SECRETPATH - INTERVIEW

Good evening, thank you very much for agreeing to answer these questions , how to Cosenza ?

Paolo “The Voices” Ferrante – Thank You for the space! Cosenza is a nice city in Calabria, a region in southern Italy.

Pierluigi “Aries” Ammirata - And it also has some pretty important historical and artistic values, such as those concerning the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire and King of Sicily Frederick II Hohenstaufen of which today remains the Swabian castle and the Visigoth King Alaric I, who, according to legend, died at Cosenza and was buried on his horseback and armed with his treasure at the confluence of two rivers. Also it is known the M.A.B. (Museo all'Aperto Bilotti, which means: Outdoor Bilotti Museum) where you can admire works by Giorgio De Chirico, Salvador Dalì, Pietro Consagra and other modern and contemporary artists. To this we must add the many natural beauties... but of course in general our region is best known on the world for the 'Ndrangheta and the nowadays bad policy, not for its beauty...

1.How were the beginnings of the band and why they decide to form Secretpath in 2008 and why they chose this name?

Pierluigi “Aries” Ammirata - Secretpath was founded by me, initially with former members of my past band Aither. I chose this name because the topics I wanted to write for the lyrics were related to the inner journey of every man. On every artwork of Secretpath there's a mysterious character that we have named “Wanderer”, referring to the romantic wanderer, an adventurous spirit, a being who goes in search of himself. The first year was full of several changes in the line-up, until October 2009, when with the arrival of Paolo Ferrante the line-up was ready. So we recorded the first Secretpath demo-CD "The Choice " (2010). Between 2010 and 2011, we played our first concerts in the local underground and then there was the first change of bassist (many others will follow!). We recorded our second demo-CD “Wanderer” on 2011, with the mastering of Finnvox Studios, and we signed a promotional contract with Necrotorture Agency. After other series of concerts outside our region, we recorded a promo of three songs in 2012, when I've done both recordings of the guitar and the bass. With this promo we signed a deal with Art Gates Records and we recorded our first full-length CD "Wanderer and the Choice" (2013). Now we're recording a new promo while searching for a new deal and we're testing another bassist. But in this new promo again I played both guitar and bass.

2." Choice and the Wanderer " no longer the result of your first two demos , how do you approach editing edit these demos for the full album ? Was premeditated , that the demos in the future end up integrating an entire album ?

Paolo “The Voices” Ferrante – It was already planned indeed! Pierluigi has always something in mind for the future, nevertheless it’s not uncommon for a band to release a first album with re-edited demo songs. The first two demos were meant to be linked by the same concept, they represent two steps of the same journey that our character, Wanderer, makes in search of himself. So, when composing the songs for the second demo, we were already dreaming of making a future full-length by the union of the two demos. In the meantime the band grew, in technique and personality, so it was essential to re-edit the demo songs (made in 2010 and 2011) so they could represent how Secretpath were in 2013.

3.Given your music is impossible to feel indifferent, it 's influences from melodic death and black , but for me it also has an important contemporary edge , what are your main musical influences ? How you define music Secretpath ?

Paolo “The Voices” Ferrante – We’re surely contemporary, there’s no reason to try to imitate past great musicians: those were great musicians from great times, still they became great by creating something new and not by copying their predecessors! So, I think, the best way to follow the trails of the great past metal musicians is understanding their lesson: “break the rules, be yourself and do music with passion!”. I don’t think I would be a good “old school” singer, I don’t want to “imitate”; I like to create something new – good or bad that may be – at least is something “mine”! Our music has some roots in melodic black metal and also in technical progressive death metal, but there are some other influences such as heavy, gothic and operatic metal; and there are also some influences outside metal, such as some jazz or funky parts and the classical music, of course. Maybe our music has so many influences because we don’t close the doors to nothing, think at the song as a painting: we want to use any color we like and not be limited to a little choice of colors that a “genre” can permit. The genre, I think, must be something to help the listener describe the music; not something that limits the musicians.

4.From your music exudes a sense of inner struggle with oneself hard to get but you succeed you convey very well , how is your songwriting ? Reference to do with these internal struggles of man?

