Secretpath show their capability

interview with Secretpath from italy
Secretpath borns from a Pierluigi “Aries” Ammirata’s initiative in the summer of 2008, on Cosenza, a city of Calabria (a region in the south of Italy). October 2009 the band is ready with Pierluigi "Aries" Ammirata on guitar, Paolo Ferrante on vocals, Lisa Bilotti on bass and Francesco "Storm" Borrelli (ex-Strike Avenue, actually drummer also of the alternative post rock band Mo Cuishle and of the death metal band Warocracy) on the drums. After some gigs in their region they record their debut demo CD "The Choice" (April 2010). May 2010 Lisa Bilotti had to left the band because of her university studies. June 2010 the bassist Giovanni De Luca (ex-Entropia, ex-The Sam's Cat) joins the band. After about six months of stand-by period, on May 2011 Secretpath starts the work on the recording of their second demo "Wanderer" that is out on December 2011. And about this release we asked some questions to Pierluigi and Paolo.

Please give us a short introduction of yourself and say something about your bandmates?
Pierluigi "Aries" Ammirata: The band was born from an idea of mine, during the summer of 2008. After some line-up changes, the first real line-up was made up by three members: me on guitar, Francesco "Storm" Borrelli on the drums and Lisa Bilotti on bass. During the whole first year we've been without a singer. Paolo Ferrante joined us on October 2009. After two months we recorded  "The Choice", our debut demo. During the following months we played some gigs in our region, Calabria, but on May 2010, Lisa left the band due to her university commitments. The following month Giovanni De Luca entered in the band as the new bass player. From November 2010 and March 2011, Secretpath took a break due to my musical studies at the Conservatory. After this stand-by period we recorded our second demo CD "Wanderer". On March 2012 we signed a deal with Necrotorture Live and Promotion Agency. Right now we are involved on playing live as much as possible.

We can read the official bio at your site but maybe you can add some spicy secrets to it? Things that we should know about.
Paolo Ferrante: Well if there's something the bio doesn't tell is how I met the other guys; there was that announce, on the web, I was searching for a band by years (I left some bands before because they told me I'm not good at singing...) and so I decided this would be great. Since then grew a strong friendship, even if we are slightly different from each other, that condition – with Pierluigi's guide - made possible to merge all the influences everyone brought to the band and get something original.


What was the main reason to start the band? Disappointment with your previous band? New paths to walk?
Pierluigi "Aries" Ammirata: When I started the band I came from an inactivity period because of my previous band, Aither, splitting up. During that period, I developed a new approach to my guitar playing which was strongly influenced by my classical studies. So, the foundation of Secretpath, was a perfect way to express my new musical goals.


Each band has a goal when starting. What was your goal or goals? How much pain would you put in it? And what did you already achieved of your goals?
Pierluigi "Aries" Ammirata: My first goal has always been to play my music with real friends and so this goal has already been fulfilled. Another objective was to create a personal form of artistic expression beyond the actual cliches that belong to any genre of music already developed during the last decades, not only in what we define as "Metal" but also in any kind of music, regardless of genres and styles. Besides that, I also want to play live as much as possible!


Paolo Ferrante: My early goal was to record some good music... just for putting the CD in the car stereo and telling myself “This is you!”; it was really strange the first time it happened! With time the goal became more difficult: now it is to develop a new way of singing, a new style perhaps.


As an unsigned band it is difficult to find the way to new fans. What are you doing to reach new fans?
Pierluigi "Aries" Ammirata: As we recently signed the deal with Necrotorture Agency, we are relying on them for the biggest part of the promotional work. Until recently in fact we have been not able to do very much on that field. We've been much more involved on working on music and the related artistic aspects first!


Paolo Ferrante: We always do our best in every aspect of our band; from the music, to the lyrics. I think the people notice it and so they begin to follow us. This is the most precious thing an artist can have: some people waiting and hoping for new songs and new gigs. There are already some friends who follow us day by day and we thank them all.


The last years social media made a big movement in promotion matters. Do you recon the importance and how active are you with social media?
Pierluigi "Aries" Ammirata: It's true that social media changed the way to promote music and art in general, but... the more things changes... and more they are still the same! In fact you would always need someone really able to work on a proper promotional activity for your band: it is very rare to find a musicians who is also capable of being a really good promoter of his art. It's possible, but it's still a very unlikely phenomenon!


