Phaedra is not a new band even though their debut was released in 2010. The origins of this group from Trento Italy harken to 1993. They started out as a band with good live activity and played many shows and festivals, with a mix of originals and lots of covers from the likes of Genesis, Yes, Rush, and Marillion to name a just a few. Today's Phaedra is a large 8-person ensemble with the usual 4 piece plus an extra keyboardist, a flautist, and two violinists.
These lines was written by Finnforest (Jim) in the RPI team and that is good enough reason to contact Phaedra for their story.
Claudio Bonvecchio answered my questions
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Your
biography has been covered in your ProgArchives profile so let's
bypass the biography details. But why did you choose that name ?
Hi
everybody ! I am Claudio Bonvecchio , the only original member still
in the current lineup. It’s
a long story; it all started in 1993; me and the original drummer had
another band called LIGEIA and one day we replied to an ad by a
guitar player who was willing to play prog rock; this gave birth to
PHAEDRA. I chose the name. I am very fond of ancient mythologies
moreover the name is the title of a Tangerine Dream record which I
really loved in my teens. There is another band that I like: Vanilla
Fudge with its proto-prog genre. I saw them on the Italian tv when I
was only a kid and they played “Some velvet morning” ; there was
a line in that song that said: “Phaedra is my name…”. All these
hints contributed to our name.
What
is your musical background and were you involved in any other bands
before you started Phaedra ?
As
I said before two original members played in LIGEIA who never
recorded.
Every current member played or plays in other bands and each of us
attended different kinds of music from hard rock to soul and folk. In
particular our violinists and flautist have a classical music
background.
Which
bands were you influenced by ?
When
we started in 1993 we covered Rush, Yes, King Crimson, Marillion, PFM
and obviously Genesis
who were our main influence. In 1998 we even recorded a demo CD which
reflected this great clout in our own compositions sung in English at
that time. Then we suddenly changed our style and began to use our
language at last; we laid down electric guitar and started not to
consider it as a basic instrument but as a supporting one. We
introduced acoustic instruments such as 12 string guitars, violins,
mandolin that offer more effective range of sounds to carry out our
musical writing.
Please
give us your long or brief thoughts on your only album Ptah released
earlier this year. How would you describe the music ?
When
we started to write PTAH some years ago we wished to abandon the
old way of composing single songs; our aim was to work on a concept
story. In our opinion that is the correct method in order to achieve
a fluid and homogeneous piece of music. You can reuse some themes in
another key and process them for different instruments; every strain
is directed to the final result trying to avoid the useless
instruments’ solos which sometimes are a boring try-out ! Our music
is very descriptive in terms of musical styles and instruments used
to point out the different moods in our opera. Of course our Italian
roots emerge as an influence by using some vocal melodies and
peculiar instruments. I think that ”prog rock” could be the
keyword…it doesn’t matter…folk, classical, rock… every genre
is helpful to make effective what we want to gain in our writing.
Where
can this album be purchased from and how is it's distribution ?
Everyone
can purchase the album directly from us
through our site. There are many distributors that sell our album in
Italy and all over the world just like Syn-phonic and many others.
You can locate them on Internet. The distribution of our album after
only three months is going very well considering the
self-production.
How
is your writing and creative processes ?
Just
like I told you before
we usually start from a concept story. We avoid to improvise and
prefer to work on musical ideas and themes written by each of us.
During the rehearsals we assemble the bulk of the arrangements then
at home everyone blunts his own part and tries to improve it in order
to fit in the piece . It’s a delicate process because every
instrument has to go along with the others without possible misuse
or abuse. The only and one aim is to make the composition beautiful
and flowing with no excesses and bad redundancies.
How
is your gigs and festivals situation. Are you currently doing gigs or
are you a studio band only ?
We
played many gigs until three
years ago and we proposed the whole opera several times then the
recording process began and so we were compelled to dismiss the
concert situation in order to carry out our work. Since the beginning
Phaedra has always been a live band and often used to test the new
songs before the audience to improve the arrangements. Now, after the
release of PTAH, we are on stand-by but we hope to return on stage as
soon as time grants us.
What
is the latest updates and the plans for this and next year ?
We’ve
just completed the recording of “Calling home” . That’s not a
Phaedra’s composition but a Flower King’s song. You know,
Colossus Project, the famous Finnish label, stages a tribute to the
aforementioned Swedish band. This compilation will be a 4 CD’s box
including many prog bands all over the world; every group has to
rearrange a Flower King’s song according to his style and taste. We
actually rewrote the tune using our usual instruments and our way of
arranging. During next autumn we are going to sit down again and
begin the writing of our new album.
To
wrap up this interview, is there anything you want to add to this
interview ?
We
want to thank you
for your proposal of interview and attention moreover we would like
everyone to listen to our music; not only the typical prog fan but
even persons usually accustomed to listen to easier pop songs.
Every music tells a story…
Thank you to Claudio Bonvecchio for this interview
Their PA profile is here and their homepage here
Edited by toroddfuglesteg - September 20 2010 at 07:54
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Phaedra
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