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Escape From The Black Iced Forest

By QAANAAQ
Release date: 2016
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Biography

In 2011 brothers Mattia Togni (bass) and Luca Togni (keyboards), both fans of Progressive Rock and Metal music, decided to join forces in a project without precise music coordinates: the only limit was to be open minded and to follow only their own taste in music.
After getting their brother Nicola Togni (drums) involved in the project, they started composing their own music and found that they can do it effortlessly, that the ideas were flowing naturally without being too ordinary. They chose the name Qaanaaq, which is a remote town in Greenland, just because it sounded cool and was graphically pleasing but then realize that there was a more subtle connection between their uncommon and dark music and this isolated
and cold outpost in the middle of a barren land. At first they were supported by Francesco Nannini (guitars), but he soon left the band out of different music tastes.
They were then joined by guitarist Dario Leidi, who quickly felt in harmony with the other bandmates and started right away to contribute actively to the composition.
Although the songs were originally composed as instrumental, the band started looking for a singer, and in the summer of 2012 they met Enrico Perico. His powerful vocal style hardened and darkened the songs, that now were based on the contrast between growl vocals and melodic keyboard sounds. This, among other things, makes Qaanaaq a band that has a strong personality and therefore is difficult to categorize.
After working on their songs for over two years, the time was right for recording them as a full-length album.
Band began looking for a label to publish it and happily joined the Metal Scrap Records Inc. team.

Line-up

Enrico Perico – vocals;
Dario Leidi – guitar;
Mattia Togni – bass guitar;
Luca Togni – keyboards;
Nicola Togni – drums.

Discography

“Escape From The Black Iced Forest” CD & Digital; 2016; Another Side Records.

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INTERVIEWS

  • Atmosfear #20
  • Battle Helm
  • Doomed To Darkness
  • Rock And Wrestling
  • Necromance
  • Rock Hard #39
  • The Grinder
  • The Grinder

Atmosfear #20

Welcome to the ATMOSFEAR pages! The main question I’d like to ask you is about your band’s name, what does it mean and how would you come to it?
Hi and thanks for this interview! The band’s name derive from a town in Greenland, that was once called Thule, one of the northernmost inhabited towns in the world. Nicola, the drummer, read about it and thought it sounded cool and it was also graphically pleasing because it is a palindrome. We were actually influenced by that cold, extreme and deserted place in our music and lyrics.

There’s not many information about your band in the internet, so, please, could you introduce shortly QAANAAQ? Are Mattia, Luca and Nicola brothers?
Yes, Luca, Mattia and Nicola are brothers, and we haven’t actually played together before Qaanaaq. In 2011, after a few jams, we decided to form the band (as the core elements) since the material of those jams was really interesting. We looked for a guitarist to give the songs more grit and depth and found Dario, who helped us to refine the instrumental songs. Finding a singer was harder, but we finally found Enrico that with his powerful growl voice brought an injection of roughness to the songs, in contrast with the melody of the music.

Since your debut album’s released one year has passed. What reviews and opinion have you got about the album? What’s the fans’ reaction? What was the most untypical thing you’ve heard about your album?
We’ve had great reviews and a good reaction from people interested and intrigued by our music. We’re very happy and proud about that, since our goal was to be original and unique, by trying to find our way and our sound (for example, no solos for a more cohesive result) without almost any compromise. We’ve had a steady increase in interest since we almost never played live before publishing the album. So for this first time only, we haven’t disappointed anybody, hehe. We’ll do it with the second release! About the untypical things… Maybe the reviewer that wrote that we’ve probably used a €49.99 keyboard to record the album! We guessed he didn’t like the sound very much…

You’re making very non standard music. How would you call your style?
Since we’re not taking ourselves seriously, we define our style as part of a New Wave Of Regressive Speed Doom Metal (N.W.O.R.S.D.M.)! It is actually hard to define our sound. Our label asked us to find something, so we came up with a sort of compromise: Avantgarde/Progressive/Doom. There is something more for sure and it looks like that everyone finds something different in our music: some said we sound as a death metal band, some said dark or gothic. For us, we’re Qaanaaq, and that’s it!

You’ve chose ukrainian label “Another Side Records” for releasing your debut album. What can you say about this label’s work?
We’re very pleased by what our label did. Everything that was proposed by them was then made with a serious and committed action. They were very sincere and professional, we don’t think that’s that common nowadays. We’ve had reviews from almost everywhere in the world.

You’ve recorded cover version of PINK FLOYD song for this album. How strong was the influence of this band, what another bands could you call as influence to your world outlook?
We’ve not chosen Pink Floyd because they’ve directed influenced us, but because we thought that we could take that song and do a Qaanaaq-treatment to it! We all like progressive rock, so we have an influence from prog bands for sure. We think that it is possible to find an influence from bands that are directly related to our music, like Opeth for example, but also Ghost, a band that’s not probably the first that come to mind while listening to Qaanaaq.

New stuff. How the things are going with the new songs? Is anything ready? Are there any plans about release of something new?
There’s not much new stuff for now, we all have personal commitments, we all have a family and a full time job, so sometimes it’s hard to find the time for the band. We don’t have anything planned so we don’t have any idea about a future release. We don’t plan our compositions, we look for the right inspiration and that’s not something you can organize. We just follow the flow!

How it goes with QAANAAQ’s live shows?
We don’t have a dense live schedule, but every time we played live we were satisfied by both our experience and the audience reaction. It was always very fun! And we play music for fun, that’s our first priority. We like to meet the other bands we share the stage with, meet the audience and listen to their reaction to our music. Sadly, the underground live scene in Italy it’s not really great and it is too hard for us to cross the border and play in a foreign country. Too bad, because we are more appreciated outside of Italy than in our country!

