interview with Settima Draconis
What´s the name of your band? Started as Narqelion, turned in Settima Decadenza, changed in Settima Draconis
What made you call the band "Settima Draconis"? Decadenza, or Decadence in englihs, is a word that recalls the Gothic environment and reflects the predominant musical tastes when the name was chosen. However, when the recordings have been completed, by now had been too long and I didn't feel anymore the need to insert a predominant gothic matrix in the metal music. So I decided with the approval of the next to last permanent member of the band to change from "Settima Decadenza" to "Settima Draconis" (Seventh Draconis). "Seventh" was chosen by the female singer Judith, she liked and we liked the idea of a number, adding "Draconis", in a city like Rome where I lived at that time, was very appropriate and called to mind the Roman legions, although beyond that I like the sound, "draconis" carring with it with an esoteric meaning.
How was the band formed? The first attempt in Milan in 2001, but there was a clear predominance blackmetal. The official birth took place in Rome in 2004.
Can you tell about your band? "Settima Draconis" was born with the idea of a band whose foundations were the Gothic Metal (old Tristania, Sins of thy Beloved, Theater of Tragedy, etc.) and the addition of other musical influences from the other band members. The result in the demo was a Gothic metal mixed with some death metal, thrash metal, black metal parts and orchestrated entries. Today "Settima Draconis" is a band that tries to follow the path of melodic death metal, along the road ends to encompass what find, despite not do it intentionally. The band currently resides in Berlin, Germany and since the production of the first demo album, it must unfortunately rely on shift workers. I'm looking for permanent members but apparently it's really hard to find someone here who speaks a minimum of English, and my German is not sufficient to have conversation.
Where are all band members from? The permanent members were all of the Roman area, except the drummer who was from southern Italy and me that I'm a bastard half-blood born in northern Italy:). During the demo production, shift workers was italians, but during the production of the album "Legio" guitarist and bassist was from UK and if I will not find permanent members, already I can tell you that for the new album this year, the bassist and the drummer will be from US.
What was the ambitions of the band when you started? I founded "Settima Draconis" with the ambition to make music a fulltime activity, write albums, find a label or distributor and then start a tour. Unfortunately, inevitably we find ourselves always to reckon with what others want and the word ambition and hobby, do not marry well in my mind.
Could you explain your music to someone that haven't heard you? Actually no. I've never been a fan of terms like Gothic symphonic metal, gothic operistic bombastic fantastic metal, death violent brutal metal intruder assault and so on... all this terms make me laugh. I write and sing metal,that's all. The people who listen what I write and it's fun to see how the brain tries to analyze a new thing linking it to something known, and it creates connections sometimes correct sometimes exhilarating as when the ballad of the demo has been compared to Nightwish. However, to meet your needs, I will use the words of disctopia.de has used to describe us: "The whole thing is held together by many Death metal pieces. Settima Draconis try on the disc in a way so incredible, many metal genres, as probably many bands do not dare. In addition to the trips in Death metal, Gothic metal, Doom Metal, Folk Metal also Thrash Metal takes place, almost every song heralds a genre change and occasionally requires to the listener a while. Settima Draconis is surprisingly succeeded in most genres to provide a good figure."
Who writes your songs? During the demo period, the lead guitarist wrote his idea, the others were manipulating giving their contribution with voice, or with the instrument. Today I do all. I write the guitars, bass, drum parts and any other instrument required.
Who has the best sense of humor in the band? When the line up was complete, I think the drummer.
What's good/bad with the band?/What genre do you feel you are? With a complete line up the good thing is that I have more time to devote to my jos as composer and to my private life, but the bad thing at least of those years, is that the music writing is painfully slow. Nowadays, alone, I write an album in a month but if we also consider the work in the office and that one of composer, in short, I do it with passion, but it requires a lot of sacrifice. Right now when I write the songs, "Settima Draconis" reflects a little all metal genres, including classical music when I write the orchestrations, although I try to keep it out of this context.
Do you write your own material or mainly covers? I don't like write covers, I consider write covers an hobby.
Have you made any albums? "Settima Draconis" released a demo called "Vengeance" and an album called "Legio"
How old are you?/What got you started in music? I'm 34 and I started to compose music in 2007. The old permanent members, except one, was around 5-8 years younger than me.
At what age did you start playing? I never started, I write music by ears.
What are the plans for the rest of the year? Release the album for the 2014, try to find permanent members and a distributor.
When did you decide to go all in for the music? In 2001.
What's the first step when making a new song? About metal, generally I write before the main guitar line.
