TWILIGHT
ZONE
Personally I think that an
interview is good when makes you read it from the start till the end without
thinking anything else. The interview with TWILIGHT ZONE was a real pleasure
to read, something that I hope that you will also apreciate. So I am telling
you nothing more, proceed with the reading of it and I believe that the
interview will make you search for more informations about this band.
1. HELLO!
FIRST
OF ALL I’DLIKE TO KNOW WHAT KIND
OF PERSONS ARE THE TWILIGHT
ZONE
MEMBERS AND WHICH ARE YOUR INTERESTS.
(Stefano) Well, I’m 30, I sing
and play the guitar and at the moment I’m unemployed and I’ve got a degree
in Political Sciences since May 2003. Together with Heavy Metal my main
interests are horror and giallo cinema (i.e. police mystery movies like
Sherlock Holmes etc), comics and football.
(Pierluigi) I'm 29, I'm the drummer
and I'm a metal-mechanic (more metal than mechanic...). My interests are
custom motorbikes especially the Sportster's family (Great), motor meetings
and drinking beers. I like computers what concerns multimedia and I don't
like very much sports..
(Francesco) I'm 24, I play bass
and I'm studying Law at University. My favorite hobbies beside music are
playing tennis and football.
2.WHAT
DO YOU WANT TO SAY WITH THETITLE "ONIRICAL
INHERITANCE”
THAT YOU GAVE TO THIS DEMO? WHICH
BANDS HAVEINFLUENCED YOU?
(Stefano) We thought that it could
be a good title for our demo and also because in our songs the dreams have
always been very important as a source of inspiration. The second part
of the question is more difficult: we love many bands, but if I had to
mention the ones that have been most important I’d choose Iron Maiden,
Judas Priest, Manowar, Mercyful Fate, Black Sabbath and Manilla Road.
(Pierluigi) A lot of bands I think,
most of all Savatage, Manowar, Helloween, Judas Priest, Motorhead...
(Francesco) My favourite and more
influencial bands have been Metallica, early Iron Maiden, Pantera, Megadeth,
Death and many more.
3.WHY
DID YOU CHANGE THE NAME OF THEBAND FROM STIGMA
TO TWILIGHT ZONE?
DID
YOU PICK IT BECAUSE OF THE FAMOUSU.S. SCIENCE FICTION SERIES OF DO YOU
WANT TO SAY SOMETHING MORE?
BY
THEWAY, DO YOU LIKE FANTASY LITERATURE OR MOVIES?
(Stefano) There are many different
reasons: the simpler was that in those years there was in Italy another
hardcore punk band called Stigma, but the name’s change had also another
meaning. With Stigma we have a lyrical approach nearer to topics as social
arguments while with Twilight Zone we wanted a more personal, introspective
and fantastic lyrical approach. The Twilight Zone, as we wrote in the song
with the same title, is the zone between life and death, reality and dreams,
always suspended between two different dimensions. Of course we knew the
american movie (in Italy we saw it with the title “Ai Confini Della Realta”,
i.e. “At The Borders Of Reality”) but the main idea came from a very famous
italian horror comic called Dylan Dog and from an episode called “La Zona
Del Crepuscolo”, the italian translation of our name. I personally
like fantasy literature and movies but I prefer horror and giallo movies
and books.
4.I
READ THIS EXTRAORDINARY THING ONYOUR BIO…DURING THE TIME THAT THE BAND
WAS PUT IN THE ICE SOME OF YOURMEMBERS COMPOSED AN OPERA THAT WAS NEVER
RELEASED. WHAT KIND OF OPERA
WASTHE STORY AND DO YOU HAVE PLANS TO RELEASE IT IN THE FUTURE?
(Stefano) This is a long story:
between 1996-1998 the band was virtually split and in this couple of years
me and Cristian have worked on many new songs and above all we have put
the grounds of this project. We had individually written some songs and
we have noticed that they could be related to each other. These songs were
about similar topics and we begun to work on a story. The title of the
opera is “Scarlet: A Tale Of Sex, Witchcraft And Eternal Love” and is a
complex history about the reincarnation of a dead witch that comes to life
again in order to find the reincarnation of her old love….I often speak
about the release of “Scarlet” as my main artistic goal of my whole life.
By now four songs on eleven are quite complete and maybe now it’s time
to complete the whole work.
