Kai (K): Hi there, Ferruccio! How are you doing today? Any activities planned when it comes to ANIMA IN FIAMME?

Ferruccio: Hi Kai. As usual music gives me time for nothing else, because in this period I'm preparing ANIMA IN FIAMME's debut album: we are completing everything to enter the studio in a week. At the same time I've to finish a MCD of ARGINE and their 2nd album "Luctamina In Rebus". As you can imagine, music is a wonderful work but it requires a total devotion and a strong personality to face an infinite series of problems.
 
K: I believe that the band (or is this a project?) you take part in, is completely unique at least when it comes to the following aspect: I've never  heard such a brilliant combination of harshly darkened industrial and neo-classical music. How did you come to bring forth the light such a mixture, and what side will be the dominating one in the future works of yours?

Ferruccio: Even if you probably know our situation, your question gives me the occasion to specify two things too often misunderstood:
1) ANIMA IN FIAMME is not a solo project of mine, but a duo formed by me and Pasquale Scotti, who played with me in our former band NADIR. We work in strict contact and he's as important as me in composing our music, even if I cure public relations and contacts and so many persons think AIF is only me.
2) Even if I play and compose also in the band ARGINE, I think the two bands are really separated, in style, in cultural and musical influences and approach. Yet, when AIF project was born I didn't know ARGINE and only several months after I joined them. I tell this because many journalist wrote about AIF as "ARGINE bassist's solo project".

Pasquale: Hi Kai, I thank Ferruccio for having made clear my presence in AIF. About our music, we wanted since the beginning to play neoclassical music but, coming both from gothic / experimental bands, we wanted to keep alive the darker and industrial influences due to the oppressive reality we live in. During these two years I've noticed that the neoclassical side has become greater than the industrial, maybe due to a deeper knowledge of classical music. Our first album will be less industrial than the promo we sent you, even if I think soon we'll emphatize again the obscure side of us.

K: "Sub Occasum Solis" is the title for your upcoming full-length CD (the recordings had to be finished in September, if I'm not mistaken), right? Any comments on this effort? What are those magic words to make us impatiently await the day it finally reaches salespeople?

Ferruccio: We have had some problems, so the album will be finished in October. "Sub Occasum Solis" will show a band who wants to maintain its own style and give to people higher sensations and a path to the innest part of their soul. We want not to follow the trend of neoclassical bands (who play dark music with classical influences, while we would like to play classical music with dark influences, even if we don't dare to compare ourselves to classical composers) nor we follow the neofolk scene, often characterized by too little care of  musical composition and by disjointed performances. We love to keep special cure for everything regarding our music: we try to transmit our emotions in the most intense way, as we feel them, and at the same time we try to write and perform good music in a way that could be appreciated by everyone, not only by a dark/industrial listener.

Pasquale: In "Sub Occasum Solis" there are various atmospheres, starting with a triumphal march with three trumpets, passing through a sweet "Bachianinha" for guitar and violin, an impetuous and orchestral "Agincourt" and a cold and sad "Arcano Manoscritto". Some tracks will be instrumental, while the sung ones will show a strong Reinassance influence. For these reasons I think the album is really interesting and enchanting, and all the persons who have listened to its promo-version have answered us with wonderful words, talking of a new dimension where our music have led them.

K: France's Prikosnovenie is the label you're signed to at the moment, however it's a completely new name to me. Consequently, I hope you wouldn't mind telling us few words regarding their activities, distribution services and so on, and so forth. Furthermore, don't you know why they've chosen a Russian word to be their moniker ("prikosnovenie" = "touch")?

Ferruccio: About French Prikosnovenie, we were in contact since 1999 and we've chosen them because of their seriousness and enthusiasm. They are not well known but they've already released good albums (ATARAXIA, JACK OR JIVE, GOR, maybe in the future CAMERATA MEDIOLANENSE) and I think they are constantly growing. They give you the sensation of being considered and appreciated, while other labels consider musicians only as a catalogue number, and I've seen Prikosnovenie cures very well the quality of their productions, advertising, graphic and distribution (they are well distributed in various states and they've their own mailorder at http://www.multimania.com/prikos). About their moniker, I knew it was Russian (I've studied a little of Russian), but I don't know why they've chosen it.

Silvanus (S): What's so special with FIRE+ICE? I believe you wouldn't come up with a cover  of "Michael" if you weren't getting high on it.

Pasquale: About FIRE+ICE, we have been inspired by the atmosphere they evoke, and even if their out of tune voice and rough music could be included in our criticism of folk scene and don't  form part of our conception of music, they have something more than other bands that makes the difference. While in other bands an out of tune voice or violin seems to me to be a lack of seriousness, in FIRE+ICE everything throw the band in a medieval and ancient atmosphere, where the only important thing is Knowledge and Sensations. FIRE+ICE have an inner fire and it couldn't help inflaming a creative and sensible soul.

K: You have participated in numerous compilations so far. Did you gain anything by it in terms of exposure? What were the most successful projects / affairs?

