– Hi, thanks for your time. What are you currently up to? How is everything doing right now with SECRET SPHERE?

(Aldo) :Hi Sergio and thank to you for the interview, everything is really great for us at the moment and we are working hard on the promotion. We are just confirming some summer festival, later , next fall also a European tour is on the way to be setting.

– Your latest album, «Portrait of a Dying Heart», was released during late November. How has its feedback been? And what are your expectations on it?

(Aldo) : We really worked hard for the new album, for many months and the good news is that the feedback is really great, beyond our expectations, many magazines and webzines, named the new album as one of the best power metal realease of the year!!!

 

– You now have seven albums released and all of them have got great reviews but I think you don’t have the recognition you guys deserve, recognition that, for instance, some other Italian bands have. What do you think is the main reason behind this?

(Aldo) : More or less yes, we always receive positive reactions and reviews for our albums, and during my career I have been more than one time near to get the right exposure, we have fan bases around the world, we toured many times europe or international big festivals, but for some reason we are still trying to climb the mountain and unfortunately there are really few italian bands that can be place near big names, I say unfortunately because there are many great bands that deserve it! This sometimes for lack of promotion, I remember when I released my second album “A Time NeverCome” there were lot of buzz around the band, but the label at that time was small and no will to grow up, later we signed for Nuclear Blast but we were to youngand with no experience to understand how things work. We’re still here , with the same passion and we have a great new album.

 

– Anyway, do you think this new record would be the perfect chance of finally get that deserved recognition? As I personally think with this new opus you have managed to create your most pure and dynamic effort so far; would you agree on this?

(Aldo) : I think that the new album is really our best so far, we took all the time to release a perfect album, great songs, great production, artwork, lyrics, concept!

 

– In fact I believe this is your best CD, you have created a perfect Power Metal album with its respective balads, its epicness and superb melodies. Is important for you to try and top over your previous release or do you just do what you want and feel like doing in each moment?

(Aldo) : Compose music for me means ,create something to share emotion with listeners, a piece of art that means something special for me and I hope for listeners. This time, probably this time I was more involved concerning feelings, more than in the past What I try to do album by album is to learn from my mistakes in order to make perfect albums , but for music I always follow my feelings.

 

– Anyway I guess each album you release may represent a certain moment in time, the moment where you were writing the album and what was your mindset then so, what does this new «Portrait of a Dying Heart» represent personally to you? Is it actually what the title tells?

(Aldo) : When I started to work on “Portrait..” the band situation was a little bit stucked , I mean the passion was not the same for all members, but It’s 14 years that I spend all my energies for the band and bring our music to the most biggest audiencepossible, and I was sure that the music that we were composing was really great , so actually I was focused to give the best Secret Sphere music to date.

 

– This being said; what’s the main concept behind the lyrics on this record?

(Aldo) : All the album is complete based on the lucid dreams theory.

 

– If I’m not mistaken the album is based on the novel «She Complies with the Night» so, what did interest you so much about it? Moreover you have elaborated a bit on the concept within the album’s booklet so, could you please shed some light on this?

(Aldo) : The Novel has been written by an Italian young novelist : Costanza Colombo Costanza I gave the input to Costanza and she develop a beautiful story around the lucd dreams theory. A lucid dream is any dream in which one is awared that one is dreaming, it’s the diary of an oneironaut called X, that through the lucid dreams practise will find a way the real reasons to live completely his real life. The booklet include some illustrations which try to show the most important parts of the story.

 

– The performance is also superb so, how do you think has SECRET SPHERE evolved since your previous «Archetype» came out (have been just two years though)?

(Aldo) : The production is awesome inmy opinion , much more better than in Archetype. The single instruments performance is perfect the recordings and the mix done by Simone Mularoni are simply great and the vocalsrecordedby Michele in his personal studio are outstanding!

 

– On this album there has been an important change, as you have a new singer, Michele Luppi, replacement for your old time singer Roberto «Ramon» Messina. What prompted Roberto’s departure? And what could you say has Michele brought to the band Roberto couldn’t?

(Aldo): Roberto leftthe band after his vocals sessions for the new album, in our opinion his work was not the right one for this album , we asked him to modify the vocals but he was not of the same idea, so we prefered to go separate ways. In my opinion the old parts suffered a lack of passion, at least from my point of view, as I said this album was too much important , so we prefered to take the risk Luckily Michele accept to join the band after he listened the music and he brought really passion and of course his superb voice! Considering the great response we received weare happy , wee made the right choice.

 

– If you were given the chance of perfecting some of the details on the album; which ones would be? And if so, how was the songwriting process this time around?

(Aldo) : At the moment for meeverything is perfect!

 

– Your last albums have been released by different record labels, and you are now working with your countrymates Scarlet Records. Why have you been moving from one label to another throughout the last years? And how is everything going with Scarlet so far?

(Aldo): Sometimes we changed due to better proposal, sometimes we were too small for big labels! Now it’s 2 releases that we are with Scarlet Records and things are not bad, at least it’s easy to discuss with them since they live one hour from my home. The good thing is that it’s 14 years that weare in the metal music world , so we know where to push them.

 

– You have already done a video for the song «Lie to me». Tell us a bit how did the whole process go.

(Aldo) : “Lie To Me” video has been shooted last may during a rainy day in an old hospital, not anymore used since 20 years or so. The location was really great, decadent and sad enough for the song mood. Has been directed by Ludovico Galletti, which work also with some more mainstream italian artists. Actually we are very happy because in 20 dayswe got 130.000 views and it’s really a great result fora band like Secret Sphere.

 

– All this about «Portrait of a Dying Heart» being said; how could you describe it in just 3 words?

(Aldo) : It’s a real and passionate piece of art!

 

– You were formed in 1997, which is a pretty long time so, what could you say have been both the best and worst moments with the band so far?

(Aldo) : Well one of the best moment for sure has been my last trip with Michele in Japan , since it’s a country that I totally love! I have also great memories of ProgPower USA , Gamma Ray tour and the very first studio experience , we stayed more than one months in studio all together and were between 18 and 21 years old! All the splits are always sad , when you understand that no all the people live the band same as you do.

 

– And what are some of the goals still to achieve with SECRET SPHERE?

(Aldo) : I still think that Secret Sphere is that kind of band that can achive more great fan base and reach a full time professional band , especially with an album like

“Portrait…” , so that’s still my goal!

 

– Finally; what are your near-future plans?

(Aldo) :We are working on the live shows at the moment and a possible Euro Tour for us is going to be planned. Concerning studio activity , atthe end of the month we will enter the studio to re-record “A Time Never Come” our second album with Michele on vocals.

 

– That’s all, thank you once more for answering our questions. If you want to add some final words; feel free to do it.

(Aldo) :Thanks to for your time and keep on follow the Sphere!

 

Sergio Fernández

sergio@queensofsteel.com

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