Project of the Week: Manu Pozzi

IdeaMe is an online platform, which helps creators, be they inventors, artists, or designers, among others, to finance their projects through crowd funding. The Indy features and promotes one project every week with the aim of helping the creators achieve their dreams.

Manu Pozzi is a porteño student and musician with big aspirations: to release his first album, titled “Me Voy”, producing his CD boxes entirely using recycled paper. Manu and his production team (himself and two friends) plan to collect more than a tonne of paper, saving 20 trees and 15 thousand litres of water, greatly reducing their ecological footprint and raising awareness about living in a more eco-friendly way. Manu says that deciding to take on this challenge was “not an isolated decision, but part of a way of life; you have to feel part of the world and a sense of unity with all living things.”

As for his music, Manu takes inspiration from artists such as Tallest Man On Earth, Fran Espeche, and Xoel Lopez as well as from “interacting with the world and other people, and the shared experiences that come from this interaction”. His musical talent was clear from a young age: Manu attended a specialist music school from the age of 12 and composed his first song at the age of 16, “a song that only myself and a drunk guy that I met on the street in Buenos Aires know.” His genre? Manu says, “If a native Hawaiian and Cat Power had a son, he would probably create the same music as me.” It is clear that Manu is a quirky and fresh new face on the Argentine music scene, and his YouTube videos confirm his great talent and potential as an artist.

“Me Voy” is the result of an ongoing four-year process and Manu describes it as “a summary of my feelings over this time, my feelings about myself, what I do, the people I meet, what I have and what I’m looking for in life”. On raising the funds needed to release the album, Manu says, “if people like it I will be satisfied, whether it’s two people or 1,000 people. I would like to go on tour throughout Latin America and the world.”

For those who do help Manu to achieve his goal via IdeaMe, he offers a range of rewards, from “A thank-you text and a mention if I ever play in Madison Square Garden” with a $14 donation, to a copy of ‘Me Voy’, a painted ukulele or guitar and a private show with a donation of $2,000. Manu’s website shows photographs of artistic designs that he has painted onto instruments, a pastime that he says “helps me to express my ideas and emotions; along with making music there is nothing in the world that makes me feel so free and at the same time gives me so much satisfaction.”

If you would like to help support Manu Pozzi by making a donation please visit his IdeaMe website.