Hanna Tsepesh: Hello Camila, Rene, Allan, Matthew, Cesar Welcome to THE GATES OF METAL and welcome Back Marcello! Thanks so much all the entire band for accepting this interview! how are you guys?Camila: My pleasure! It’s great to be here talking to you
Rene: Thank you Hanna
Cesar: Thank you very much Hanna
Marcello: It’s our pleasure Hanna you are a great friend with a great work
Allan: Thank you for this opportunity.
Hanna Tsepesh: You guys are very welcome! in the first interview we spoke about the lyrics theme, about Marcello career and Thy Symphony history, so now I would like to make some questions about the other band members. First of all: What are your favorite bands at the moment? Did you have one band that you admire the most?
Camila: Camila: Hum, that’s always a hard question to answer… I’ve been listening to a lot of stuff, so many different styles, like classical musical, American pop, 80’s, Brazilian music…some days I wake up looking forward to listen to Air Supply, Foreigner or Chicago and suddenly the next day I wake up and put some Nightwish on my CD player. Next day, 30 Seconds to Mars. Well, but talking about rock’n’roll and heavy-metal only, I would say that there are important bands to me like Nightwish, Sonata Arctica, Rhapsody, Labyrinth, Helloween, Within Temptation, Symphony X, Vision Divine and, of course, Iron Maiden and Queen. Those bands brought awesome feelings to me, there’s no explanation for it.
Rene:I´ve been listening,Slipknot,Scar Symmetry,Dimmu Borgir,MasterPlan,Disburted, Pop and classics from 80`s
Allan: I prefer the classics, Now I’m listening Paul Rodgers and Queen, some R&B and waiting THE Flight 666 of you know who.
Cesar: I like classic rock very much. I´ve been listening, Dream Theater, Rush, Yes, Iron Maiden, Metallica and a lot of other bands.
Hanna Tsepesh: let's talk a little about Allan and pretend that he is not listening to our conversation (laughs)! Allan is the new singer, so I would like to know what you guys are thinking about their work so far?
Marcello: Allan is a great singer, really great more than 1, 90, (laughs). Serious he is a great singer, He has the kind of voice I like too much, a stronger voice. He can sing erudite music too, so they mix these techniques and get a powerful rock voice.
He is not only a very talent singer he’s a amazing person too, it’s very important in a band cause in recordings there are discussions and he understand things well, or show us a lot of possibilities, that’s because he is very talent, I think Thy grows and will grow more with Allan. Allan it’s good to have you in the team (laughs).
Cesar: A great singer, friend and professional. And the Principal thing, we root for the same soccer team, our great Palmeiras. (laughs).
Rene: A great professional, very dedicated to work and it´s the better Singer Thy Symphony ever had in my opinion, ah of course he is a great friend too, what is very important to work together
Camila: First of all, Allan is a great friend. We met when we were 18 years old. We both were young (yeah yeah we are not that old now! (Laughs) and it was great for me to accompany how his voice was getting bigger and bigger. It was just great when I heard him singing and Thy Symphony was looking for a male singer, and then I told him “you should sing for the guys of the band, you are what we are looking for”. Well, he sang and now there he is (laughs).. He is an amazing singer and a wonderful person to work with.
Hanna Tsepesh: Allan I would like to send you my congratulations for your work in this album, I think you are very versatile singer and I wish you all the best for your career with Thy Symphony and I hope that you don’t give up on this! Tell me, what is your biggest influence (singer that you admire the most)? When you start to sing? You have any singing lesson or any preparation?
Allan: Thanks Hanna, I don’t have a biggest influence now, when I started to sing, I was listening Iron Maiden so much and Bruce is my favorite singer. I’ve always searching for versatility and you can get it singing everything. I had lessons (erudite) with Camila,
everything started with her (laughs) and other singers, now I study alone. I have another band that play in a lot of Pubs in São Paulo, and I have to sing everything: Classic Rock, Hard Rock, Heavy Metal, Pop Music, Blues, R&B and Brazilian Music. I think it’s very good for any singer. In my opinion there are some singers that can sing everything like, Jorn Lande, Paul Rodgers, Oliver Hartmann, Nando Fernandes and others, of course these are my influence too.Hanna Tsepesh: Also Allan, it was easy to integrate in Thy Symphony?
