SCREAMING
SHADOWS
Screaming Shadows may live
in a small town in Sardinia, far away from the metal centres, but this
doesn’t restrain them. On the contrary, this fills them with more passion
and power to play and serve the music they love the most. What am I talking
about? 80s classic heavy metal of course… and after all, isn’t passion
the greatest and most important element for this music? Francesco is here
to welcome us and give us a tour in the world of the Screaming Shadows.
1.FIRST OF ALL POINT OUT THE MOST
IMPORTANT MOMENTS OF THE BAND'S HISTORY AND INTRODUCE YOURSELVES TO THE
READERS...
The band was founded between the
years ‘97/’98 by Francesco Marras, the line-up was: Francesco Marras and
Andrea Giribaldi at the guitars, Davide Chessa at the drums, Andrea Nieddu
at the bass and Luigi Casula at the vocals. The moniker was “Survivors”
and the band played 80s Heavy Metal, simple, direct and as loud as possible,
but not long after that the drummer, the bassist and the singer left the
band. Their places were taken by Fabrizio Murgia (drums), Antonio Doro
(bass) and Tony “Red” Rassu (voice). A big piece of the line-up changed
and thus the band name changed as well (the new one was “Eruption”) the
band recorded, in April ’99, its first demo tape (including 4 tracks of
its own composition) titled “Where I’m nothing”. After various line-up
problems the band was able to record in the time between June and July
2001 its first self produced CD, the place of singer is now taken by Antonio
Poddighe. The moniker changes once again into “Screaming Shadows”, which
is now definite. The CD contains 6 new pieces of band’s own creation in
an Heavy Metal more “refined” and evolved than the previous work, but always
keeping the influence of the mighty ‘80s. A short time after recording
the CD, Antonio Poddighe leaves the band and he is replaced by Sandro Gallo.
To go on with their fight against destiny, too often adverse, to find again
incitement and give theirselves new goals, the band decides to produce,
during summer 2002, a new master containing 10 pieces, five new tracks
and five already contained on the previous CD; but as it previously happened,
before the end of the recording session, the drummer Fabrizio Murgia leaves
again the band, that’s so forced to stop momentarily its work. After a
period of search Screaming Shadows finally find the hope to go on when
they engage Flavio Fancellu, who adapts himself to the band in no time,
in fact after only one month he learns the whole band repertoire, and he’s
able to play it perfectly, giving the others a face and a charge previously
absent. After two months the band starts again its live shows and the new
member reveals himself to be a great musician as well as a really exceptional
person, ready to be sacrificed for the music he loves. Just when everything
seems to go for the best a new surprise happens: Alex Shade leaves the
band because of strong inside conflicts. After a careful search testing
various singers the choice is Luigi Usai, who won the band’s attention
along time ago. After the entry of the two new elements, who have brought
more assurance and serenity to the band thanks to their devotion, passion
and seriousness, new hopes and new projects are now in sight. This is the
spirit that distinguishes Screaming Shadows, a deep passion and devotion
to their music, Heavy Metal, to which they have dedicated and they will
dedicate their life. Because of all the problems that the band had to face,
the publishing of the cd recorded in summer 2002 titled “Behind the mask”
is expected for July 2003, in it are contained 10 songs of which 5 new
and 5 already contained in the previous cd. New live shows and contests
are on the doorstep; in these occasions will be presented new songs consisted
of new elements: the Screaming Shadows are coming back.
2.WHY DID YOU CHANGE THE BAND NAME
FROM ERUPTION TO SCREAMING SHADOWS? WAS THERE ANOTHER BAND WITH THE SAME
MONIKER? WHAT DO YOU MEAN AND HOW HAVE YOU SELECTED SCREAMING SHADOWS?
HOW CAN THE SHADOWS SCREAM AND WHAT ARE THEY SAYING?
We have changed the name ‘cause
Eruption is a very deducted name for a band, there are a lot of other bands
called in the same way. In 2001 we have recorded our first Cd with a new
moniker, Screaming Shadows, ‘cause we wanted a more original name, a name
where we can identify ourselves we feel like shadows in the dark, living
in nothing, shadows that scream, twisting and suffering,this is the way
we feel ‘cause we live in Sardinia, an island, in a little city where there
is no space and it is very hard for an heavy metal band to rise to the
sunlight. The shadows can scream, can move beneath you, they are invisible
and they are in every place, they want to say the world that they are here,
they exist.
