Temperance
Interview conducted on February 20, 2021
By Dan Locke
TEMPERANCE is where exceptional vocal melodies, energetic Metal guitar riffing and symphonic atmosphic
Members
ALESSIA SCOLLETTI- Vocal
MICHELE GUAITOLI- Piano and Vocal
MARCO PASTORINO- Guitar and Vocal
LUCA NEGRO- Bass and b. vocal
ALFONSO MOCERINO- Drums
What is your upbringing?
Michele: I’ve been studying scientific matters since the middle-school so I was born a computer guy, but since I was 6, I always had music as part of my life. I studied piano and I was singing in a choir till I was 16, then I started to play my first acoustic guitar and at 18 I started to learn how to sing in a modern music school. In my “twenties” I realized that rather than work with computers, my vocation was music, and here I am still working on it.
How did you discover music?
Michele: My family used to listen to a lot of music. Mostly Italian, but my mother was a huge fan of Queen too and I guess that that was my first approach to rock music. MTV played his part too; I remember I was amazed by music videos when I was a kid. MTV took me to the Offspring, then Guano Apes, then Iron Maiden…
How did you start to write music?
Michele: In 2003 I joined my first band, Overtures, and after a few months I found myself singing melodies that I had in my mind and that weren’t part of any other song. With the musicians of the band, we started arranging it and our first original tracks were born. With time I started to do on my own too…
Describe your music.
Michele: Temperance is a unique blend of melodies, vocal harmonies, bombastic choirs and happiness, positiveness, joy, fun, party-mood and sometimes symphonic instruments, sometimes electronic instruments.
How did you form the band?
Michele: Temperance were born in 2013, with a completely different line-up. Only Marco and Luca are still there, as they’re also the founding members of the band. They’re original idea was to play in a modern band, in a period in which the Italian scene were still quite “classic”.
How did your band get it name?
Michele: Temperance means balance, balance in the way you act, balance in your decisions. That’s where the name comes from.
What was your first performance at like?
Michele: After so many shows it’s quite hard to recall it. To tell you something different from a standard answer I could totally get back to my VERY first performance, as a piano player when I was 6. I remember that back than I HATED to perform in front of other people so I was extremely nervous and unhappy. Funny uh?
What makes a good songwriter?
Michele: Understanding the needs of a song, detaching from your own personal taste. Too many times we tend to write basing on what we like, but every song has its soul and what really matters to me is to follow the direction of the music rather than using your brain to make it sound as you want it.
What is the process of writing your music?
Michele: Hard question to reply to. Most of the times music just come to my mind and I find myself singing a melody or a riff. To me It’s like listening to some music inside your brain, and the songwriting process is the act of putting this music down.
Do you belong to any to songwriters’ organizations like the International singer-songwriter association, SESAC, BMI or ASCAP?
Michele: Nope, and neither Marco that is the other songwriter in Temperance. We work on our own and when other bands want to work with music written by us, we deal with them on our own.
What was the title of your first original song? Did you record it?
Michele: my very first recorded song is called Silent Observer, from my band Overtures. It might be somewhere in the internet. The very first song I ever composed was never recorded though. Maybe one day, who knows?
Tell me about the making of your latest EP “Melodies of Green and Blue”?’
Michele: It was just great. After the first lockdown having the chance to gather, spend some days together, record some music and live as a band again after months of distancing. I believe that the romantic atmosphere that we had in the studio was somehow impressed on our music too as I really feel warmth and happiness spreading out from the final tracks. I believe it will be hard to surpass the magical emotions that we have in our memories in regards of this EP.
Why is it an acoustic EP?
Michele: Viridian never had a live promotion due to the pandemic. The tour with Tarja in which we should have performed it live has been postponed (now to 2022), so we had to find a way to keep it alive without losing its momentum. The EP seemed to be the best solution.
What is your favorite track on the album?
Michele: I’m torn between Let it Beat and Gaia, not because they’re both songs that I wrote, but because they were born this way. I feel like they’re closer to their original idea as they are right now rather than in the “electric” version provided in Viridian. They’re purer.
How do you stay healthy while performing?
Michele: Drinking water is the key. Believe me, this is highly underrated. While on the road and while on tour the first thing you forget is to drink, and it’s easier that you drink some shitty stuff rather than healthy stuff. If you find a standard routine and drink healthy, in a couple of shows your body will be responsive and ready to get on stage every night.
What are you’re feeling about streaming music?
Michele: I actually like it. I might be one of the few musicians but I’m really into Spotify, YT and the other platforms. LIVE MUSIC belongs to the stage and I would never accept a future without live concerts. But when it comes to listening to music, I have a regular subscription to Spotify. I pay my fee and I listen to the albums. IF I like them, I buy them and add them to my collection anyways as a physical copy of a record is always something magic.
How can people forget about the origin hashtag # Sharp in a musical score? Because of social media #sonyrecords vs. F#
Michele: AHAHAH this is a funny question but I believe that here in Italy we’re not dealing with this issue, we even have jokes around this topic but no one forgot about the musical meaning of #, that in Italy is called “diesis”. Maybe we have a more scholastic approach to music?
Digital vs. vinyl?
Michele: Vinyl, of course. I’ve got some vinyls on my walls instead of pictures. As for the CDs a Vinyl is an object, a memory…a piece of life that can’t be compared with anything digital. As said, I’m positive in regards of digital music, but it doesn’t mean that it has to substitute the real stuff.
What song from the past is in your mind right now? Moreover, what is the meaning that song means to you?
Michele: The sound of Silence from Simon and Garfunkel. It’s one of those tracks that I used to listen with my parents when I was a kid and it always brings back good memories of a happy family.
Both (Pfizer and BioNTech) and Moderna have conclude Phase 3 Study of the Coronavirus vaccine. With the both vaccines, it takes two shots. How many people do you think will take it and how many will forget to take the second shot?
Michele: Personally, I believe that once you get the first shot, you’ll feel in NEED of getting the second one as it’s extremely clear here that if you don’t get the second, the first one is completely useless. I understand that some may forget about the second, but I believe that over 90% will surely remember about it.
To make things a bit more complex, there is talk that people could either mix the manufactures of the vaccines or in the case of Moderna studies have show you could take a half doses for the first shot and still be alright for the second vaccine. Do you feel that this is right?
Michele: It sounds totally wrong, but again I believe that there might be some cultural differences here as in Italy the same hospital can’t provide two different vaccines and you can’t get half of your does in one hospital and half in an another, so there really is no chance for us to mix them up and not even for the doctors to do it on purpose (even if this would be super-bad).
How long before the whole world will be vaccinated against the virus. You have to remember there only has to be a 70% for Herd immunity (Herd immunity occurs when a large portion of a community (the herd) becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. As a result, the whole community becomes protected — not just those who are immune.)
Michele: Sadly, this will take a lot of time, as spreading a vaccine to reach the herd immunity is not really that easy considering we’re over 7.5 Billion people in this world…and there are a lot of people that are against the vaccine. What I hope is that within the end of this summer things will be at least UNDER CONTROL. This is the main goal right now.
If “Video Killed the Radio Star” do you think that the Covid-19 virus has killed live music? Do you feel the Covid- 19 virus going to affect the music business in the future?
Michele: No, I don’t. It’s just another passage for music. video might have killed the radio, but live music was never killed and won’t be killed as the emotions that a live concert can provide are unique. Nothing is comparable to live music, and until live music will be needed. Nothing will be dead.
You are going to start your NowTour 2021 next month. How will you deal with a tour during the virus? Are you going to temp. check, social distance and mask for everyone watching the show?
Michele: Actually, this tour has been moved to 2022…sadly there was no chance to make it happen under the actual circumstances. Another bad news actually, but what can we do?
What have you been doing with your self-quarantine?
Michele: I developed some passions I never had time to focus on. For example, I’ve been digging into photography and even bought a new camera! And I got back into playing and studying guitars, I played like when I was a kid.
ALESSIA- You were releasing video of cover songs. How did you decide which songs you we’re going to do?
Michele: We all grew up singing covers, and we all played into cover bands. This is something that often happens to many musicians: you start with covers and then you begin to compose your own music. Moreover, singing is always a great fun. This is what drives our cover release on our social media channels. Alessia, Marco, me, Luca and Alfonso: we all love playing and we just follow our passions when we decide which song we want to perform.
Have you discovered or rediscovered any new hobbies?
Michele: Videogaming. With so much time forced at my place, the lockdown allowed me to play some videogames, but I’m a retrogamer: Monkey Island, Diablo, Starcraft…old stuff.
95% of people said that they have changed the way they watch television. This includes people who don’t have television and using their computers to do streaming of programs and movies. Which is your favorite streaming channel?
Michele: Netflix and Prime Video. But I was “addicted” way before the Covid. Having the possibility of choosing what you wanna watch when you want, of stopping and re-playing and everything is just awesome. Again: this is one of the reasons why I am pro-Spotify as much as I am pro-Netflix. What matters is that you’re a regular, PAYING subscriber.
Many artists are doing nightly concerts over either YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. In October that is going to change at least on Facebook. Facebook is cracking down on livestreamed shows that include recorded music with new terms of service, preventing artists from using the platform for “commercial or non-personal” purposes, unless they have obtained the relevant licenses.
The updated music guidelines state that users “may not use videos on our products [which include Instagram] to create a music listening experience […] This will include [Facebook] Live,” and stipulates that such content should be posted for the enjoyment of friends and family only.
How do you think this will change the landscape of Facebook?
Michele: If Facebook would go back to the roots and just focus on the PERSONAL aspects, I see nothing wrong in it. Music should have its own platform, where artists are somehow supported and where the music business runs with regimentations. Honestly, I’m not a fan of releasing and promoting music on Instagram or Facebook and I feel a bit forced to do it: “if you don’t use the social media you can’t run a band in 2021”. Maybe this is true, but it doesn’t mean it’s right. Social medias should help people connecting to each other. Professional music should live on its own platform (who said myspace?) or on Youtube, and be promoted and spread to the world by the webzines, magazines, radios etc etc.
How can bands keep their fans if they cannot play live in front of the fans and sell merchandise to them at the show?
Michele: Good question. Every band is trying to find an answer and to try out some experiments. Our experiment was the EP and in general we tried to keep in touch with our fans through our channels. Offering our music is what we always did and we always do and we’ll keep on doing it. When it comes to the incomes, if a band is listened enough you always get something, and the merch will always be bought by new fans. What we hope is that we’ll be able to get back on the road before “selling new merch to survive” will become an issue.
Is pay to play still a thing? Now pay to play also means thinks like playlist on the internet and opening slots for a major band on tour.
Michele: It is, but even here I might be a voice out of the choir as I don’t see anything eronin pay to play. If you need promotion, you have to spend to promote yourself. If you sell wine you’ll need to pay for advertising, if you sell computer software, you’ll need to promote your company and so on. Most of the times “pay to play” means that a band needs to give its share to cover the traveling expenses on a tour bus, getting the chance to perform in front of a new audience with people that otherwise would have hardly known about you. Is it that wrong? Not to me, honestly. The world has changed since the seventies and right now A LOT of band are awesome, and anyways we’re never talking about CRAZY expenses. You also need to prove you believe in your project with some investments.
What about Holographic concerts in our living room?
Michele: This sounds terrible. Funny for nerds maybe, but totally far from my conception of music and live music. Everyone could be hidden behind a hologram; how could you even be sure that the band is playing?
Governments around the world are hearing the call of thousands of music creators and ncluded protections for the music community in the omnibus bill. In addition to extended and improved unemployment benefits and small business loans for freelance creators, the package includes several bills which the Recording Academy, its members, and the larger music community advocated for. From the Save Our Stages Act, provided a lifeline to performance venues and promoters, to the CASE Act, which creates an avenue for smaller creators to defend their copyrighted works, Congress has ensured that both music creators and those who act behind the scenes to bring music to life are given the support they need during this difficult time.”
Will this help save the industry?
Michele: I believe this will only help to survive for a bit longer. Everyone in the live music business based his own activity on events that gather people, sometimes just a few dozens, sometimes thousands of people. If you take away the most fundamental element from a business, there’s no way out from failure. If I sell wine and you take away bottles, I can find a solution, but if you take away grape from the process, there won’t be any wine, no matter how much support you’ll receive. The music industry needs people and gatherings.
In the past if a musician stops doing music, they find a new career. For example, David Lee Roth from Van Halen became a a licensed EMT in NY for 6 years, San Spitz (guitarist for Anthrax) became a master watchmaker, Dee Snider (Twister Sister) voice over work for SpongeBob SquarePants. If you can’t do music what would you like to be doing?
Michele: my second activity is my recording studio so I REALLY hope this won’t happen. But in the very worst case, I could find a way out working with computers. This would have been my choice in a world without music.
What is your happy place?
Michele: A tour bus. Honestly, that’s where I feel like my life is moving in the direction I always wanted.
Spotify just deleted 750,00 songs, mostly from independent artists. Was your saved?
Michele: Yes, we had no issue at all and to be honest, I actually didn’t know about this topic…
Why do you call your fans Jupiterians?
Michele: Because of our previous album “Of Jupiter and Moons”. It’s a nice way to remain connected to the album that made Temperance take a huge step forward, and we love the idea of exploring space and new worlds with our fans!
Anything you would like to say in closing.
Michele: What else than “Thank You”? This was quite an intense and long interview that touched many topics, I hope I didn’t disappoint you and I hope I could share something with you and of course with all the readers! Thank you for the time spent together!
