Temperance Interview
TEMPERANCE Interview
March 15, 2015 (via Skype)
Sonic Cathedral’s Robin Stryker circled up with Chiara Tricarico (vocals) and Giulio Capone (drums) from the Italian melodic metal band, Temperance, shortly before the release of their second full-length album, Limitless. Dive in for a behind-the-scenes look at the band’s new album, their upcoming British invasion, the passion that fuels their music, and much more!
Sonic Cathedral: Sonic Cathedral is very pleased to welcome Chiara and Giulio from the Italian modern metal band, Temperance! To start off, would you give us a little background on your band?
Chiara: Hello, everybody! Well, first of all, we can say that we are quite a new band. In fact, we formed at the end of 2013, and we are about to release our second album, Limitless, by the end of March. Fortunately, we had the chance to bring our music to the US and to many European countries in the last year. So, we think we are so lucky about that, and we can’t wait to play our new songs live, of course!
Sonic Cathedral: One of the things that caught my attention is how uncommon it is for a fledgling European band to do a tour run in the US. What was the thinking behind making early inroads into the US market?
Chiara: When we released our debut (Temperance), we had quite a good response from the US, so we decided it was time to bring our music there. We had the chance to tour the west coast, so we traveled from LA to Seattle. And we can say that it was an absolutely AMAZING experience, and the audience was very responsive. We are absolutely happy about that tour, and we can’t wait to come back to the US, actually!
Sonic Cathedral: Well, we can’t wait to welcome you back! Were there any things that you found different or surprising about playing for a US audience?
Chiara: What can I say? The audience was absolutely responsive and very open-minded, so we were surprised in a positive way about that. When we left from Italy, I didn’t have a precise idea in mind about the American audience, but I can say that I was absolutely happy about the response and the audience. It was very, very nice to see that people, who were coming from the opposite side of the world, knew our songs. It was amazing!
Sonic Cathedral: Getting back to the album, your Temperance debut came out in April 2014, so it’s slightly less than a year until Limitless hits the shelves. What (if anything) were you looking to do differently with your second album?
Chiara: As I mentioned before, we had the chance to make a lot of new experiences together as a band in the last year. So, when we came back from our last tour, we felt absolutely inspired, and we had so many new ideas in mind. We can say that Marco and Giulio started composing the music in a way that it could resemble a stream of consciousness. It was nothing planned, actually.
The title is inspired by this, because we didn’t impose on ourselves any standard or any precise goal. We only wanted to share our feelings and experiences with the audience. So, probably there are some aspects of our music that are brought to a more extreme way in Limitless, as compared to Temperance. I also had the chance to sing in many different styles and I also had the chance to sing operatic vocals, which I didn’t use that much in our debut album. The goal was only to express ourselves. We felt the need to share our feelings with the audience.
Sonic Cathedral: For someone who has not heard Temperance before, which track off Limitless best captures what your band is all about? Would it be “Me, Myself & I”, the song for which you released a lyric video?
Chiara: That’s a hard question, actually. As I was saying, there are so many different styles. What could be the more representative track of Limitless? I don’t know because the opener is quite symphonic/operatic, but there are also some folk elements in other songs, and also electronic parts. But I think it would be “Me, Myself & I”, our first single from Limitless. Yeah yeah, that’s probably why we chose it. <to Giulio> Do you agree?
Giulio: Yup!
Chiara: <laughs> He agrees. So, it would be “Me, Myself & I”, the first single taken from Limitless would be a representative song, definitely.
Sonic Cathedral: Was it hard choosing the first video from the 13 songs on the album?
Chiara: We are going to release a music video, and it will be about the song, “Save Me”. So, that is exactly what happened. We sat down, and decided that “Save Me” would have been the first video taken from Limitless. Stay tuned, because it will be released in a few weeks.
Sonic Cathedral: A few songs that I found myself going back to on the album are “Stay”, “Omega Point”, and “Get a Life”. Would you mind telling us about those particular songs?
Chiara: “Stay” is a mid-tempo song at the beginning, and the lyrics are about a complicated love story. <laughs> I think everyone has gone through one, sooner or later. “Omega Point” is one of the more introspective songs on the album. The title reflects this way of seeing ourselves from another point of view -- to get conscious of some aspects regarding our personality and to discriminate between the ones that are good for us and those that we want to chance.. And this is what the lyrics are about. “Get a Life” is quite a … I don’t know … it’s quite different from other songs on our album. <to Giulio> Would you mind to talk about it?
Giulio: Well, “Get a Life” is a very fast song, and it started from the piano ideas. We wrote the song in a very short time; it was really a very inspired song, without any plan done before to create a particular sound or particular idea.
Chiara: So this is why probably it sounds different from the other songs on the album.
Giulio: Yeah, it’s more related to the previous album, probably.
Chiara: I don’t know, what do you think about it, Robin?
Sonic Cathedral: “Get a Life” is so different from everything else on the album. The pacing is different, and the tone is rather sarcastic …
Chiara: … It is!
Sonic Cathedral: But I like it! It was surprising.