Paolo “The Voices” Ferrante – Pierluigi creates some guitar riffs, according to a specific theme we choose to give to the song, that may be “feeling lost” (“The Dark Forest of My Insanity”) or “accepting our destiny” (“…And so I Return to the River”) and so on. Than Pierluigi and Francesco (the drummer) record some ideas we can choose from to create the songs. We, Pierluigi in particular, are very demanding and so discard some riffs and make many changes to the riff we choose in time… everything must be in place and the songwriting may be very long. Then come the lyrics, mostly written by me but there are some lyrics written by Pierluigi and edited by me – for singing reasons – because I think that even the words have their sound that can make the difference in a song. We try to talk about these internal struggles without referring to specific situations, we want the listener to find his own struggles to think about while listening to our music; so, for example, in “Essence of Chaos” we talk about a mind in chaos and rage, surrounded by destruction and war, one can think about the last argue with his parents, the last time he was mad at something, but can also be a metaphor describing the time in our life when we are sixteen and rebel to anything and are always aggressive with the adults. Any interpretation may be good because we want to describe the feelings, and not the reasons that cause them.

5.Is there a conceptual history in the songs ? Intend to reflect what the album cover ?

Paolo “The Voices” Ferrante – As you can see we divided the cover in two sides: a sunny and happy side, a dark and sad side. That can represent the choices we make in our lives, choices on which depend our future: good choices bring a nice life, bad choices can ruin it! Wanderer knows that and he struggles to find the right road to follow; at the same time things are not always as they appear, because sometimes you have to suffer or make sacrifices in order to succeed. There’s nothing obvious and, by traveling and making choices, Wanderer learns to understand himself. Wanderer can be anyone, male or female, without race or religion, he represents the human being: always inquisitive, original, with deep feelings. A complex character that experiments some human feelings, so the listener can sympathize and share some thoughts on the matter. In this album Wanderer understands the role his choices have in his live and finally gains control of his own destiny, choosing to fight against the demons of his fears; then he fights against those fears and wins accepting his human condition – with all its limits – and finding a “guide” (“I’m Your Guide”) that can be, for some listener, God and for other ones it can be Your True Self, or a reason to live, or maybe a beloved one: as I said before that may be many interpretations!

6.Slowly it seems that going to present a concert featuring the music , is it very difficult to capture in a concert all the energy released album?

Paolo “The Voices” Ferrante – When we play our songs in a concert I try to “enter” into the character I’m talking of, so that becomes something theatrical someway. We created those songs in a way we could play them live without effort, so there are no overdubbings of effects anywhere. Although a concert cannot have the same audio quality of an album – not the underground ones at least – so while playing live the music becomes more aggressive and there can also be some space for improvisations somewhere: we understand that the live music MUST have a different feeling. Maybe my particular look and madness in stage helps to make the concert more interesting! Ahahahah!

7.I can not overlook the role of Paolo "The Voices" Ferrante on vocals , are you aware of the versatility and personality that gives your music? How is able to wound to so many different registry?

Pierluigi “Aries” Ammirata – Paolo has a natural talent to move from one type of voice to another which I think is quite rare, and a brilliant technique in the context of Extreme Metal. Although actually nowadays is becoming more common to hear in the Metal singers playing with various vocal techniques. But some of Paolo repertoire is really very wide, almost "encyclopedic"! During the first jam sessions in Secretpath, I realized his talent and understood that he could grow a lot compared to how it was, however, at that time, since he was following some clichés of old-school Metal, that are quite predominant in our local scene. This aspect makes us outsiders, and sometimes regarded with some suspicion.

Paolo “The Voices” Ferrante – Well I learned all I know by experimenting, listening to CDs and YouTube and trying to do the same. It wasn’t easy at the first time but, eventually, I understood something about extreme metal singing and I’m still trying to get better. The idea of using also the clean vocals came from Pierluigi: when he knew that I also sang in a choir he asked me to try clean vocals for Secretpath also, considering that I was capable. At the beginning I doubted it could be interesting but, after some months, I realized that mixing extreme and clean techniques I could reach a wider range of expression and so I improved it.

