- Soul Takers (meaning of the name, short bio, discography, highlights, …):
Jari: The name of the band was chosen – as a joke - quoting an old b-series horror movie. We still like the idea of capturing someone’s soul, though. Not many of them, maybe, but every soul that recognizies something deep and involving – and not only interesting or ‘fun’ - in our music, is a personal success for us.
Soul Takers were founded in 1998 by Francesca and Federica, shortly followed by the singer Dino and the drummer Mauro. The core of the band began to create its particular style, with a prominent piano sound and genuine classical influences. Bass player Andrea was the next to join in and in 2002 Soul Takers recorded their first promo-cd, “Through the silence of words”, with another singer, while Dino dedicated to opera studies. Violinist Jari Pilati joined the band and and after Dino’s return, the band signed with Northwind records and recorded its first full-length, “Tides”, published in the first months of 2005. Now we’re out again with “Flies in a jar”, after signing with Dragonheart records.
Jari: The name of the band was chosen – as a joke - quoting an old b-series horror movie. We still like the idea of capturing someone’s soul, though. Not many of them, maybe, but every soul that recognizies something deep and involving – and not only interesting or ‘fun’ - in our music, is a personal success for us.
Soul Takers were founded in 1998 by Francesca and Federica, shortly followed by the singer Dino and the drummer Mauro. The core of the band began to create its particular style, with a prominent piano sound and genuine classical influences. Bass player Andrea was the next to join in and in 2002 Soul Takers recorded their first promo-cd, “Through the silence of words”, with another singer, while Dino dedicated to opera studies. Violinist Jari Pilati joined the band and and after Dino’s return, the band signed with Northwind records and recorded its first full-length, “Tides”, published in the first months of 2005. Now we’re out again with “Flies in a jar”, after signing with Dragonheart records.
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“Flies In A Jar” (rehearsing / writing process, recording process, label, …):
Jari: Writing songs for us is a process of ‘making’. One of us generally proposes a melhody and the whole band ‘builds’ a song around it. The result is often significantly different form what the first proposal indicated, with scorn of the proposer ;). It took us about one and a half years to get over this mountain. That is...to hunt these flies and force them into the jar. It has been such a hard work one could not imagine. In terms of time, energies, obstacles...if there is something we feel free to say we deserve, is respect for our work. We may not have talent (anyone can judge on that) but we really gave it all for this cd!
As regards recording “Flies in a Jar”, it was an exhausting as well as satisfieng experience that lasted a whole month at Luigi Stefanini’s New Sin Studios. The label supported us on all sides but left us completely free to refine our cd as we hoped, with no ‘market-compromises’, showing confidence in what we were doing and freedom of views. Luigi helped us find the best musical solutions to carve the sound we were looking for and producing a clean, effective musical impact on us, before than on the other listeners.
“Flies In A Jar” (rehearsing / writing process, recording process, label, …):
Jari: Writing songs for us is a process of ‘making’. One of us generally proposes a melhody and the whole band ‘builds’ a song around it. The result is often significantly different form what the first proposal indicated, with scorn of the proposer ;). It took us about one and a half years to get over this mountain. That is...to hunt these flies and force them into the jar. It has been such a hard work one could not imagine. In terms of time, energies, obstacles...if there is something we feel free to say we deserve, is respect for our work. We may not have talent (anyone can judge on that) but we really gave it all for this cd!
As regards recording “Flies in a Jar”, it was an exhausting as well as satisfieng experience that lasted a whole month at Luigi Stefanini’s New Sin Studios. The label supported us on all sides but left us completely free to refine our cd as we hoped, with no ‘market-compromises’, showing confidence in what we were doing and freedom of views. Luigi helped us find the best musical solutions to carve the sound we were looking for and producing a clean, effective musical impact on us, before than on the other listeners.
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- Album frontcover / artwork (who, why, meaning, …):
Jari: The idea represents a human version of a fly in a jar. We didn’t waant to be ‘didascalic’ and, some way, this in angel is far sexier than a mosquito, you’ll agree on that! Flies are simple being. The are annoying, they don’t think, they buzz...This is an angel in captivity! The artwork was crafted by Felipe Machado, a Colombian guy who simply picked up the idea of what we wanted and realized it in a way we would have never succeeded in doing it...
- Album frontcover / artwork (who, why, meaning, …):Jari: The idea represents a human version of a fly in a jar. We didn’t waant to be ‘didascalic’ and, some way, this in angel is far sexier than a mosquito, you’ll agree on that! Flies are simple being. The are annoying, they don’t think, they buzz...This is an angel in captivity! The artwork was crafted by Felipe Machado, a Colombian guy who simply picked up the idea of what we wanted and realized it in a way we would have never succeeded in doing it...
