For Música's Rudy Mancuso, living with synesthesia is both a blessing and a curse
The musician’s debut feature film gives audiences a glimpse into his real-life experience with synesthesia
Imagine if every noise you heard turned into a symphony of everyday sounds inside your head.
Rudy Mancuso is a musician, actor and now first-time filmmaker who's living with synesthesia — a phenomenon in which you experience more than one sense simultaneously, like tasting words or associating colours with numbers. While synesthesia is different for everybody who has it, Mancuso's case involves hearing ordinary sounds as rhythmic musical patterns.
His debut feature film, Música, is a semi-autobiographical love story that gives audiences a look into the life of a young man who experiences the world synesthetically through sound. Mancuso co-wrote, directed and stars in the film opposite Camila Mendes.
"I've been living with the idea and these concepts for a very long time," Mancuso tells Q guest host Talia Schlanger in an interview. "So I had plenty of time to think, develop and polish [the film]…. It was a package that was clearly developed for a long time and clearly extremely personal."
Living with synesthesia has in many ways been an asset to Mancuso, especially creatively, but the condition also has its drawbacks. "It sounds kind of cool and different and romantic," he says, "but it can also be quite tortuous and distracting and unnerving — especially as a young person trying to find their place."
I value silence more than anything because there's so much musically going on in my head.- Rudy Mancuso
In real life, as in the film, Mancuso is in a constant battle with music that he describes as being like a long-term toxic relationship.
"I live and breathe [music]," he says. "It's the first language I've ever spoken. But it's sometimes a chore to think musically…. I value silence more than anything because there's so much musically going on in my head that listening to produced music can be an extra challenge.
"I can't relate to people who just listen to music in the background passively. For me, it's always in the foreground. I can't just be working while listening to music. If I'm listening to music, that's all I'm doing."
WATCH | Official trailer for Música:
The way Música gives a window into Mancuso's headspace is a real visual feat. In some scenes, his experience with synesthesia is represented almost like a choreographed performance in a musical number. Unfortunately, the reality of the condition isn't so cinematic.
"It's certainly exaggerated for the performative element," he tells Schlanger. "Of course it's not that highly choreographed and the music isn't that much in the foreground. It was more so trying to depict for the audience what it could be — what this condition could be if considered a gift … rather than a hindrance."
Música is streaming on Amazon Prime now.
The full interview with Rudy Mancuso is available on our podcast, Q with Tom Power. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
Interview with Rudy Mancuso produced by Lise Hosein.
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