We caught up with the brilliant and insightful ANTONIO Piretti a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
ANTONIO, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?
Writing songs and sharing them on stage is storytelling based on a mission. The mission is to improve, enrich and inspire the live of others by sharing meaningful messages and storys through the songs. As a successful manager and enterpreneur I came to a point in which I did not see a sense anymore to run behind money without leaving a mark or a meaningful impact on people. What should I have told my children one day? That is why I have decided to start the adventure. I began to learn how to play the guitar and how to sing and more important I started to write songs.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers
Toz Antonio Piretti is a singer-songwriter with Italian roots and an international spirit. He started his music project in Italy in ’06. In ’09 he came to Canada, changing his life completely, from an entrepreneurial career “suit & tie” – Arthur Andersen & KPMG Consulting & successful business projects – to a passionate songwriter adventure “lyrics & guitar”.
In Toronto, music became his way of living.. joining also gospel churches and acting in theatrical plays.
He released 6 albums, demos, singles and performed countless gigs between North America and Europe. Album releases: “Three” in ’20, “#Stronger” in ’18, ”In 10 Years” in ‘14, ”My Name Is Not Important” in ‘12 – ”Acoustic Italian Versions” in ‘10, “Place by Place” in ’09.
Toz writes music-sharing messages to encourage people to live a better life and care about one another, in this spirit, he founded in ’14 a private foundation, “Art Takes Action for Charity” to organize art events to support charitable projects.
Tours, Adventures & Life Experiences.. his journey:
In ’15, Toz did a milestone music tour “Roommates Of The Same Planet”: a Canadian coast to coast from Sep to Oct ’15 performing in 22 shows in a new show format: “Audio Visual” a live performance in which music & screened videos melt together to amplify the messages of the songs and to create a unique intense atmosphere.
In ’16, he had set off on a European tour adventure: “Unconventional Tour”. A 30-year-old Mercedes Clou camper called “Gin Lemon”, brought him to 9 countries all over Europe, playing 23 concerts from May to the end of December ’16.
In ’17 Toz faced an incredible project, a giant tour across Canada: “From The Roots In The Right Direction” which brought him from Vancouver to Halifax. By bike and with his guitar he traveled 120 km each day – from mid-April to mid-July 2017. His goal was to combine the naturalness and the purity of biking with the most natural way of singing, just voice and guitar, bringing music to people for Canada’s 150th anniversary.
In the same year, from August to mid-September, Toz and his faithful camper “Gin Lemon”, were again ready for the next adventurous tour project. The tour was called “EnjoyWild” with the goal of merging music & adventure, in the best rafting & outdoor sports activity centers across Italy.
In ’18 Toz came back to the TTC Toronto Subway Musician Program, with license #2.
In ’20 he successfully accomplished his greatest challenge, the unique tour “Not Only A Currency”, which brought him across 16 European countries, solo with a bike and a guitar, performing “house concerts” for the people who were hosting him along the way.
In ’21 Toz decided to train for one of the toughest triathlon competitions, the full “IronMan” which successfully completed in the Hamburg race, a feat he repeated during ’22, both in Hamburg, competing in the full IronMan European Championship, and in Cervia (Italy) for the IM70.3.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
The biggest change in my life and most profound decision was to go to Canada an live with my music. I left a business life, my company, back home in Italy to start singing on the streets of Toronto. Basically from a settled life to a kind of an outlaw lifestyle ;-) But I have proven resilience also later on in chosing to go on tour by bycicle from coast to coast across Canada. There I have not only played concerts but also faced all kinds of weathers and challenges. I like challenges because they make you grow and also as a sportsman I like to be challenged and so I have already accomplished two IronMan competitions.
We’d love to hear your thoughts on NFTs. (Note: this is for education/entertainment purposes only, readers should not construe this as advice
NFT’s will be part of the future. Personally and professionally I am in to the market of crypto currencies and based on my experiences in the past – I have worked for business consulting companies as KMPG etc. as well as in banks and I am a founder of a company – I have created a new project that aims to educate the people on how to invest in the crypto currencies. Music, sport and numbers are my passion ;-)
Find out more:
https://www.cryptozlead.com/
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.antoniopirettitoz.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tozantoniopiretti/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TozAntonioPiretti
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/TOZmusic
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/TOZAntonioPiretti
- Other: https://www.cryptozlead.com/
- Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/4uRmBCN7QVLrNdVQyL3aEq
Image Credits
Maybritt Assmus OZ Tekson Stefano Niccolino