Allan: Well, I was playing my guitar in my room and Camila called me telling about the problems with the previous singer. I knew Thy Symphony in her home (about 3 or 4 years ago) when I was studying with her and they had a great singer that sings like Dio and Hansi Kursh I was 19 and I just started to have lessons. So when she finished talking about their problems I asked: “Okay, you need me to indicate another singer, right? She said: “No, I was thinking about you. So I’ll send music by e-mail you learn it and tomorrow we’ll go to Rene’s home to meet Marcello and you’ll sing it to them, OK?” I told: “Ahn, errr, OK” So now I’m here (laughs).
Hanna Tsepesh: Camila, you have singing lesson right? What age you start to
take lessons and was an easy process for you or you are kind of lucky girl that born with this talent? You have an amazing powerful voice I am really surprised with your talent! You are one of my favorite top female singers! I think you will have a great successful career. Camila: Thank you very much for your comment, you are really kind!! Yes, I have singing lessons with an awesome teacher called Isabel Maresca. She is the teacher of a lot of important opera singers here in Brazil. She helped me to find my voice, and I can tell you that it was not easy! I started to sing when I was 14 years old. I had a lot of teachers, but no one helped me like Isabel did (and keep doing). She was the first person that could show me what a real singing technique is.
Hanna Tsepesh: Rene and Cesar I would like to know when you start to play your instruments and why the choice? You guys have any musician that you admire the most?
Cesar: I started to play acoustic guitar with 9 years old, and with 11 years old I started to play guitar. I have maiden this choice because I saw great guitar players playing guitar and I wanted to play their solos. I like Malmsteen, Steve vai and John Petrucci.
Rene:I Started to play bass with 17 years old,I like Billy Shehann,Steve Harris and Jari Kainulainen
Hanna Tsepesh: One little curiosity: How emerge the band name (Thy Symphony)? Is any reason?
Marcello: Well, Rene and I, we were talking about a name and we think it needs to have Symphony and it needs to involve the people will hear the band, the fans. So Rene Says Thy Symphony I said ok, (laughs).
Rene:I agree Marcello (laughs).. The same answer. (laughs).Hanna Tsepesh: about your new album call” Harmonizing the World”, I love this album! The both voices work very good together, great melodies and riffs! For me this album revels a lot of Thy Symphony is and also when we listen we thing “Yeah, this is Thy Symphony!” for me you guys create your own style like we can listen in: “Broken wings”, “Survivor” and “The Braves from Highlands” in that music’s we can feel your talent! For people who don’t listen yet can you talk about” Harmonizing the World” and what the band wants to accomplish?
Camila: We’ve been together for a lot of years, so this album is the result of all the things we’ve been through. Now we know how to get each important musical point of all members. We understand each other, not like musicians only, but as good friends as well.
Allan: This is not only a Metal Album, there are a lot of classical music elements. There’re a lot of bands with a male and female singer but I’ve never heard with our kind of duets, it’s very difficult because you have to synchronize the voices. Everyone can do it on the records, but you have to do it alive, to sound like a choir and you can’t do it like a Robot we need to coordinate presence and technique this is a great challenge, I can’t wait to play our music alive, it’s different, some groups play exactly on the album and you have the impression that is just listening the CD, I think we have a lot of energy and it can be released playing alive. Other thing that made me join the group is Identity, I’ve never seen any sound like this, this is “Thy Symphony” this is our fingerprint!
Marcello: Harmonizing the world is an album about hope, we begin the spoken about the hope, Pandora’s box it’s a song about hope cause all evil in the world came out from that box but the hope stays, always there is hope. So comes the songs about St. Francis of Assisi, Broken wings about a man between money and God. I tried to tell the history of St. Francis without any religion thing, just tell the history of a great man that lived in poverty, lived for to love and not to be loved. I think he is a great man and a true man of God so different from the rich people from Vatican.
Of course we have songs about other themes too, and I love all the songs, I thing this album has a lot of passion, is very heavy with good melodies, riffs and arrangements.
By the way I agree Allan below in every single word (laughs).
