LAST WARNING interview STEFANO VENUTO - Throughout Time (2009) - HEAVY SOUND SYSTEM
10 questions to LAST WARNING
STEFANO VENUTO, bass player & composer
STEFANO VENUTO, bass player & composer
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Le groupe italien de Prog Metal LAST WARNING est né en 1987. Fort d'une expérience scénique dans le nord de l'Italie, il tient à son actif trois albums studio : From The Floor Of The Well (1995), Under A Spell (2000) et Throughout Time que vous présente STEFANO VENUTO, bassiste et compositeur du groupe.
At first, can you introduce yourself and tell us in few words your own career ?
I started playing in the 80s. When me and other friends started playing as Last Warning I was only 17. After a couple of years I started composing both the music and the lyrics of the band and I never stopped.
What are your own favorite styles and influences ?
As far as I am concerned, I started listening to Pink Floyd, Deep Purple, Uriah Heep. Then, during the 80s and the 90s, I used to listen to American bands. I loved albums such as Rage for Order by Qeensryche, which I consider the mile stone of the genre, and Operation Mindcrime, the absolute masterpiece by the band of Seattle.
Then I started listening to the Canadian Rush, the real fathers of prog metal, which I loved immediately. Also Fates Warning influenced me a lot. Last but not least, Dream Theater definitively play a big role in the entire story.
Among the bands that influenced me I can also mention: Crimson Glory, Watchtower, with Control And Resistance, Annihilator, with Never Neverland.
Among the new bands I would like to mention Ayreon, Kamelot, Opeth.
About the band :
We have been playing together for more than 20 years now and since than the band has more or less always been the same, with the same group of friends. It is a matter of fact that during the years the line up changed only twice: since 1998 we have a new singer and in 2001 the new drummer entered the band.
The different members of the band have been influenced by different styles: from the progressive and Hard Rock of the 70s, to the Heavy Metal of the 80s up to the new Rock styles.
We worked with very interesting artists, mainly female singers, who came from a musical background completely different from ours. It is always a great challenge to have the opportunity to find a way to mix different experiences and musical attitudes.
And talking about singers… there’s an artist I never worked with… for obvious reasons… I’d love to work with… My dream is to listen to one of my songs sung by Geoff Tate! I consider him the greatest singer ever! He is able to transmit immense emotions…
What about your promotion work and your relation with press at the moment ? Do you get a good feed back about your new album ?
The feedback has been very positive. Most of the reviews are positive, especially those published by the press. But also on a lot of web sites we read that the album has been appreciated. Regarding the promotion work, we have to say that my Kingdom Music has been doing a great job in promoting our album and that such an effort is giving very good results.
What’s the mood of it ? What would you say to make people listen to it and buy it ?
It is a very heterogeneous album, with powerful and melodic songs. It is played with a very “live” sound, since we were more looking for emotions than for pure technical staff (which by the way is not missing). In the album we also tried new solutions: there are different elements which are not part of the “metal” tradition. In our opinion this makes our work quite interesting.
Where do you find your inspiration for music and lyrics ?
Most of the times our songs come out from acoustic guitars or from the piano. At the very beginning the melodies come out very spontaneously. They are then carefully analyzed in order to correct possible mistakes and improved. We than take good care that the lyrics are fluent enough. This kind of work is an absolute priority for us. Only after we analyzed the acoustic version we go on with the electric instruments. Each member of Last Warning brings in the arrangements his musical influences, which are very diverse.
What’s your favorite new track ? Why ?
My favourite new track is Throughout Time, since it includes all our musical influences. This is also the reason why we chose it as the title track.
We think that during the years we have developed our own style and we are quite pride of that. In our 20 year long career we have never followed the mainstream of the moment…
Will you be touring soon and what can the audience expect from you on stage ?
We would like to promote our cd live as much as we can, but we will not be touring. What the audience can expect is that what they listen on the cd is also what they will listen during the concert!
Message to HEAVY SOUNDERS :
Enjoy the album!
I started playing in the 80s. When me and other friends started playing as Last Warning I was only 17. After a couple of years I started composing both the music and the lyrics of the band and I never stopped.
What are your own favorite styles and influences ?
As far as I am concerned, I started listening to Pink Floyd, Deep Purple, Uriah Heep. Then, during the 80s and the 90s, I used to listen to American bands. I loved albums such as Rage for Order by Qeensryche, which I consider the mile stone of the genre, and Operation Mindcrime, the absolute masterpiece by the band of Seattle.
Then I started listening to the Canadian Rush, the real fathers of prog metal, which I loved immediately. Also Fates Warning influenced me a lot. Last but not least, Dream Theater definitively play a big role in the entire story.
Among the bands that influenced me I can also mention: Crimson Glory, Watchtower, with Control And Resistance, Annihilator, with Never Neverland.
Among the new bands I would like to mention Ayreon, Kamelot, Opeth.
About the band :
We have been playing together for more than 20 years now and since than the band has more or less always been the same, with the same group of friends. It is a matter of fact that during the years the line up changed only twice: since 1998 we have a new singer and in 2001 the new drummer entered the band.
The different members of the band have been influenced by different styles: from the progressive and Hard Rock of the 70s, to the Heavy Metal of the 80s up to the new Rock styles.
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Which artist you work with or you worked with impress(ed) you the most?
We worked with very interesting artists, mainly female singers, who came from a musical background completely different from ours. It is always a great challenge to have the opportunity to find a way to mix different experiences and musical attitudes.
And talking about singers… there’s an artist I never worked with… for obvious reasons… I’d love to work with… My dream is to listen to one of my songs sung by Geoff Tate! I consider him the greatest singer ever! He is able to transmit immense emotions…
What about your promotion work and your relation with press at the moment ? Do you get a good feed back about your new album ?
The feedback has been very positive. Most of the reviews are positive, especially those published by the press. But also on a lot of web sites we read that the album has been appreciated. Regarding the promotion work, we have to say that my Kingdom Music has been doing a great job in promoting our album and that such an effort is giving very good results.What’s the mood of it ? What would you say to make people listen to it and buy it ?
It is a very heterogeneous album, with powerful and melodic songs. It is played with a very “live” sound, since we were more looking for emotions than for pure technical staff (which by the way is not missing). In the album we also tried new solutions: there are different elements which are not part of the “metal” tradition. In our opinion this makes our work quite interesting.
Where do you find your inspiration for music and lyrics ?
Most of the times our songs come out from acoustic guitars or from the piano. At the very beginning the melodies come out very spontaneously. They are then carefully analyzed in order to correct possible mistakes and improved. We than take good care that the lyrics are fluent enough. This kind of work is an absolute priority for us. Only after we analyzed the acoustic version we go on with the electric instruments. Each member of Last Warning brings in the arrangements his musical influences, which are very diverse.
What’s your favorite new track ? Why ?
My favourite new track is Throughout Time, since it includes all our musical influences. This is also the reason why we chose it as the title track.
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Do you think you will bring something new in music with your new cd ?
We think that during the years we have developed our own style and we are quite pride of that. In our 20 year long career we have never followed the mainstream of the moment…
Will you be touring soon and what can the audience expect from you on stage ?
We would like to promote our cd live as much as we can, but we will not be touring. What the audience can expect is that what they listen on the cd is also what they will listen during the concert!
Message to HEAVY SOUNDERS :
Enjoy the album!
LAST WARNING interview STEFANO VENUTO - Throughout Time (2009)
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Photos et visuels :
Site Officiel
MySpace
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