interview with Beriedir
Have any of you played in other bands?
Stefano: Yes, I played in an Indie Rock band named "Logic?" and in "Phantom Disclaim" a Metalcore band, plus I was the first keyboard player for Marsyas, a really cool Prog Rock band from my town.
Alessandro: Yes, in a Funk Rock band named Leaves On The Trees.
Andrea: Yes, i played and i still play in a band named Epigraph.
Marco: Yes, i play in a rock band too, called Bloody Monday.
How is it that you started playing music?
Stefano: When I was 8 we had a keyboard class which I attended, and a new love was born hahaha.
Alessandro: All the members of my family are musicians, so they sorta initiated me to the music world.
Andrea: It was a case. I made this choice when I was 11 with no reason. I didn't think I would be still playing today.
Marco: My father played the guitar and one day he made me strum a bit with his twelve strings. Then i started to get guitar lessons.
What are your names? / Who plays what? / How old are you?
Stefano: Stefano Nusperli, I sing and play the keyboards. Turning 19 in March.
Alessandro: Alessandro Manini, I play the bass guitar, I'm turning 19 this year.
Andrea: My name is Andrea Ravasio, I'm 19 and i play the drums.
Marco: My name is Marco Boffelli but everybody calls me Boffo. I'm the only guitarist of this band and I'm almost 18.
Have you had other previous members? Stefano: Yes, we had several guitar players, and one other drummer.
Did you make music even when you were young?
Stefano: I started writing my own music at 10/11 years old I think.
Alessandro: I started to seriously make music when I was 12.
Andrea: Yes, i started playing thrash/death metal when i was 13 hahaha.
Marco: Yes, i've played the guitar since i was 7, but I started making my own music later.
Where are you from?
Alessandro: We are all from Bergamo, a city near Milan, Italy, except for Andrea, he's from a small town near Lecco.
Andrea: Yes, I have to take the train every week to be able to reharse with the other guys, but it's worth it.
What year did the band form? Stefano: We started making music together in 2010, but we started doing things seriously in 2013.
What's your style of genre? Stefano: We play Power Metal, but we have also Progressive influences.
What inspires you?
Stefano: For the lyrics I get inspired from the things I read about and that I'm interested into; for the music I just sit at the piano and let it flow.
Andrea: My feels, I just sit at the drums and let go my emotions, sometimes there's anger, sometimes chilly grooves hahaha.
Marco: I have always been inspired by my feelings, from what I felt inside.
How often and where do you rehearse? Stefano: We rehearse once per week, two if necessary, in my aunt's cellar.
How have you developed since you started with the music? Stefano: We started playing classic Heavy Metal songs, then we evolved to a more dark, melodic death-ish metal, then we started playing Power Metal, and we love it.
Do you have other interests of work outside the band?
Stefano: I plan on starting a recording studio, because living on the music your band plays is kinda hard nowadays.
Alessandro: I'm going to study cinema, it's my other passion outside music.
Andrea: Yes, i love informatics technology and I'm also interested in beer's making process.
Marco: I don't have any certain ideas of work outside the band, I only know that I want to work in music world.
Are you looking for a booking agency, and what are your thoughts around that? Stefano: We are interested in booking agencies, because they can more easily find you places to perform at, but we work hard to find them on our own for now.
Are you looking for a label, and what are your thoughts around that? Stefano: our new album will be released soon, and it would be great if a label would be interested in our work.
What made you decide to make this music?
Stefano: I listened to a lot of power metal music, but I decided to play this genre after a Dragonforce show I attended in 2012.
Alessandro: I liked the genre too, and I found myself more confortable playing this style after having played many others.
Andrea: Well, Stratovarius was the first power metal band that i listened to, and I immediately loved Power Metal.
Marco: I was in a pub with my other band for a live and I heard for the first time some songs of this band. I thought "cool" and then I talked a lot with the singer. We became friends and when the last guitarist left the band I didn't think it twice.
What are your songs about? Stefano: We write about philosophy, history, science and literature.
Who does the composing and writes the lyrics?
Stefano: I do the major part of the composing, I write the principal song structures. I also write the lyrics and of course the keyboard lines.
Alessandro: I write the bass, and sometimes collaborate with the vocal lines.
Marco: I write my solos and collaborate with the guitar parts. I also write the harmonizations for the vocals, I'm the second voice.
Andrea: I write the drum parts, and I also wrote some new material!
Do you start with the music or the lyrics? Stefano: we always start with the music, but sometimes I adapt previously written lyrics on fitting music we compose.
Do you compose in a certain enviroment?
Stefano: I compose the music mostly at my piano, the lyrics during my walks and the vocal lines under the shower.
Alessandro: I find myself more confortable composing when nobody is around.
Have you done any covers live? Stefano: we played a few covers back in the day, but now we concentrate exclusively on our own material.
