In the latest edition of Rock Hard Italy, we can read a long interview to Tuomas and Troy. We translated some interesting parts for you. The journalist attended the very first listening in Levi.
With Human.:||:Nature we got to hear new stylistic horizons, how did this new artistic perspective evolve?
It is not something that developed itself before the writing process, yet it was born right in the middle of the writing process itself. Once we gathered to work on new material, we realised that the new material was evolving towards a certain direction, but yes, it’s something that happened with no planning
The album seems to give a positive message to the listener, giving food for thought in terms of changing perspectives, learning from the past and from the unspoiled populations, far from our exaggerated progress…
This is our declaration of love, to human and nature We simply told via music our perceptions. The message is clear even if you take a look at the cover hard, where you can see the two main concepts, in an ancient alphabet. We used these ancient symbols because it was a revolutionary moment for humanity, as revolutionary as the internet was in recent times…
The role of man as a maker of his own destiny in history is clear in Shoemaker. What inspired you?
We wanted to celebrate intelligence and creativity by talking about an existing man, Eugene Shoemaker. He was a pioneer in planetary science and his studies were crucial in astrophysics. In fact, some of his theories are linked to the environmental consequences of asteroids reaching the earth. Apart from his scientific discoveries, Shoemaker’s life was extremely interesting!
Differently from Endless Forms, it seems that the topics are now less scientific and more introspective… Did the sabbatical year you took had an influence on this?
Probably yes, during the gap year we had time to gather ideas and interests, which of course bloomed as soon as we started to work again. The sabbatical year was physically needed actually, we were all exhausted and tired, so we really need to stop for a while and recharge. This helped us consider new artistic solutions…
Can you tell us more about the Disc 2?
Once again, it is a declaration of love that we are dealing with. With wanted to thank all that our earth offers us every day, but with a different point of you, above the human being and far from the physical dimension. For instance, in Ad Astra, the prospective we wanted to give is the one that can see every tiny wonder of our planet, from above.
And why you didn’t consider adding lyrics to this disc?
Because working on that we realised it was already perfect that way, it wasn’t logical to force something over a composition which was already good. It is not something we discussed in a meeting, simply as it gets, we noticed it was working very good without singing parts. It was the music itself asking us to keep going on that path.
In Endlessness the main topic is the persistence of time, really fascinating…
I like to consider time as something streaming, something that all humans have in common. I often think about it and I consider myself lucky in this regard. Being here now and being able to communicate with other people, being able to share my experiences and thoughts…that’s the meaning of life to me…
It seems like the contribution of the other band’s member is far more variegated in this album, and of course, we can get a grasp of that in the vocal parts
During these years, the chemistry between us grew, as band members and single musicians. I think we are now more like a family, a bunch of people sharing life experiences. When we released Endless, Floor and Troy had been in the band for a couple of years only, yet we had toured intensively together. Now we have been together for 7 years and we got to know us better and better. This helped a lot during the composition.
Considering the news in this album, how do you think the fans react to this work?
I have no special expectation about it, but let me be clear: it doesn’t meaning that I don’t care at all- I am really proud of this product and how we developed it. It wouldn’t be fair to force our perspective over external thought. Composing allows me to express my point of views and I don’t want to change it to please what people want to hear. It wouldn’t be correct, ethically and professionally speaking.