Do you also see the internet as a threat? Think of spreading false rumors, leaking confidential information, illegal downloads?
Pierluigi "Aries" Ammirata: As I said before, nothing really changes: just technology. Maybe now it's easier and faster to illegally obtain information or data, or to spread false rumors. By the way those things always existed and will always exist. In my opinion even though the means will constantly change, the evil side of human beings will always remain.


Paolo Ferrante: Everything can be a threat when used the wrong way. The spread of false rumors can be stopped with a single true fact and the leaking of confidential infos can be prevented with a bit of attention.


Is it also necessary to spread your demos for free on the web?
Pierluigi "Aries" Ammirata: Yes, in my opinion, it is very important to spread our music for free on the web, especially for underground bands like us. A demo CD is a "demostration", as the word itself says, so a band with a simple demo is just in the situation of simple showing what they are capable of, so I think there is no reason to make people pay for just listen our music.


Paolo Ferrante: No one can be really willing to pay something he doesn’t know of... And, in each case, we are not mainly interested in money: if we ask something that is for covering expenses and there are no expenses in free downloading. Every song is available for free download in each of our web pages and we are glad if someone downloads and listens to our music.


To make your audience bigger you perform live. Is it easy to get shows in Italy? Already played outside Italy?
Pierluigi "Aries" Ammirata: It's not very easy to play live in Italy, at least for Metal bands. In our case, being from southern Italy makes things even worse. No, until today we have never played outside our country so far.


Paolo Ferrante: Sadly the most difficult thing is not to get the audience but o find a pub that lets play extreme Metal music. That places are very few and entering in contact with them can be impossible at times. We keep trying... for us, live performances, are not something only meant to grow the audience: to play live is the most important satisfaction we can find in what we do. Studio recording is nice and hard work, but nothing in comparison to the live performance!


Would you like to go on an European tour? What would be your dream band to open for? Why?
Pierluigi "Aries" Ammirata: Yes, we would! There's no particular band we would like to open for. In our band, everybody has different musical tastes, so it would be impossible to pick one name that could easily meet everybody's tastes and backgrounds...


If you can go on tour is it easy to get free from work (I assume you all have jobs)? What kind of work do you do?
Pierluigi "Aries" Ammirata: I work as a guitar teacher, so for me it wouldn't be very difficult to get free from work. However my job as a guitar teacher is not so far from my band activity.


Paolo Ferrante: Well, Francesco is still studying at the conservatory. Giovanni works in his own baker shop as a deliverer, his brother can cover him if needed. As for me I work as a lawyer and so I am relatively free, if I find the time to organize myself. It is not the typical work a metalhead does but... I'm not a typical metalhead!


If you have a job you are a lucky bastard these days. What do you see/feel of the economical crisis that is hitting us? Do you follow world news/politics?
Paolo Ferrante: I think that the lucky bastards are those who, without working, make their living on our shoulders! The economical crisis is everywhere, I feel it when the clients don't pay and realize that I did work months for just nothing; the crisis is when your country does pay you five years later for your work and wants your taxes in time... I do follow politics, I think that there are some countries, like Denmark, Germany, Finland, Norway and so on that have an higher culture, an higher civic sense. In Italy if you find a way to avoid taxes or steal public money you are a “nice guy” and people envy you; in your country the people spit on these kind of persons. Therefore I think that it would be better to improve our civic sense instead of relying on politics.


If they ask you to get the prime minister of Italy, what solutions would you have to make Italy wealthy?
Paolo Ferrante: Well, if someone would ask me to get the prime minister of Italy I would think that this would be madness! That’s the point: when someone without the required skills gets an important place in government the entire country will suffer... even his friends who may think they are smart.


Speaking of prime ministers. Were you invited for any of the bunga bunga parties?
Paolo Ferrante: No. Maybe we weren’t enough famous... Who knows?


If not invited, what do you do in your spare time? What are your hobbies? Do you collect something?
Paolo Ferrante: Me and Pierluigi enjoy reading, me and Francesco like playing on PC games... Everyone of us does sport. We have lives that you could call “normal”... no oddities!


According to the church, we humans have to reproduce ourselves. What kind of stories do you want to tell your children?
Paolo Ferrante: It would be great to tell my children “Hey lad, even your father - that is the vocalist of Secretpath band - did the homeworks at you age... so go faster than light or you’ll hear me scream and it won’t be pleasant as in the CDs!”. Well I think I will have some stories of a honest man, who did work in his entire life and had some fun with his friends from Secretpath band.


Interviewer: twansibon
Jun 6, 2012
Next interview: The return of Homoferus

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