Interview - CHAOSWAVE

English text

Martín: Hi There! Introduce CHAOSWAVE to our readers and tell us about your new album “Dead Eye Dreaming”.

Raphael: helloooooo! We’re chaoswave and we’re from italy: If you’re tired of slow gothic metal albums, if you’re tired of super brutal albums with no melodies...check our new cd you’ll find the best (or the worse ahahah) of melodies and aggression!

M: What are the differences between “The White Noise Within” and this one?

Fabio: “Dead Eye Dreaming” is both more aggresive and more melodic than the previous one. We introduced elements like blast-beats, more melodic riffs and more catchy choruses.We changed the producer too, with Andy LaRocque our sound is still powerful but sounds warmer too.

M: Your sound mixes different influences such as Thrash or Gothic. How do you describe your own music?

Raphael: I would say... “modern metal” is a good way to describe it. When I first joined the band Guf (the guitar player) wanted to play some progressive in a more “brutal” way... right now there are so many influences that I prefer just saying “modern metal”. When you say that you have a female singer a lot of people think about “gothic metal” but this has nothing to do with what we play.

Fabio: We all listen to different kinds of music, from extreme metal to '70 prog rock and classic metal bands like Iron Maiden or Slayer. So the result is a sort SYL mixed with System of a Down and Madder Mortem, but i'm sure the others would give a total different description (we always disagree... in everything... ahahah)

M: How is the process of create that kind of music?

Raphael: basically it starts from Guf... then it’s me changing something and then he changes something again...and then the others keep changing things until we’re all happy. It’s like bringing something to the reharshal room and let it “grow”.
In the beginning (“The white noise within”) Guf made almost all the songwriting...right now we’re a group of persons that are working together and everyone has an opinion that is very very important.

Fabio: As Raphael said, usually our guitar player,Guf,comes with a new riff and then we start to work on it. Since the biggest part of the band is italian, composing is always a messy process and the decisions may take... even a lot of time. But in the end this democracy allows us to be always happy and satisfied about the song once its done. It is hard on the nerves though, hahaha.

M: Talking about the lyrics, what themes inspire the songs?

Guf: I write almost all the lyrics, and the topics are many. On this album I have been focusing a lot on dreams, hope, loss of dreams, and loss of hope. It has always interested me how the human sees and interacts with the world around him, and how this affects his way of seeing himself. "Picture Perfect" is about being taking medicine against depression, and if that really changes the way you understand yourself. "The Evident" is about trusting people, you know you cant trust. "Rise" is about believing to better than others. "10 Years of Denial" is about getting through a difficult period, and letting hope into your life again. As you can see there is no concept, but the lyrics are often about human interaction.

M: What can we expect about CHAOSWAVE´s live on stage?

Fabio: Everything!! You should expect Everything!! We like to do any kind of jokes on stage, by wearing funny stuff or making a solo very hard to play for one of our unlucky bandmates!! We like to have fun because we know that makes the audience have funve fun too (basically because we're idiots!!). Still there is a lot of energy when we play live, and people is always very entertained by our shows.



M: Myspace, Youtube, Downloads...What is your opinion about music and internet?

Michele: It's for sure a very easy way to have your music heard by people, that wouldn't have had the chance to listen to it otherwise. With the social networks like myspace and facebook it's also possible to diminish the distance between band and fan. But as always there is a downside. The easy accessibility to music has ruined some of the fascination (as in the 90ties and before) and the real value of the work of a band. It seems to me, that the average listener of today, mostly thinks about the quantity of the music. Its more important to download as much as possible, without really studying the quality of what he downloads. This said, I am happy to see this big amount of metalheads that support the music by buying cds of the bands they like, and especially going to concerts.

Fabio: I think its both a blessing and a curse. A blessing because it allows bands to be known world wide. A thing that 10 years ago was impossible without spending a lot of money for promotions on magazines. On the other hand its a curse because now everybody can have our little piece of “fame”. So the competition makes it quite impossible to gain a record deal. Furthermore people is not interested anymore in buying music since they can have tons of mp3 in a couple of hours on their PCs. This fact can only damage small and medium bands, because the real Maiden or Metallica fans will alwats buy their music, even just for collecting reasons. Unfortunately the times, in which we rushed to the music store for having our long awaited tape or Cd like it was an unique treasure, are over...

M: How do you see Metal scene in Italy today?

Fabio: I think there are lots of good bands in Italy in this moment, but still there is a lot of scepticism from other European countries towards Italian metal bands. This doesn't help a new scene like ours (or Spain and the other southern europe) to develope and get bigger. For example we read some days ago a review in which the writer was admitting he was a bit suspicious about italian bands with prog or power influences. Sometimes he had the feeling of throwing away the cd without listening to it. Luckily he listened to “Dead Eye Dreaming” and gave us a great review. Maybe there are other people around that threw our cd out of the window, just because we're not Scandinavian...

M: Your Top Five albums?

Raphael: Napalm death “Fear emptiness despair”, Katatonia “Viva emptiness”, Nasum “Shift”, Anathema “Alternative 4”, Sepultura “Chaos AD”....only 5???

Fabio: Iron Maiden "Iron Maiden", Queen "Queen II", Dream Theater "Awake", David Bowie "Hunky Dory", Joe Satriani "The Extremist".

Guf: Sanctuary "Into the Mirror Black", Nevermore "This Godless Endeavor", Metallica "...and Justice for All", Death "Symbolic", Mercyful Fate "9"... these are probably some of my all time favourites. But right now I am really liking Disturbed "Indestructable", Warrel Dane's solo album, some Joe Satriani stuff, etc. So maybe in 10 years my all time favourites are totally different.

M: Thank you very much for your time. Here you have space to write what you want as farewell.

Raphael: Mariottide rules

Guf: Who?

Fabio: Listen to our cd for more than a couple of times - it will enter yor mind slowly but surely and in the end you're gonna love it! Thanks for the space that you dedicated to us. Now that all Italian teams are out of the Champion's League there's only a way to say farewell: ARIBA BARÇA!!!

http://www.myspace.com/chaoswave
http://www.chaoswave.it/