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InterviewsItalian Power/Prog Metal Act Wind Rose Unleash Shadows Over Lothadruin

Posted on Sunday, December 16 2012 @ 10:15:03 CST by Pete Pardo
Progressive Metal

Progressive and Power have a rich tradition of joining their musical style with tales set in lands of Fantasy. Sea of Tranquility Staff Writer Geoff Glenister had a chance to sit down and talk with drummer Dan Visconti of Italian Power/Prog Metal band Wind Rose about the group, their new album entitled Shadows Over Lothadruin, the creative process, and their inspiration.

SoT: First off, I'd like to say thanks for doing this interview with Sea of Tranquillity! So we are ramping up for the release of your debut full length album, entitled "Shadows Over Lothadruin" - how do you feel about the press leading up to this release so far?

Dan: Hi, we are Wind Rose and we would like to thank all the staff of SOT for these questions!

We are very excited, this release is a long dream that comes true! It's a very strong satisfaction to see that webzines, magazines and other websites from all over the world are talking about our debut album…

SoT: Can you give us a little history of the band: tell us how you all met and decided to form a band?

Dan: Claudio and Dan met in 2001 when they were 9 years old in a school of music in Pisa and then they called Federico to form a prog-metal cover band. They started practicing and playing Blind Guardian, Symphony X and Dream Theater songs till they decided to write their own material. In 2009 Alessio and Francesco joined the band and all together they founded Wind Rose.

SoT: So how did you go about choosing the name "Wind Rose" for your band?

Dan: "Wind Rose" it's a symbol of journey, which means freedom and glory; for us it's a homage to our most favourite novels too (The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion).

SoT: "Shadows Over Lothadruin" is a concept album based in a fantasy world - can you tell our readers a little about the story of the album, and how you decided to write a concept album for your debut?

Dan: We have been so influenced by Blind Guardian's "Nightfall in middle earth" and Symphony X's "V: the new mythology" that we decided to write a concept for our debut and we thought the best terms that would describe our musical and lyrical ideas was an epic story.

Meador is the main character of the novel and he moves for revenge against the dark king Averoth, who defeated the biggest part of Meador's people because Garosh, our hero's uncle, betrayed his population by telling Averoth how to destroy them…

SoT: Was the story for "Shadows Over Lothadruin" written before, after, or during the music composition?

Dan: The story was written by Claudio long time before the composition of Shadows over Lothadruin, so we had more inspirations for each song.

SoT: I must say, the cover art for "Shadows" is beautiful, and compliments the story quite well - sparking the imagination. Can you tell us about the cover and how it came about?

Dan: We were in search for someone who could represent in an image all that we had in our minds so we found Felipe Machado Franco (who made artworks for Rhapsody of fire, Blind Guardian). In the cover we've represented a moment of the first great battle that took part in the north of the peninsula of Lothadruin, at Gyalon's gates. On the foreground you can see the dark king Averoth with his army of Verers and on the right the Gyalonian army is trying to fight them. On the background there are towers of Gyalon.

SoT: Can you tell me about the writing process for the music - do members write together or separately, and then bring their work to the table?

Dan: The writing process starts when we reunite all together in our studio, in front of our computer. When one of us has got an idea, we record it in an audio track of Logic Pro 9, then we try to search the best arrangement the song deserves. When the intro and the first vocal part are made we spend a lot of time searching for a melodic chorus which can remain stuck in the listeners' heads.

SoT: What is your personal favourite song off of the album, or what track would you say you are most proud of?

Dan: It's a hard question to be answered! But we think the songs that reflects the most what we would mean with our music is Majesty; a union of power, progressive, epic, melodic and technical sections.

SoT: What other musical artists do you find a great deal of inspiration from - or, to put it another way, who makes you want to be a better musician?

Dan: Our main sources of inspiration are the bands we listened for our whole lives: Blind Guardian, Dream Theater and Symphony X. The musicians we're devoted to surely are MJ Romeo, John Petrucci, Kiko Loureiro, Mike Mangini, Mike Portnoy, Russell Allen, Jorn Lande, Steve Harris, Oliver Holzwarth, Michael Pinnella, Petri Lindroos.

SoT: So what's next for Wind Rose? Are their plans for a tour or even a follow up album yet?

Dan: Now we're moving to compose a new album, four songs have been already written and in the meantime we're searching for a supporting tour with some big bands: it's so hard to find it, but we hope one day we could announce we are leaving for a great tour!

SoT: Thank you for taking the time to talk to us! Is there anything else you'd like to add for our readers?

Dan: You can connect with Wind Rose on our official facebook, youtube and twitter and for the latest news you shall visit www.windroseofficial.com.

Thank you for the time you spent for us and thanks to everyone who follows us on the web and at the live shows!

Geoff Glenister

(Click here to read our review of Shadows Over Lothadruin)



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