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Interview with: Alessandro Pace
Conducted by: T.V.
The Foreshadowing... Italian band with two massive albums and one almost out within few days are something on the top of todays gothic and doom metal. Founded in 2005 and even if they already got a worldwide recognition the future seems to be even brighter for them, although their music is dark as hell. We talked with their founder and guitarist Alessandro Pace about new album Second World, Oionos, Days of Nothing and other interesting things.
T.R.: It's more than two years since you released your previous album Oionos, still, how are you satisfied with it?
Alex: We are very satisfied, the album received great responses from media and audience. I think Oionos showed an important step forward in our musical path, we tried to propose a personal style in a quite stagnating scene and we are happy that this was mostly appreciated.
T.R.: Also Days Of Nothing was very special album in my opinion. I think it's more introversial work than Oionos, but 
where do you see major differences?
Alex: Mhh.. I think they have slightly different moods. Days Of Nothing has maybe more direct approach to the listeners with the simplicity of the compositions, while Oionos is a more complex work, a sort of concept album that needs to be listened more times to catch and enjoy all the details and characteristics. In general they are different and show the natural progress of our music, after all it's our intent to improve our style and not to do similar albums.
T.R.: There it's a strong lyrical message in Oionos. Where have you got the idea of this apocalyptic word?
Alex: I think Oionos is a more visual and evocative album for one single reason: when we started to work on it we had a lot of ideas, and just some of them could picture the atmosphere that inspired us for the main idea of the album, our intent was in fact to give an evocative image to this album, that’s why we used a more obscure sound for guitar riffs, but also some particular keyboards preset, or some sound effects and samples. The organ sound we used for the title track “Oionos”, just to make an example, is very evocative of this idea. It’s an organ with a whisper on the background that made us thought of “a storm of vultures”. It’s from the idea of a storm of vultures that we started to write Oionos lyrics. As each track took shape, you could find the right inspiration for the drafting of texts.
T.R.: And regarding to this, I believe it was the right idea to make a cover of Sting "Russians". Or maybe, it was done before the lyrics took shape?
Alex: We played this cover live since our first official concert in january '08. It was natural to include it in the album because of the topic it argues which is deeply close to Oionos concept. As you know it was written during a time where there was the threat of a nuclear war, when the relationship between Russia and USA was tense. Considering what the thread was about the choice of covering "Russians" has been perfect, even because it has got a dark mood which fits very well with our doom sound.
T.R.: Oionos got very positive response from media all around the world and album got 2nd place in MetalStorm awards for the year 2010 in Gothic Metal category, plus before mentioned Stings cover "Russians" 3rd place among cover songs! Tell me, how this fact affected the career of The Foreshadowing?
Alex: Obviously we are always pleased to get some good responses, especially when they come from one of the most important metal portals in the world! It means that all of our sacrifices we made so far were worth it, and people had caught how we worked hard throughout this seven years of career! Now we just have to keep on going on without losing our way.
T.R.: As far as I know you still haven't had a proper tour outside Italy,...any plans about this matter?
Alex: Recently we did a small European tour with Theatres des Vampires and some festival appearances. Of course, we would do more gigs and tours in the future but unfortunately it's not depending by us. We are actually without a proper booking agency, so it's quite difficult to join big tours and more live gigs in general. I hope this aspect will improve in the future with the release of the new album.
T.R.: Yes, I've noticed you did quite a lot of appearances on some big festivals around Europe... Which was the best for you, and can you tell me something more about WGT (Wave Gothic Treffen) in Leipzig (Germany)?
Alex: It's really difficult to say ... In general we love to play at festivals, it's really great because you have the opportunity to play in front of many people and at the same time you can see some of your favourite bands live ! WGT was really great too, we had the possibility to share the stage with October Tide and Katatonia, it was a great evening.
T.R.: Your new album should be out in June if I'm correct? Tell me, have you followed the successfull musical path from your previous two albums or will be there any surprises?
Alex: The new album Second World will be released on 20th april 2012. It will have similarities with both Days Of Nothing and Oionos and I think it will go even further, thanks to new choices and solutions we have decided to insert in those ten songs. There will be some moments in the album where you can sense it goes beyond the gothic doom metal canons, if you will. But apart from this it’s the beating heart in this album that will make the difference, more than ever. There will be more atmosphere, more impact and more blood, but at the same time we made sure our sound to evolve, keeping in mind where we started with the first two albums.
T.R.: Are you going to release this album on Cyclone Empire records and how are you satisfied with them?
Alex: Yes, we will release the new album with Cyclone Empire again, they are a good label and we are satisfied with them. This time I hope the album will be released also in USA.
T.R.: Days Of Nothing on the other side was released by Candlelight records. What went wrong with your deal with them?
Alex: As you know the album itself gained lot of great reviews and responses but main problem was the total lack of support in a serious promotion. When you have a newcomer band you can't work with the idea of "let's put this in the market together with a load of other releases and let's see what happens" and hoping to have a decent feedback without moving a single finger. I think this kind of supermarket attitude was quite useless for a band like us. As you can image the actual market is a real jungle where only the big and historical names survive, the "new" bands like us are destined to live through many difficulties and sufferings or to quit soon.
T.R.: What about the cover artwork this time? Will it be a new work from Seth Siro (Septicflesh) and how have you got in touch with him?
Alex: For this album we decided to change artist and we worked with Travis Smith. We always loved his amazing art so the choice was quite simple. I can say that we always got on well with Seth Siro Anton and we could continue with him for Second World as well. But we just wanted a different work for this album, more illustrative, suggestive and landscaping, whereas Seth is more surrealistic. However it was a great experience working with Travis, he’s been very professional and able to satisfy all the requests we suggested him.
T.R.: Two years ago you had a member change behind the bass guitar, how Francesco fitted with the rest of you and why Davide left the group?
Alex: Very well, Francesco joined us in august 2010 and he's the perfect element we looked for our band. There wasn't an effective "official" split with Davide, I mean he's an old friend of us and he simply wasn't able to manage both his regular job and his other band (Klimt 1918) with a further full-time band undertaking.
T.R.: You've been a member of two very well known Italian bands like Klimt 1918 and Dope Stars Inc.. What has this experience meant to you and what is your relation with those bands today?
Alex: They were both really important bands for me, of course. I had the opportunity to enrich my experience both on different music styles, live activities and related stuff. Actually I occasionally have contacts with Klimt 1918 members (we divided our ex rehearsal room until some months ago too) and I really appreciate their last album, while I lost contacts with Dope Stars Inc. I heard occasionally their latest stuff, but sincerely it wasn't my cup of tea.
T.R.: Both of those two bands (Klimt 1918 and Dope Stars Inc.) have much different sound and style from what The Foreshadowing are doing...,so, what are your favourite musical tastes?
Alex: Mainly gothic-doom stuff of course, but I listened to (almost) every kind of music through the years. I like to listen to good music, no matter what kind and genre !
T.R.: The Foreshadowing are often categorized as a gothic doom metal band. Do you agree with this classification?
Alex: Yes, it’s a good classification.
T.R.: Thank you!
Website: http://www.theforeshadowing.com
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/theforeshadowing
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/theforeshadowing
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