3.YOU SAY THAT YOU PLAY HEAVY METAL
MAINLY DRIVEN BY THE 80S SOUND. SINCE WE HAVEN’T HAD THE CHANCE TO LISTEN
TO YOUR MUSIC YET, CAN YOU NAME SOME OF YOUR
MOST BELOVED BANDS AND ALBUMS?
WHICH ARE THE MUSICIANS THAT HELPED YOU REALIZE THAT THIS IS WHAT YOU WANTED
TO DO IN YOUR LIVES? WHO GAVE YOU YOUR MUSICAL VISION?
I grew listening to Heavy Metal,
and there are bands and albums vital for me, and I can’t do without them,
they are: IRON MAIDEN: Piece of mind, Powerslave, The number of the beast;
JUDAS PRIEST: British steel, Defenders of the faith, Painkiller; MANOWAR:
Kings of metal, Into glory ride; HELLOWEEN: Walls of Jerico, Keeper of
the seven keys Pt.2; SAXON: Power and the glory; RUNNING WILD: Under Jolly
Roger; BRUCE DICKINSON: The chemical wedding; BLACK SABBATH: Heaven and
hell; LOUDNESS: Thunder in the east; OZZY OSBOURNE: Blizzard of Ozz; WASP:
The last command; CRIMSON GLORY: Transcendence; SYMPHONY X: The divine
wings of tragedy; QUEENSRŸCHE: Rage for order; DEEP PURPLE: In rock; Y.
MALMSTEEN: Rising force; But the band that more than all have inspired
me are Iron Maiden.
4.TELL US A FEW THINGS ABOUT YOUR CD
“BEHIND THE MASK”. ARE YOU SATISFIED BY IT? IF YOU COULD CHANGE SOMETHING
NOW WHAT WOULD THAT BE? ARE YOU IN THE POSITION TO SAY THAT YOU’VE ALREADY
FOUND YOUR MUSICAL DIRECTION OR ARE YOU STILL SEARCHING YOUR HORIZONS AND
BOUNDARIES? DO YOU BELIEVE THAT BOUNDARIES IN MUSIC SHOULD EXIST OR NOT
AND WHY?
We have recorded the Cd “Behind
the mask” between 2002-2003 and we have finished it in November 2003, one
year later. A lot of things have changed during this time, the singer and
the drummer are different now, we work better together and we have composed
new songs that we hope to record very soon. If we could change something
we would change the sound of the guitars. We are not looking for limits
and not even new horizons, I believe that the most important thing for
a musician is to know certainly what he wants to express, what he wants
to say, the music that will be born will surely be very good and respectable
if made with sincerity and passion. The music you hear is very important,
if someone listens to baroque music he would compose his work with that
style, if someone listens just to jazz he will only be able to play jazz.
A very precious advice is to listen to all music, even those you don’t
like.
5.IS THIS A PROMO CD FOR THE LABELS?
HAVE YOU SENT IT TO ANY YET? WHICH WERE THEIR REACTIONS? ARE YOU SATISFIED
BY THE FEEDBACK?
We play Heavy Metal because it’s
passion, because we like it, we compose our pieces ‘cause we need it, we
record discs with our pieces to grow, to improve and to introduce ourselves
in the parts of the world where they don’t know us, we record them to find
a contract with some label too, why not? It’s very soon to say something,
the cd has been released two months ago, and since its release I’ve done
nothing but promote it and send it everywhere, besides we’ve personally
gone to Milan and London in order to take it to the radios, to the magazines,
to the pubs and to the labels. Let’s wait and see what happens!
6.WHERE ARE YOUR LYRICS REFERRING TO
AND HOW IMPORTANT ARE THEY FOR YOU? WHAT INSPIRES YOU TO WRITE LYRICS
AND WHAT CAN TAKE THE INSPIRATION AWAY FROM YOU?
Lyrics are very important for us,
we wanna try to say something, to send feelings with the words, almost
all lyrics have been written by me, and I don’t have fixed themes, everything
can inspire me, but it must be true, sincere, it must contain a message,
of my experiences, of my life, of my feelings.
7.HOW IMPORTANT IS IDEOLOGY, AMBITION,
PRINCIPLES AND ATTITUDE FOR A BAND? WHICH ARE THESE FOR SCREAMING SHADOWS?