8.How were your beginnings in music , cds first , first concerts Why did you decide to become musicians ?

Paolo “The Voices” Ferrante – As a band they began in 2008, without any singer, then they found me (or, better, I found them) by a notice in which I read that an extreme metal band was searching for a vocalist. I had many bad experiences with past bands, maybe they were too “amateur” for my taste, or maybe they lacked the passion I was looking for. Our beginning, with Secretpath, where almost difficult, it’s hard to create and promote an original style of music: if you follow a precise metal genre you already know your “target” and listeners understand your music immediately; if you want to create something new the listener may find difficult to understand you, and surely the fact we mix many genres doesn’t always help us! In any case, I found that you can love or hate our music, as it’s difficult to remain indifferent to it. So we have our few, loyal, fans that follow our music and we’re very proud of that: we are not “that band the sounds like…”, we are “Secretpath” and there’s no other way to describe us!

9.See how the entreme scene of your country? Any new band you refer us ?

Pierluigi “Aries” Ammirata – I have to admit that lately I'm not following the news recently, but I think that the Italian Extreme Metal scene is growing and now to bands of proven value as Necrodeath, Aborym, Mortuary Drape, Forgotten Tomb, Opera IX, Inchiuvatu, Necromass, Antropofagus, Blasphemer, Dark Lunacy and many others, they are adding new valuable entries such as Fleshgod Apocalypse, Hour of Penance, Septycal Gorge, Vomit the Soul (“strangely” all these bands are under contract with foreign record companies) and other new emerging bands. Then there is the whole "not extreme" Metal  that has many respected names . In Italy, unfortunately, the matter relating to the record labels (which are fewer compared to the number of bands) and especially the underground network relative to the concerts is too weak. Unfortunately there are so many diseases that afflict the Italian Metal scene: such as the distrust of the event organizers and venue owners to the "devilish" music, but especially a kind of parochialism and provincialism almost in the genome of the Italian population which makes much (too) slow the growth of a compact and strong underground scene. There are countries (such as Sweden) where there are fewer bands, but still the underground network works much better, because there is a network of record labels, clubs and radio dedicated to the Metal, record shops and more related to the Metal subculture, festival organizers and all the rest, that make it much easier for the circulation and the growth of this music with all the related subculture and subcultures. 

10.Are you satisfied with the impact achieved between the public and the media for your album?  Would change the album?

Paolo “The Voices” Ferrante – Yes we are very satisfied, of course NOW we would change something because we got even better (I hope at least!) but at that time it was the best we could do. As I said before the impact between public and media was very variable: someone hated our music describing it as an inconsistent mix between genres without any logic, someone else told that this is a masterpiece because we managed to mix so many different genres create something new and original! Well our goal was to create something notable, we surely achieved it… 

11.Art Gates Records was responsible for editing music , am satisfied with the work done by the seal?

Paolo “The Voices” Ferrante – Yes, they did surely help us, but now we’re searching for another label for our second album (that’s now in progress) and so we hope to find another label interested in our band and our music to grow further. I think that Spain is very interested in progressive extreme music while here in Italy there’s more interest for the old school metal. We’re planning to do a second album with a concept centered on madness, that was some madness to in “Wanderer and the Choice” but this time we want to point our attention only into it: so you should expect a more “strange” album!

12.What does the future hold in terms Secrepath Upcoming concerts ?

Paolo “The Voices” Ferrante – We are planning to do some shows, here in southern Italy, to continue the promotion of this album and to play live some new songs we created in the meantime, just to see the reaction the listeners will have. Live is an important part of the life of a band, it’s the expression of all the work done in composing and recording, I think, and there’s nothing like playing live and seeing directly the reaction of the public.

13Thank you very much for taking the time to Black Metal Spirit , if you want to add something for the followers of Secretpath , this is the place . I hope the questions are to your liking .

Paolo “The Voices” Ferrante – Thank You again for the kind review and for this nice talk! Hope to meet again to talk of the next album soon, it will be something even more strange and original I’m sure of it! Thanks to all the readers of Black Metal Spirit, I leave the link to our website in which you may find all the album in FREE streaming and download: SECRETPATH