Let’s say goodbye. Your final words for our readers.
Thank you so much for this interview. If you want to follow us you can find us on Facebook at qaanaaqmetalband. We’d like to say hi to all the readers, we hope you’ll become a Qaanaaq fan, if you’re not already, hehe!!

Battle Helm

Okay, I’m not even gonna try to properly pronounce this band’s name. but thankfully QAANAAQ are easier to understand musically.

Interview was prepared by ANDERS EKDAHL (Battle Helm)

 

Do you feel that is has gone the way you intended when you formed back in the days?
-We actually think that it has gone even beyond our best expectations! We started playing just for fun, three brothers who wanted to play together and unite their respective music influences. When Dario and Enrico (guitar and vocals) joined us, we found out that our band had something to say, that our sound was unique, and that the world was finally ready to hear it! Ok maybe that’s too much…haha. All kidding aside, when we started the idea of publishing an album through a label wasn’t in our minds at all. We found out that that was possible one step at a time, and when we realised that, we worked hard to make it happen.

How do you feel about your latest recording? Did it come out the way you expected it to?
-We’re happy of our album and how it sounds. We couldn’t afford to record in a professional studio because our budget was very limited so we tried to do our best with what we had. We think that our product is 100% professional, our friend Riccardo Arrigoni did a wonderful job recording and mixing it and also understanding what we wanted to sounds like, which wasn’t easy since it was the first recording session for us.

Do you feel that you by now has found a sound that is the band and that you can build on it?
-Yes, we think that our sound is unique, but we don’t want that to be a limit. Everything changes, and so do our tastes, our musical influences, our life experiences and so does our music in response, since we compose and play with our heart and soul. What looks like staying the same is the length of our songs: we just composed a new track and that’s 12 minutes long, like a couple in our first album, hahaha! Somebody will be annoyed but it, but who cares!

Is having a message in the lyrics important to you? What kind of topics do you deal with?
-It’s not mandatory! If we have something to say we can “hide” it in the meaning of the song, as an allegory, as we did several times in “Escape From The Black Iced Forest”, but sometimes they are only stories. The urgency to convey an idea or a message is typical of the youth, and we are not young since years, then the experience of our ages allow us to see the world around us emotionally detached. We can tell a story without the duty to take position about it. It’s not cowardice by us, it’s more the awareness that you can’t change the world with a rock anthem, then we prefer that the listener get an idea by himself if he want to, but there’s no shame taking it only as music. In this way also the topics that we address aren’t so important for us, they are only stories, and in the future we could write more about them or change completely direction. This doesn’t mean the we pay little attention to lyrics (for this reason we included lyrics in the booklet), only that we put ‘em and musical instruments on the same footing.

How important is the cover artwork for you? Can a really cool cover still sell an album in this day and age of digital download?
-We think that the cover is very important, as is all the artwork of an album, but not because it can help with the sales, but because is an extension of the music. We’re not young, we all used to go to a record store to buy cds, so we still like the physical product and want to give it the attention it deserves. But if somebody has bought the digital release of our album and deleted the PDF of the booklet, well, it’s their problem, our conscience is clear, haha!

Why is it so hard for bands that come from places not the US or UK/Sweden/Scandinavia to break big? What is success to you and is it something you’d like to achieve?
-That’s a hard question to answer. There are a lot of prejudices regarding the origin of bands. It looks like that if a metal band comes from Italy you can’t be as professional and as prepared as an American band for example, maybe because there’s a lot of shit music that comes fron Italy… I don’t know, it’s complicated. We don’t look for success, we’re happy for what we’ve achieving right now, since we’re not teenagers who can leave everything behind and follow the rockstar dream, we all have a full time job and families that depends on us. We are happy to satisfy our need to compose new music and share it with who wants to listen to it. Everything more than that will be very welcomed.

Today the competition is harder. You got plenty of digital platforms for new talent to display their music. How do you do to really stand out in a world where everything but the music is blind to the listener?
-We rely on our label regarding the distribution since we just don’t know where to start without contacts. We use social media to spread the word and that can definitely help. The fact that our music is very unique can help because we’re something fresh and new. We’re obviously influenced by other bands, but our sound and our song are original and different from what’s around and that can make a difference. Who’s open minded in music interests can’t say that our band isn’t original in the metal genre.

What is your local scene like? How important is a national scene for a band to be able to break out and make it international?
-Our local scene is composed by great, professional bands, and it covers different genres and subgenres. Sadly, is totally non influential regarding international success. It is difficult to have success in Italy if you play metal, it is actually easier to have success abroad. Unfortunately the ignorance of the audience in Italy is as much as the indifference of mass media about metal music. People don’t go to listen to live music in pubs anymore. The best reviews we received were from abroad, especially from East Europe. If it weren’t so complicated and expensive, we would be touring there now! Well, we will see what the future holds for us.

Rock and metal has come a long way since the early 70s but still some people’s attitudes towards it seem to be left in the stone age. How accepted is metal in your area? Is it like in Finland where it seems to come with the mother’s milk?
-As you know, Italy is not famous for its rock or metal bands, though there were an awesome progressive rock scene back in the ‘70s, acknowledged by many international artists like Mikael Åkerfeldt and Steven Wilson. There’s a good underground scene, but it can’t emerge like it should and deserve, people are still and only interested in mainstream music. It is true that thanks to the Internet and social media, things improved a little, people are not afraid of metal music fans anymore haha! Parents are not hiding their metal listener kids anymore hahaha!