Ideology, ambition, principles
and attitude are all for Screaming Shadows.We’ve got great ideals and deep
principles, the first of all is the Heavy Metal ideal indeed, as I say
in my song Eternal Faith it’s more than an ideal, it’s some kind of a religion,
a god to whom we have given and we will give all our blood until the last
breath, Heavy Metal has taught us the true principles and ideals to believe
in and to defend, it taught us purity, sincerity and truth, it taught us
to understand what’s right and what’s wrong, great dreams and great ambitions
without which we could not go on, these are the things that give us the
force to keep on fighting.
8.DO YOU HAVE ANY PLANS FOR LIVE SHOWS?
WHAT SHOULD THE METALLERS EXPECT FROM A SCREAMING SHADOWS LIVE SHOW? SHARE
SOME OF YOUR EXPERIENCES FROM YOUR LIVE SHOWS WITH US...
The people, the metallers should
expect a show beyond compare, music played with heart, with passion, with
technique and precision, great emotions, understanding, a great will to
move the head, a will to feel their souls twisted and free, twisted by
the energy that we can unchain during our live shows, something inexplicable,
you can’t understand it until you will see it with your eyes.
9.WHAT WOULD YOU SAY TO SOMEONE THAT
DOESN'T KNOW YOU, IN ORDER TO INTRIGUE HIS INTEREST? WHICH IS YOUR MOST
APPEALING ELEMENT ACCORDING TO YOU?
I would surely tell him to go to
see one of our live shows, it would be enough, he would understand the
rest by hearing our music.
10.IF YOUR MUSIC WERE AN EMOTION, WHAT
WOULD IT BE? IF IT WERE A PAINTING, WHAT WOULD IT SHOW?
Our music is an emotion, it simply
is the explication of our feelings, because you can’t explicate a feeling
with words, they couldn’t express its meaning, music can explain and send
to the others the deepest feelings instead. Our music expresses sadness,
sincerity as well as force, will to react and fight, sadness but hope too.
11.IF YOU HAD A PROPOSAL TO DO A VIDEO
CLIP, WHICH SONG OF YOURS WOULD YOU CHOOSE AND HOW DO YOU IMAGINE IT TO
BE?
I’m sure that we would choose “I’ll
find my freedom”, because it’s one of our best songs, and we have an affection
for it.
12.WHICH FAMOUS PERSONALITY WOULD YOU
LIKE TO MEET AND WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO ASK HIM?
My dream is to meet Yngwie J. Malmsteen,
he’s my idol, a great guitarist, a very strong personality, but I wouldn’t
know what to say to him, maybe I would ask him to play the guitar for me
or to tell me about his life and his live experiences.
13.IF YOU HAD THE CHANCE TO TRAVEL
BACK IN TIME, WHICH HISTORICAL PERIOD WOULD YOU LIKE TO VISIT AND WHY?
I would to go back to the ’80s,
I would live in London in the years between ’78 and ’90, to see the birth
of Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Manowar and all those bands who have made
the eighties mighty. I’m too young, I was born in 1982, I have not lived
the golden years of Metal, besides I live in a land very closed to the
news, here everything comes late and on a reduced scale.
14.WHICH SONG WOULD YOU DEDICATE TO
THE WOMAN OF YOUR DREAMS?
I’ve written many songs for the
woman of my dreams, a woman that I’ve met and loved, but she lives in a
land too far away from Italy, so now her memory lives inside of me. This
experience has inspired me for many songs, I would be undecided between
two songs, the first is the acoustic version of “The cry of the king”,
the second is “Broken promises Pt.1” The acoustic version of “The cry of
the king” is a piece that I’ve written for the classical guitar (that I
study quite some years at the academy of music) executed by one only guitar
and voice. “Broken promises” is one of the new pieces that I’ve written
for Screaming Shadows, I believe that we will record it on our next work.
15.LET'S SUPPOSE THAT WE LIVE IN A
WORLD WITHOUT MUSIC. WHAT WOULD YOU DO IN SUCH A CASE?
I can’t imagine a life without
music.
16.IN WHICH MOVIE SOUNDTRACK WOULD
YOU LIKE TO HAVE TAKEN PART OR HAVE COMPOSED?
I’m very undecided between “Conan
The Barbarian” an “The last of the Mohicans”.
17.THANK YOU! HAVE I FORGOTTEN TO ASK
YOU ANYTHING AND YOU'D LIKE TO MENTION?
Thank you for the help and for
the interview, this are some of the most intelligent questions someone
has ever asked me. I greet all the Greek metallers and I hope to come to
your land as soon as possible, visit our web site and support us in our
war.
Nick “William_Kidd”
Parastatidis
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