Italy’s APERTURE, IL MARE DI ROSS and RITEN have recently unveiled an interesting melodic hardcore / post hardcore / screamo split record called “Hydra”. Co-released by Unnamed records, Dingleberry Records, Forever True Records, Hanged Man Records, Fight or Fight Records, Hanged Man Records, Zegema Beach Records, Ancient Injury Records, and Soundcage, this addictive piece delivers pure emotions and is somewhat progressive in sound or structure, yet they all go very hard and energetic thanks to its hardcore imprint. This is highly recommended. Pick up this triple record and let us know what you think.
The following interview was conducted months ago and was being held off in order to comply with our schedule. It’s still very fresh and delivers some cool insights with sincerity that will make you love these guys even more. Enjoy!
Top photo: APERTURE, by Francesca Torricelli Photography.
Hey guys! Thanks so much for taking some time with me (again) :) Please shoot us a brief introduction to your band so we could understand your backgrounds and better connect to you guys during our discussion here.
APERTURE: Hey! Here’s Nick! Thanks to you for this opportunity! You’re always Great! We’re APERTURE from Monza, Italy and I am the singer!! We are together since 2010 when me, Lorenzo and Stefano have decided to play along some music and see what come out from this experience! After some line up changes Angelo joined us like guitarist and Nicolò is our new bassist since last November! We are excited and proud about Hydra and be at one with IL MARE DI ROSS and RITEN! We never met in real life, but we love each other some much! Especially with Francesco! Our Influences? Well… We Could go on with this speech for days! shah!
Nick: First of all HAVE HEART, they did the most beautiful things I ever heard then THE EFFORT, CARPATHIAN, KILLING THE DREAM, RUINER, MODERN LIFE IS WAR, TOUCHE AMORE, DEFEATER, PIANOS BECOMES THE TEETH, POISON THE WELL, SLIPKNOT, JACKIE CHAN, WUTANG CLAN and in this period I’m in love for Asian music, BARROW, THE USED and MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE, I’ve always hate this band, but now I totally love it! They are so creepy, tragic and poetic! And Gerard’s voice is something between angelic and vampiric, I’m crazy for them!
Stefano: EMERY, LA DISPUTE, POISON THE WELL, SAOSIN, DINOSAUR JR, MY BLOODY VALENTINE, CODEINE, SLOWDIVE, TEARS FOR FEARS, BRAND NEW and BARROW.
Lorenzo: For me HAVE HEART, VERSE, THE GHOST INSIDE and FLUME.
Angelo: JOHN BUTLER TRIO, BRAND NEW, MODERN BASEBALL, FOXES, CARPATHIAN, MORE THAN LIFE.
Nicolò: COMEBACK KID, MORE THAN LIFE, BASEMENT, MILLENCOLIN for me
As Andrea said everything is good, so we have a lot of influence from other genre!IL MARE DI ROSS: Hi, here’s Andrea, I play bass in IL MARE DI ROSS. The band started in the end 2012 with Alberto (guitar) and Francesco (drums), both former members of HADAM, a post rock instrumental band. I met them first at one of their concerts with their previous band. After some months I entered the band as bass player and almost at the same time Michele joined the band at the drums, so Francesco started to sing.
After some monts we releaed our first EP, both on cd-r and on tape. Some months ago we recorded the songs for Hydra and now we’re waiting for the record to be out. There are various labels involved in the release, as well as the bands themselves.Now we have a second guitar player in the band: Giovanni, who plays in Alzheimer too. Michele is in the band no more.
Our influences are the following: Alberto: SAETIA, VIOLENT BREAKFAST, SUIS LA LUNE, MINERAL, and SED NON SATIATA; Francesco: DEAD SWANS above all plus MORE THAN LIFE, DEFEATER, THE CARRIER and GOLD KIDS; Me: too much to mention. Everything is good from jazz to grind core.
RITEN: Hi there, thanks to you, we’re so glad to be part of this. We’re Marco, Luca, Alice and Claudio. We’re a four-piece band called RITEN, coming from different small towns in the north of Sardinia. It’s not easy to introduce our project. We started out about two years ago, and what it seemed to be a “three hours break” from work, when we basically jammed some riffs in Alice’s practice room, soon became something theurapetic! We needed, and we still need to play together. That’s why we choose the Swedish translation for “Rite”, that is our favourite Bergman’s movie too.