How do you feel about the downloading of music instead of buying albums? When the legal download of a song is sold at 99cents, what opinion can you have of someone that do not repay your efforts and your commitment for 99 measly cents? The illegal downloading of music, is the death of thousands of bands who play for something more than fun and hobby. Among my friends there is a person friend of many musicians including a band really, really popular, so much that you would think are full of money. Instead they are in deep shit, because the sale of the music do not earn anything, just the tour, but how many bands can afford a tour and how much of these, can get something? I give you an example of numbers. Today a band, to get a decent mix/mastering but not professional album, that is in essence allowing the listener to listen the music, spends between 300 and 500€ plus the recording studio costs. A professional engineer also calls for 180€ per day , which means that a professional mix/mastering of album exceeds 900€. The same album then, it is put on sale online, legally, at a cost of 99 cents per song... Make your own conclusions.
Besides your own music, what genres and bands do you listen to? Old stuff, cannibal corpse, slayer, dark tranquillity, blind guardian, johnny cash, van hallen, guns, motorhead, 60s music, classical. Rarelly something new, basically 'cause I don't have time, if I'm not busy on my music, I'm busy in office so...
What do you hold most dear? passion, constancy and determination
Have you been part of any other projects? I write classical music and orchestration as music composer
What do you work with outside of the band and the music? Music Composer & employee
What would you do if there was no music? Suicide.
How important are your fans? Too small to have followers, actually I never know how you picked up us:D
How often do you rehearse? 3 times per week many many years ago
Name 2 of your own songs you like at the moment? "Poison me" and "We are one"
What drives a band that isn't all that famous and renowned to try to make a living on their music and to keep playing? passion, constancy and determination
Do you have any webpages?
https://soundcloud.com/settima-draconis
http://www.reverbnation.com/settimadraconis
https://www.facebook.com/SettimaDraconisBand
How do you view the music industry of today? Saturated as regards the metal music market and extremely difficult for a label select a band to include in the roster.
If before was enough play a metal genre at the same level or better than another band playing the same kind to have at least a chance, nowadays a label that invests money in a band, it must be absolutely certain that the product is salable without risks and the fact that piracy has cleared the sales of music as final product, remains the gadgets and the tours, which essentially turns the band into an elephant trying to pass in the lock of a door along with 10,000 other elephants.
I get the idea?:)
What advice would you like to give other bands? passion, constancy and determination
What made you call the band "Settima Draconis"? Decadenza, or Decadence in englihs, is a word that recalls the Gothic environment and reflects the predominant musical tastes when the name was chosen. However, when the recordings have been completed, by now had been too long and I didn't feel anymore the need to insert a predominant gothic matrix in the metal music. So I decided with the approval of the next to last permanent member of the band to change from "Settima Decadenza" to "Settima Draconis" (Seventh Draconis). "Seventh" was chosen by the female singer Judith, she liked and we liked the idea of a number, adding "Draconis", in a city like Rome where I lived at that time, was very appropriate and called to mind the Roman legions, although beyond that I like the sound, "draconis" carring with it with an esoteric meaning.
How was the band formed? The first attempt in Milan in 2001, but there was a clear predominance blackmetal. The official birth took place in Rome in 2004.
Can you tell about your band? "Settima Draconis" was born with the idea of a band whose foundations were the Gothic Metal (old Tristania, Sins of thy Beloved, Theater of Tragedy, etc.) and the addition of other musical influences from the other band members. The result in the demo was a Gothic metal mixed with some death metal, thrash metal, black metal parts and orchestrated entries. Today "Settima Draconis" is a band that tries to follow the path of melodic death metal, along the road ends to encompass what find, despite not do it intentionally. The band currently resides in Berlin, Germany and since the production of the first demo album, it must unfortunately rely on shift workers. I'm looking for permanent members but apparently it's really hard to find someone here who speaks a minimum of English, and my German is not sufficient to have conversation.
Where are all band members from? The permanent members were all of the Roman area, except the drummer who was from southern Italy and me that I'm a bastard half-blood born in northern Italy:). During the demo production, shift workers was italians, but during the production of the album "Legio" guitarist and bassist was from UK and if I will not find permanent members, already I can tell you that for the new album this year, the bassist and the drummer will be from US.
What was the ambitions of the band when you started? I founded "Settima Draconis" with the ambition to make music a fulltime activity, write albums, find a label or distributor and then start a tour. Unfortunately, inevitably we find ourselves always to reckon with what others want and the word ambition and hobby, do not marry well in my mind.