What does the future hold for you?
-We want to continue compose our music, and hope to record it again in a new album. It is seven years of playing music together already, we hope it will last until we feel to have something to say and having fun doing it. We’re happy tha Qaanaaq exists, we’re very proud of what we created and we’ll do our best to improve as musician and composers. It’s not obviously only a hobby for us, it’s something that we feel we need to do, and we can’t resist this need to compose and express! It’s like with sexual instincts. Yeah, this band is our musical masturbation hahaha!
Thanks for this interview!!

Doomed To Darkness

OccultBlackMetal (Doomed To Darkness)

 

1.For those that have never heard of you before, can you tell us a little bit about the band?

Of course! This band is the result of the passion for metal and progressive music of three brothers (Luca, Mattia and Nicola Togni). The desire to mix these two genres together led us to Qaanaaq, who sits right in the middle. We started jamming in 2011 as an instrumental band, then in 2012 we were joined by Dario Leidi’s rhythm guitar. It took a little bit more to find the right singer and after a while we found one in Enrico Perico, who also writes all the lyrics and has a more distinct death metal style, with his growl voice that contrasts with the melodies of the keyboards.

2.Recently you have released your first album, how would you describe the musical sound that is presented on the recording?

As we were saying, the first thing that you note is the juxtaposition between the melodies of the keyboards and the roughness of the growl voice. We wanted a warm sound, more common in progressive music, even though the compositions are more metal oriented. The songs are long, with different riffs and many changes, and with a horror aura and a sinister vibe other all of them.

3.What are some of the lyrical topics and subjects the band explores with the music?

Our lyrics are usually allegorical, we like to tell stories, sometimes inspired by movies, books, or history, but always with a deepest meaning that can be detected fitting the words to everyday life. When we write, the mood of the song evoke us the tiny pains that apply to everybody, then we try to imagine the same thing in a different place, period or situation. As our music is made on different layers, so the lyrics have to be realized on different levels of sympathy. The effect we want to pass on is a theatrical vision of human condition, filtered by irony and masked as a tale. Consequently Greenland becomes the stage on which we represent our tragicomic vision of life, a chilly land of loneliness despite his name.

4.What is the meaning and inspiration behind the name ‘Qaanaaq’?

Qaanaaq is the name of a city in Greenland, one of the northernmost towns in the world. The inspiration came to Nicola and we all liked it, because is a palindrome, and so is graphically pleasing, and also because it represent an isolated and solitary land.

5.What are some of the best shows that the band played so far and also how would you describe your stage performance?

One of our favorite shows was when we opened for our friend XPUS and the Swiss death metal band All Life Ends. It was fun and very satisfying! We play a very direct, simple show, like we are as persons: no particular dressing or masks, just us and our instruments, trying to do our best.

6.Do you have any touring or show plans for the album?

Nothing planned right now, but we want to organize a release party for the new record and we’re working on it.

7.The album was released on ‘Another Side Records’, are you happy with the support they have given you so far?

Yes, we are really satisfied by the work of the label and we’re very thankful for it and for all the support that we’re receiving. We sure have reached more people and increased the number of our followers thanks to the label!

8.On a worldwide level how has the feedback been to your music by fans of doom and death metal?

Our name has just started to circulate. We don’t have a big budget to spend, so we can’t have a big exposure like the big names, but we’re not complaining and we keep working for the band knowing that it’ll be hard. You have to consider that this is not our main job, we’re not that young anymore, so we all have regular jobs and we need to take care of our families. We do this in the free time and sometimes it’s hard, but as long as we’re having fun, we’ll continue. On the other hand, thanks to the internet and facebook, nowadays it is possible to reach a broader exposure with less effort.

9.Where do you see the band heading into musically during the future?

We don’t know yet actually, because it’s not something that we plan. We don’t have limits or frameworks to follow. We just follow the flow of our feelings, because we like to express ourselves and our emotions of the moment with the music, and so we don’t know now where this will lead us in the future. We don’t have anything planned, usually we start jamming other ideas brought by Luca, Mattia or Dario, and then connect what we think works good together and discard what we think is too weak. There is an idea of what “sounds” as Qaanaaq and what not, but it came naturally and it is something that may change in the future. Recording “Escape…” was a very formative experience, now we are more aware of different details we didn’t know about before and this will definitely help us while writing new songs for a new album.

10.What are some of the bands or musical styles that have had an influence on your music and also what are you listening to nowadays?

The main influence for us is Opeth for sure! Then some elements of Ghost. But everything that we listen to can inspire us, from progressive rock to jazz, death and black metal, or also hard rock and blues. It may not be obvious in our songwriting, but we think that the more diverse music you listen to, the less limits you have while trying to express yourself by playing music. We like to discover new music and new bands that inspire us, Karnivool being one of them in recent years. We obviously have different personal tastes, but it is interesting to process and reunite all these different influences while playing together as Qaanaaq.

11.What are some of your non musical interests?

We all like to read books and comics, watch movies or listen to podcasts, some of us like to play a sport while others prefer to watch it on television. We’re not party people anymore since we all have family and kids! Having said that, we think that also when speaking of non musical interests you can say that it is good to be open to different things, from a physical to an intellectual level. It is always good to challenge yourself in a sport, or to deepen the knowledge on a specific matter that you like, even better if you can do both since mind and body works together and are influenced one another.

12.Before we wrap up this interview do you have any final words or thoughts?

First, we want to thank you very much for this interview! Then we thank Another Side Records and especially Anatoliy who is helping us promoting our music with passion and dedication. In the end, we advise your readers to listen to our album because we think it is something original that can satisfy many listeners with different musical tastes.

You can find us on facebook as Qaanaaqmetalband.
Thank you!

