Interview with Keyboarder Andrea
Painkiller Mag
December 2004 by Else
1. Hi, Andrea! Nice to meet you again, particularly in London! Have you played any gigs here before? How do you feel about the audience? Fans love Labyrinth so much… Would you come again?
Hi! Nice to meet you too. It's the first time for us in London. The audience was great as you seen there, really excited and shouting crowd. People were really surprised, I guess, and we'll get back!!!!
2. Why making a show with Dream Evil? Are you two bands close to each other? Who invites you to come?
We were invited by the by the English girl who works in Camden for Century Media. It was her birthday party. Labyrinth and Dream evil are her favourite bands that's why we were playing there... In my opinion we are not so close. Dream Evil play a good classic metal while Labyrinth have different influences.
3. How are you getting on these days after Beijing gig? Can fans expect a new album from you? Labyrinth Website suggests that something be "foreseen autumn 2004"…
The new album is forthcoming. We've completed the postproduction right now at House of audio (Germany) while mixing and recording were made at Elnor studio in Milano. The studio's owner is Mat Stancioiu who assisted the sound engineer Giovanni Spinotti the same who work on "Labyrinth". The releasing date is supposed to be on March/April 2005.
4. How do you like Beijing? You went to the Palace Museum, Huaway Conservatory of Music and Hard Rock Cafe at Beijing.
Beijing is a fascinating city. I am a lover of some eastern features, I think bout 'em as really important to be considered. As you can see I've a tattoo on my right arm with Chinese and Japanese characters. I was really happy to see with my eyes a window of the eastern culture. The forbidden palace seems to be a place where the time isn't going on while the architecture is far from the western one, beautiful in different ways. I was just thinking about the differences between the Roman and the Chinese empires. Really interesting thought. Bring us to GREAT WALL next time!!!! Remember it eh eh!!!
5. How do you feel about your tour to Asia? Please compare you gigs in Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Beijing. How was the audience's feedback? I heard that there were not so many people in Taiwan and Hong Kong.
Honestly we've enjoyed all the gigs. We always gave the top in all the situations...it doesn't matter how many people you have in front of when you can see in their eyes outstanding happiness. This is the reason why we are playing and you must think that was the first time for us, but especially for an Italian metal band to do such a long tour in Asia. Anyway there wasn't lots of people in Taiwan while in Hong Kong more than it was expected. Space and Sam, the managers of that gigs are really clever and very nice people, they really know how to do their job. I'm sure that next time they bring MUCH more people!!!!! Japan is a well-organized country the gigs was almost perfect in all their aspects. The gig in Beijing was unforgettable. China is a country that right lately is having an incredible development after many troubles...this is the taste I felt when we were there. I guess it'll become really important for u and us. I didn't expect such many people... Lots of guys come there just to enjoy music. That's really important
6. Everybody is curious about band members' names. You all change your names back to real ones. Why? Labyrinth seems to change a lot after Olaf Thorsen's leave, including cover artwork.
We've changed a lot after Olaf's split starting from the original names. We thought that the time was right to come our real names out. We are Italian but in the beginning of our career this wasn't seen well by the music business. Now the Italian metal is really important in the scene thanx to bands such Labyrinth, Rhapsody and Lacuna Coil. The music is changed too because Olaf was the one whose taste tend much more to power metal and classic metal. Labyrinth have different influences...power metal is the last…
7. When people here in Britain talk about what the worst things in power metal are, they agree that poor production is one of them. They mention that if Labyrinth had improved production a bit, it would have been much better. They refer to the homonymous album of 2003, I think.
First of all we don't want to be classified as a power metal band anymore. If some people listen deeply to our albums could recognize that we have just a couple of power metal songs. With the new album we did a further step ahead. It is the right connection between seventies, eighties and modern metal. The production is great, thousand miles better than before. Sometimes in power metal we couldn't hear top production because of the budget and the time. If some power metal band could have the same time and the great budget as the big bands the production probably would be better…even if it's also a matter of good hears and long experience.
8. Do you have any plan to release a single album? To make something different, possibly different from metal?
Of course... I'm recording some fusion and electronic stuff...even if I've always worked in different musical fields in Italy.
9. Thank you for taking time! Please say something to your fans in China!
Just a promise......to break your hears again as soon as possible!!!!! See ya all.