What language do you sing in? Stefano: I sing mostly in English, but we have some lines in Old Italian in our song "Third Chant". We also have some latin words here and there.
What are the least and most people to attend one of your gigs? Stefano: Since we started making music seriously, we have at least 20/30 people at our gigs (people supports underground music less and less as the time goes on), but it happened to have nearly 100 people at a show, and at the last one there were between 50 and 70 people.
What ages are most of your concert attendants? Stefano: Mainly between 16 and 25, with some exceptions: some adults like our music too.
Do you always play the same songs live, or do you vary? Stefano: for now we have 10 songs, so we play them at every live, varying the order from time to time.
Do you have a regular place you play live often? Stefano: we often played at a nice pub named Polaresco here in Bergamo, but sadly it's closing, and we played a few times at the "The One" in Cassano d'Adda, near Milano.
What was your first gig like?
Stefano: I was terrified, and there were something like 10 people watching us hahahaha, but it went well.
Alessandro: we were invited to this concert with something like 5 bands, but people showed up only when we finished because they told us to start too early. Sigh.
What was your latest gig? Stefano: We played at the "The One" with Hercunia and Trewa, and we bound strongly with Hercunia, they are really nice!
Have you had to cancel a gig? Stefano: Luckily no, and I hope it won't happen.
Where have you played live this year? Stefano: We really played in a lot of places hahaha it's difficult to recall all of them.
Where do you plan to gig the comming year? Stefano: for now we have two gigs planned, one at the Sputnik 525 on the 28 of May, and one at a festival organised by my school in June. We also have a little gig at a contest.
When did you start to sell merchandise, and what do you have for sale? Stefano: we started selling our EP "The Line" in october.
Where can people buy your merchandise? Stefano: you can contact us on our Facebook page!
What do you think about people downloading music instead of buying records now a days?
Stefano: Nowadays we have spotify, where you can listen almost freely to every record ever published in history, and in good definition too! Downloading from youtube is not only damaging bands, it's also kinda dumb, because you get a lower resolution, lol. I can comprehend if you download a famous band record, but why doing it with an underground band?
Alessandro: I agree, it would be nice making some money hahahaha.
How do you think the music industry have changed because of this? Stefano: band nowadays rely more on the digital side of distribution, less and less people buy physical copies.
What do you think of my work?
Stefano: interviewing bands is an important work to promote them and I knew about some bands thank to interviews. Keep up the good work!
Andrea: It warms my heart so much that you interview underground bands like us, thank you, sincerely!
Marco: Interviewing bands is a big opportunity for littles band who need more visibility. It's very useful.
How do you think and know that this interview will help you in the music business?
Stefano: maybe some people will read about us and get to know us and to listen to our music.
Andrea: Maybe someone in the world will listen to us, completely randomly, after this interview, and maybe say:
"Woow, this is so awesome" and make us known to his/her friends! Hahaha.
Marco: Maybe it could help us "level up" and to have more visibility
Do you have any role models or idols?
Stefano: My idols are Alessandro Staropoli, Jordan Rudess, Keith Emerson, Johann Sebastian Bach and Henrik Klingenberg.
Andrea: My major inspirer is Jörg Michael, Stratovarius' drummer. Other drummers which i like are George Kollias, Frederik Ehmke, Inferno, Mike Portnoy and HellHammer
Is it easier to find inspiration from older bands, or bands that are more active today?
Stefano: every band has some inspiration to offer in my opinion.
Andrea: I think that dipends by the genre you play
What have been your biggest obstacles?
Stefano: the lack of places to play.
Alessandro: we had an hard time finding a guitar player that worked as hard as we do.
Andrea: money, I think hahahah.
What advice would you give other bands or artists?
Stefano: listen to different music, stay humble and practice, practice, practice.
Alessandro: never think is your fulltime job, but work hard as it would.
Andrea: If you like it, play it.
Marco: Stay humble and lead your band to success through hard work.
How do you get psyched for a gig?
Stefano: I do a sort of meditation while warming up my voice, and I drink a tea.
Alessandro: I relax and chill.
Andrea: For me it's normal, now. I calm down, drink a beer, and go to rock on.
Marco: I try to relax and warm up my fingers by playing some random licks on my guitar.
Do you have any new material? Stefano: Yes, a part of our 10 songs that are going in our full lenght, we are working on new material, two new songs are on their way!
What are your web sites?
How can people reach you? Stefano: people can contact us on our facebook page.
What are your plans for the future? Stefano: we are going to record our first full lenght album in april, and make some gigs to promote it!
Do you have something to add?
Stefano: Thank your for your time!
Alessandro: Thank you for interviewing us, it has been a nice time!
Andrea: Thank you! Bye bye!
Marco: Thank you for the interview! Bye!
