First and foremost, thank you for your time, and the opportunity to ask some of our questions.
Thanks to you for the opportunity you’ve given to us, we’re honoured.
How did you come up with the album cover for “Ordinary Lives?” Is there any significant
meaning behind the image?
The idea behind the “Ordinary Lives” cover art work is the attempt to incorporate in one image both
the album title and the band name. The intention was to represent the ambiguity and the falsehood
of everyday life in which one has to wear a mask in order to withstand lies and compromises.
The mask becomes the inevitable choice to not be overwhelmed by this reality and become alone
in the end.
What do you guys like to do on your spare time when your not creating monstrous growls and
wicked guitar and keyboard riffs in the studio?
Nobody in this band is a full-time musician. When we do not rehearse or record in a studio, we
have different hobbies. Some of us like sports, others are fascinated by art, literature, photography,
philosophy, while two of us are journalists. Above all, we all listen to a huge quantity of music which is
our life companion and everlasting source of inspiration.
When writing “Ordinary Lives,” how did you go about writing the music? Was a lot of the
composing already thought up by a specific person or did you all work on it together one step at a
time?
The composition of the “Ordinary Lives” nine tracks took the last two years of our musical activity.
It was a complex and meticulous work that required our dedication to details to choose the right
arrangement for each song. Under a technical point of view, all the tracks came from guitar parts that
were completed and expanded by both the other instruments and the vocals. That’s to be considered a
team work, do you know?
While having two lead vocalists in the band, one being the clean vocals while the other being the
growls, do you find it difficult to balance them out equally?
Using both clean and growling male vocals was not a problem at all. The clean vocals allow us
to emphasize the most melodic and touching aspects of our music, while the growl is for the
darker and aggressive ones. The two vocal lines were wisely balanced and mixed during both the
recording process and the post-production work.
Songs like “Praise For Nothing” and “Agony (praeludium)“ have some beautiful strings and
violins throughout their entirety. What kind of equipment was used to get such a rich sound?
The orchestral arrangements were performed on a Yamaha Motif XS-7 and they were conceived
by our keyboard player Giovanni Costabile. We managed to get that rich sound by overdubbing
many samplings of different instruments such as chorus ensembles, violins, cellos and upright
basses. This technique allowed us to cover a wide range of musical frequencies.
On that same note, track four, “Guilty,” opens with gorgeous piano riffs and carries a very soulful
sound. Was the recording done by keyboards or a real piano?
The piano on “Guilty” was recorded using the same Yamaha keyboard.
If there was one song that you would suggest to someone that has never heard your music before,
what song would it be and why?
“Renaissence” could be a good place to start because its structure, its rhythmic pace alternating
harder parts to more ethereal ones, is a trademark of our sound and our influences. It’s a sort of
summary of all the main traits that characterize our songs.
You guys have only been together as a band for a couple of years, was there ever a time that you
didn’t think the band was going to happen?
Although our band has a relatively short history, we have always been determined to reach our goals.
Our dedication and commitment to this project in the last two years brought us to record and
release “Ordinary Lives”. We did not go through very hard times or, at least, nothing that could
prevent us from reaching our final goal. Surely, the friendship that binds all the members of this
band has played a crucial role to keep us together and proved to be a solid foundation for this
musical project. Good personal relationships and musical feeling are key ingredients of a long
lasting cooperation, especially in music.
Would you say that the metal scene in Italy has taken a liking to Your Tomorrow Alone? Are you
getting as much positive feedback from fans outside of Italy?
As far as we can say, the feedback from the Italian scene has been more than positive, even beyond our
own expectations if we consider it is our debut album. Most reviewers showed interest in what we do,
and that makes us very happy. But even more satisfactory was the feedback from outside our country.
We have a lot of international fans that follow us on our Facebook and MySpace pages, and our album
received very positive reviews in Norway, Germany, UK and USA. We’re very proud to have reached
so many people with our music.
As you grow as a band, who are some bands that you would like to tour with at some point
in your careers? Have you made any plans on touring in the near future?
We hope we could grow up as a band and, maybe one day, have the opportunity to play with some
of the bands that influenced us most. Opeth, Anathema, My Dying Bride, Paradise Lost. Not to
mention those bands that carry the flag of the Italian metal worldwide, such as Novembre and
Lacuna Coil.
With a new album out, and your popularity growing by the day, what does the future hold for
Your Tomorrow Alone? What can we expect in the months and years to come?
Our next target is to play as many shows as we are able to do to support our album. The growing
attention that surrounds our music makes feel more than determined to do so. We would be
happy to organize a short Italian tour and we’re working on this. In the next future, we are
beginning to write new material as we have many ideas that did not find their space on our record.
We still have a lot of things to say and we are ready to do it.
Thank you again for your time and honesty. We appreciate this opportunity, and wish you great
success in the coming months.
Thanks for the space and attention you gave to us. Let’s hope your wish could bring us good luck. We
hope we’ll be able to announce important news soon. Your Tomorrow Alone salutes you from Italy!
Doom on!
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