5.IN
THE “ATLANTIDA” COMPILATIONI
HAVE LISTENED TO THE SONG “WHAT
TWILIGHT
MEANS”
WHICH WAS MORE INFLUENCEDBY THE EUROPEAN POWER METAL AND ESPECIALLY BROUGHT
TO MY MIND THE SOUNDOF
HELLOWEEN
IN THE “WALLS
OF
JERICHO”
PERIOD. ON THE NEW DEMO YOU’VE
CHANGEDYOUR MUSIC TO A MORE CLASSIC HEAVY METAL FORM.
WAS
THIS CHANGE A NATURALPROCEDURE AND DO YOU BELIEVE THAT YOU FINALLY HAVE
FOUND THE SOUND YOUWERE LOOKING FOR?
(Stefano) The influence of bands
as early Helloween and Rage is still important for us…maybe you’re right,
“What Twilight Means” is our “german metal” song! I don’t think we have
changed our style, maybe with “Onirical Inheritance” we have found a more
mature dimension and a more personal sound.
6.WELL,
THE COVER ARTWORK OF YOURDEMO CAN MISLEAD THE FANS ON THE KIND OF MUSIC
YOU PLAY. PERSONALLY I
THINKIT’S MORE PROPER FOR BAND THAT PLAY PSYCHEDELIC STONER ROCK. WHY
DID YOUCHOOSE THIS COVER AND HOW IS IT CONNECTED TO THE SONGS INCLUDED
IN THEDEMO? WHO IS THE SO WELL-DRESSED
LADY?
(Stefano) I agree with you…a vortex,
many colours…we seem to be a stoner-rock band! But the cover concept is
linked with the lyrics of the title track and it has a very funny story.
We have thought about another subject for the cover, then we thought of
something that suggested the birth of a double personality through dreams…but
we need a good subject! In the same period I read an interview of this
girl called Jewel De Nyle, a very famous american pornstar, in which she
spoke about her love for heavy metal. When all the things are ready we
tried, as a joke, to send her an email to ask her for some photos that
would fit to our concept…she answered us after two hours, giving us the
permission to download from her website everything we needed! The vortex
and the flames symbolize the nightmare and the double personality is symbolized
with the yellow eyes (like a wolf) she has…we are not a sexist band, but
I think she’s a very good-looking lady!
7.OK,
I
HAVE TO SAY THAT THE PRODUCTIONWAS IMPROVED IN COMPARISON TO THE PREVIOUS
ONE, BUT STILL YOU HAVE A LOTOF WORK TO DO ON THAT FIELD. DO
YOU AGREE? WHICH IS THE REASON
THAT YOUHAVEN’T YET MANAGED TO CREATE A MORE PROFESSIONAL SOUND? IS
IT ECONOMICALOR LACK OF EXPERIENCE?
(Stefano) I totally agree with
you, we still have to improve our sound. The previous demo cd was
recorded totally live and as for “Onirical Inheritance” we went in a professional
studio. We could only pay for two days, so some things haven’t been made
perfectly…for example if I could come back to those days I’d play again
all the guitar parts in order to give them a more straight sound. So the
reasons are half economical and half dued to a lack of experience…we hope
for a better recording for the future works of Twilight Zone!
8.YOU
ALSO HAVE ON THE DEMO TWOLIVE SONGS, WHERE WERE THEY RECORDED AND ARE YOU
SATISFIED BY THE SOUNDTHEY HAVE?
(Stefano) They are two different
songs and their presence on the demo has different meanings. The acoustic
version of “Twilight Zone” was recorded in December 1998 during an “unplugged
live show”….it’s a different shape of the band and as I see it now the
recording is poor, but we have chosen to put it in. In the future we are
going to record better some other unplugged versions of our songs. “A Journey
Far Beyond” is a very old song. The first part of this song, entitled “The
Gates Of Hell” is on our 1995 demo tape "Wandering Reflections”. Then we
have completed this story, based on Dante Alighieri’s “Inferno” and it
comes out a long song of almost 12 minutes. We often play it live but we
have never recorded it…so we have chosen this recording coming from a concert
we played in July 1996. We’ll record everything at the end, when we have
finished the whole “Dante Alighieri’s tribute” with the “Purgatory” (lyrics
and some riffs already done) and “Heaven”.
9.WHICH
IS ACCORDING TO YOU YOURBEST AND WHICH IS THE WORST ELEMENT YOU HAVE? WHERE
DO YOU THINK YOU NEEDFURTHER IMPROVEMENT?
(Stefano) The best thing we have
is our love for music and our passion for heavy metal…together with a good
technical improvement in these last years! The worst things…personally
I think that I could become a better guitar player if I studied more…and
also a better singer !