Rock And Wrestling

Rock And Wrestling

 

– Tell us about the origin of the band.
In 2011, brothers Luca and Mattia Togni decided to star a band together following only their favorite music tastes: Metal and Progressive Rock. Luca (keyboards) and Mattia (bass) decided to engage their brother Nicola, a drummer free of other musical commitments and with the same musical interests. They then needed a guitar player and found one in a young friend of them, Francesco Nannini. They started to rehearse together without a precise stylistic direction but it was soon clear that the synergy between them was great, and so the first instrumental composition began to take form. After a few months Francesco left the band due to his loss of interest in the artistic direction that the band was starting to follow, but they find a replacement very quickly: Dario Leidi, a friend of them, was eager to start playing with the band because he felt he was the perfect choise for that kind of project. After a year spent in composition and in search of a singer, they found one thanks to the advice of Paolo Morosini, Rise Of Tyrants’ guitarist, who suggested Enrico Perico, former singer and Paolo’s bandmate in the now disbanded Earthquake. Enrico began immediately to work on the lyrics while the rest of the band improved and finished what are now the five songs that made the tracklist of their first full-lenght album.

– Reasons to create the band, inspiration and influences.
The main reason for the band creation is the passion for music, especially for two genres that more inspire us, Metal and Progressive Rock music. We also like to play together as brothers and friends, to strengthen our already tight friendship, to share the passion for music that take us to see concerts together or make us chat for hours about the bands that we like more. The main influence is definitely Opeth, but also avant-garde metal in general, ‘70s progressive rock, jazz, blues or hip-hop – everything that we like without distinction of genre. Every influence is then processed and filtered, so to maintain a sort of musical coherence. But inspiration comes not only from other bands, but also from movies, comics, books, food for thought and we assimilate and then express in the form of music and lyrics.

– Style description and musical attitude.
It is hard for us to describe our style, we need to list more than one subgenre to come close to what we think is the best description, but is still a reduction of the kind of music that we play. We can say that Avant-garde/Progressive/Doom Metal can give you an idea, but are just three words that cannot describe all the different shades that composed our music. Our musical attitude is definitely dense and obscure, a black and malinconic vein, heavy and light at the same time.

– Tell us about the origin of the name’s band.
The band’s name come from a remote town in Greenland. We chose it for its sound, the fact that it is a palindrome and that it reminds of an icy land, isolated and harsh. We can say that these are images and emotions that we want to recreate with our music, but we also think it’s a cool name and that’s enough.

-For those who are starting rocking
Which band and / or classic rock band’s song recommend and why?
It is really a matter of tastes and especially of age: we’re not kids anymore, for us the classics were Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath, today probably are Metallica and Nirvana, or Iron Maiden and Soundgarden. What we can reccomand is to listen to different genres and to play an instrument. Somebody said that for every hour spent on an instrument you’d have to listent to three hours of music: can’t remember who said it, but it’s a good advice. Beside the passion, it is important to cultivate knowledge on music: being able to recognize genres and subgenres, to know different aspects of the instruments in detail or to identify various vocal styles is really important. In that way you can have an open mind and be original in what you write, especially today that there are so many bands and it is difficult to be unique and different.

-For those who are starting rocking and begin to be known as a band
What song of yours you recommend and why?
We would recommend Body Walks because it is probably the easiest of our songs to catch and has more direct riffs.

-Which one was or has been the most important moment in your career?
It is probably too soon to answer, since we’re just publishing our first album, but for now we would say that the most important moment was finding a label that believed in our music and wanted to publish us. We’ll se where this will take us!

-Tell us about your achievements, future goals and what are you doing right now?
Right now we’re busy promoting our new album, mostly on social networks, and we’re planning to play live in the next months. Then we will definitely write new music, because is what we like the most and is kind of a need for us!

-As wrestling media, do you know wrestling, right?, What do you want to comment or add about this topic?
Of course we know wrestling! When we were kids we use to follow WWF athletes like Antonio Inoki and Tiger Mask, then Hulk Hogan and Andrè The Giant later on, or Macho Man, Randy Savage, Wrestlemania, Royal Rumble and Steel Cage… Also in recent times The Undertaker, Brock Lesnar, Rey Mysterio, Batista and Eddy Guerrero. There is also a great connection between wrestling and rock and metal music. We know less about Lucha Libre in South America, because it is not covered by media here in Europe: so for us it is more exotic and looks like it is rooted in your culture and tradition. We like that it is played in a very spectacular way, especially by “técnicos”. And again there’s a connection between Lucha Libre and metal music, because they both express human emotions and human struggles with great passion and energy.

-Greetings and message for rock fans and visitors of Rock and Wrestling website
To both wrestling and rock fans, never stop following these two fantastic interests and be passionate about it! Rock on from Italy!!

Necromance

Interview was prepared by David Déniz (Necromance)

 

Hello and welcome to Necromance Digital Magazine pages.
Could you present the band to the readers?

Hello and thank you for this interview, we’re very honored to be here!
We’re an Italian band, founded by three brothers (on keyboards, bass and drums) who shared a great passion for music. We started rehearsing together in 2011, sharing our different music backgrounds, then added a couple of friends in the following years, on guitars and vocals, and grow to be what you can hear now in our first full-length album.

How did you get to the band name QAANAAQ, and what does it mean to you?

Nicola, the drummer, came with that idea that everybody liked right away. Qaanaaq is a remote town in Greenland. It’s a palindrome, it evokes inspiring images of isolation, cold and hardship and it sounds cool too. The isolation and the harshness of that land inspired us for lyrics and themes.

Your first album has recently been released through Another Side Records, how was the entire composition process of it?

