Filoritmia (April 2010)

Filoritmia is one of the new bands who has taken up the legacy left by the likes of Le Orme, PFM and Banco. Filoritmia is perhaps not a household name. But they have so far released two albums and both of them are well worth checking out.

I caught up with the band for an update.

What are you up to these days?   

We're promoting our last CD and playing live whenever possible in Italy around Milan where we all live.  

How is life in Italy these days?

Wonderful as always. To live in Milan gives you many advantages. It's a lively city where people who appreciate culture and arts have many options to chose among. Unfortunately, the biggest lack is in music. The chances seems to be less and less. Mass market logic seems to be the only rule. Please tell us more about your background.

Who was your musical inspirations ?

We all come from a rock background. But inspirations are many. Toni, the drummer used to play metal. Giorgio and Matteo (voice and bass guitar) tend to be closer to psychedelic tradition, Roberto (the guitarist) likes very much the Beatles and jazz and fusion, Angelo (Keyboard) is a 70's rocker and he likes as well fusion. All of us are very much interested in prog and we're definitely prog-fun, but we're well aware that rock-progressive universe is far too large to, be considered a specific music genre. Basically we all love PFM, Area, King Crimson and Genesis. Marillion is another band we definitely like......... and we can't forget Dream Theatre.

When did you start up Filoritmia, with whom and what does that name means ?

The band was founded in 1993 by three of us: Angelo, Antonio and Giorgio. Then, in 1997, after Roberto and Matteo joined the band, the project concretely started with new songs and many live shows. Filoritmia is actually a composition of two words meaning love “filos” and rhythm. So very simple: “Love for rhythm” or “Rhythm lovers”, as you like most.

Both your albums are self-released. Please tell us why you went down that route and the pro/cons of doing everything yourself ?

That's true. It's a choice we're very proud of. It allows you to be independent from all points of view. No market conditioning, no economic pressure. You propose your music for what it is and not for what mass consumers think it should be. And, it's not easy. It requires time, investments and you don't really gain many sympathies among producers, of course.... any how, once they understand you make things properly, they start respecting you and nice collaborations can start for sales and distribution as well. Most of the self-promotion is carried out through our website,  www.filoritmia.it

Please tell us more about your debut album Filoritmia from 2000.

It recollects 10 tracks we wrote in 3 years time afer a very intense season of live shows in Northern Italy. We like to think we were already in the forefront of self-production and self-promotion. We soon released all the tracks in our website for free download. And that was much appreciated by many rock lovers from all over the world. One of the pros of being self-produced and promoted is that each contact you get on the web is really a satisfaction piece, especially when it comes from Japan, Brazil or Indonesia.

There was a nine years gap between your debut album and your second album. What happened ?

Yes. That's true. We simply found out that it was time to take a break. We felt that we no longer were seeing our project the same way. Each of us needed to make different experience. This was in 2003. Three of us, Angelo, Matteo and Roberto, joined again in 2005. Antonio and Giorgio a year later. We soon started to work on the new Filoritmia project which would call Passaggi.

Please tell us more about your second album Passaggi from 2009.

Passaggi is the result of a three-year work. We wanted to create a multi-suite album with different tones and atmospheres. Passaggi is composed of eight stories. Each one is rather autonomous and complex in itself. We enjoyed ourselves in ranging from pure rock ballads to new punk, from melodic Italian progressive to more harmonic music patterns. However, Passaggi means a multiple view on life. The music project goes along with the web. Passaggi is first of all offered to the audience as a interactive experience on the internet. All the tracks and instrumental lines, together with lyrics can be downloaded from www.filoritmia.it

Actually, we released all songs on the web from October 08 to May 09: one track a month. Each song has its own emotional environment: a dedicated web page with images and words ...

What is the lyrical topics on your albums ?  

Well, each song has a story to tell. In general, we like to talk about life and human emotions. We start from a daily occurring to go deeper into human fragility and uncertainty.

You are listed as Rock Progressivo Italiano (shortened to RPI) in our database. But there is far more to Filoritmia than RPI. But how would you describe your music ?

We thank you for your choice! And we thank you even more for affirming that Filoritmia is far more.We mean: you're right to list us as RBI. The influences of bands like PFM or Area are surely there. But, frankly speaking, we do not consider Filoritmia as belonging to a particular genre. For instance, we all love King Crimson and some acid sounds we used in Passaggi could make someone think about some recent song theirs'. But, actually, we generally think ourselves as rock band,that's it.  

Is there any gigs and/or festivals you remember with great fondness ?

You know, frankly speaking, we have participated in very few festivals. And we never got very positive impressions. We've always performed live show alone or together with maximum one band we know and appreciate. We know we have no much in common with many other rock or prog bands. But that's it...

How do you see the future of Filoritmia as a band ?  

Playing live show, where possible... and working on some new tracks shortly.  

What is your five all-time favourite albums.

A Trick of the Tail by Genesis, In the court of the Crimson King by King Crimson, Images and words by Dream Theatre and Dracula Rock Opera by PFM (a great musical soundtrack by PFM released in 2005), Fugazi by Marillion.  

Anything you want to add to this interview ?

Support self-productions and self-promoted bands!!!  

I am grateful to Filoritmia for the insight into their activities. They can be contacted directly at [email protected]  Their website is  www.filoritmia.it and their PA profile can be found here