(Francesco) Maybe we have to improve
our sound a little more, but the main reason is maybe linked to a lack
of money... Personally maybe If I studied more about my instrument I could
improve my technical skills.
10. LET’S
SUPPOSE THAT SOMEONE COMESTO YOU AND ASKS YOU TO DESCRIBE YOUR MUSIC. WHAT
WOULD YOU TELL HIM ANDWHAT DO YOU HAVE TO OFFER TO THE SCENE?
(Stefano) If I had to give a technical
definition of Twilight Zone's music I could define it as “Power-thrash
metal with epic influences” but I think the simple definition of “Heavy
Metal” fits equally good. We have inside us many different faces of heavy
metal: in our roots you can find the violence of thrash metal guitar riffs,
the guitar melodies of Iron Maiden and Judas Priest, a darker feeling coming
out from the influence of bands like early Paradise Lost, Death SS, Black
Sabbath, Celtic Frost or Danzig and the epic feeling of Manilla Road, early
Savatage, Omen, Warlord ecc.. We try to mix up all these different faces
under our personal point of view, trying to create something good to play
and to listen to. What can we offer to the scene? Maybe a demonstration
that heavy metal could have different perspectives but it’s a single thing,
a single life-style, a single feeling…all these differences and separations
among the metalheads are completely unuseful and dangerous!
11. IF
YOUR MUSIC WERE ANEMOTION, WHAT WOULD IT BE? IF
IT WERE A PAINTING, WHAT WOULD IT SHOW?
(Stefano) We have always put in
our music our deepest emotions…I think of Twilight Zone's music as the
feeling you feel when you come out from a deep delusion or defiance…many
songs of ours have lyrics about how you can come out from your saddest
feelings! I think about a “psychological rebirth”! Our songs are often
full of symbols and metaphores linked to man’s mind or the mysteries of
nature…so I’d think of an abstract painting or a romantic painter!
(Pierluigi) It would be happiness
and fun, fear and pain... I think it would show something between life
and death but in a positive way.
(Francesco) If it were an emotion
it would be rage and darkness, it would be a personal straight strong looking
forward life...if it were a painting I'd paint it as a storm.
12. IF
WE LIVED IN A WORLD WITHOUT MUSIC, WHAT WOULD YOU DO IN SUCH A CASE?
(Stefano) You should ask my mother
this question ! If music didn’t exist in this world, maybe I would have
finished University before and maybe now I’d have a work and a family….but
I would have lost many friends and I would have not lived many fantastic
experiences. At the end, in my opinion a world without music can’t exist!
(Pierluigi) I think I could kill
somebody... it's impossible to live without it... Music is everytime and
everywhere inside of me...
(Francesco) Maybe I'll be a great
tennis player...just like Lars Ulrich used to!
13.IN
WHICH MOVIE SOUNDTRACK WOULDYOU LIKE TO HAVE TAKEN PART OR HAVE COMPOSED?
(Stefano) I’d love to take part
to something related to a movie soundtrack for Dario Argento…but an epic
song like “May Death Have Me On The Battlefield” could fit good also for
a fantasy movie just like “Conan The Barbarian” or stuff like that.
(Pierluigi) "Amadeus" ! "Braveheart"
!!
(Francesco) I'd like to write music
for a fantasy movie just like "The Lord Of The Rings"...or, if I tried
to write different music it'd be funny to write psychedelic-easy listening
music for an erotic movie!
14.WHICH
SONG WOULD YOU DEDICATETO THE WOMAN OF YOUR DREAMS?
(Stefano) Among Twilight Zone songs
I’d choose an unreleased song called “With You In The Clouds”…but if I
had to choose a song that makes me immediately think of my dream-woman
I’d choose “The Price” from Twisted Sister.
(Pierluigi) Surely "Thank You" of
Led Zeppelin and "Believe" of Savatage.
(Francesco) I'm a very rough man...I'll
dedicate her "Fight Fire With Fire" from Metallica....
15.THANK
YOU! HAVE I
FORGOTTEN TOASK YOU ANYTHING AND YOU’D LIKE TO MENTION?
(Stefano) (Pierluigi) (Francesco)
You haven’t forgotten anything…I think every musician would like always
to have such questions, with something about music and something more personal…We
have only to say thank you to you and to “Behind The Veil” for the interest
shown for Twilight Zone and we hope to have always more and more fans from
Greece!
Nick "William_Kidd"
Parastatidis
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