Chiara: I am glad you got the sarcastic mood of that song. Yeah, the lyrics are sarcastic; they definitely are.
Sonic Cathedral: While rooting around on the Internet, I didn’t find a lot of biographical information about the band. What has your musical journey been like?
Chiara: Giulio, Sandro (rhythm guitars), Marco (lead guitars), and Luca (bass) had been playing for several years together in many different bands. We already knew each other; in the meantime, I had been singing for different symphonic metal bands. It was quite funny, the way we decided to start this new journey together. It was amazing! I mean, it was like: “Okay, let’s do this. Let’s compose an album.”
It all came out in a very natural way, actually. This is probably why we were able to do an entire album in such a short time. When we released Temperance, we were a very new band -- we had formed only three months before the release of the album. So, everything was very natural. What else can we say? We can say that every member of the band likes many different musical styles, starting from classical music to jazz. Our bass player Luca is really into jazz music.
Giulio: We are more into power metal, gothic stuff, and symphonic metal.
Chiara: Yeah, so we decided to mix all these styles, and just bring them together in our music. And we are proud of the result!
Sonic Cathedral: Being a musician is like having a second job on top of a full-time job. For each of you, what was it that put the spark in you to be a musician?
Chiara: Also, this thing was quite natural for us. I am currently working on my thesis. I study molecular biology …
Sonic Cathedral: Whew!
Chiara: <laughs> Yeah, I am supposed (hopefully) to get my Master’s Degree by the end of April, so it’s going to be quite a busy time for me. You are absolutely right, sometimes it feels like you have to split your life in two. But I couldn’t live without music, so I think it is worth it to stay awake all night just writing the lyrics and having rehearsals. If you don’t feel this great need, this great passion for music, you couldn’t be able to do that, actually.
Giulio: Well, my brother Sandro and I are both in the music industry in Italy, where we have a recording studio. So, we are full-time musicians. About the other guys, they work … well, Marco is working in the music industry too (you know, musical distribution). While Luca is a student and he also works.
Sonic Cathedral: What has been your biggest fan-girl or fan-boy moment as a musician? I would think playing alongside Within Temptation would have been pretty huge.
Chiara: It was absolutely a fantastic experience!
Giulio: The most exciting.
Chiara: Yeah, one of the BEST events. We had the chance to share the stage with Within Temptation last summer, and they are one of my favorite bands ever. I absolutely love Sharon den Adel, so that night was full of great feelings and positive vibes. We were so excited, and the audience also was so responsive. The crowd was very huge, so we were absolutely happy.
Giulio: For me, the best moment probably was the US tour. It was really an amazing experience because I really wanted to travel across the USA, especially the west coast. So it was really a dream come true.
Sonic Cathedral: Logistically, how did you manage to get yourselves and all your equipment from Southern California to Seattle, which is about 2000 kilometers?
Chiara: <laughs> Yeah, we actually had been touring with another band from Los Angeles, called Lose Control. You’d better check them out, because they are amazing guys and great musicians.
Giulio: A great band!
Chiara: We were traveling with them. We were in this big van, and we also had this big trailer with us. So this is how we managed to move ourselves and our stuff.
Sonic Cathedral: Temperance have some really great shows coming up, including some festival appearances. Where can fans see you live?
Chiara: The first gigs will be April 3rd, and it will be the release party for Limitless. We are going to play in this big venue, which is in our hometown, so we absolutely feel at home there. Then, the day after that show, we are traveling to the UK, where we are going to play at the Quinphonic Festival and its Prelude Party the day before. So, it’s going to be April 4th and 5th. Then we are playing in Sardinia in the beginning of May, and the Czech Republic …
Giulio: … And Slovakia.
Chiara: And Slovakia maybe, and we have some other gigs planned for Italy. Oh yeah, Rome and Genoa. I think many others are going to be announced soon. We want to bring our music all over the world; we want our music to reach as many ears as possible. We can’t wait to play our new songs at live gigs!
Sonic Cathedral: The Sardinian show is a headlining festival gig; right?
Chiara: Yes, it is, and we are going to share the stage with other female-fronted bands. We can’t wait for that because we’ve never played in Sardinia before. We are so curious, and we are looking forward to meeting the audience from there.
Sonic Cathedral: Which of the shows will be in countries that Temperance have not played in before.
Chiara: Hmmm, we are going to play in Slovakia and the Czech Republic, but we have already played there. <laugh> Oh yeah, the UK! It will be our first time to the UK.
Sonic Cathedral: What else would you like to tell Sonic Cathedral readers before our interview draws to a close?
Chiara: We would like to thank you very much. Let’s keep in touch, and please check our website and Facebook page because, in the next few weeks, we are going to release our first video taken from Limitless, and, of course our new album “Limitless” and many other news. We hope to meet you all and to come back to the US, soon.
Sonic Cathedral: Thank you for chatting with Sonic Cathedral, and we’re looking forward to welcoming Temperance back to the US.
Chiara and Guilio: Thank you!
Read Sonic Cathedral’s review of Limitless HERE.
Photo credit (promotional pictures): Simone Silvestri
Photo credit (live pictures): Endryus Music Photography
