Hanna Tsepesh: Ciao (Hello) Tommy! Thanks so much for accepting the invitation for this interview! First of all can you tell us a little bit about SEVENGATES history? You also have a new vocalist… what happened with the last one?
Tommy: “Hello Hanna! Thanks for invinting me! SevenGates are a power metal band from Italy. We have 2 albums out ; “Unreality” , our 1st one, was published in 2002 by a Brazilian label, and “The Good and the Evil”, our 2nd cd, out in June 2008 as FREE digital download on our website www.sevengates.it . About the new vocalist, his name is Eugent Bushpepa, he is from Albania, and he will sing all the vocals parts of our 3rd cd that will be called “Betraeyer”. Eugent has an amazing voice and is a great performer! About Federico, our last singer, he is very busy as guitar player in “Vision Divine” band, and actually he never wanted to be a singer (what a shame!). So he decided to leave SevenGates for dedicating himself to his guitarist career.
Hanna Tsepesh: Oh it’s really a shame, he had a great voice! Anyway we will wait for the new vocalist work! What are the inspirations to create the lyrics for SEVENGATES?
Tommy: “Inspiration may come for everyday life, history, movies and books! It depends on the moment.”
Hanna Tsepesh: Let’s talk a little bit about you: What are your favorite bands at the moment?
Tommy: “The more I get older the more I listen to few bands. Sure I can tell I always listen to Yngwie Malmsteen and Manowar. These are my fav bands ever. I like many others like Gamma Ray, Stratovarius, Helloween , Iron Maiden , Crimson Glory , Savatage and many many more. I listen a lot of classical music too. I can say I don’t like very much the new metal, progressive, crossover and all that stuff. For me Heavy Metal is Heavy Metal. Stop. Other music is not METAL and it’s not for me. Good music never changes.
Hanna Tsepesh: If you have to choose one band that you admire the most from the bands you told us, what will be your choice and why?
Tommy: “I’d choose Yngwie Malmsteen. Maybe because I am a guitar player and he is absolutely my favorite one. And he never changed his style. He does what he wants and don’t look to trendy metal music. He decides everything about his band and music, and I admire him for that too. My dream is to play togheter with him and Manowar someday…but this is just a dream!”
Hanna Tsepesh: When did you start to play guitar? Any musician inspired you to start?
Tommy: “I started when I was 16, and I already was able to play the piano. At that time I was listening to Iron Maiden everyday. They inspired me to start and then other bands as Guns’n’Roses and Motley Crue. “
Hanna Tsepesh: I made a little search about your work and you also have a solo career, right? You have some albums too! Can you talk a little bit about them and your solo work?
Tommy: “OK! Yes I have a solo career actually just starting! I am recording now my 1st solo cd as “Tommy Vitaly”. I am very proud about it and there will be many exciting surprises about it! Time will tell! Check it out at www.myspace.com/tommyvitaly
I have a gothic rock duo too called “Vitaly”. It’s me playing all the instruments and Stefano Senesi, a friend of mine, on vocals. We have 2 albums out. The 1st one “Diva” out for D.A. Records as digital download, and the 2nd one “Gothic Erothic” selfproduced by me. You can check it out at www.myspace.com/vitalychurch “
Hanna Tsepesh: About the album “The Good and The Evil”, I really adore this album! I don’t have anything bad to say about the CD, I love the riffs, the voice is very powerful and the lyrics are amazing! My favorite’s songs are “Freedom” and “Honour and Pride”, this songs are FANTASTIC! For people that like POWER/heavy/melodic metal SEVENGATES is the answer! For the people who don’t listen yet can you talk about the album and what the band want to accomplish with this great work? “The good and The Evil” is available for free, right? Any special reason for that?
Tommy: “Thank you very much for your kind words! The album is a power metal album 100%. No compromise with it. The band wants only to play the music we love! We love metal and we love to do power metal music! This is the only cause we make albums like “The Good and the Evil”. And we decided to give it away for FREE on our website www.sevengates.it , so we can reach the higher number of fans and listeners. So if you like metal or not, download it from our website, IT’S FREE! Don’t’ buy it (laughs)!
