Italian hardcore band Amalia Bloom talks about their upcoming projects!
Hi guys, first of all thanks a lot for letting us this space, we really appreciate. Amalia Bloom is an emo/ post-hardcore band hailing from Vicenza, Italy. We are active since last year but we started writing "Maiden Voyage" three years ago. At that time, we all had different musical projects, but we have always perceived Amalia Bloom as a growing-up project. We wanted to make a step forward and take things more seriously. We put energy, passion, time and we are still trying to find our balance, both musically and as individuals. In Maiden Voyage, you can clearly hear some influences from the bands we love the most, bands such as Converge, Counterparts, Deafheaven but our aim was to write simply what we had in mind, not paying too much attention on fitting perfectly in a particular style of music. Playing in a band doesn't only mean making music but also managing so many other different aspects. We try to follow as much as we can our DIY ethos in which we really believe. Tommaso, our singer, is into the social management/booking side; Ettore worked on the release with the labels; Tony, Stefano and Federico usually print our merch together in our rehearsal room and so forth. We are also surrounded by a lot of cool people and friends who contribute to the project. Above anyone else there’s Yari that not only joined the band as temporary guitar player because Ettore had some physical problems, but also recorded, mixed and mastered our music and he is an immensely talented dude. How would you describe the music scene in Italy? Italy has always had a brilliant music scene. Regarding the underground music I can think about the hardcore scene in the 80's (Negazione, Raw Power, Indigesti). Or the screamo scene during the 2000's (Raein, La Quiete). Those were some of the most prolific periods for punk and hardcore music and in that period. The Italian scene was able to reach many people all around the world. So, looking at today's situation one thing we really noticed is that the audience has significantly restricted which is a bummer as a band and as music fans. But there's a lot of crews who organize shows (Venezia Hardcore, Longrail Records, Abnormal Wave, Scars Of Rage Crew, Turin is not dead...). The local scenes are strong and constantly attracting new people. Plus, we are lucky enough to have many bands we are really inspired from who are good friends too (for example Regarde)!
I saw that you guys are represented by many labels around the world. Can we talk about the importance of being represented by various labels for you? We live in a constantly evolving world and music it’s really affected by that. In the last few years we witnessed a big change in the way music is consumed. Now, the biggest portion of the audience is online, we are streaming new music everyday. And (almost) everything is coming out for free, which is obviously not a bad thing. However, as we dig deeper, we can see that there’s still the need of a physical copy, especially in the underground scene, in which people buy records as a “ritual”. To us, a record is like a photograph: it catches a moment and makes it everlasting. That’s why we worked a lot on the physical release of our first ep “Maiden Voyage”. We wanted to share not only our music but also that type of feeling. We produced both vinyls and CD’s thanks to some incredible screamo / hardcore / whatever labels from all over the world. (Engineer Records, Missed Out Records, Les Disques Rabat-Joie, Non ti Seguo Records and last but not least Eunbruttopostodovevivere). Knowing that, on the other side of this pale blue dot, there’s someone who believes in us and loves what we are doing is incredible. We feel very blessed for getting to know these incredible people. You guys plan on releasing new stuff in April. Can we learn more about your upcoming releases? We are currently working on new stuff. At the moment we’re recording a song which will come out as soon as possible considering that the COVID-19 scenario is not helping in any way. But yes, definitely writing/releasing music is one of our main goals for the future so keep your eyes peeled in the next few weeks. We're trying to make the new stuff a little more "direct". Adding some choruses, slowing the BPM's but always keeping the aggressive feeling we like and we're so happy about the result. Basically, we're all into different music, so the approach has always been like "let's try to make something that may represent each one of us". And now, it’s starting to be something natural. It's a normal process for a band to try different ways and different approaches to their music. And we're really trying to find our own direction with the new stuff. How’s your usual writing process for your songs? Usually, Ettore and Federico (the guitar players), write the songs on their own. Then bring them to the rehearsal space and we start from there. We adjust and refine the parts we like together and we change or completely rewrite the weak parts of the songs. We usually tend to write lyrics and the vocal melodies together with the instrumentals, in order to properly link the words to the music. In the context of an EP, like happened with Mayden Voyage, it is not rare to refine some small details of the songs already written if we feel the need of a more consistent sound or mood. The result is a pretty slow writing process (it usually takes two or three of months per song). But this approach permits us to make something we feel unique and that represents all of us. The last words are for you. If you have any other projects in the making, here’s your chance to talk about it! We are part of a local DIY crew called Life Is Strage. At the moment, we are putting up a two-days festival in June, that will take place on the 5th and 6th in Brogliano, a small town in the Venetian countryside. Life Is Strage aims to bring emo/punk/hardcore/metal bands to our city/province in order to promote music and also counteract in order to fight climate change. Every ticket bought for our festival is translated to a planted tree in our hometown. We already raised enough money to plant enough trees to “build” a park and a playground. Currently, we are looking for the right place to plant these trees and we can’t wait for that moment. Be sure to follow Life Is Strage on social platforms! Thanks for your time! Band picture: Yari Ricco
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