- Can you tell me a
little bit about the history of Seven Gates, how long do you exist?
(Tommy) : SevenGates started at the end of the last century as a power metal cover band.
In 2000 we started to write our personal songs and we recorded a demo, then came the first full length “Unreality” for the brasilian label Megahard (2001). After many gigs around Italy we started the pre-production and recordings of “The Good and the Evil” (2004).
This album was out
as free mp3 download on our website in June 2008, and now we are recording our 3rd
new album “Betrayer”.
- “The good and the
evil” is your second album and it took a long time until it saw the light of day
(2004 – 2007). What can you tell me about the production of this record?
(Tommy): well, we took some time for the pre-production in 2004. Then we went in the studio for the official recordings in 2005. The album was ready at the end of 2005. It was (and it is) a co-production with our good friend Frank Andiver, so we had to agree every decision with him about this record. We had some offerings from some record labels, but we refused some because actually they wanted money without giving us nothing (the band have to buy 200 copies from the label, you loose your rights on the master, they do very few about promotion and distribution,….is this a good deal….??!?), and a label we signed with did not publish the cd in the deadline written on the deal.
So ,after all, we decided together with Frank, to publish the cd on the website for free, as mp3 format, artwork included. This was the only way to give our music to our fans without waiting for labels that could not give us what we want.
Anyway, if some
labels will arrive in the way we want, they will be welcome.
- Who wrote the
lyrics and the music on this album? Can you tell me something about the themes
of the tracks or what you want to express with the lyrics?
(Marco):Fabrizio (ex-keyboarder) and Tommy (guitar) wrote all music in “The Good and The Evil”, I wrote only a couple of lyrics. There are a lot of themes in lyrics...here they are, track ny track:
Message to the stars – in memory of Tommy’s Grandma
Vengeance – Hmmm... The Crow!!
I don’t believe – love sorrow and anger for a delusion
Dragonkiss – Dragon, swords, sky, fire and so on ahahahaha
Ride the Wild – Sex.... listen to the lyrics ahr ahr!
Freedom – Memory of Hostages killed in Iraq and all around the world
Cry of Efestus – Mythology!
Honour and Pride : Inspired by the history of Italian Division “Acqui” in Cefalonia, 1943
17 : Cabala, written by our ex-bassist, Simone, he was persecuted by that number ahahahah
Burning Clouds :Ehm.... Tommy? You
wrote that lyrics! Come here to explain!!!!
- Unlike your first
album “Unreality” your second album is distributed for free as download on your
homepage. What lead you to this step?
(Marco) : Simple. We had some offers from some labels, but differently from many bands, we refused those offers, ‘cause they did not give us what we want. We only wanted some decent distribution, promotion and we did not want to pay anything for the press of the cd!
Damn! I’m a musician! Label had to pay for my music! I did not want to pay nobody to press my cd! I’m not a 18 boy! I’m 34 and I’m tired to be fooled!
And so, unlike many
other band (happy to pay xxxx euros for the press of their cd), we decided to
refuse all offers. We only want to see our music promoted and distributed, and
so, what’s better than internet? Here we are, 5\6000 downloads of the cd, a lot
of reviews (also some “top album” reviews from big webzines... it’s very nice to
see our cd next to acdc and g’n’r ones ehehehe ) and interviews.
- Have you never
thought about to found your own distribution company or something like that?
(Tommy) : well, we
never thought about it. We have our own jobs, our families, we have no time to
think about it. We have few time for music, we could never follow another
subject like distribution/license label.
- Do you think this
kind of free distribution will be the future to young bands for gaining
attention in the music world?
(Tommy) : we don’t
know it. But we can tell young bands it is a very good way to gain attention.
Sure you have to do a good album, even if it is free, people don’t listen to
music if it is not good music. The future is in the web. Surely. Personally I
prefer the pressed cds, but today we cannot ignore the legal and illegal
download…..maybe for the next cd, it could be a very good idea to put the mp3 to
download for a free offer, what do you think Marco? ;-)
(hmmmmm ok, but only
if you can download anyway the cd for zero euro in mp3! Ok? Nd Marco)
- Will your new
album also be a free product or do you want to try it again with a label?
(Marco) :Surely we will put it on our site for free distribution in mp3. We cannot renounce to it! And we will press the cd anyway. Label or not.
If a label will be interested in us (leaving the legal download from our site in mp3, required condition for any kind of deal), welcome!
Otherwise, we will press a limited edition in a high quality selfproduction (300 copies)!
No problem for us!
And, if we will go for the
selfproduction, you can bet for a great (=low ehehehe) price of the cd!
- Seven Gates
consists at the moment of you Tommy on guitar and Lorenzo on drums. What
happened to the other fellows who were involved in the recording?
(Tommy) : We had
many many members in the past. Some followed the music scene, still singing or
playing. Federico, the past singer on the cds is a very good guitar player
(Vision Divine); Paolo, our ex-drummer, stopped with music; Fabrizio, our ex
keyboarder, stopped his activity as player; Cesare, our live singer for many
years still sing in many bands, Simone, our ex-bass player still plays in other
kind of music bands…..there are many others!haha! too many!
- Are you seeking
for some new musicians at the moment to replace these guys?
(Tommy) : Actually we were looking only for the new singer for our next cd. We found it and we are very happy. His name is Eugent Bushpepa, he is from Albania, and he is a killer singer!
Check him out on youtube! HE ROCKS!
We are not looking
for other musicians ‘cause we are not playing live at this moment. We hope we
will play someday, then we will start looking for a good bass player.
- Your homepage says
there will be a new album called “Betrayer” which will be released in 2009. What
can you say about this album, will it be musically different to its predecessor?
(Marco) : There will be some differences, very few keyboards, a different singer, and harder songs!
We are very satisfied by the songs, we have 12 of them, and we will put 8\9 on the cd.... maybe we will press a limited edition with all the 12 tracks anyway!
And, surely, the cd will be also
available for download on our site!
- What else can we
await from Seven Gates in the near future? Have you planned to play again live?
(Marco) : Like labels... same thing for live gigs! if there will be good offers, we will play live. At the moment, we are tired of playin’ live for very few money (Damn, at least reimbursement of expenses!) for few people!
Here (and i think also in Germany) you have to play in a cover band of something to play decently!
Hmmm.... maybe we could be more lucky if we are the cover band of SevenGates ahahahah!
And so we founded an Helloween cover
Band, Mr Eagle, to play live.
- Thank your for
answering my question. Here’s the place fore some final words or a message to
our readers.
(Marco) : First of all, a great thank you to Mario Karl, to all redaction of Musikansich, and to everyone of you people reading this interview.
Then.... what are you waiting for?
Go and buy for zero euro our cd at www.sevengates.it!
Give it a try!
Mario Karl