ARMONITE – BEHIND THE MUSIC
The instrumental duo hailing from Italy gave the Metalist.za a run down on the inspiration and creative process in crafting their unique and eclectic sound, as well as fresh beginnings with a new record label and upcoming album.
Your sound is energetic and bombastic, and even a touch quirky. What imagery did you have in mind while you were composing?
I start from a situation from my life or a place I’d like to live, or someone I saw, like in a movie sequence. Sometimes it’s just an abstract feeling, but whatever it is, I go right to the keyboard and try to fix it down. If I like how that sounds, I put it on my computer and try an arrangement to see if I’m going to keep it or not. When I get stuck, I go for a walk and start over.
Has your music developed a life of its own during its composition or has it stayed in line with your original vision?
Next album is going to differ a lot from the previous one, with a rather peculiar view. The Sun is New Each Day had a heavy compact sound… And the Stars Above is groovy, with different vibes across a bunch of genres. There’s something indie in this new sound that we’ve never explored before and it’s kind of sexy for us.
The progressive genre has a lot of leg room for expansion and exploration. Do you foresee your music walking down any other avenues besides the soundtrack projects?
Channeling concepts without the support of lyrics might be hard, but it’s also very universal. Instrumental music breaks down the language barriers becoming visceral and direct. In addition to videogames and movies, I think our tracks would be a perfect fit for dance also, and media installations.
You have mentioned a love of video game music which shows through in your sound. Are there any composers within that genre who significantly inspired you?
Other than Michael Giacchino and Harry Gregson-Williams, who are also and foremost great film score composers, Martin O’Donnell, Michael Salvatori, Jepser Kyd, Jeremy Soule, Greg Edmonson, Marcin Przybyłowicz, Mikolai Stroinski, Nobuo Uematsu, Koji Kondo, just to mention a few that spring to mind.
Who or what is specifically inspiring you musically at this moment in time?
At the moment, I’m drawing inspiration from many of my many passions, which are movies, technology, videogames, books, philosophy, travel, and pop culture. When you read a book or watch a movie, imagination is stimulated and new ideas come to mind in a sort of domino effect.
Where do you feel you fit within the rock and metal genres?
Hard to say. We mix up the hard rock genre with electronics, classical, and world music, with topping of progressive metal and a pinch of pop culture. Some people say we’re original due to violin in place of the voice, but rock violin has existed since the late ‘60s and there’s no novelty in using a violin in a rock band. I prefer to say we are original because we take a few snippets from the world and try to stuff them all in a box.
Do you feel that you’re actively a part of the metal scene or that rather you tend to be included by others in reviews and bios?
It’s understandable and useful that reviewers pigeonhole all music, they need to describe how an album sounds like. But I think today’s music is much more diverse and harder to label than in the past, when genres were more confined. Coming to your question, the definition we use for our music is a generic “instrumental rock”.
Your first record was released in 1999, after which you were inactive until 2015. What prompted your desire to reignite Armonite?
I was tired to only work in event management and music administration, the most aseptic side of music, far from the creative process, and so Jacopo, he had been working as a classical performer for so long that we needed a project of ours that we really liked. With this idea in mind, we formed a new band, Armonite, while borrowing the name of our old one.
How has the transition to Cleopatra records influenced your musical progression going forward?
Working with Cleopatra has been great, they’re skilled and competent, I’m sure they will take Armonite to the next level. I’ve always been a great lover of movies and videogames, I was just moving forward to the composition of soundtrack music, so this collaboration comes right on cue.
With the new album on its way, are there any tours in the pipeline?
For sure, we’ll be arranging a tour to promote the album. We can’t say anything right now, but stay tuned for more!
Will we be lucky enough to see you in South Africa in the future?
That would be just great! If you want to arrange a concert for us, please drop us a line! 🙂
Interviewed by: Jera Aldrene (More from Jera)
Shots supplied by: Armonite
Date: February 2018
Follow ARMONITE on:
