Temperance- Modern Symphonic Metal
Interview conducted on December 06, 2019
by Dan Locke
TEMPERANCE is where exceptional vocal melodies, energetic Metal guitar riffing and symphonic atmospheres meet in perfect harmony. Led by a unique vocal triad, TEMPERANCE manages to unite heaviness with an impressive level of catchy melodies that will make you want to push the repeat button instantly.
Band Members
Alessia – Vocals
Michele – Vocals & Piano
Marco – Lead Guitar & Vocals
Luca – Bass
Alfonso – Drums
Dan Locke; How did Temperance form?
Temperance: Back in the day, we wanted to create a new project with a modern sound and a lot of melodies: this was the desire that drove the original line-up of Temperance to join forces and start playing our music. We wanted to do something new that in Italy was not yet common, and to start playing live as much as we could.
How did the band come up with your name?
It comes from Dante’s “Divine Comedy”, I guess you know the poem! “Temperance” is one of the virtues that are often mentioned: it means balance, and it is that virtue that moderates our inner energies, our force of will and our soul in general. Isn’t it a fascinating concept?
How is the live music scene in Italy?
Italy is rich with great bands, and especially in recent years the Italian scene has been growing and growing. We have more and more musicians involved in bigger projects and some extremely cool bands that are finally reaching European (and sometimes worldwide) stages! We also have some cool returning festivals: after the “Gods of Metal” festival ended, it felt that we were losing some interest here and there, but in 2020 there will be a great edition of the “Rock in the Castle” fest, “Firenze is Rock” is growing and we have a couple of other open-air events that are getting more and more attention. There’s hope for the future!
Alessia – I heard your version of Whole Lotta Love. It sounds great. I think it sounds better than Robert Plant. What was Wacken Karaoke 2017?
Well, WOW, thanks a lot from the bottom of my heart for your words! In my opinion, it’s really hard to compare a male voice with a female voice singing the same song, even more, if the male voice belongs to ROBERT PLANT! I usually sing Whole Lotta Love with pleasure, I think it fits me really well. About Wacken, I can say that W.O.A. is always a great experience: it doesn’t matter how many years you’ve been there; it can surprise you every time! The Karaoke Area in 2017 was plenty of metalheads (hundreds of people!), it felt like being in front of a “real” crowd who was attending your live show! What a night!
Alessia – I like your rules you put on your YouTube channel. No Growling. Comments on that?
That’s funny, isn’t it? The truth is: I’d like to perform some songs from Arch Enemy, Amorphis or other cool bands like them… But unfortunately, I’m not able to growl! So, please, don’t rub my nose in it, haha!
Alessia – Also on your YouTube channel you are doing a lot of work with other musicians. Will this continue in the future?
A lot of months have passed since the last time I’ve uploaded a new cover on YT; I’d like to add something new very shortly. Maybe I’ll wait for the first months of 2020 for adding new material. Recently I’ve joined my colleagues Federica Lanna (Sleeping Romance), Melissa Bonny (Rage of Light, Ad Infinitum) and Angela Di Vincenzo (Secret Rule) to sing Nightwish’s “The Poet and The Pendulum” cover. You can find it on Federica’s YT Channel!
Alessia – Any plans for some type of solo work?
First of all, I’m an all-around music lover: I mean, I’m not only a “metal-girl”, I usually listen to a lot of different music styles and every-time I listen to something that really blows my mind away I tell myself: “wow, I’d like to sing stuff like this too!” So yes, one of my dreams is giving life to my own solo work, where all of my musical influences are gathered together, where I could try different styles and sounds that would make me really proud and satisfied! Or maybe not? I mean, I am usually really hard to please, haha! You know, music is in constant evolution, so it’s easy to find new inspirations!
What makes you a bit different from most Symphonic Metal bands, is you bring together three main vocalists to the ensemble. What made you decide to utilize this formula?
We all love harmonies. We are great fans of “project-bands” like Avantasia, Ayreon, Aina and in general we are huge fans of vocal harmonies and choirs. We’ve always seen huge potential in developing the intersection of more voices together. When Temperance had to change our line-up, we decided to take that chance to create something unique: a line up where three vocals were not only existing for one song or for guest appearances, but as a defined line-up. We felt that this could be our own way to express ourselves and to give the right form to our musical ideas.
You have toured everywhere from Europe to Japan. For you, what is the difference between touring in Europe and Japan?
That it takes a lot of hours to reach Japan? HAHA. Of course, we’re joking. You know, every country is different and when it comes to reaching another continent, it’s even more different as you encounter cultures that are far from yours. In Japan, they are just so devoted to music (and to everything they do) that it almost feels like living in a different world. That’s the same thing that every musician says about South America (it is one of our dreams to play there too). The best thing about playing music is that life on the road brings you into other cultures and gives you the chance to discover this world. It’s just fascinating.
Any plans to tour in the United States?
We already toured the USA once, and of course, we’re really, really willing to come back. It looks like the market is getting more and more open to European bands too, a lot of new bands are touring in the USA lately. Our hope is that we’ll have the chance to catch one of the “right trains” and reach America. We often receive positive messages and interest from many fans from the US so it would be amazing, but I guess you know how hard it is in terms of organization. We’ll try as hard as we can.
You have toured with the likes of Nightwish, Slipknot, Within Temptation and others. What lessons have you learned from these bands about touring that you have used in future tours?
There’s so much to learn when you get in touch with such amazing acts! One of the most important things is definitely understanding that one of their gigs is not only a concert but a real show, where the entire production makes the difference. The light-show, the stage look, the outfits… everything matters. Not to forget how professional and how talented they are and how much they care about their performances. Basically, living only one day next to some of those musicians teaches you more than one year in a music school…
How do you stay healthy on tour?
You know tour life is not always easy. Most of the time, when you tour at our level, you get only a few hours of sleep, food is seldom healthy, there’s often no time to rest and even less to take care of your body. The best thing to do is to learn how to “listen” to your body and how to fulfill its needs. This is in regards to everything: what you eat when to rest, how to take your time. Sometimes your body asks for some rest, and that’s the moment when you have to try to sleep even for a few minutes, as it can make the difference. Sometimes your body is thirsty or hungry… giving it what he needs when he needs it can save you when you have to “force” yourself to completely change from your “home” routine.
How did you connect with Yann Souetre to create the cover for your new CD Viridian?
We started the collaboration with Yann with our previous album already, “Of Jupiter and Moons”: “Viridian” is his second -amazing- work for Temperance and if he’ll be willing to keep on working with us, we’ll definitely have him for the next release too. To be completely honest, we got in touch with him with a simple e-mail, just because we were fascinated by his beautiful artworks for Ayreon. He immediately proved he’s a kind, talented and extremely easy-going guy, besides being a professional artist. He’s just one of a kind.
The first single off of Viridian has an interesting title. Mission Impossible. It looks like it could be the opening of one of the movies. Who came up with the idea of the video?
The video comes from the lyrics that are absolutely inspired by the movie-series. In particular, we all love “Mission Impossible: 2” and this is why we got inspired by that movie for writing the lyrics of the song. It is a funny story as the “pre-production version” of the song was already called “Mission Impossible”, so we just decided to keep that title and write the lyrics of the song based on that story. The lyric video was created by Tiziano Spigno, singer of Extrema – a good friend of ours!
How is it touring with Tarja?
We’ll soon discover it as the tour begins in March 2020, but we already feel honored and extremely happy to have the chance to join this amazing situation. It will be a really, really long tour and we are excited as we will finally have the chance to reach, almost all-in-a-row, a lot of countries where we’ve been playing a lot during the last years, together in countries where we’ve never been before. Tarja is one of our “musical gods”, so we are looking forward to sharing the stage with her and of course, we’re ready to learn a lot from this experience.
Where do you see your band in five years?
Still, on the road, that’s for sure! It is our life’s dream to keep on playing the more we can. If we are here it is because our force of will was always extremely strong and we’ve been sacrificing to live the world of music at full power. I believe that every single one of us would feel completely lost without being on the road, and we’ll fight with all our energies to keep on doing what we are doing until the end of our days!
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