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- Live tour to promote the new record:
Jari: We’re going to play live on the 29 th of July in Milan, in an acoustic version. It is a dimension that enhances our musical qualities, even if it sounds ‘weird’ to listen to a metal band playing with classical instruments. We’ll try not to lose our ‘metalness’, though! We’re also planning a real series of dates in Automn around Italy and hopefully, as soon as we can, abroad. Not a proper tour outside Italy, but we’d like to widen our possibilities and ‘take’ more and more souls.
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- Live tour to promote the new record:
Jari: We’re going to play live on the 29 th of July in Milan, in an acoustic version. It is a dimension that enhances our musical qualities, even if it sounds ‘weird’ to listen to a metal band playing with classical instruments. We’ll try not to lose our ‘metalness’, though! We’re also planning a real series of dates in Automn around Italy and hopefully, as soon as we can, abroad. Not a proper tour outside Italy, but we’d like to widen our possibilities and ‘take’ more and more souls.
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-Lyrics (influences, subjects, ideas, messages, …):
Mauro: All lyrics written for this album turn around the main idea express in its name: we are all flies trapped in a jar. We tried to express this feeling through different approaches such as: the spiritualistic-religious in “Heaven’s Pillars”, the intimist one in “Belied”, the political one in “The Silent Empire” and so on. Anyway every lyric is linked in different ways to the general topic that gives the name to our album.
Mauro: All lyrics written for this album turn around the main idea express in its name: we are all flies trapped in a jar. We tried to express this feeling through different approaches such as: the spiritualistic-religious in “Heaven’s Pillars”, the intimist one in “Belied”, the political one in “The Silent Empire” and so on. Anyway every lyric is linked in different ways to the general topic that gives the name to our album.
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- Live tour to promote the new record:
Andrea: We have planned an acoustic gig on the 29th of July in Milan at spazio Oberdan. we are now trying to plan new gigs after the summer to promote "Flies in a Jar" but we haven't planned a tour so far. On Spetember we’ll have a clearer idea about “Flies in a Jar” general sale rates so that we can plan some more gigs.
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- Live tour to promote the new record:
Andrea: We have planned an acoustic gig on the 29th of July in Milan at spazio Oberdan. we are now trying to plan new gigs after the summer to promote "Flies in a Jar" but we haven't planned a tour so far. On Spetember we’ll have a clearer idea about “Flies in a Jar” general sale rates so that we can plan some more gigs.
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- Musical (and other) influences:
Dino: We have all different influences inside the band. First of all it’s impossible not to notice the huge influence classical music has on our music both on the harmonic point of view and because we use piano on every song. Then we have to add all our metal influences to this main influence and every one of us has its own favourite bands and style that we try to melt in our sound. So, generally speaking, I think we can show gothic, prog, heavy, and classical music influences in our songs.
Dino: We have all different influences inside the band. First of all it’s impossible not to notice the huge influence classical music has on our music both on the harmonic point of view and because we use piano on every song. Then we have to add all our metal influences to this main influence and every one of us has its own favourite bands and style that we try to melt in our sound. So, generally speaking, I think we can show gothic, prog, heavy, and classical music influences in our songs.
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- Final Message:
Federica: Thank you for this interview, I invite all the readers to visit our website and download some mp3s form there so that they can listen to our music.
Hope to see you on tour.
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SoulTakers: www.soultakers.net / www.myspace.com/soultakersmetal- Final Message:
Federica: Thank you for this interview, I invite all the readers to visit our website and download some mp3s form there so that they can listen to our music.
Hope to see you on tour.
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Dragonheart Records: www.dragonheart-records.com / www.truemetal.org/dragonheart-records
Esta é mais uma edição da Anagram e da sua colecção Goth Collectors Series. Aqui trata-se da recuperação de parte das gravações dos Furyo, uma banda renascida das cinzas dos Punks Britânicos UK Decay. O mini-LP de estreia homónimo e o EP que se seguiu, “Furioso”, ambos de 1984, compõem este CD. Infelizmente estas são as únicas gravações que os Furyo deixaram para a posteridade que são aqui recuperadas, e digo infelizmente porque isto é uma preciosidade do rock gótico / post-punk da primeira metade dos 80s. Existe ainda um álbum que nunca foi editado oficialmente (apesar de ter sido lançada uma edição em cassete grátis com a fanzine Grim Humour) que poderia ter sido aqui incluído e assim ficávamos com tudo. Se alguém tiver isso que avise! Os masters originais estão completamente deteriorados e por isso mesmo, as gravações foram masterizadas a partir do vinil. Este facto leva apenas a que ambiência das gravações seja intensificada e lhe dê aquele toque “vintage”, sujo, negro, áspero, próprio do vinil. Aliás, esses mesmos termos podem caracterizar a música da banda, fusão de rock gótico, post-punk, dark folk, folk rock, industrial e algum experimentalismo próprio da década de 80. Para fãs de Bauhaus, The Birthday Party, Dead Can Dance, Devo, Glaxo Babies, entre outros. Uma pérola do Goth Rock britânico! Essencial! RDS 