How did you come up with the idea for this split record?
IL MARE DI ROSS: the idea of the split is born during the last summer. I (Francesco) am a good friend of Nicholas and Angelo (and a very fan of their music) and we wanted to do something together. The idea was to involved also in the split an another good “friend band” of us all: WE AVOID. Unfortunately they split up some months later so I asked to Claudio (RITEN guitarist) to join us with his band. I’m constantly in contact with Claudio. I liked very much their debut. He did a very good video during one of our gig in Sassari (the place where he lives). So here we are, ahah!
Why “Hydra”?
IL MARE DI ROSS: A short name to resume the idea of “three”. Three like the bands involved in the split. In the mythology, the hydra is a monster with many heads (three-nine).
It’s hard not to appreciate the great artwork of the record. How does it correspond with the nature and the lyrical content of the record?
IL MARE DI ROSS: Andrea Palmas, a good friend of us all, (Oni pictures) did the entire artwork of the record. We wanted to do something related with the idea of “three”. In the artwork a wolf with three heads fight with a serpent with three heads. The split is not a concept record so there’s not a link between the songs and their lyrical content. We wanted a spontaneous artwork by the hands of Andrea.
Photo: IL MARE DI ROSS by Fabrizio Ara.
By the way lyrics, how coherent is the messaging of this record? Did all of you try to aim at explaining and describing similar stuff or create a core concept here?
IL MARE DI ROSS: All of us had new material not released yet, so we put our new songs in this record. We wanted to create a link between the bands. We wanted to work together. The guys in Aperture asked me to sing in one of their songs and it was fantastic (I’m their fan, eheh). There’s is not a concept if you mean for the lyrics, the artwork etc. but for me there is something more like an “human concept”: to do what we love together, to involve bands, distros, labels, to create a true work in DIY style, to share with many people as possible our passion and our music trough joy and pain.
The record was co-released by a bunch of amazing labels. Why exactly these? Considering so many people involved in the process, was it hard to arrange?
Nick (APERTURE): We decided to contact many different labels (not just Italian ones) because we wanted to spread our songs in different countries and distributed by different music styles labels. Yes, many many people were involved in the creation of Hydra but It wasn’t that hard to arrange because there is a great feeling and friendship between us even if we live in different places of the country (and as you know Sardinia is an island) and we ve managed to record the songs in different studios and than to master it in Toxic Basement in Milano.
Photo: APERTURE, by Stefano Marotta.
Alright guys. So the record is out and now you should be hitting the road as soon as possible, huh? :) Any plans to create a 3-vehicle army and promote the split at shows?
Francesco (IL MARE DI ROSS): We originally wanted to play a few shows in April, all of three bands together, but we then had line-up issues and we found ourselves without a drummer, having to cancel many shows. Now we have a new lineup and we are recovering faster although because of stressful work schedules, high costs to travel around and the lack of enough time to set a proper tour up, we currently have to give up on that idea, but only for now.
Fingers crossed then! Thanks for a quick update! Would you like to add anything else?
APERTURE: we would like say thanks to every person that follow our music and live, and support every time, they are the ones that can help us to never give up and continue to do our shit.
IL MARE DI ROSS: first of all we would like to thank IDIOTEQ and you, Karol, for your time and interest. It’s always a pleasure to talk with you. We’re working with a new drummer to release new stuff and we’re really excited. What else? Thanks again to all the people involved in this “project”: Andrea from Unnamed records, Nicola from Soundcage, Matteo from Fof distro, Antonio from Hanged man records, Tim from Dingleberry records, Max from Forever true records, Andrea (Oni pictures), Federico and Carlo (Toxic basement studio) for the work as sound engineers. Also thanks to alla the people that steadily support us. An answer ful of “thanks”, ahah, we know! Take care, Fra, Albe, Andre, Giovi and Marco.
RITEN: First of all we want to thank all the bands and the labels involved in this project. And, of course, all our friend that keep this band alive by talking with us and encouraging us. We always thought that the only faith that a man could have is in the human next to him. The people that we have next to us (our families, our friends) are our daily bread, with their pros and cons. Without our relationships, we are nothing but flash and bones. So this track and our work is somehow theurapethical and is our contribute to all those who feel alone and lost outside. Thanks again for this space. Alice, Claudio, Marco and Luca.
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