Somniae Status - Entrevista

- Somniae Status (meaning of the name, short bio, discography, highlights, …):
First of all thank you guys for support you’re giving us and of course thanks to fenixwebzine friends.
With SOMNIAE STATUS we mean a sort of “state of imagination”, the meaning well fits our personal approach to themes and lyrics as well to the music of course. We couldn't find a good solution in English so we thought to Latin.
Somniae Status formed in 1996 by Randy Mion, Fabio Tumiati and myself. But we completed the line-up only in 1999 with Breeze Danieli and Andrew Vekk. In 2002 we recorded our debut album “Cassandra”, co-produced by Alex De Rosso and us. The album was released in 2003 by Adrenaline Records and it received very good feedbacks from press and audience attending to our gigs around Italy. Just before the tour ending, Breeze was replaced by Ivan and in the meantime we have been doing some promotional activities with gigs and demonstrations for the companies we have endorsements with, in particular B.C.Rich guitars and Hughes&Kettner amps. In 2004 we recorded a cover version of Queensryche's “I don't believe in love” released through Steelheart Records, and we started writing “Echoes” with our producer Pat Scalabrino, still continuing performing live around the country. We recorded Echoes at the New Sin Studios with Luigi Stefanini and Dragonheart Records offered to us a deal for this new album Echoes. And today, we are proudly supporting and promoting this album!

- “Echoes” (rehearsing / writing process, recording process, label, …):
Echoes is about moods and feelings, an introspective trip through everyone’s own experiences. We started writing Echoes after a while from our first album Cassandra. During that time we were gigging a lot, and many early ideas came out during sound checks or somehow doing stuff all together. At that time we also met our producer Pat Scalabrino, and we started writing tons of material, his support and supervision were absolutely fundamental.
Echoes was recorded, mixed and mastered by Luigi Stefanini at the New Sin Studios, where other bands like Labyrinth, Vision Divine and Domine spent some of their recording sessions. Luigi is a very professional and good guy, we made a wonderful work with him. We fixed some ideas and rearranged some passages during the recording sessions, and I think that Luigi’s contribution is a additional magic for the final result. Indeed, we came up with a co-production of Pat and Luigi!
We knew Dragonheart records since several years ago, since they have a very good exposure in the scene. Then, our producer Pat Scalabrino got in touch with Enrico Paoli at Dragonheart, introducing Echoes and ourselves. Dragonheart liked the album and they offered to us a deal. We have to say that Enrico and all his staff are very good guys, and we are doing a very good work with them regarding the promotional activities.

- Lyrics (influences, subjects, ideas, messages, …):
I have to say, we all have an insane dark nature. The lyrics of the songs walk through introspective themes leaded by various states of mind. There is a common thread along the lyrics, moods recall to mysterious trips through the feelings that people experience while questioning about his existence. Life choices that come back from the past… Echoes, indeed!

- Album frontcover / artwork (who, why, meaning, …):
We found an Italian artist by browsing the DeviantArt repository. We were searching for the right designer and we definitely got it! His name is Nicola Coin and his artwork is simply amazing, he caught exactly the spirit of the album, the right contents with textures that perfectly fit into the music.
When we first met him, he was given the music and the lyrics and we said to him “go for it!” and we definitely got it!

- Live tour to promote the new record:
We're hard working on it 'cause live stage is our natural habitat, and hopefully we should gig a while after the summer..

- Musical (and other) influences:
Within the band and yet within ourselves there are a lot of different influences. The earlier influences started with our passion for prog-rock bands like Yes, Kink Crimson, Fates Warning or Queensryche, moreover our thrash love for Slayer or Anthrax and finally we're also fashinated by hard rock bands like Whitesnake.
On the other hand, we all currently appreciate Nevermore, Stone Sour, Sevendust and many other bands that are more influencing the general sound of our songs. I hope these influences have somehow helped us find our personal sound!

- Final Message:
Thank you guys at fenixwebzine and all the friends of the zine for support, we'd love you to get in touch with us through our site www.somniaestatus.com and www.myspace.com/somniaestatus

Entrevistador: RDS

Entrevistados: Alex Danieli & Randy Mion