The Stompcrash - Dicovering Magic

The13th AÑO: 4 | NÚMERO 42

UNA R E VISTA IMA GINARIA

THE STOMPCRASH

THE STOMPCRASH | DAYOFFS | CUARTO FLOTANTE | LOS ÁCIDOS ON THE WANE | SIXTH JUNE | HAIM

Discovering Magic

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Today: The Stompcrash - Requiem Rosa (2007)

Interview with Chris Fu-Manchu Islec by Marianarchy Deadbilly

How was the recording process of "ReIt's a pleasure to talk to you. For this we will use the excuse of the ten years of the quiem Rosa"?

At that times we really had no money to inrelease of "Requiem Rosa", the debut alvest in The Stompcrash, we were too young bum of your band. and production was very poor so we recorWhat do you feel when you think that ten ded a lot of stuff at home even vocals and years have passed since that realization? some guitars, the work in the studio was foI feel very old, haha, just joking man... I have cused on drums, creating the right atmospheto say you that I feel very proud to still be on re for every song and creating strange sound the scene with The Stompcrash. I saw a lot to put in it. I remember we use even a mic inof bands disappear in these years and I un- side an ampoule and crazy things like that. A derstand that, it's very hard and you need a lot of time was dedicated to arrangements, lot of strength to keep a band alive, it's like a as I said you, and our artistic producer at that family and you have to keep bound together time, Alessio Camagni, did a great job. We and I can swear you in 10 years people chan- had a lot of fun and I still think that RR still our ge a lot, they grow and change their mind, in most experimenting work in the studio. fact the only original member from that days What expectations did they have at the are me and Dani but I have a lot of good memories of that days and of all the people has time with the debut album release?

As every band at their first release, we had been part of this project.

I have to say that it's too easy to make a a lot of expectations, as I said you we were band, be on the scene a couple of years and very young and inexperienced, so with just then quit it just because you get tired or just an album out we felt like a rock n roll stars, to move on a more followed scene, I respect eheh... As we understood very soon reality is all bands like us that still really believe in what completely different but I still feel happy and they do and that has a straight identity even proud of that work, I would like to record it again today and see how it would sound with after years on the road. the more experience and consciousness we Although he had already released an EP gained in all these years. called "I Will Kill Myself" What differences How do you see your first job in the disdo you find between that EP and the first tance today? album?

I feel it very distant from what we are toIt was completely different approach between our first EP and our first album Re- day, ten years is a very long time and many quiem Rosa. We recorded the EP at home things are changed inside us and outside us. without any help from the external world, you Sometimes when happen to hear it I feel it can feel that it's very acerbic but in the same like another band are playing that songs even way also fresh and free from every conditio- the songs we still play today like "Dorian" and ning. We brought part of the same material to "Moscow". I think we would not able to write the studio where we recorded RR (Requiem an album like that today, but I still like it and Rosa), never been in a studio before that time, there are some gems I would like to bring to a where a producer helped us to re-arrange all new life like "Mountain of Madness". the songs in a more mature way, sometimes Would you change anything from that realso a strange way that we would never think about. So sounds, arrangements and the ge- cording or leave it as it is?

Yes, there are a lot of things I would channeral mood of the album are completely dige today! I would sing again every song, our fferent.

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voices are now more mature and probably the songs would be interpreted in a better way.

Also something in the arrangement of some songs, I still have demos made before entering the studio and there are songs on which, I think, we had experimented too much. But the thing I would change the most is the mastering, I feel it too dark and confused today, I strongly believe that Requiem Rosa with a new and clear mastering would be a blast!

How is the creative process of the band?

First make the music, then the lyrics?

We haven't a rule on writing but usually, music comes first with an idea of what we want to recount. We always write music to create an atmosphere, to create an ambient, a house for lyrics. Then come words that have power, sometimes, to change the music.

What things inspire you?

Sometimes we take inspiration from writers, Do you plan to do a special edition or ce- from novels and stories that hit us and somelebrate the ten years in some special way? times we take inspiration from what happens We didn't plan anything, principally be- around us or what we feel in a particular mocause we just released our new record "Swear ment of time of our life. by the Moon" in January and then because What changed in the band in these ten we like to do things at our best and this year we were been too even busy with our private years?

We changed some bandmates and it's a life to do a good job for a re-issue. big change for a band like ours because we

always have seen it as a family and because every member has always given his contributes and ideas to writing songs.

Tell us about the scene in Milan.

Milan and Italian gothic scene in general it's full of very good bands, as Italians we have a great heritage about arts, music and cinema, we know how to do it we don't need to emulate someone else but the problem is that often we are not sure and conscious of that and we prefer to support bands from abroad more than local bands. I think Italian scene deserves more attention from local promoters.

Do you remember any concert of yours that you will never forget? Tell us which it is and why.

Surely is a concert by The Cure, I think was fifteen years ago here in Italy. During the concert, there was a very strong storm, hard rain fallen and a gloomy and dark atmosphere suddenly comes. I remember the band had to stop three or four times to shelter from the rain

and many and many people fallen in the mud like a soldier in a battlefield. Just epic!

Do you know anything about the scene in Argentina and Latin America?

To be honest I just know that you love music in general and in particular gothic music has a lot of followers. I know that I lot of band comes to play to Latin America, our friends Frozen Autumn (Diego Merletto filmed out first video clip taken from "Requiem Rosa") for example.

Do you have any plans to come to South America?

No plans but we would like to do that, in future, we will see.

Let's talk about "Swear by the Moon" (the last work of the band), what can you tell us about the current sound? “Swear by the Moon� is an album for gothic and dark lovers which also love original music and style. An album soaked of gothic literature, dark romanticism and gloomy atmosphe-

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res. There are a lot of influences inside but we always maintained our sound and our vision of gothic music. “Swear by the Moon” represents a step ahead for the band, a huge work, well produced from music to visual concepts.

The title “Swear by the Moon” even tells about lyrics of the album, there are lyrics more gothic-oriented like “Plague Doctor” or literature inspired like “The Wedding Knell” and “Mirrors” but all the lyrics have in common an urgency to tell about what society risks to become today, it’s a very dark time so inspiration comes from what we see and live every day. I like to see the band as a flag, well anchored to gothic but free to move following the wind with never left behind just because

it’s not in the gothic sphere.

We always start with an image, we create the right atmosphere with music and then I write the lyrics, most of the times after the music come but sometimes I have in mind vocal lines before. Synths and sounds have always a predominant part of that process because could be very polyhedric if well used.

What are the band's next plans?

We are still planning gigs to support our latest work "Swear by the Moon" released in January on Trisol Music, that's our main focus now, we will release soon a new video/single and start writing new songs for our next release. Keep in touch.

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