Could you explain your music to someone that haven't heard you? Actually no. I've never been a fan of terms like Gothic symphonic metal, gothic operistic bombastic fantastic metal, death violent brutal metal intruder assault and so on... all this terms make me laugh. I write and sing metal,that's all. The people who listen what I write and it's fun to see how the brain tries to analyze a new thing linking it to something known, and it creates connections sometimes correct sometimes exhilarating as when the ballad of the demo has been compared to Nightwish. However, to meet your needs, I will use the words of disctopia.de has used to describe us: "The whole thing is held together by many Death metal pieces. Settima Draconis try on the disc in a way so incredible, many metal genres, as probably many bands do not dare. In addition to the trips in Death metal, Gothic metal, Doom Metal, Folk Metal also Thrash Metal takes place, almost every song heralds a genre change and occasionally requires to the listener a while. Settima Draconis is surprisingly succeeded in most genres to provide a good figure."
Who writes your songs? During the demo period, the lead guitarist wrote his idea, the others were manipulating giving their contribution with voice, or with the instrument. Today I do all. I write the guitars, bass, drum parts and any other instrument required.
Who has the best sense of humor in the band? When the line up was complete, I think the drummer.
What's good/bad with the band?/What genre do you feel you are? With a complete line up the good thing is that I have more time to devote to my jos as composer and to my private life, but the bad thing at least of those years, is that the music writing is painfully slow. Nowadays, alone, I write an album in a month but if we also consider the work in the office and that one of composer, in short, I do it with passion, but it requires a lot of sacrifice. Right now when I write the songs, "Settima Draconis" reflects a little all metal genres, including classical music when I write the orchestrations, although I try to keep it out of this context.
Do you write your own material or mainly covers? I don't like write covers, I consider write covers an hobby.
Have you made any albums? "Settima Draconis" released a demo called "Vengeance" and an album called "Legio"
How old are you?/What got you started in music? I'm 34 and I started to compose music in 2007. The old permanent members, except one, was around 5-8 years younger than me.
At what age did you start playing? I never started, I write music by ears.
What are the plans for the rest of the year? Release the album for the 2014, try to find permanent members and a distributor.
When did you decide to go all in for the music? In 2001.
What's the first step when making a new song? About metal, generally I write before the main guitar line.
How do you feel about the downloading of music instead of buying albums? When the legal download of a song is sold at 99cents, what opinion can you have of someone that do not repay your efforts and your commitment for 99 measly cents? The illegal downloading of music, is the death of thousands of bands who play for something more than fun and hobby. Among my friends there is a person friend of many musicians including a band really, really popular, so much that you would think are full of money. Instead they are in deep shit, because the sale of the music do not earn anything, just the tour, but how many bands can afford a tour and how much of these, can get something? I give you an example of numbers. Today a band, to get a decent mix/mastering but not professional album, that is in essence allowing the listener to listen the music, spends between 300 and 500€ plus the recording studio costs. A professional engineer also calls for 180€ per day , which means that a professional mix/mastering of album exceeds 900€. The same album then, it is put on sale online, legally, at a cost of 99 cents per song... Make your own conclusions.
Besides your own music, what genres and bands do you listen to? Old stuff, cannibal corpse, slayer, dark tranquillity, blind guardian, johnny cash, van hallen, guns, motorhead, 60s music, classical. Rarelly something new, basically 'cause I don't have time, if I'm not busy on my music, I'm busy in office so...
What do you hold most dear? passion, constancy and determination
Have you been part of any other projects? I write classical music and orchestration as music composer
What do you work with outside of the band and the music? Music Composer & employee
What would you do if there was no music? Suicide.
How important are your fans? Too small to have followers, actually I never know how you picked up us:D
How often do you rehearse? 3 times per week many many years ago
Name 2 of your own songs you like at the moment? "Poison me" and "We are one"
What drives a band that isn't all that famous and renowned to try to make a living on their music and to keep playing? passion, constancy and determination
Do you have any webpages?
https://soundcloud.com/settima-draconis
http://www.reverbnation.com/settimadraconis
https://www.facebook.com/SettimaDraconisBand
How do you view the music industry of today? Saturated as regards the metal music market and extremely difficult for a label select a band to include in the roster.
If before was enough play a metal genre at the same level or better than another band playing the same kind to have at least a chance, nowadays a label that invests money in a band, it must be absolutely certain that the product is salable without risks and the fact that piracy has cleared the sales of music as final product, remains the gadgets and the tours, which essentially turns the band into an elephant trying to pass in the lock of a door along with 10,000 other elephants.
I get the idea?:)
What advice would you like to give other bands? passion, constancy and determination