Rene: We tried to show our own identity, to show all we can do, to show our real style our fingerprint like Allan said. It was made with a lot of determination and hope, like the themes from our album. I believe it’s really a great album
Cesar: It’s a great Album. Together, we joined the best qualities of each member of the band to bring up the best album we could have made!
Hanna Tsepesh: Everything went well at recording studio? It was an easy process? The band feels proud with the final result or you think that miss something?
Marcello: I love this album Hanna, I think we made a great job, Allan and Camila, they are great in this album. I think we all work very well and I’m very proud of our band, of my friends. I want to say thank you so much for Allan, Camila, Cesar and Matt and of course a very special thanks to Rene, cause he is not only a great bass player he is a great producer and a great friend. So yes I believe we find our own music and I’m very satisfied with this album.
Rene: The recordings was not easy, because our music is very complex, but with dedication of all of us we get a great result and I’m very proud.
Cesar: Recording is always a hard thing to do. You need to be psychologically ready to do your best. You have to put all your feelings to the instrument, so the music will live up. I’m very proud with the final result.
Allan: I had some difficulty in the beginning, it was new for me. I have more experience singing alive other kind of music than recording heavy metal on the studio, After 2 or 3 months my voice changed and I was singing harder than when we started, I was training everyday and after this period, I could sing easier than before and is was sounding better, harder, so I told the guys, let’s do it again. I recorded all the voice line again. It sounds good, I’m very perfectionist and I help the guys to produce, listening to all the tracks a lot of times…
Camila: I think every recording process is not easy. It’s not easy for the musician to feel satisfied with he’s listening. We always think “I can do it better” and suddenly you get yourself repeating the same phrase for one hundred times. I really enjoyed the final result, I think everybody there did their best. That’s the most important thing.
Hanna Tsepesh: You guys are searching for a label, right? How are the things doing with that?
Marcello: Well, We sent our promo stuff for some labels in the world, Some of this labels have a lot off terrible bands, I don’t understand why they don’t answer when a good band send their work, but I have some good answers. We choose the better one and we are making a deal with a label from Europe, as we sign the contract we will inform about the day our cd will be released. And of course the Gates of metal will be the first one to know about this date.
Hanna Tsepesh: I like a lot the Thy Symphony logo I think is very cool and the cover album is great! Who is the person behind this cool work? Did you think that the cover transmit what “Harmonizing The World” is?
Rene: The cover was made by my great brother and if He won’t do that I would hit him, (laughs). I believe the cover is exactly what Harmonizing the World is, and I can guarantee our covers always will be great, cause I believe the bands today, seems don’t care about cover of their albums, only a few care about it.
Marcello: Yes I think the cover is perfect, and logo too, Andre Labate is Rene’s brother, He has a great talent to understand Thy music and to put it in a image, I believe that’s because he hears our music all the time, he’s with us in all the recordings, so thinking well it was very easy to him. (Laughs).
Cesar: The work on the cover is wonderful. All ideas from the songs were perfectly reproduced on the cover and the pictures. Andre Labate, and all members of band are congratulated.
Allan: I like the Cover; we went to a Rustic Capel to take those pictures. It was very funny because we was wearing black and the people was thinking that we are demons (laughs)
Camila: (laughs). André Labate (Rene’s brother) did all that great job! He’s always together with us; he helped us a lot making the art work. When you look to the album cover you can see exactly what Harmonizing the World is.
Hanna Tsepesh: If one of our readers wants to buy your album safely, what they can do?
Allan: Marcello, Help me!
Marcello: Like I Said before, we are making a deal with a label, so soon Will be easy to buy our album.
Hanna Tsepesh: what is your favorite music in this album and why?
Camila: My favorite one is The Brave from Highlands, because that song shows a lot of us, there are aggressive and melodic parts, a lot of orchestral arrangements and choirs, it’s a long song with a lot of elements, it’s like you could hear in only one music everything we wanted to put in the album.
Allan: Well my favorite is The Brave from Highlands; you can hear hard and lyric voice in that song. I love this “blend”.
Cesar: My favorite song is survivor. It haves a great energy and thrills everyone who listens to it.
