Luca Turilli’s Rhapsody is a project created by a former guitarist of Rhapsody of Fire – Luca Turilli. With his new album he’s going on a tour, during which he’ll visit Poland (Warsaw and Wrocław). We’ve talked about music in general, his new project, movies, and metal in Italy.
From 2011 you’ve been focusing on your project called Luca Turilli’s Rhapsody, which resulted in two records, the last one pretty fresh – „Prometheus, Symphonia Ignis Divinus”. What you can tell us about your new band, just to describe it for those who are unfamiliar with your music?
I think the definition given by the record companies through these years is perfect to describe our music. We define our style as a ”cinematic metal” to underline the love I have while composing the music for the world of cinema, of the soundtracks. I grow up listening to John Williams, Jerry Goldsmith, Basil Poledouris. It’s the connection of the cinematic world and heavy melodic metal world I’d say. I also would like to underline our positive message – we have nothing to do with blasphemy, satanic stuff, we’re on the opposite side. I was always feeling responsible for our music, since it’s listened by many young people.
In 2015 you released a new album – „Prometheus, Symphonia Ignis Divinus”. It was well received in the press and by the fans. What are your thoughts on the album? Are you happy with the outcome, does it show direction which your band is going to be heading in future?
I always thought that every album is a distinct episode in your career. You always try to do something new. I spend one year on composing, three months for lyrics which became very important for me. I also spend a lot of time trying to perfect the orchestration, which is my passion, and I’m always doing this by myself. You know, you don’t leave studio until you’re completely satisfied, so I could never tell you that I’m not satisfied. So for now it’s how it’s suppose to be. I’m not fan of heavy metal itself, I was always loving metal contaminated by other styles of music.
„Prometheus, Symphonia Ignis Divinus” is an album with a concept behind it, no doubt. Can you take us through the album, tell us what’s the story behind it?
It’s not completely a concept album. After releasing last album of the saga, „From Chaos to Eternity”, I decided not to limit myself with a unique concept, I’d like to show what I’m interested in. So now, at the base, it’s the concept of spiritual evolution, searching for the truth. It’s the ambitious aspiration, but I think it’s possible to understand our system of life, through this spiritual evolution. I’m not talking about religions, more like understanding our own potential. I’d say that the main point of this lyrics is the love for this metaphysics. I speak lot about science, about mysteries of the planet, cosmos. I’m trying not to be explicit with the message, I’m trying to hide it somewhere between the lines.
After you’re parting with Rhapsody of Fire, many people started to compare your band with Rhapsody of Fire, which is pretty reasonable. What do you think about it, is Luca Turilli’s Rhapsody somehow close to the older Rhapsody of Fire?
When we decided to part after ten albums, we closed a circle which was going on for twenty years. Me and Alex were composing for those ten albums, carrying a story. I think we might be the only band which held to a story for ten albums. So, if I’d stay in Rhapsody of Fire, the music would change anyway, since the story was finished.
So, people can say what they want, but I could never release something thinking what people want to listen to. This is opposite to what is art – this is just business. I will not compose something to please the older fans, or just some people. If people want to listen to another copy of „Emerald Sword”, after twenty years – this will never happen. Same goes for Rhapsody of Fire – we were together, we created something – now it’s done. It’s natural – we lost some fans, we gained new fans, but to be honest – I really like what I’m composing now than I was composing before.
Italian metal is a terra incognita for many people. I can name myself few bands – yours Luca Turilli’s Rhapsody, Rhapsody of Fire, Lacuna Coil, Elvenking, and very old one – Black Hole. What can you tell us about Italian metal stage – is it really dominated (as it would seem) by power metal, or is it something else to it?
There was a huge explosion of power metal bands in Italy after first success of Rhapsody of Fire. It was between 1998 and 2000 when we had a big commercial success. It started some kind of movement, connected to this new style of power metal, influenced by symphonic music. But it’s not like this anymore. You know those names, but the records aren’t selling well. In general I don’t see big power metal scene now, as it was fifteen years ago. Few bands are able to live out with their music, rest of them went underground.
Sticking to the previous question – is it hard to be a metal band in Italy? Is metal popular genre in Italy?
It’s a hard question for me, since with Rhapsody of Fire we had big success, because as I said before – we were contaminated by other styles, more easy listening elements. Even mothers and children were listening to our records. I remember when Helloween released their first albums, people in my town were listening both to pop music, and Helloween, and the same people were listening to our music. With Rhapsody we had “easy life”, since our music was different from typical heavy metal. When I released previous album ”Ascending to Infinity”, I was placed on 50th place in Italian charts. I think that if you take just typical heavy metal band, it’d be more difficult to get popular.
As you mentioned before – you love movies and soundtracks. Can you tell us about your favorite movies and movie scores?
Oh, there are so many soundtracks that I love. If I’d make a list, it would take a long time to complete such list, so I’ll focus on the new movies. I really like special effect movies. Sometimes people say that “it’s just special effects”, but for me this is also an art, to create special effects. Sometimes I’m watching movies only for special effects, like Transformers, or the classic ones – Terminator for example. When you love cinema, you love to look at the big screen. It’s like entering another dimension for two hours. When it comes to soundtracks, one of my favorite is Matrix trilogy soundtrack – it had a big impact on me.
For the last question – your band is giving concerts in Poland in coming tour. I know this isn’t the first time you’re visiting our country. What are your thoughts about our country, crowd in the concerts?
The crowd is incredible, and it’s growing. I remember when we came first time to Poland we had few people on concerts, but on second time there was more, and more. Through the Facebook profile we can also see where comments are coming from – many of them are from Poland. So Poland is incredibly growing. I’d say that Polish crowd is South America of Europe - very warm and energetic!
