From motorcycle to wheelchair, a message of rebirth behind a battery: "Bite into life"

In 1996, guitarist Riccardo Zappa published an album titled "Defining means limiting". Oscillating equally between Oscar Wilde and Zen philosophy, this phrase aptly describes the person we want to talk about. Because defining Andrea Marchese in a few words would mean limiting the true extent of his Being.

So who is Andrea, for those who do not know him yet? He is a special person. His eyes like magnets, his smile, his self-irony, make him a healthy carrier of vitality and enthusiasm. And it's not something everyone has, considering that since 2005, when he was 25 years old, a motorcycle accident (one of his two great passions) forced him into a wheelchair. He woke up in a hospital bed unable to use his legs anymore. And here comes into play his second passion: the drums. Yes, because Andrea, since he was a child, had been "infected - he recounts - by my brother Fabio's passion for music. Our bedroom was covered in posters...".

Posters of whom?

Fabio and Andrea look at each other and with a knowing smile candidly admit: "Of Samantha Fox, Patsy Kensit, Pamela Anderson...".

Great taste for the time!

"Yes, but in the meantime I had also become passionate about the music of George Michael, I listened a lot to Michael Jackson," Andrea recounts.

Fabio is a singer-songwriter. Andrea begins to take his first steps in the world of music thanks to him and the rock of Bruce Springsteen.

Andrea recounts in the pages of "Drum Different": "...At that time, I was running elsewhere. Motorcycles, sports, the speed of life. I listened to music, but it didn't belong to me. Then one day a drum set arrived at home. My brother had formed a band and needed to practice. He had a drummer friend, Giancarlo, and I liked his very physical and powerful way of playing. I still remember the beat of the first hit, the echo that resonated in my chest like a call. From that moment on, the drums became part of me: my voice was born, different from his, but able to join his like two rivers flowing into the same sea... And so, today I know that my brother is the most important person in my life. Because I can always count on him, at every moment. Because with him, music is not just sound, but breath, home, shared blood. It is our common voice, our secret promise: a melody that will never stop playing...".

The motorcycles, the music. The accident. And life that, in an instant, presents you with the bill and puts you in front of a crossroads: "Either you give up and let it win, or you decide that nothing can stop you anyway".

And so it was.

"Yes, not only did I not want to give up, but in the meantime I also understood that my willpower, with the help that Fabio has always given me and that the people around me have given me, could be a stimulus for all those who, like me, suddenly find themselves in conditions of disability".

And now a book is also being born, a "method for life". It is titled Drum Different - Playing the drums only with your hands. From a limit comes a method, a true method for drums (Officina della Stampa Edizioni) that, with an abundant photographic apparatus and a "technical" appendix, tells a bit about what happened to you and how you took back control of your life, music, and more.

"Exactly. While I was writing and rereading it, I thought that this, after all, is a motivational book. There is a technical part, there are the scores with various exercises, but there is also a positive message aimed at all those who will read it".

Did you already read music?

"It's impossible not to read music if you decide to study with a drummer like Enzo Di Vita. He has been and still is a great teacher for me. And with him, there are no compromises, either you read the score or nothing... By the way, I came into contact with him completely by chance. Until that moment, I had studied on my own. Then, one day, with my father, we saw a poster of this Enzo Di Vita giving drum lessons at the barber shop. I wanted to try, and I have to thank him always because he is a great teacher as well as a wonderful person".

In the meantime, ironically, thanks to the motorcycle accident, you become passionate about many other things...

"After the accident, I immediately looked for a way to take back my life, including starting to play the drums again. But that’s when my desire to do scuba diving, skydiving, karting, paragliding, and many other things was born. In the meantime, my passion for music was reignited. I invented this way of playing without using my legs, and in 2022 I met Raphael Saini who told me to send him some videos. He liked my style and encouraged me to make this public".

And what was the reaction of the people?

"I read so many comments on my videos that I post on social media, and they give me a great push to continue, and from there I understand that these people, even through a simple video, draw that willpower and that desire not to give up or, sometimes, even to start playing again. Some war veterans from America wrote to me wanting to start playing the drums. And I believe that this is my greatest satisfaction; it means I have achieved my goal".

Today everything is collected in this "method" on paper.

"I like to share this experience, and seeing that it can help people come out of such delicate situations makes me really happy. At this point, I have decided to dedicate less time to playing music and spend more time meeting people, talking, sharing my experience, promoting this book, although I must confess that my story, which I obviously mention in "Drum Different", I will tell in an autobiographical book that I am already working on".

In the meantime, together with Seba Barbagallo, the project of Drum Different and Asepsi continues, with the assignment of a property confiscated from the mafia, a recording and recording studio in Picanello, in the heart of Catania, which, as Andrea, Fabio, and Seba recount, aims to become a reference point for bringing music to young people with the collaboration of industry professionals and numerous associations called to embrace this idea.