WELCOME TO La Bodega QUARANTINE TALK, WHERE WE’VE HELD VARIOUS CONVERSATIONS WITH ARTIST’S & GROUPS FROM AROUND THE WORLD VIA ZOOM, EMAIL, SOCIAL MEDIA EVEN PLAIN OLD PHONE CONVERSATIONS.
WELCOME TO THE 30th EDITION OF La Bodega QUARANTINE TALK.
THE ARTIST WE HAVE TODAY IS PENTESILEAROAD
YOU CAN CHECK OUT OUR CONVERSATION DOWN BELOW
SO. What are your Names? where you’re from and what first got you interested in the
entertainment industry?
P. Hi all, this is Vito from Pentesilea Road. Thanks for hosting the conversation!
We’re actually all from Italy, if we exclude the guest musicians who played on the album.
About the third question I can only speak for myself and state that I have never been
interested in the “entertainment industry”; music is an artistic expression, in my opinion,
and art is placed orthogonal the serialization of the industry.
SO. Who and/or what inspires you to create?
P. Well, anything about the world around is a good source of inspiration: books, movies,
news…even a nice walk in the park. From musical perspective, I am an instinctive
composer…I let the music take the lead and I rarely plan in advance what I would like the
music to sound like. Probably this is the reason for the album is a mix of different styles…
SO. How would you describe your sound?
P. It’s indeed a fusion of different styles: I like to put together complex structures, close to
more naïve, yet musical, solutions. I used to describe our sound like post-progressive, as
originally there were some post-rock inserts in the album, although in the final version they
gradually almost disappeared…I’d probably will have to update the definition ��
SO. What is your creative process like?
P. As said earlier, I am completely instinctive in the composition phase. I do not always start
from the guitar part…sometimes I build a bass line first, some other time piano or keys, even
drums. In some cases, I do define the structure of the song first, in other case I build a song
on top of a riff and so on. This is just to say, that I do not follow any precise process and I am
comfortable with this approach. The only exception is about the lyrics: while vocal melody is
also part of the music build process, I always write the lyrics at the end. This is necessary for
me to give a sense of logical continuity to the whole thing. Working a project so lyrically
complex starting from the actual lyrics…well, I would find it even more complex frankly.
SO. What artist(s) would you like to collaborate with?
P. Actually, we are very happy with current setup. We are working on the new album and it’s
progressing really well!
SO. What is one message you would give to your supporters?
P. If you like our music please keep an eye to our Facebook page, we will publish all the news
about the band’s next steps over there. We really appreciate support from our listeners and
that’s especially needed for independent bands like ours!
SO. What is the most talent/skill you have that most people don’t know about?
P. Ah, I like to make pizza, the proper way! Not sure whether I do have talent, but it’s actually
pretty good!
SO. What would you be doing right now, if you weren’t doing music?
P. Probably exactly what I am doing now. I am professional in the field of technology and I’m happy
with it…
SO. Who are some artists/people you admire and why?
P. Well, it should be pretty clear I am a big Fates Warning fan. I do have deep respect for Jim
Matheos, and I do consider him one of my main influences. However, there’s plenty of good
people around…from Riverside to Steven Wilson, from Opeth to Neal Morse…Pain of
Salvation, Leprous… I mean, I am coming from classic Heavy Metal, but in the last 2 decades
I have been mostly attracted by musicians who can really do something “new”, as well as
musically great. Of course, I am only sticking to the musical domain, with my reply.
SO. What is the best advice you’ve been given?
P. I would say “if you got something good, don’t wait for other people”. I have been waiting for
many years to find some band mates to get this album done. At the end it only worked
when I got on top of everything and decided to do all on my own; the rest of the band came
at recording stage. And they came to stay. I’m really happy about it, but it could have been
done a few years back….
SO. If you could change anything about the industry, what would it be?
P. You just said that: the “industry” part. The idea of subordinating the artistic mean, to something
systematically organized, serialized, streamlined in order to optimize sales, in my opinion is
suffocating the artistic potentiality of so many musicians. The situation gets worse when labels are
involved: at the end of the day the sales process might be often in radical conflict with the domain of
the muses.
SO. What’s next for you, where would you like to see yourself in the next year?
P. With the rest of the band, we are actually busy writing the new album. This time we will
have a band approach and I’m sure it will be interesting. There’s already quite a lot on the
table, but it will take some time for the second release. We will also like to get ready for
some live shows, when the scene will fully resume. Let’s wait and see…
SO. What is your social media? How can people get in contact with you?
P. We are active on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Bandcamp…however the most active pages
are by far our Facebook page and the Bandcamp. I would suggest to follow us on Facebook,
Bandcamp and Spotify, mainly, and of course we will appreciate deeply your support!
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