• The DRAKKAR was waiting for me to the coast. I step on board and i had a conversation with the captain  Dario Beretta (guitars/backing vocals). Check it out!!!

1.GIVE A BIOGRAPHY OF THE BAND.

• (I included our complete story as an attachment.)
• The band was born in late 1995. They began with an aim: to become a great power-epic metal band. So they started working really hard. In a short time, they began to gain a good reputation in Milan, due to the man gigs they were doing all around. The band also won a contest for newcomer, unsigned bands, and placed second in another one. The first demotape (out in the middle of 1996) was entitled "Sailing Alive", and was a little live-recorded stuff done for a radio show, that they decided to sell just later, 'cause there were much people asking how they could have it. The second demo came out in the beginning of 1997; it was entitled "We Sail At Dawn". This did even better the first, and was a more "serious" demo, recorded on 16 tracks. It was this demo to bring the band to the attention of Dragonheart Records, a young but promising label in Italy. They offered Drakkar a good deal, giving what they wanted the most: total artistic freedom. So the band decided to sign, and started (in January '98) the recordings of "Quest For Glory" with this line-up: Dario Beretta (guitars and backing vocals), Christian Fiorani (drums), Alex Forgione (bass) and Luca Cappellari (vocals). Being still without a keyboard player, the band asked to their good friend Emanuele Rastelli from Crown Of Autumn to join 'em just to record the album, and so he did. In the June of that year, shortly after the publishing of the album, they took part as opening band to the "Monsters Of Rock" festival in Turin (Italy), supporting bands like Saxon, Deep Purple, Primal Fear, Hammerfall, Dream Theater, and so on, with a very good response from the crowd. In September, a few line-up changes occurred; Alex Ferraris took place of Forgione as bass-player, and Eleonora Ceretti was hired as keyboard player, officially becoming part of the band. The sellings of “Quest For Glory” were good, and the band was claimed by many journalists to be a big promise for the future. While they were working on the songs for the second album, they continued to play live in Italy, making lots of good shows. Among the others, stood the great gig as support band for Scorpions on their Italian date of may 1999, where the band received a great vibe from the crowd and convinced also the Scorpion’s drummer, who personally congratulated with ‘em. In September 1999, they finally entered the studio to record the long-awaited follower to “Quest For Glory”. The new album, called “Gemini”, is a great step forward, being much more mature of the debut and much better produced and arranged, and it’s been released in April 2000. On the album, there is also a special guest appearance by Helloween’s guitarist Roland Grapow, who placed two great solos on the song “The Voice Of The Wind”. Despite the fact that “Gemini” is selling good and having great reviews, June 2000 sees the ending of the band’s partnership with Luca Cappellari and Alex Ferraris, due to personal problems. But this is not an end, just a new beginning. As they’ve always done before, the band immediately starts to search for new members, worth to carry on the legacy of the former ones. Soon the new bass player is found: his name is Daniele Persoglio, he’s a very young and talented musician coming from a power-progressive band called Holy Gates. His highly technical way of playing, and his will to experiment with the sound of his instrument, makes him the perfect choice for Drakkar’s future.

Just a few days after, the new singer is also found. His name is Davide Dell’Orto (also known as Dave Shot), and he comes from Exile, another good italian progressive-metal band. He has a great range and a very powerful voice, more aggressive and deep compared to his predecessor. He, too, will surely prove to be the best choice to keep the Drakkar sailing. Powerful, aggressive, epic and in the same time very melodic: this is Drakkar, a band with a great respect for the heavy metal tradition, but in the same time with the guts to try creating a very personal sound, without giving a damn about trends and fashions.
 

• The line-up changed beacuse we had some personal problems with the old members that made it impossible to keep on working together. It obviously affected our sound, as you will be able to hear on our new album, because the new guys brought us new influences and ideas.

