Supernatural Cat is to be featured in Bad Acid Tab 4 Magazine.
Here's our complete interview:
BA: It's a fantastic mix; post hardcore with ambient- There are a number of bands doing a similar type of thing, most noticeably Isis, … what new ideas do you feel you are offering to a perhaps saturated scene? In what way are you different from other artists taking a similar path?
lento: We're instrumental; there are not many bands playing this kind of music without elaborating mostly melodic guitar arrangements, I mean light parts… we felt necessary to maintain a high medium level of saturation in the post-hardcore tracks and to confine the lightest expressions to the ambient ones thus creating a dyad that drove us throughout all the creative process of "Earthen".
Though Isis and other similar bands (…neurosis, old man gloom, mare, cult of luna… just to name a few) are amongst our main influences, we feel more oriented towards ambient experimentation, which represents, in the current phase, half of our production.
BA: I'm sure you get asked this question a lot and are fed up of answering it, but I am personally inquisitive to know – why no vocals? I find that being instrumental often expands a bands sound, as vocals can be somewhat limiting and generic – was this your aim, or can none of you sing?!!
lento: The choice of being instrumental came spontaneously. We simply find it more suitable for the adaptation of our scenery. We find vocals, in most cases, limiting, The use of lyrics often confines the listener to a described world, we don't want that kind of association.
BA: As a five piece band do you each have defined musical roles? For example, in a three piece band there would be a pretty large amount of instrument swapping, requiring band members to be multi-instrumentalists and pretty dextrous when it comes to live performances…. Do you ever find individual members redundant during ambient sections, or do you all contribute to the whole of each composition? Isn't five members overkill?
lento: We're deep lovers of analog stuff and we love to re-elaborate analog signals like guitars or bass in a digital process. In this case we use to create samples that can be managed once in a live performance.
Roles are very well defined. Each guitar is inclined to keep is own space in between the tracks. We don't find members redundant, on the contrary we tend to play multiple layers to create appropriate atmospheres for ambient compositions
BA: Is there a theme to your music? Are you trying to convey any concept or mood? Your ambient soundscapes are bleak and almost melancholic – is this a reflection of the members themselves? Where are you trying to take us? Is your upcoming album a 'journey' or a 'whole experience' or is it fragmentary?
lento: In our most secret and remote musical background we could identify the term "melancholic" with bands such as Radiohead or Mogwai. In our playing, beside melancholy, and immediately consequent, lies reaction, both aspects which born directly from a combination of attempts and experiences interior to the band itself. The collision process that comes out experiences an integrity test, that is represented by our obsession of dealing each track as part of a primary idea. Themes are connected one to each other and are to be meant like parts of a single concept. We renounced several entries to get that unity.
BA: The dichotomy of your sound is quite striking, yet totally flows in the timespace of a song…. It reminds me of (not musically but concept-wise) of Opeth with their blend of prog death metal/acoustic. Opeth eventually recorded two albums simultaneously – one pure accoustic, and the other solid progressive death…. Could you separate the two limbs of your music? Can they exist separately or do you need the balance within a recording?
lento: sure… we remember "Deliverance" and "Damnation"… awesome work…
We cannot figure out where our musical path leads us to at the moment. Most arguments were developed during earthen recording session, and the dichotomy was naturally created to provide a contrast of forces as a consequence of inner balance necessities. Ambient and post-hardcore will be not kept necessarily in perfect equilibrium for the future, it is more than likely that they will somehow merge.
BA: Your sound has been taking a progressive route towards an ambient style – are you slowly becoming more mellow? Will we see your heavier edge diluted or take a back seat?
lento: Absolutely not. We cannot survive as a band without our heaviest riffs. We shall not invert the process neither confine to a secondary role the fattest moods in our playing; basically guitar distortion is our lymph and our primary impulse yet we don't exclude the chance of other insertions like cello, acoustic guitars or programming itself.
BA: You use a lot of visual imagery based around nature, and now your upcoming album is called "Earthen" – Is this a pagan thing, or environmental philosophy? How does your music relate to this imagery? Does it come from nature, or replicate it?
lento: Connection with nature and creation can't be denied but we are quite free from paganism or any other philosophy/religion. Earthen is strictly associated to the earth as source of life and it is a representation of the world in our absence, and from the observation of which, of the way we associate feelings to events, how we grow, develop and spread our essence. The hardcore themes represent the engine, the origin, the ambient suites are a consequence to motion, the establishment of cycles.
BA: You are signed to the mighty Supernatural Cat, Can you give us a lowdown on your album- will we be seeing it on vinyl and cd? Will there be different tracks on the releases? What about dvd material, like the awesome Ufomammut Lucifer Songs?
lento: We are so proud to work with these incredible guys. We were on the same wavelength before meeting each other. At this very moment we are still defining some issues about the release, so we have nothing official, our pre-master have been sent to Seattle and we are anxiously awaiting for the final result. "Earthen" will be printed in limited edition, both in cd and 12", and will contain 8 tracks for a total running time of about 48 minutes. No visuals planned at the moment.
BA: I assume you will be blessed with their fantastic packaging designed by Malleus? Can you give us any insight as to what to expect? Will there be exclusive screen-printed covers, or different designs for different editions?
lento: Definitely. Visual aspect has a great significance to us but we feel we are in good hands… it's their way of printing, each copy is almost distinctive because hand-made silk-screened, we were totally amazed when we saw Morkobot vinyl packaging.
BA: Will you be breaking out from Italy to promote "Earthen"? Are there any tours in the pipeline? What's next for Lento?
lento: We hope so. The stage is our natural habitat and we tend to interpret the concept developed during the studio sessions to play without interruption for the entire show… we don't want pauses in the listening neither fragmentary performances. We' re organizing ourselves to promote "Earthen" and planning shows, we wish that some of them could be outside Italy.
BA: Any last choice morsels to share with the Bad Acid readers?
lento: Thank you.