Ferruccio: We have partecipated to eight compilation all over the world, and they have given much exposure to the band: we haven't released the 1st album yet and we're already well known in America and in all Europe. Compilations are a good vehicle for promotion, even if I think now there is a sampler inflation, and the quality isn't always good. About response, in confidence we have to say that "On The Brink Of Infinity" is the one who gave more to AIF, both for our beautyful "Come Fiore Reciso" and for the professional label Chthonic Streams. On the other side we are completely disappointed about "Immortal Legends" and "Ten Years Of Madness", which have not converted the sample rate of our songs causing a lower pitch and a ridiculously low voice. I think that every band spends much time and money to do the best with its work, and the labels have to respect musicians using the same cure with their music, paying attention to everything, even more when the mistake is so evident and easy to correct when noticed in time. I don't understand how have they not seen what they were putting on CD, because a simple listening could show the mistake of a voice and instruments so deep and slow.
Pasquale: We have to say also that the two labels had our promo with the song "Il Dolore" and "Michael", so they knew which had to be the right version.
 
K: Any comments on ANIMA IN FIAMME's lyrical canvas? Have you ever conceptualized around any particular subject while composing lyrics?

Pasquale: Our lyrics don't follow a concept theme: every song has a particulal concept according to the specific sensation of the moment we wrote them. Every lyric has a particular form: we have tried to write in a way that could remind ancient poetry, avoiding too modern words and phrases to make a stronger conjunction between music and words...
 
K: Have you ever questioned yourselves why do we behold so many one-man bands and projects nowadays? I guess you won't contest the fact multi-instrumentalists were only few in number back in eighties; however, everything's quite the contrary these days. What is the reason for that? Personally, I couldn't find a proper answer yet... perhaps, you'll help me out here?

Ferruccio: I think one of the the reasons could be found in modern technology, that gives the possibility of writing, for example, piano or bass lines playing no instrument. In the past to play a violin you needed to study it, now some instruments could be reproduced with samplers or computers, so writing is more simple. I think it's not a bad thing, because in this way more persons could exprime what they feel. On the other side, we are forgetting the real nature of music, the contact with an instrument and the importance of learning to play, the teaching inborn in knowledge, and I see an incredible quantity of unuseful and bad music that invades shops and radios.
 
S: You image lies more on a "gothic" side, at least judging by your
appearance. Was this decided purposely?

Pasquale: Not considering our classical influences, our gothic side has not been chosen with an intent: both we come from gothic (CHRISTIAN DEATH, BAUHAUS and so on) and metal background, so for us it's extremely natural to have a gothic appearance. I love in the same way both '700 dressing and extreme gothic / fetish dressing.
Ferruccio: In dark / industrial scene all bands choose an austere appearance, and often you cannot distinguish a musician from your neighbour. I see musician in other way: I recognize myself in elegant and noble appearance, and at the same time I feel an artist have to show something more, a touch of eccentricity that is a mirror of the separation he feels from the other. I love our past centuries, and dressing in '700 way, using candles at home such as in concert, helps me to imagine the past I adore.

S: Do you have a dream you would like to come true? What is it and why?

Pasquale: I hope our music could give us satisfactions both on artistic and economic side. This could be also a revenge against all the people that always surround you and talk of the impossibility of reaching concrete aims in musical field.
 
S: It is said, that by overcoming various kinds of resistances you're getting stronger, both physically and mentally, in the same time gaining certain positive (or negative; depends on the situation) experience. What's your opinion on this statement?

Ferruccio: I think every experience is useful to reach complete self consciousness: on a side I am alone while on the other side there is the world around me and the other persons. Self consciousness is for me the complete knowledge of this separation, learning that nobody is important as yourself and you have always to count on your own forces. World is a forest with an incredible number of incompetent persons, and everyday you meet at least another one. You you feel different from them have to raise from the mud they live in and (if you have it) follow your personal inspiration and aim, trying everyday to live in higher way, both spiritually and materially. Experiences gives the strenght to face events and everyday take a step forward.

K: Do you know anything regarding Russia? What's your attitude to the country of mine as well as it's people? Any Russian bands you've heard lately?

Ferruccio: I've always loved Russia since I were a child, for its strong people and feelings. I've read all books of Dostoevskij, Tolstoi, Chechov, Lermontov and so on, and for some time I've studied Russian. Talking of today, I've to say that in Occidental Europe news about Russia are very limited and always talk of a great crisis, corruption, prostitution and so on. The image given is not the best and, even if media always lie, I know by Russian friends that it's a great part of this is reality. I hope this situation will change, but in confidence I don't think it could happen in few years. About musical scene, I've heard FIGURA and SOLAR SALT, really interesting bands, the neoclassical black of RAKOTH (well played and with great ideas) and the electro CZAR. I see an interesting scene, even I know of incredible problems they have to face everyday.

Is there any thing else you want to say? If so, go ahead....

ANIMA IN FIAMME: We thank you for your interest and for the words you told about our music. I hope "Sub Occasum Solis" will be out soon and will confirm the good impressions of fans and press. From our side, we assure we'll do our best to record a great album. Maybe in a future we could play in Russia, it would be a great pleasure for us and surely a wonderful experience.

Ferruccio Milanesi
Via G. Jannelli 45/D
80131 Naples, ITALY
email: milanesi@lycosmail.com
www.animainfiamme.com