It came all naturally. It started with us jamming for hours in rehearsals, to find the best riffs. Then we added Enrico’s growl voice, and balanced it all to find what now is our sound. We are very satisfied to have found a clear identity, something we think is new and original, by mixing our different backgrounds together.

In “Escape from the black iced forest”, your first album, we find elements of doom, avantgarde … how would you define the sound of the band?

Our sound is warm, sinister and vaguely “horror”, if it’s possibile to use that term in music. It’s rough, but with melodic breaks. We think we have contrasting elements that create a balanced sound. We didn’t want to sound as cold and sharp as a black metal band, but more warm and sinister like a ‘70s band, like Black Sabbath for example.

Can you tell us about the musical influences that run throughout the band?

It is difficult to find only a few influences, everything that we like remains as an influence, even though you can’t hear it directly in our sound. There are bands that we all like, other that only a few of us listen to. For example we can name Opeth and Ghost as an influence, but there are many others. We listen metal music, and all its subgenres, but also rock, jazz, blues, electro and classical music… We think that everything that you’re exposed to, everything that you like, leaves something in you, help you think in a different way, in a better way we hope, and has a repercussion in all you create artistically. So there are lots of musical influences that we’re not even conscious of, and influences that comes from outside music too, from movies, books and different arts.

One of the most characteristic elements of your music is the keyboard, right?

Exactly! Luca studied classical music and he’s a crucial element in our composition process. As we said before, there are different influences that play a role: Luca studied classical music, but played with blues, jazz and rock bands. And this translated in Qaanaaq, you can hear a classic piano, but also a funky and jazzy hammond from the ‘70s or some pipe organ too! We like the keyboards to be so prevalent because it add a melody that balance Enrico’s harsh vocals.

Which were the most difficult tracks to record in the studio?

There wasn’t a precise track that was harder than the others. It was complicated to find the time to record it because we did it in our free time. We all have a full time job and kids to raise. So it took a while, for the mixing too. But here we are, we did it and we’re very happy about it!

And the whole album, what are the band’s favorites?

We like to hear and to play all the songs of the album, and we think it’s natural since you spend a lot of time and energy on them. There’s a part of us in every second, in every riff of the album. Having said that, for Luca, Mattia and Nicola, the Togni brothers, “Red said it was green” is special since it’s the first song they composed. It changed a little since then, thanks to Dario and Enrico, but it’ll always be Qaanaaq’s first composition.

Your cover seems to have been extracted from the pages of a comic, who was the author of it ?, was it an idea that gave the band or has been all creation own the author?

The author is called Lorenzo Lanfranconi (Rendhi’s Art), he’s an artist we came to know thanks to Facebook. We liked his style, like from a comic book as you rightly say. We liked especially his landscapes. So when we started thinking about a cover we thought of him like a perfect match. We had this idea in mind, of this forest of black ice with somebody running away from it. We contacted Lorenzo and explained the concept. He worked on that idea and made a first sketch what we liked instantly, since he captured exactly the atmosphere that we had in mind!
For the booklet we contacted a friend of us, Giulio Anesa, who’s a graphic designer. He created every page by taking inspiration from the lyrics, and we think that also in this case the result is just brilliant.

What are the goals that the band hopes to achieve with this first album?

We hope to receive some exposure, to form a fan base that can be interested in our future releases. We also want to play some show in our area, and we started already with some support gigs.

How did I get the chance to sign up for Another Side records?

After we recorded the album, we looked for a label and received a positive answer from Anatoliy from Metal Scrap Records. We signed a deal with him and we’re very happy for the support we received. We know that it’s not always easy to find trustworthy people and labels in music, so we’re glad to have met Anatoliy. Definitely hope to continue working with him and Metal Scrap/Another Side records!

What else can we expect to see from QAANAAQ, as we head towards 2017?

We will continue supporting the album by playing live, that’s the best way to spread the word and the music. We also like to meet other bands to share the stage with, always a pleasure to play with dedicated people who share the same passion for music. We also started jamming for new songs, and is refreshing to look ahead knowing that a milestone was reached like it was for us with our first full-length.

Anything you would like to add to end this interview?

Thank you so much for this interview, and thanks to everybody who wants to find new and original music by listening with a mind as open as possible!

Rock Hard #39

Interview was prepared by KREMATOR (Rock Hard #39)

 

According to all information about you available to me, you function since 2011. How did you five meet and how were your musical beginnings?
In 2011 three brothers with the same great passion for music decided to join their different influences and create a band without any limit or border in mind, to just let the music flows spontaneously in long jams, from which the songs you can listen to today derive. Dario (on guitar), who was already a friend of us, and Enrico (vocals) joined the band at a later time. We have different music backgrounds and thanks to that we can compose songs that cross different genres.

Can you tell us something from the history of the band ?
At the beginning there wasn’t anything planned and defined, we just wanted to have fun mixing together what we liked to listen to and what we looked for in music, like long songs with a progressive structure (a succession of soft and hard moments, or slow and fast) and crossing of different genres. The songs were beginning to take shape by their own, it all happened very naturally, riff by riff. We felt the need for a guitar as a support for the keyboards, and also to give the songs a heavier sound, so we asked Dario to join us. Since the keyboards already fulfill the melodic needs of our sound, we looked for a strong and heavy voice, rough enough to add what we thought our songs lacked in hardness and toughness. We found Enrico thanks to a friend in common and he fitted in the band perfectly with his powerful and deep growl voice.

Who were the founding fathers of your band?
The band was founded by Luca (keyboards), Mattia (bass) and Nicola (drums).

The surname Togni repeats 3 times on the members list, are they brothers?
Yes, we are three brothers!