Rene: My Favorite one is Shadows and Dust, because I dream with its theme and it became a great music. I think there are other great songs like Survivor and The Brave from Highlands
Marcello: Well, seems my friends like The Brave from Highlands a lot, (laughs)... I love this music too of course, it is perfect and has everything about Thy. It’s heavy and epic. It’s very hard to me to tell a favorite one, I love all, but ok come on, (laughs)... I think Shadows and Dust it’s a great music because it’s like a The Brave from Highlands with 5 minutes. I love Sun and Moon and Raising from the sand very beauty songs, Survivor, very heavy and I think I tell everything about stupid people who don’t love themselves, Pandora’s Box cause very epic and heavy.
Ah I cannot forget Harmonizing the world, it has great riffs and melodies. Oh God it’s very hard to tell just one song, this songs are like my children, (laughs).
Hanna Tsepesh: The band is thinking about a European tour? You guys have plains to include Portugal in your tour or something? You like to come in here?
Rene: Of course we think to play in Europe, to play in Portugal too, we have lot friends in Portugal, like you Hanna, (laughs)... And we need to play for these people
Cesar: Of course, we would like a lot to play in Portugal and all other countries in Europe. In fact, we have plans to play in all countries around the whole world!
Camila: Ohhh yeah! Hanna Of course we would like to go to Portugal. Actually, I would love to go there! I hope the tour comes soon, I’m very anxious.
Marcello: Yes, of course, it’s our dream to play in Europe and to play in Portugal is our duty, because we have great friends there. Hanna we need to know you. (laughs).
Hanna Tsepesh: (laughs) It will be fun!
Allan: We’re still searching for a label, it’s difficult now. But every South American heavy metal band has this dream…
Hanna Tsepesh: I have one funny question by one of our readers! She asks me to ask Rene and Marcello if you guys are brothers? I know that a lot of people think that so I want to clarify the things… (Laughs)
Marcello: (laughs). We are close like brothers, We grew together we knew each other since 10 years old I think, I don’t remember the right time but we play video-game, play soccer all the thing the little boys do in the childhood (laughs)., it was a long time ago. Today we play in a band together, (laughs)... I think we are brothers but not from the same mother and father. By the way, my mother care about Rene like her son and Rene’s mother care about me like her son too.
If you can understand we are not brothers, but we are, do you understand? I think I just complicated the things. (laughs).
Hanna Tsepesh: (laughs)
Rene: We met each other since our childhood, a great friendship we never had problems, so we are brothers, not the same blood, but brothers.
Hanna Tsepesh: Do you want to send any message for the people Who going to read this interview?
Marcello: Well, I hope you all hear our album, it will be available soon.
So listen to our music, send us your questions, we will answer all, it takes time but we will. I hope you like our album as we like. All the Best for you all.
Cesar: I hope everyone who read this interview give a chance and listen to Harmonizing the World, cause is the best album we could’ve made, we put all our feelings in that, from the main cover to the last chord.
Camila: Just want to send a big thank you for all the readers and for all the support that we are getting from the wonderful fans. Thank you very much and I hope to see you on the road soon!
Allan: Listen to our music, post your comments in MySpace. If you like our work, send it to your friends. If you have a band, send your work to us to access and divulgate it too. Only with union we can show our work to the world!
Rene:I Hope you all hear our cd and feel all energy of our music.
Hanna Tsepesh: Thanks o much for your answers and time. THE GATES OF METAL wishes the entire band a great success with”Harmonizing The World”! We hope to see Thy Symphony very soon in here…
Marcello: Thank you Hanna your support is very important. All the Best for The Gates of Metal.
Allan: Thank you Hanna for this interview and congratulations for your work on The Gates of Metal.
Rene: Thanks for the opportunity, thanks for you support, I will always be grateful for your support.
Cesar: Thanks you Hanna. Thanks for the opportunity and support.
Camila: Thank you again Hanna, congratulations for your great work and I hope to meet you soon!
Hanna Tsepesh: Thanks so much and you guys are very welcome! All the best...
By: Hanna Tsepesh
To listen to some THY SYMPHONY music’s and for future information’s go at:
www.myspace.com/thysymphony
