ASTRA INTERVIEW

13th June 2009

ASTRA are one of the lastest signings made by Lion Music from Italy's ever growing progressive metal scene.  Having released their second album "From Within" a couple of months ago the band impressed with their superb delivery and ability to write a great song before showcasing off their individual musical skills (of which are as good as the songwriting).  We caught up with vocalist Titta Tani for an extended chat about the making of the new album, the band and what's in store for the future

Hi Titta, many thanks for agreeing to this interview and congratulations on the new Astra album which has scored 90% with us.
Thanx to you and sorry for the delay, man!!!! I’ve been busy with my other band Daemonia, shooting a live DVD and playing live. That’s a great score, wow!

For anyone not familiar with the band, can you give us a brief rundown on what the band are about and a brief history.
The band was born in 2001 as an instrumental project. From 2003 (when the band asked me to join) we decided to create original music. We’ve been for 5 years the official cover band of Dream Theater here in Italy, and we’ve played a lot of gigs around during this period with our original music.

The new album “From Within” is a great slice of metal with many influences such as prog, AOR and more contemporary metal sounds.  How did you guys go about forming such a coherent and individual sound given the many influences present?
I think that it comes from our different and personal backgrounds. I love the American AOR style like Journey, Styx, Pride of Lions or Queen. The other guys like Toto a lot. All these magic inspirations gave the compositions the right mood and we are really, really happy about it!

I believe you guys are quite spread out across Italy, obviously with high speed internet connections this is not such as an issue as say 10 years ago, but does that possess any limitations in a bands working and how do Astra get around these?
Internet is very important regarding contacts with clubs, labels, and especially for ourselves because our drummer lives 400 km from us. It’s good that the internet exist for this kind of stuff,  but I don’t like the way people use it regarding illegal downloading, but it’s a long speech and a lot of people wouldn’t agree with me so I don’t want any enemies lol.

Over what period of time was “From Within” written and recorded and did you have any major issues during the sessions?
I think we wrote and recorded the album over a period of 5 months. We finished some songs during the final recording sessions, leaving some vocals lines and guitars parts for the main recording sessions. But my vocals and lyrics were 80% done in pre-production three months before the recording sessions. So we recorded in a very relaxed mood and without stress.

You are perhaps better known as the drummer or death metal bands Necrophagia, Daemonia so how did you end up being the vocalist of Astra?
Because I’m the best in town ;) Jokes apart, I work a lot as a session man here in Italy, so in 2003 after the original singer quit for unknown reasons they asked me to replace him. So now its 6 years on and it seems that all is ok . I’m not a really “easy” person to manage because I’m so demanding with the people that I work with. With Necrophagia it’s impossible to do because we live in different countries, lucky bastards eheheheheh.

Do you find your drum background helps in terms of rhythmic phrasing for vocal lines etc?
I wrote some songs of the album with the drums, like the opener “Over the Hills”  and “Hypocrisy”. Anyway I don’t think my drums background helps me for the vocal lines.

The band consist of the “typical” prog metal line up e.g. vocals, 1 guitar, 1 keyboard, bass, drums… what does a line up such as this offer in terms of song writing possibilities that a more typical 2 guitar line up offers?
On stage Emanuele (keyplayer) plays the second guitar, to have a really good powerful sound, and honestly, he does it in a very good way. We play with the sequencer so we use a lot of overdubbing, because of our arrangements. We like to show how the cd is and if it means to play with pre-recorded stuff is ok, we’ll do it for sure.

Many people may not know that this is the 2^nd Astra album, how does it compare to the debut “About Me: Through Life And Beyond”?
“About me: Through Life And Beyond” was too much in a classic metal prog way.  But we’re not denying the work! I played the drums on 7 songs, it was just a step to reach what we reach now with the second album, which was to make a lot of experiments during the recording sessions, try our best with the compositions, make it more “straight in the face”. We love our first album but, as you know sometimes the first album is an experiment that needs to be understood to get to how the second album can be. In case of BOSTON their first album sold 17 million albums, so sometimes it happens in the right way haha.

 Can you give us some thoughts on the individual songs – any particular favourites?

 Over the hills : I wrote this song alone in the rehearsal room with the drums and in my mind the riff and some parts on the middle-break and regarding the solo section. The lyrics are just a reflection about life-

Promises you made: Very good song in the metal way with a killer riff in the start and change the mood during the strophe in the way of the 80’s AOR. The lyrics, as the title can helps, are about promises didn’t made.

Memories Remain : Very fast song in the way of the modern power metal but in a very Queen mood during the verse. The lyrics are about religion and stuff like that

The rage behind : Is an acoustic experiment , very nice in my opinion. The lyrics are about the way I face my life everyday.

Save Another day : Good melodic song that starts with a prog mood but after 30 seconds become a really sweet song. Could be a radio hit!!!!! ;) the lyrics are about a love/hate story with a girl.

Hypocrisy : wow this song is so fucking direct and heavy. Kind of a Symphony X mood! The lyrics are about friendship that sometimes is not so true and fair.

Road to nowhere : Maybe the strangest song of the cd. Its about life. With a wonderful refrain!!!

Simple Mind : A lot of choirs, arrangements for a song about reflections made by a human being

The Hitman : My favourite. Straight, bluesy, fast, gorgeous refrain, wonderful ending. A song to listen from the start to the end. I wrote the lyrics thinking about “The silence of the lambs” , a serial killer theme ;)

Never say goodbye : A song for Freddie Mercury. I’ve loved Queen since I was 9 years old. We decide to wrote this tune after a visit during our Swiss tour to the Freddie Mercury statue. An emotion too big for me and the rest of the guy. So Emanuele (keyplayer) wrote the piano section and I wrote the arrangements for the guitar solos, bass and the vintage instruments that we used. Andrea did all the choirs, amazing job. The lyrics are a mix from what we felt that day and some Queen’s song titles. To listen absolutely!!!!

What led to the change of labels and how did you end up on Lion Music who are considered one of the leading labels for progressive music?
A big exposure and serious work – partnerships. Our Management send the demo to several labels, but the most interested offer was made by Lion, that’s why we decide to sign for them. We are really really happy about their job.

You are one of a number of Italian bands on Lion Music, any chance you guys might all get together for some sort of package tour or festival type setup?
Should be interesting for sure, but I don’t think it will be possible. We made a little show with Roger Staffelbach’s Angel Of Eden. I was his session singer during a sort of Lion Fest here in Rome. One opening act, Astra and Roger so double work for me ;).

Italy has a rich artistic heritage and this is seemingly manifesting itself in the metal genre – is metal big in Italy and how do you see Astra’s place within the Italian metal scene?
The Italian metal scene is good regarding the bands but regarding the exposure just the “big” names get the column space, or its influences by who’s got more friends here and there, if you know what I mean. I think that Astra can hopefully break through because we have nothing less then the “big” Italian names in terms of appeal. We just have less exposure. We’re trying hard to raise the bands profile more then where we are now. And with your help too J

What next in 2009 for Astra?
Concerts to promote the album, collaborations and a live appearance in the second editon of the Lagoa Burning Festival in Portugal in support of Arch Enemy and Moonspell.

Anything else you’d like to let our readers now?
Support ASTRA better than you can guys, cause we bust our ass, with pleasure, everyday to create good music for you. Visit us to our myspace page www.myspace.com/astraprog .

Titta, many thanks for your time and all the best for the future.
Andy, thanx to you and I wish you a good life and all the best to everybody.

OFFICIAL WEBSITES
http://www.astraprog.com/
http://www.myspace.com/astraprog