Interview: Renato Sanson
Heavy And Hell : Opera came in 2011, but only
in 2015 released their first album, "La Ruota Del Destino" . What
should this delay?
Deborah: During our
first years we were very unlucky… We were not able to maintain a stable lineup
and find the right musicians: this problem slowed us a lot. The original nucleus
consisted in me and Nicko. We never gave up despite adversity and finally we
found the two missing pieces in Michele and Marco. This is the main reason for
this unusual delay but in the end during these years we let the songs grow and
evolve without any rush. Now our music is really ready to be released!
HAH : Deborah, you are one of the main
songwriters of debut, what themes inspire you to create the lyrics?
Deborah: My lyrics
always start with real-life experiences, as emotions and feelings that I experienced
on my skin. “La Ruota Del Destino” is not a traditional concept album but
anyway has a red thin line that links every song: destiny. A few years ago I
risked my life in a terrible car accident and since then I've developed a
particular and personal vision of destiny, which shines through in every track
of our first album.
HAH : The sound of "La Ruota Del Destino" moves from the Alternative and Progressive. Which are the main influences of the Opera?
HAH : The sound of "La Ruota Del Destino" moves from the Alternative and Progressive. Which are the main influences of the Opera?
Marco: We have a
lot of different musical influences. Despite being a listener in 360 degrees of
any kind of music, I definetely pushed the metal nuances in the band's sound.
With his background of harmony studies, Michele has undoubtedly developed the
progressive side of our project by drawing the complex musical structures of
our songs. Deborah has grown up with a completely different musical background:
she listened to musicals and italian pop music. You can hear these influences
in the enchanting vocal melodies that she sings with her voice. As you can
easily imagine Nicko is a big Iron Maiden fan and he took from them the
strength and the solidity of the rhythmic solutions. We are indeed a very
unique mix of genres!
HAH : Band already was compared with solo work
of Anneke singer or even the band The Gathering? I ask you because I see clear
references in the sound, not as a copy but as great influences.
Marco: Someone
already told us about this possible reference but to be honest every kind of
link with Anneke and her works is totally accidental. As we have already said
Deborah doesn't listen a lot of metal music. Nicko and Michele are not very
familiar with The Gathering too. I am the only one who knows Anneke's complete
discography: I love her voice in The Gathering, I love her collaborations with
Devin Townsend and I love her solo works too. Even if I'm really proud of this
comparison I have to tell you that there's nothing more than this.
HAH : Italy has a great tradition in the middle
Rock/Heavy Metal, always exporting excellent bands to the world. How is the
Italian scene today? And about the Underground in his country, there is more
unity or disunity?
Mic: The Italian
scene is very difficult to understand. In our country we have an important
metal tradition, we have a lot of great bands that play every shape of metal.
From this point of view the scene is definitely alive! The biggest problem in
Italy is to find places where to play live shows: pub owners usually prefer to
invest in cover bands and tribute bands, leaving few chances for bands that
play their own original music. We really hope this situation will change as
soon as possible... It's only a matter of courage!
HAH : How is the reception of "La Ruota
Del Destino" to the press? And how is it for you to read reviews of your material
coming from other countries?
Mic: Our debut
album is having very positive reviews both in Italy and abroad. These positive
reviews make us very happy: our music is very unconventional and we often fear
that the strange mix of italian clean melodies and groovy metal music could
seem too strange for a medium listener. Fortunately this it's not the case so
we are very proud of these results!
HAH : About the shows, how are the Opera
schedule?
Nicko: We are
currently planning our upcoming live shows. We will play a few shows in June,
we already have a few concerts scheduled for September. This is an ever
evolving situation. As we told you before playing live shows in Italy is not
that easy but we are doing our best to bring our strength and our energy in as
many stages as possible.
HAH : Are you already thinkning about the
successor of "La Ruota Del Destino" or is it too early?
Nicko: When we started
recording "La Ruota Del Destino" we had almost twenty ready songs. We
selected only nine of those songs to focus our minds in a concrete goal that
could be achieved with perfect balance and details. To be honest we could even
start recording a new album today! We never stop creating new music, we are
always working on new stuff. Recording a new album is obviously not what we're
focused right now: nowadays our first aim is to promote "La Ruota Del
Destino", our aim is to let our music reach as many people as possible.
But if you come to one of our live shows you will probably hear some new
songs...
HAH : For those who do not know the sound of
you, how would you describe your music to the readers?
Deborah: Our music
is an unconventional mix of italian pop music, metal, progressive and hard
rock. It's a roundabout of different sounds and unpredictable emotions. It's a
modern vision of rock music built on the strong impact of the heavy musical
structures mixed with the melodic poetry of the clean female singing voice. You
should give it a try!
HAH : Finally, I would like to thank you for
given time and leave you the ultimate space for a message to Heavy And Hell
readers.
Nicko: Many thanks
to you for the interview and many thanks to your readers for being interested
in our project! We really hope our music will reach an ever growing audience:
at this stage of our journey we really need to share our music with the world
and you are definitely helping us to achieve our goal. Greetings to all
of you!
Links:
Band:
Deborah (Voice)
Nicko McBicci (Drums)
Mic (Bass)
Marco Ruggeri (Guitar)
Marco Ruggeri (Guitar)
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