Interview: Temperance

For the last time a lot of things happened in Temperance. First of all it’ s a line-up change. However such pivotal changes did not affect the performance of the band (which, undoubtedly, is admirable) and on April, 20 their fourth album ‘Of Jupiter And Moons’ will be released.

We talked to a vocalist Alessia Scoletti and bassist Luca Negro about a new album, tours, fears, temperance and boundless.

Hello! Your new album ‘Of Jupiter And Moons’ will be released on April, 20, so let’s talk about it. Does it have any concept?

ALESSIA: ‘Of Jupiter and Moons’ isn’t a concept album, every songs has its own storyline and topics: in the lyrics you can find pictures of our daily routine, magic atmospheres or sorts of inner dialogues that everyone can empathize with.

Your music became more complicated. Is this because of new members, new vision of songwriting and three vocalists, or is there something else that I missed?

ALESSIA: Having three vocalists involved in the songwriting allowed us to create a lot of harmonies, like never before for Temperance, we really enjoyed ourselves!  With ‘Of Jupiter and Moons’ we also wanted to compose some more direct tracks, trying to avoid progressive elements and focusing on catchy melodies and powerful chorus.

By the way, what were the reasons for line-up changing?

LUCA: Basically these four years changed our life at first as musicians and of course as humans. In just four years Temperance released three studio album and one live DVD, and I think the DVD has been a sort of turning point, including the first Temperance “Era” and closing a circle of events. It represents the evolution of the sound of Temperance‘s first three albums. As you know, now Temperance has grown up with two new members as lead singers, increasing the sound and reaching the total number of three singers in the band, creating an original twist of modern-metal harmonies. The album ‘Of Jupiter and Moons’ continues the natural evolution of Temperance‘s sound and now we can’t wait to play on stage, sharing our new songs with you!!

In your previous LP ‘The Earth Embraces Us All’ there was a song in Italian. Will you continue to write lyrics in your native language, or that was just an experiment?

ALESSIA: ‘The Earth Embraces Us All’ surely was the “experimental album” that every band release at least once in its career. “Maschere” represents one of those experiments: I don’t know if we’ll write again in our mother language in the next future, but we can say that foreign crowds really appreciated this song.

Friendly envy question: Temperance was formed in 2013. You already released four albums and live DVD, shared stages with lots of famous bands and toured in a lot of countries. Where do you get so much energy?

LUCA: Where we get our energy? Sometimes I ask myself the same (laughing). It’s probably, I think, the love for music. I’m sure it is.

You toured in many countries. Where did you liked to play most? In your opinion, is there any difference between crowds in different countries?

LUCA: Good question! Yes, I think the crowd is different in every country as we are as human being! I love to play and to share the music with people, everywhere! We played in Ukraine as Temperance during the last year (2017) and I remember that it was magic!

What was your most complicated show?

LUCA: I think that every show is unique. I always think that the next one will be the most complicated: this thought helps me to face it at the best I can.

One more question concerning your energy: every Temperance member has a side band or project. Can you tell more about them? Does this interfere somehow with the work in Temperance?

ALESSIA: We think that every musician needs to explore a lot of music dimensions for growing up at his best, so it’s necessary to have more bands where to blowing off steam! We are five people with many different influences and a deep desire to play more and more, that’s the point. Anyway Temperance is our main project, we give it priority, there’s no problem of interference. Every side-project exactly reflect our music tastes, so the musical desires we have that don’t fit with Temperance are realized there!

After terrorist acts in Manchester and Paris in 2015 some bands started to cancel their shows. What about you? Don’t you fear to perform?

ALESSIA: We’d be liars if we say that it doesn’t scare us, but on the other hand we’ve got a strong appetite for playing live and sharing our music: we mustn’t let fears stops us.

Usually, metal bands are choosing aggressive or pathetic, exhaled names, but in your case it’s contrariwise. Why did you call the band Temperance, and what is the meaning that you yourselves put in this name?

LUCA: With our music, we try to convey some concepts to the world. Temperance is one of those concepts and is one of the most important things in our life. The importance of this name is so much that it even reached my skin, where I’ve got a tattoo of our band’s logo.

Temperance is a band, which experiments a lot with the sound. Do you set boundaries for these experiments, or it’s boundless?

ALESSIA: We always prefer not to draw that line, it’s one of our favorite “slogans”: the second album is called ‘Limitless’, it’s not a coincidence.

Despite my many years passion for music, it’s quite hard for me to identify what is it “modern metal”. Can you help me with this?

ALESSIA: Putting labels on music is often hard, and sometimes I ask myself if this is necessary. I think that the real difference between “classic metal” and “modern metal” consists in a topics’ change on the lyrics and above all the increasingly use of keys, synths and more modern instruments and sounds.

How do you see the whole music industry nowadays?

ALESSIA: Well, everybody knows how hard it is nowadays. The market is more and more defined “online”, the selling of physical copies of the albums are getting lower every year. But there’s something that will never change: the unique feelings given by live shows. This is where the bands belong and where they must focus their music. The energy of a live concert is something inimitable, that no computer, iPod or stereo can reproduce. As long as people will need those feelings, every band who really gives something to its listeners will have life.

Trivial question: what are your future plans?

ALESSIA: We have a lot of ambitions, so at first we hope to reach them all. In the meantime our next plans are focused on promoting the new album with a lot of shows, travelling throughout Europe… with the hope of getting out of the European borders too!

Few words to our readers?

ALESSIA: We want to thank you from the bottom of our hearts for this time spent together! We came in your country once, so we’ll surely come back again! Keep following us on our social media, Facebook and Instagram, for more news about our music! See you!
LUCA: Thank you guys, I hope to see you really soon in your beautiful country! “Have you heard the sound of Jupiter?”

Thank you!