How did you come up with such name as QAANAAQ?
What does it mean?
Qaanaaq is a name of a city in Greenland. Nicola came up with it because it has a cool sound, it’s a palindrome so it is graphically pleasing and it is linked to a barren and frozen land and that can come as an inspiration for our music.

In my opinion the base of your style is old-school-doom metal. However in your music we can hear many more music genres and sub-genres. Was this mix planned from the beggining or did it come naturally with the development of the band ?
Like we said before, nothing was planned at the beginning. We just mixed what we liked and what we thought that worked good together. Metal music is obviously the main influence, but there’s also a lot of progressive rock since we all like it. We sure wanted to match these two elements, with doom and avant-garde that came naturally in our compositions. There might be other influences that you may found in a single riff or in a particular arrangement: In Untimely at funerals for example you can hear a fusion or acid jazz influence in the middle part, in other songs there are some death metal elements, or at least we were told so by some listeners. It probably depends on what you focus on and on what your musical knowledge is.

Were you genre-wise in the past or did you try to play the same all the time?
Before Qaanaaq, we played in other bands with different genres, from jazz to rock, to extreme metal. With Qaanaaq it was always the same, although the sound evolved in the years.

What would you call your genre ?
It is always hard to answer this question. It is difficult to define music that is a result of a mix of different genres. But you have to when you publish your work, so we came up with Avant-garde/progressive/doom metal, so you can have at least an idea of what you’ll listen if you buy our album. We don’t feel the need to be classified, we just want our music to answer.

Who were your musical idols?
We sure had our music idols in our teenage years, now we have different artists or bands we respect a lot. We have many bands we all like, but everyone of us has its own specific tastes. From Type O Negative to Nine Inch Nails, definitely Tool, but also Dream Theater, Opeth and Carcass, or The Who and Pink Floyd for non metal bands.

What has changed since the birth of the band?
That we’re six years older, haha! Well, we’re definitely more close-knit musically, and we can hear it already in the new compositions we’re currently work on. It is easier to jam together, to work on new ideas.

What bands and musical styles are the closest to individual members?
– Luca’s main references come from Opeth, Candlemass, Satyricon and Prince;
– Mattia loves progressive rock and everything around it, but also the industrial sound of Nine Inch Nails and Korn’s nu metal;
– Nicola listens to metal music mainly, but also to progressive rock bands like Karnivool. The main influence in drumming (not exactly in style but more as an inspiration) comes from artists like Gene Hoglan, Danny Carey and Ted Kirkpatrick, who were innovators in a genre that usually tends to be too close. They have their own distinctive sound that you can always recognize. There’s also the idea “to play as close to the bone as possible” that comes from his blues hero John Campbell;
– Dario loves progressive metal complex structures like Dream Theater does, the heavy rhythm sound of nu metal, Opeth style arrangements and blues/jazz melodies generally speaking. As a guitarist he also admires a lot of virtuoso guitarists. Most of his inspiration comes from artists like Kiko Loureiro, Jeff Loomis, John Petrucci, Andy Timmons, Dimebag Darrell e Brian May.
– Enrico is mainly anchored to 90’s: groove metal from US, UK’s grindcore/death, and a little bit of swedish hardcore! Lately he’s learning more about british death doom, Anathema, Paradise Lost, My Dying Bride

Who is such a fan of PINK FLOYD, that he suggested covering the song High Hopes ? (Very nice one!)
We all like Pink Floyd, but the idea was proposed by Mattia and was quickly approved by everybody, since it was clear it had a good potential. We’re very happy you liked it, we sure like to play it that way!

Many bands change their members in thier begginings. It is completely reversed in your band though and you function thogether for 6 years already. How did you accomplish it ?
We think that that’s the case because we’re not a band that is trying to sell something, we’re not a product, we’re just five friends with the same passion for music who decided to play together for fun and to challenge ourselves with something new. We’re growing together, we understand each other better than we did six years ago and we also are closer than we were at the beginning of this experience.

How much time did you need to get the new debut album together?
The album was recorded during all 2015. Since we all have a job and a family we don’t have much free time, so we had to wait to have some spare time to record our parts, then also mixing took a while.

Who writes music and who writes lyrics ?
Most of the riffs are proposed by Luca and some by Mattia, then we work on them together trying to understand if something good can come from them. Also ideas can come from a jam where we can express freely and influence one another. When a song is considered done, it’s Enrico’s turn to write and add the lyrics, usually inspired by the music. Everyone can contribute at any moment in this process and everyone can express his ideas about the material.

Do you compose music at home or at rehearsals ?
Sometimes we come up with ideas at home and propose them during rehearsals, sometimes the ideas come from a jam, there’s not a specific rule about it.

How often do you rehears ?
We usually play once per week, more or less.

The new album came out under the Another Side Records. Why did you choose this Ukrainian label and how did you get to cooperate with them ?
When the album was finished, we started looking for a label to publish it. We wrote lots of emails to labels we thought that were in line with our music proposal. Among all the answers, we found that the one from Another Side Records was the best and we’re very happy with our choice. You can tell that what drives them is the passion for music and this is definitely a plus!

How satisfied are you with your new record and what feedback are you getting on it ?
We’re very happy with our album, from the composition to the work of who recorded and produced us. We’re humble, we wanted to just do our best and accept everything that could come out of it, but the answer was only positive and we’re very happy about it!

Would you change something on it, now that it´s almost half a year from it´s release?
There are obviously a few details we’d like to change, a sound here or a volume level there, but it sounds like we wanted it to sound and it’s 100% Qaanaaq so we’re happy with it as it is!

