Astra
Astra is a newcoming act
hailing us from Italy and they deal with progressive music. Actually they
incorporate in their sound a variety of different elements and ideas and
all this is offered to us with some really nice and suitable lyrics. Titta,
one of the main responsibles for this debut release, has cleared out a
lot of the ground for us and offers us here a better and more complex view
of Astra's music.
1. HELLO! HOW ARE YOU? I THINK THAT WE SHOULD
START WITH THE BASICS. GIVE US A SHORT BIO OF THE BAND AND PRESENT THE
CURRENT LINE –UP.
Hello to you I’m Titta and I give u a warm
welcome. Well the band is pretty new we’ve been a very active as a live
band (fortunately or unluckily as an official Dream Theater band in Italy)
around Italy since 2003. In 2005 we decided to start to work on original
songs after recording one demo in the same year. The current line is me
on vocals and drums on 7 songs on 10, Emanuele Casali on keyboards, Andrea
Casali on bass and background vocals, Filippo Berlini drums on HEAR MY
WORDS and RESURRECTION e Silvio D’onorio De Meo on guitars.
2. BEFORE YOU FORMED ASTRA DID YOU HAVE ANY OTHER
BANDS? DID YOU RELEASE ANYTHING WITH THEM?
Personally I had 20 bands before ASTRA ;)
and released 10 CDs and 2 live DVDs, the other guys (the Casali
bros) are involved in a very good EUROPE cover band and the drummer plays
in a MR. Big cover band.
3. TITTA TANI, YOUR SINGER, IS ALSO A MEMBER OF
THE KNOWN DGM BAND. AREN’T YOU AFRAID THAT HE MIGHT LEAVE ASTRA IF
HE DOESN’T HAVE TIME FOR BOTH BANDS?
It’s me again ;) anyway I played the drums
(I’m a full time drummer and full time singer) with NECROPHAGIA (Death
metal horror master gore from USA) and in DAEMONIA but no problem about
the time. Some bands need just to pay the bills.
4. YOU HAVE STARTED AS A TRIBUTE BAND TO DREAM
THEATER, SOMETHING THAT IS OBVIOUS IN YOUR SOUND. DON’T YOU THINK THAT
THIS MIGHT BE AN OBSTACLE IN ORDER TO FORM A MORE PERSONAL SOUND?
Yes it could be a great obstacle as it happened
on your webzine, cause the reviews of our albums talk only about Dream
Theater and it’s the worse thing that it can happen, cause it means to
listen to the album with prejudice you know what I mean? Read about ASTRA,
read about the fact that we’ve been for 4 years the cover band of DREAM
THEATER and this could be dangerous for us and for the music we present.
A lot of people say that sometimes and I also say that sometimes they can
hear the classic influences of DT but not always ;)
5. YOU HAD THE CHANCE TO PLAY ON STAGE WITH JORDAN
RUDESS. WHAT KIND OF PERSON IS HE? DID HE HELP YOU IN ANY WAY WITH HIS
KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE AS A MUSICIAN? DID HE LIKE YOUR MUSIC?
It’s been a nice concert and he’s a nice person.
6. YOUR MUSIC IS A COMBINATION BETWEEN METAL AND
JAZZ. DO YOU PLAN IN THE FUTURE TO ADD OTHER MUSICAL STYLES IN YOUR SOUND
AS WELL?
The album is full of styles (did u hear it?).
You can find growling vocals, very clean vocals, very heavy riffings, fusion
parts, samba parts, progressive parts……..I suggest to the people to listen
to our album.
7. YOUR DEBUT ALBUM HAS THE TITLE “ABOUT ME: THROUGH
LIFE AND BEYOND”. THE TITLE IN MY OPINION IS AUTOBIOGRAPHIC. AM I RIGHT?
IS THAT A CONCEPT ALBUM BASED ON THE EXPERIENCES OF A SPECIFIC MEMBER OF
THE BAND?
It could be, I wrote the lyrics about some
of my life experiences and transformed them in a “fantasy” concept but
without hidden secret, just read the lyrics.
8. WHICH IN YOUR OPINION IS THE SONG FROM YOUR
DEBUT ALBUM THAT YOU FEEL PROUD OF CREATING AND WHICH ONE WOULD YOU LIKE
TO HAVE MORE TIME TO WORK ON IT AND WHY?
Wow, maybe all the band members could say
“Me Myself and I” cause when we wrote it only instrumental we were “scared”
about the final result with the voice, you know a double bass drums swinging
tempo is not so easy to sing and to create a good song but luckily we’ve
done a very good work (we hope).
9. WHICH WERE THE REASONS THAT LED YOU TO CUT
A DEAL WITH BURNING STAR RECORDS, WHICH IS A NEW LABEL AND YOU DIDN’T PREFER
TO SIGN WITH A LARGER ONE?
Cause this is the first CD for us and I know
Dalakos from a while so when Burning Star heard the promo they say “OK
we want ASTRA in our roster” so anyway they are not big, but they work
very hard!!!!!!
10. ONE MAIN REASON THAT MANY PEOPLE DON’T LIKE
TO LISTEN TO PROGRESSIVE METAL IS THAT THE MUSICIANS MOST OF THE TIMES
SHOW OFF WITH THEIR SKILLS AND SEEM TO FORGET TO WRITE NICE COMPOSITIONS.
WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT IT?
I could say that we wrote nice compositions
ah ah ah ah……as a personal idea I like to hear bands that love to play
at the best their instruments, but I know that the catchy refrains are
better than 1000000000 notes in one second. What you think? ;)
11. WILL YOU DO ANY LIVE SHOWS? IS IT POSSIBLE
TO VISIT GREECE?
We are trying to organize some shows in Greece
very soon so don’t worry you will be the first to know about it!!!!!
12. THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME! GOOD LUCK WITH YOUR
DEBUT ALBUM. THE LAST WORDS BELONG TO YOU…
Thank you and Behind The Veil for this space
and we hope that people will listen the album without prejudice and just
enjoy listening to some good tunes. Join us to www.astraprog.com.
Have a nice day!!!!!!
Nick “William_Kidd”
Parastatidis
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