• The album will be entitled "Razorblade God". The fans have chosen this title voting by Internet. Actually, we've just finished the record and I must say we're very happy about it. The sound is much more aggressive and powerful compared to "Gemini", even if the epic and melodic sound it's still there. The album is not a concept, every song has its own story.

• Well, I was always seen as the leader of the band because I write most of the music and all the lyrics, but there is democracy in the band. We all work together to reach an aim, and that's making good music. Everyone in the band can share his feelings and ideas about the songs, and also bring his own material, if he likes. I am writing the majority of the music but this doesn't mean all the music; especially this new line-up has given a big contribution to the songwriting process. 'Bout the fact that in a band  there must be a leader, I think this: Playing in a band it's like traveling in a car: somebody has to drive, if you wanna get somewhere. But this doesn't mean that he must not listen to where the passengers wanna go, and which road they wanna follow to get to the point.

•  My lyrics are inspired by a lot of things: literature, movies, comic books for the most, but not just that. Anyway, I like to tell stories through my lyrics, to bring the listener to another world... A world where the ideals are valued like they should be; ideals like courage, trust, loyalty, sacrifice, and justice. I think we are losing the view of these (truly important) ideals, and the stories I tell through my lyrics try to keep them alive, as well as they try to make you (the listener) have fun. So they can actually help us to face reality, at least I think so.

•  Well, we like Running Wild a lot, but we also like tons of other bands, from Blind Guardian to Def Leppard, from Deah to Iced Earth, from Judas Priest to Dio, from Annihilator to Deep Purple, and so on... There is a lot of music that we like to listen to and can have influences on us.

•  I don't know, really... First of all I wanted to have my band because I wanted to be on stage and play for the people, play and have fun making the audience feel good and have fun too. Then I started writing songs on my own, and it all came natural.

• I started from the beginning with the idea of making something serious; of course I have fun in playing, but I always had the aim of reaching people and making records. I never cared about playing in a cover band or things like that, just for the fun of it.

• Drakkar make powerful, aggressive, epic and melodic music. And we're sincere. We do what we really like, what really comes from our heart. And this is important, in my opinion.

• Well, Eridan Falls or anything from the new album "Razorblade God".

• A great singer is what makes the difference between a good band and a great band. You can have wonderful music, but if the singer ain't good enough, you won't get what the beauty of music would deserve. But I don't think that having a great singer is enough if you don't have very good music-not at all. I am personally very happy with our new singer Dave, and I think he can be the right person to make us leap forward in sellings.

• There's a lot of. I like very much Secret Sphere and Finntroll, but there are also many other new and very good bands.

• We play live as much as we can here in Italy. It's always fun and I like it so much... It's the reason why I'm here. I prefer playing live to record in the studio, there's another kind of energy, it's a lot more fun! Concerning Greece, it depends on our sellings there... SO buy our new album!!!!

• Well, I don't think that any lyrics, from me or even less from somebody else, can express my character. But Ronnie James Dio's lyrics are my absolute favourites, and I agree with the things he says and also with the way in which he says it: through fantastic metaphores.

• Of course I woud like to! I would like to do a soundtrack for a fantasy or superheros-kinda movie. I also like a lot science-fiction, also the soundtrack of a sci-fi movie would be interesting!

• I love reading. I read with great pleasure everything that is fantastic and exciting, from fantasy to sci-fi, from thriller to detective stories. And of course I read lots of philosophy books, 'cause I am a philosophy student. My favourite books are things like The Lord Of The Rings, Hyperion, Sherlock Holmes tales by Conan Doyle, everything from Poe and Lovecraft... this for the "stories" side. For the philosophycal side, I love Goethe, Kant, Croce, Locke, Nietzsche, and many others.

• I think it's true that some the new bands are too close to the sound of the first ones (like Labyrinth or Rhapsody), but there is also some new bands very very interesting. After the "trendy" side of Italian Power has extinguished, the strongest, more personal bands will remain, and I think there can be a lot of these, beacuse there are many good musicians in Italy.

•  Thanks for everything, and keep on rockin'!!