your brain to rest. The pruning season is a good example of this. With a good waterproof jacket and wireless headphones, I can be working while traveling to other places, listening to a novel, a good podcast, or a full album that I never gave myself the time to enjoy. That’s how I discovered "Those Who Throw Objects at the Crocodiles Will Be Asked to Retrieve Them" by Bruno Pernadas. The song "Problem Number 6" has become one good companion at Rosa Glen Farm.
Lastly what song do you like to dance to? What song do you like to dance to?
Hard to choose one, but perhaps "Simiolo" from "Dengue Dengue Dengue" combines some of them.