Hanna Tsepesh: You are very welcome (laughs)! The album have a great quality in my point of view! Can you talk about the recording studio? It was easy process for the band?
Tommy: “We recorded it at “Zenith Studios” in Lucca, Italy. Many famous Italian bands recorded their cds there! Frank Andiver, the owner of the studios, was our producer and he did a great job! He was the one who recorded “Unreality” too, so we trusted him from the beginning! So it was an easy process for the band, for we were in Zenith Studios in 2001, when we recorded our 1st cd! “
Hanna Tsepesh: How has the response been to the album by the media and fans?
Tommy: “Very good! We did not expect it! People who love power metal really enjoy the album and the media was very interested in it! “The Good and the Evil” already had some top albums on some webzines and we did many interviews too! You can check them out on at our official website in the “press” section. Many people, both fans and media, were so glad for the FREE album and so they support us in a special way. We give it out for free but we need the support from everyone who loves our music!”
Hanna Tsepesh: Very good, I am happy for you guys! The cover album is very cool too, I like a lot the blue color is very beautiful! Who was the person that made this cool work? Tell us about the cover album…
Tommy: “The author of the cover album was Markus Sigfridsson. He did an awesome job! We like it very much too! We gave him 100% freedom about the idea and the realization of the booklet artwork, and when he showed us his work we were amazed! We wanted something with many warm colors, because our music is positive like the warm colors! (Laughs)”
Hanna Tsepesh: It is difficult for a band like SEVENGATES to grow up in Italy? Do you guys have some kind of support like: radios, magazines, labels, places to play, etc.?
Tommy: “It is not easy in Italy. There are few spaces for live metal music, and here in Italy bands are good only if they are friend of someone who works in some media, so sad. So, if you read a review of some Italian band in an Italian media, on the 80% you will read that they are the new Iron Maiden! (Laughs)! Ridiculous, I think in Italy we have many bands, but still not so good to challenge with German or Scandinavian bands. On the other hand we have the record labels. We decided to do not sign because every small record label in Italy doesn’t care about music actually. Someone asked us money without listening to the cd, some other wanted us but we had to buy 200 copies at 8 Euros or stuff like that. I would like to tell to young bands if they ask you money don’t sign. They don’t believe in you. And I would like to tell these guys of the small record labels, if you think you cannot make money selling metal bands albums, please change job, don’t ask money directly to the bands you sign. Sure we need support from the medias! It is our blood! we need it! And luckily we found many good webzines, magazines and radios who decided to support our music! We are eternally grateful to this people!”
Hanna Tsepesh: What are the future plans for SEVENGATES?
Tommy: “Well, you have to know we are working at out 3rd cd! We are now waiting for the vocal parts Eugent (the new singer) will send us! All the rest is ready! Then we will mix and master everything and the new cd will be ready! It will be called “BETRAYER” and it will be stronger and heavier than our first 2 albums! We have no more a keyboard player in the band, so the arrangements are more heavy oriented.”
Hanna Tsepesh: Definitely I will wait for that album! Last question: Do you want to send any message for all of SEVENGATES fans and for the people who going is to read this interview and don’t know your band and sound yet?
Tommy: “For the fans, we want to thank them for the constant support and for never leaving us! They had to wait 6 years for listening to the new cd! We promise they will not wait for other 6 years for another one! For people who not know us, I would like to invite them to go on our website www.sevengates.it and try to listen our music! It’s FREE!!! We hope you will like!”
Hanna Tsepesh: Thanks so much Tommy for your answers and time! THE GATES OF METAL wish all the band a great success and we hope to listen more from you guys! See you guys soon in Portugal for a powerful show…
Tommy: Thanks to you Hanna and to THE GATES OF METAL for this great interview. We want to say to everyone to DO NOT BUY our album (laughs)! But download it from our website www.sevengates.it ! IT’S FREE!!Thanks to everyone who supported us and believe in our music! PLAY LOUD!
Hanna Tsepesh: you are very welcome Tommy! All the best!!
By: Hanna Tsepesh
To get SEVENGATES NEW ALBUM FOR FREE and for more information’s go at:
www.myspace.com/sevengatespage
www.sevengates.it
