Your new album has been released about half a year ago. How did the promotion look like during these months?
The promotion is going very well, Lion Music is the best label for
Ashent and all the people who workthere are very professional.
The response of the critics has been really good: Deconstructive is
receiving high ratings and the interest about the band is growing every
day, and we can check this trend also verifying the visits on our new
official website and on our Myspace’s profile.
For a relative young band like Ashent is really fantastic to feel so much appreciation.
Are you happy with the sales figures?
Or mabye you’re planning any action to make things better…
The first sale’s report has been really positive and I hope that things
could proceed in this direction for long time. Deconstructive was
released on March the 20th and after only 10 days it gained the third
position in the sales ranking of Lion Music’s bands: this chart
considers a period of 6 months (since October 2008 until the end of
March 2009) and it’s great to consider to be there only after 10 days.
What are your personal favourities on the album?
I am bound in a different way with every song of Deconstructive: the
composition process has been very complex, and each tune reminds me
about a certain situation.
If I should say a title, certainly I can say Imperfect, our first
single, a song that I love to listen to also after months. I love in a
particular way also Spectral vanity: I think that in this song there is a
good summary of what I can define the Ashent’s sound, because there is
impact and aggressiveness, but also melody and an intricate harmony’s
research. Certainly I cannot forget “Starlinked innerness” and “How
Could it feel like this”, the most experimental episodes. It’s funny to
see people’s faces when they listen to the first time “How could it feel
like this”, an acoustic ballad with a very groovy drum pattern that
blends with a seventies bass lick, some electronic loops and an
accordion intro, definitely an uncommon song for a prog-metal band.
Some tracks from your debut album can be heard at Myspace profile. Is it possible to reach also your first EP?
The 4 songs included in „Ashent”, our first demo, have been included
(re-recorded and a little re-arranged) in the debut, „Flaws of elation”.
I’m talking about Anaemic Ardency, Awakened’s Transition, Fallen Angel
and Eden.
The line-up that recorded the demo was for a half different from the
Flaws of elation’s line-up, so the old versions had different solos,
drum’s fills and, last but not least, a different singer. During that
period (2003-2004), there was a lot of interest about the band and to be
honest, still now, a lot of guys write to us remembering our first
demo. Maybe, in the future, we could release it as bonus material or
something similar.
Your EP got a lot of good reviews. So what was the reason of change in the lineup?
As I said, from „Ashent” to „Flaws of elation”, we changed the line-up:
Max Zhena has been replaced by Steve Brawn, J.C by Davide Buso and
Thomas Giro by Cristiano Bergamo. When a split happens there are a lot
of reasons, but in our case it happened in a friendly way without
personal problems: simply, the former members had too much day-job and
familiar problems and it was impossible for them to follow properly a
band like Ashent.
For the same reason Paolo Torresani, after 7 years in the band, left the
band after the recording session of Deconstructive.Now he’s replaced by
Gilles Boscolo.
I am still in touch with all the guys who played with us: we are still good friends.
How did evolution of your music look like from the very beginning in your point of view?
The band was formed in 2001, 8 years ago, and if you think that now I am
27 years old, you can imagine how inexperienced I was at the beginning.
When me and my brother Onofrio decided to create the band, we had a very
clear vision about what we wanted to do with Ashent: our goal has
always been to write songs that people could remember, we have never
been interested to follow some stylistic dogmas or a famous band.
We have always tried to create personal music since the first days.
I don’t reject our previous works, but certainly with Deconstructive we
did a step closer to our goal, and this is what we want to do with our
future music.
Your’re the next Italian band beside Eldritch, which has American singer in it’s lineup…
BTW does he live in Italy?
Steve now lives in the U.S., but fortunately with the modern technology
nothing is impossible: emails, instant messanger and mp3s allow us to
stay in constant contact. In any case, he comes to Italy everytime we
need.
I think it’s much easier for you to write the lyrics with native English speaker…
What are your lyrics about. Are they important for you?
The lyrics have always been important for us and to have a native
speaker in the band helps a lot, but Steve isn’t the only lyrics writer:
for instance, Onofrio wrote all the Flaws of elation’s lyrics and
lyrics of 4 songs on Deconstructive; Davide wrote the
Starlinked-innerness’s lyrics and in general everyone of us likes to say
something through the words as well as through music. The lyrics’s
composition process is luckily less complex than the music’s creation,
but for us it is very important.
Often there is a tendency to underestimate the importance of the words
in the metal music, maybe cause a lot of bands develop only abused
themes.
We are probably perfectionists and every details is important, form the
lyrics to the production: everything that is related to the Ashent’s
world has the priority.
Also the booklet, for example, has been created exalting every detail:
when a guy spends his money to buy our cd, I want to think about him
completely satisfied, because it is the same necessity of mine when I
buy a disc.
How have your concerts looked like lately? Are you playing only new track or mabye some older tunes also?
During our shows we usually play songs taken from Flaws of elation and
from Deconstructive. The most important thing is to share energy: people
must be invested by a wall of sound and to enjoy a nice evening.
Are you going to play concerts outside Italy? Is there a chance to see you in Eastern Europe?
We are trying to organize our live activity in order to bring our music
to more people possible, and the East Europe is one of our priorities.
Besides I am very bound to Poland cause it’s the country of two bands
that I love: Riverside and Behemoth, two fundamental bands in the modern
metal scene.
What are your future plans?
Certainly the most important thing now is to play live as much as possible.
We wish that people could discover also our „on stage” side: we like to
offer a vigorous show and often people are surprised by our performance
just because they do not expect a show so full of energy from a prog
band but, to be honest, it could not be otherwise. When I go to see a
show I want to feel vibrations through my body, and this is what I want
for the guys who spend their time with Ashent.
Have you started writing a new material, or mabye is it much too early to think about it?
We are already composing the material that will be in the third album,
because generally our composing process never stops: until now, the new
stuff is really interesting.
I am satisfied of Flaws of elation and Deconstructive: surely we can
perceive a great step between these two albums and now we want to do
another step with our next album, producing something really special. In
any case, our present is called Deconstructive, an album that I love.
What do you want to say as an outro to the fans of your music in Poland?
First of all thank you for your support, for us it is very important. I
want to say to all the polish guys to support Ashent and all the young
bands. I want to see you at our gigs and make noise together, I hope as
soon as possible. By the way you can still keep in touch with us through
our website at www.ashent.net or through the official Myspace page at
www.myspace.com/ashentband. Stay Metal.
Questions: Piotr Spyra