Your debut contains only 5 tracks, I would like to ask you if you have any more songs composed, if yes, why did you choose these 5 to be on the album ?
There were other songs that were almost complete, but that didn’t sound as good as the ones we included in the album, so we left them behind. We think that the album’s length is good as it is.

Your cover artwork seems dark and cold and not only because of the colours used. I assume it is because of your lyrics. So I want to ask what is the main idea behind this album and individual songs?
When Enrico joined the band several songs were already finished and then he wrote them one after another, listening to lo-fi rehearsal recording. He focused on the ideas of the city of Qaanaaq, Greenland, and so were born pieces as “Eskimo’s…” and “Red…”. On the last songs composed, instead, writing at the same time of the development of a track, he has more possibilities to space on several influences, literary, cinematic, or everyday life.
Then the album became more a collection of different song rather than a concept on Greenland.

The album comes out in CD format, however the trend of vinyls is back. Is it your dream to release it in this format as well? If you wanted to do so, is it up to you, or up to the label ?
We didn’t consider to publish the album on vinyl since we’re not vinyls enthusiasts, but we don’t discard the idea for the future.

What is your rating of metal and underground scene in Lombardy in the north of Italy, and in Italy as a state?
The scene in Lombardy (and also in Italy) is a great one, there are lots of cool bands that are as good and as professional as the big names. The mainstream scene is definitely overwhelming, so it is hard to be noticed and to find places to play, that’s for sure.

What style is prefered in individual regions the most?
There’s not a specific genre for every region, you can find the same in the north and in the south of Italy. There are lots of different music styles played everywhere, and also great quality!

Are you planning a tour to support the new album? Where will they be?
We’re not sure yet if we will be able to tour, we’re doing local concerts for now but we booked with Total Metal Concerts & Booking to have a good support and we’ll see where this will lead us.

I have heard that the motto of Lombardy is „Una regione per fare“. Does it mean, that your band will be as active as your region, or will we have to wait for the new album for another 6 years? Haha.
Haha, that’s a good question! We like to add a word to the motto: “Una regione per fare… METAL!” We didn’t start six years ago having in mind to record an album, so maybe this time it’ll take only three, haha. No seriously, we don’t plan our composition, it all comes spontaneously so we don’t know how long will it take to have another record ready, but we’re already working on new material.

Thanks for the interview and we wish you best of luck in the future!
Thank you for your time and attention and thanks also to the readers of Rock Hard! Please let us add that you can follow us on facebook at qaanaaqmetalband. Ciao!

The Grinder

Please tell us about the history of your band and its members.
First of all, thank you for this interview! The band was born in 2011 when the three Togni brothers, Luca on keyboards, Mattia on bass and Nicola on drums, felt the need to unite their passion for metal and progressive music, and their own single influences, to create something that was both personal and engaging. After playing briefly with a young guitarist, they joined forced with a friend called Dario Leidi that was interested in the project. The band was then completed with the growl voice of Enrico Perico. The contrast between the harsh voice and the melodic keyboards was the key element around which we created our own style and all the compositions that merged into our first full length album that came out in 2016. Dario left the band in November 2017 due to personal reasons, and we’ve luckily found a worthy replacement in our cousin Michelangelo Togni, that joined us in May 2018.

What’s the origin of the band’s name?
The name was suggested by Nicola and quickly liked by all members because, by being a palindrome, is graphically pleasing. It’s the name of a city in Groenland, we like the fact that it represent a barren, icy land that’s both unforgiving and toughening.

Where is the band based out of and what is your music scene like there?
We come from Italy, from the suburbs of Bergamo, a city north of Milan. The underground scene is very rich and diverse, there are several interesting metal bands, but sadly there aren’t that many places where to play metal music around where we live. Obviously you can find more places to play in Milan, that’s why it’s like a second home to us and other metal bands from Bergamo, but that’s a pity because it doesn’t help creating a proper scene in smaller cities like ours. The fewer the places to play, the less the listeners can keep in touch with the underground scene. But something started definitely moving in the right direction in the last few years!

Are there any local bands you could recommend?
There are several metal bands worth mentioning, like Xpus, Rise of Tyrants, Integral, Norsemen, Aleph, Ulvedharr and for sure we’re forgetting about some other great bands.

How would you describe your style?
It is always hard for us to describe our own style. You can say we’re avantgarde, doom, progressive…Some listeners said that there’s some death in our sound, or some black and god knows what else! It obviously depends on what your musical background is and on what element of our sound strikes you the most. We just play what feels natural to us and what satisfy us the most.

What have you released so far and what can someone expect from your works?
We have one full length that came out in 2016. When we listen to it, it is clear how much we have changed since then, but it is still a good example of what Qaanaaq is: no rules or clear path to follow, no simple song structure, only the will to explore our own influences by merging them together in a coherent and flowing way. So it still represents us, but it doesn’t capture all the groove and energy that we can express while playing live.

Do you have any new music in the works?
We have a couple of songs that are ready, but since we changed our guitarist we have to go back and revisit them because we like to incorporate the influences of all the band members to create something that satisfy all of us.

How about playing shows and touring, have anything planned out?
Unfortunately, between full time jobs and families we don’t have the possibility to stay away for too long. We all have children so we can’t put the music in front of everything. We’re constantly playing live locally, but for now we couldn’t play too far away from where we live. We hope to play outside of Italy next year, maybe with a couple of “mini tours”.

What plans do you have for the future has a band?
To create and play new music for sure, and to publish our second full length, maybe before the end of the next year.

Where can we listen to your band and where can we buy your stuff?
You can listen to our album on Bandcamp, on our label’s page:
(https://metalscraprecords.bandcamp.com/album/qaanaaq-escape-from-the-black-iced-forest)
And if you want to purchase our album, here’s our label’s website:
(https://metalscraprecords.com/shop/en/store/product/view/37/7308)
You can find it also on Spotify, and on different digital platforms.

What is it you’d like a listener to remember the most when hearing your music for the first time?
First thing, when approaching our music you have to be mentally open, because as we have already said we don’t limit ourselves to one single genre. We hope that people remember to have listened to something new, fresh and original, something that may remind them of different bands here and there, but it is originally crafted. And something that challenged them to open their mind (and ears) to music that they have not listened before.”

The Grinder

THE GRINDER

 

1. Thanks for your time. Tell us about your band and what you do for your band.
Hi, I’m Mattia, and I play bass in Qaanaaq. I’m one of the founders of the band, the two others being my brothers Luca (keyboards) and Nicola (drums). Our inspiration comes from different genres of music, with an obvious focus on Metal and Progressive Rock. We like to mix different influences and create songs that don’t follow the classic structure: we like to evolve them and let them take different and unusual paths, following just what suits us. The other two members of the band are Enrico (vocals) and Miki (guitars), who took the place of our previous guitarist, Dario, that left the band at the end of 2017. Our style is something between Avantgarde and Doom, with definitely some Progressive rock and maybe some Death.

2. When did you decide you wanted to be in a band?
When we grew up, our parents used to listen and play music all the time, so it’s kind of in our blood! I was always interested in playing the bass, so I took some lessons and started playing by myself, then joined different bands playing different genres, just for fun. When in 2010 all of us brothers were without a band to play with, we started playing together just to see what could come out of it, and it actually worked from the first jam! So, since then, we started this project that took us well beyond our greatest expectations!

3. What is different about being a musician than you imagined?
I don’t really consider myself a musician so I don’t really know how to answer. We all play music as a passion and we dedicate to it the free time that we have, and that’s usually very limited since we all have a family and a full time job.

4. What gear do you use and why?
I play a Warwick Corvette Standard bass, with a fretless modification. Only a Warwick can both growl like a tiger and meow like a small kitten! I use a litte overdrive thanks to a custom made pedal, created by my friend Andera “DIMO” Dimolfetta, the same guy who made the fretless modification to my bass, he’s a great handyman! As an amp head I use a Behringer BX4500H UltraBass with 450watt of pure power, and then there’s a four 10’’ cone amplifier by Celestion. All this grants me great dynamics for all situations.

5. What music do you listen to that would surprise people?
Haha, I really don’t know what is more shocking: extreme metal or pop music? I have an open mind and listen to really everything without any kind of limit.

6. How do we find your music and merch to buy?
You can find our music both on physical media (CD) and on a digital format on all the main sellers and digital platforms. We don’t have any distribution channel for our merch, we just sell t-shirts at our concerts.

7. How did you get a record deal? Or do you want a record deal or are you DIY?
After recording our album, I personally spent around two months contacting via e-mail as many record label as I could and eventually we chose the offer that was more interesting. We signed a deal with Total Metal, a subsidiary of Metal Scrap Records, and we’re very happy about it, they really stood behind us a promoted us in a great way.

8. What bands do people compare your music to?
What satisfy us the most is when, after hearing us playing live, people say to us: “Wow, you’re very unique! I can hear something from this band, or something from that band, but mixed in a very original way”! Even on the reviews that we received there were very few comparison. We’re just Qaanaaq and we’re very proud of it.

9. Are you pro Spotify / streaming services ? Or do you think it hurts sales?
I could be pro or against it but that won’t change a thing. I understand why an artist that live off his music and see his income lowering can be against it. But the are also some pros: there are less people in between the artist and the listener that can take advantage of their position, so maybe a musician is more in control of his music; and also, we may be returning to music created and played just for passion, and not only artificially created to make money.

10. What’s the ultimate goal for the band?
To survive our personal commitments! Sometimes it’s really hard to find the time to jam, compose and play live in between our daily duties.

11. Will we see you tour?
Touring in the States would be a dream but we don’t have the means and the time to do that, sadly.

12. Who would you love to tour with?
Definitely with the bands we’re fan of, but the list would be too long and different for any of us, so it would be too hard to write some nome down now.

13. What is your favorite song of yours and why?
My favourite song is “Red said it was green”, because is the first that we composed and is the main reason why we continued!

14. Why should people take the time to listen to your band over the thousands of other bands?
Because they can have the chance to be amazed. You can’t really say that we’re predictable!

15. What are your favorite music websites labels podcast etc?
That’s not actually something I look for so I can’t answer this question.

16. Is imagery important to you? Do you judge albums by the cover?
No, I can’t say I judge an album by the cover. That said, choosing carefully the cover of an album is an important part of its success. At least for me, old enough to have bought CDs in a music shop.

17. If you could choose a cover song your band mates would hate what would it be?
Haha I’m actually the one who propose the most outrageous cover songs! But the first one that I proposed was selected, and you can hear the result on our album, and the second one may be done, so I should step up the game and propose something very shocking next time!

18. Is the record or live show more important?
They are both important elements for a band. By having an album or an important live show as an objective can motivate you to better yourself as a musician!

19. Name 3 people dead or alive you would want to play your music for.
Definitely Erik the Red, who discovered Greenland, since our band name derives from a remote town of that icy land! Then George A. Romero, director of the movie Zombie, since our first song of the album talks about zombies. and for last I name Neil Gaiman, a great inspiration for the lyrics written by our singer.

20. Lemmy Ozzy Dio and Rob Halford in a cage match who wins?
I think that Lemmy would have knocked out everyone, himself included hahaha!

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