TWINSPIRITS is the latest step in Daniele Liverani’s career. This band comes with the purpose of creating an experience that really can break through in the progressive music world and represent a very accessible band for many that find overtly technical prog bands too much. The band have just released their debut album and we caught up with Daniele Liverani, Tommy Ermolli and Alberto Rigoni to discuss the bands formation, the new album and much more.

Many thanks for agreeing to this interview with Virtuosity One.
Tommy: Thank YOU! I’m sure this will be an interesting conversation :-)

The debut Twinspirits album ‘The Music That Will Heal The World’ is a very impressive debut in the prog metal genre. When did the band form and what your intention for the music and overall band presentation?
Tommy: The band is composed by: Daniele Liverani (keyboards), Soren ‘Nico’ Adamsen (vocals), Tommy Ermolli (guitars), Dario Ciccioni (drums) and Alberto Rigoni (bass). Daniele and Dario started working together in 1998; they first worked on Daniele’s solo album ‘Daily Trauma’ and then on the ‘Genius Rock Opera’. In 2002 we met during an Italian music fair and decided to work together on some instrumental music. Some time after, Alberto Rigoni was embarked in this still nameless band. We recorded a demo version of the entire album ‘The Music That Will Heal The World’ and sent it to many singers by the likes of Goran Edman, Terry Ilous, John Jeff Touch, Nico and many others. All the singers chose their favourite tune and sang it. We listened to all the versions and felt that Nico’s voice was the best to fit our band!

You have come off 3 Genius albums, how does Twinspirits differ to those albums and what led to you wanting to get a solid band format?
Daniele: Well, actually there is some continuity between the Genius trilogy and Twinspirits new adventure, Back to Reality song is connected to the concept of getting back to reality from dreams world and is referred to Genius, but only that song  is connected, the rest of the album is something new.  The song writing experience of Genius has given me a lot of inspiration and I wanted to put together a great band to continue my musical path on that direction, without repeating what has already happened on Genius of course, but with the same versatility and approach.  Basically I’d say that Twinspirits vary from Genius cause they are a real band, and the songs are more live oriented and we hope to demonstrate this with more concerts as possible!

How did you go about assembling the musicians and how far spread out are you guys across Italy/Europe?
Daniele: The core of the band is placed in about 350 Km of distance from each others except for Nico who is in Denmark, but after all is only about 2.30 hours of air-plane…  The assembling has been a process that has taken years and basically it’s the result of all the talents that I’ve been discovering during my previous musical experiences like Genius and Khymera. In-fact I’ve discovered drummer Dario Ciccioni  working with me on Genius rock opera and Tommy Ermolli for Khymera. I discovered Alberto Rigoni while he was playing with his Dream Theater cover band 'Ascra', where he demonstrated to be a great bass player.  The singer Nico was selected among a long list of demos that we got while we were searching for the right singer….he appeared to be the perfect fit for the album in terms of power, range and versatility.  These 3 aspects have been the most important while selecting the singer for Twinspirits.

What did Nico bring to the band that some of the other candidates didn’t provide?
Tommy: I think Nico brought aggressiveness and even more power to our music. He doesn’t come from a very progressive world, but he’s discovering a more prog way of singing. From the live viewpoint he’s really great and has an incredible way of moving on stage!

Nico’s voice is very original sounding for the progressive music genre, was this intentional?
Daniele: Actually he comes from another style of music, and so far he never sang Prog metal. I think this is the main reason that gives to him a good amount of originality.  He comes from a more aggressive style, and he brought to the band great powerfulness. If you listen to Power To Kill you’ll understand what I mean. That track is really a combination of prog and brutal metal.

It’s hard to believe that guitarist Tommy Ermolli is only 19.  His guitar work is as good as anyone in the metal scene; you have a great find here.  What role does Tommy play in Twinspirits from a compositional view?
Daniele: Tommy is a great talent indeed. He’s really a great guitar player, and also a very musical player. His melodic playing and his expression is one of the strongest points of this new band in my opinion.  At the moment I write all the main music and lyrics, and the other guys personalize with their arrangements and solos… so all the solos parts and many rhythmic arrangements you can hear on the records have been written by Tommy.

The rhythm section of bassist Alberto Rigoni and Dario Ciccioni is super tight how have you built up such a solid foundation?
Alberto: The first time I played with Dario, he totally blew me away! I’d never heard such a powerful kind of drums playing… He has great qualities and putting them together, you have an excellent result! I just tried to adapt my kind of playing to his style and I think that now we built up the solid foundation you were talking about! I had much fun working with him on Twinspirits’  album parts…

Daniele, how do you view your keyboards role in the music of Twinspirits?
Daniele: I tend to consider the music and the song writing in its general view, not referred to a singular instrument, so for me the keyboards is only one of the tools that I use to create the songs…I don’t consider the Keyboards as a central role, and actually all the instruments have their spot and the ensemble of all is the main core of the Twinspirits music.

“The Music That Will Heal The World” is quite a bold title, what does this title mean/represent and how did you decide upon this title?
Daniele: There are many songs in this album that are telling about problems of actual society and way of life, war, misunderstandings, hate, and so the message of the last song of the record is a message of hope, that everything will get better, and that the music could help to heal the world from all this bad things…being a message that can unite people.

Over what timeframe was the music written and recorded?  
Tommy: A couple of years.

The album possesses a more commercial tone than many prog metal offerings with melody being of prime importance it seems.  What was the bands aim with writing the music?
Tommy: We wanted to open the progressive world to a more wide range of music fans.

Who wrote the lyrics and vocal melody lines and how did you want these to work with the music?
Daniele: I wrote the lyrics and vocal melodies. When I write lyrics I try to create a good interaction between music and vocals.   It’s very important that the lyrics fit the music, and that it’s not just notes applied to the harmony.  I think that the experience over the years help to write good lyrics and vocal lines, it’s something that comes out naturally and sometimes when I write a song, the lyrics seem to me that are already there, they only have to be discovered and written down…it’s a great feeling!

What subjects does the band deal with in the lyrics?
Daniele: The subjects are war, sadness of loneliness of nowadays society, low self esteem of most of the people around, but also positive things like friendship and hope that everything can get better, with the help of music also….  In particular the song Fire is dedicated to a young soldier that died in Iraq, I think this is the more intense moment of the album….I’m very happy of how that song has come out…it’s a very sad issue, but I think it’s important to spread the message of what war is causing all over the world.

There are a number of different styles of prog metal on the album, is the variety of great importance to the band?
Tommy: Yes, we try to make our music sound different thru an album, to not bore whoever will listen to it.

How would you describe the music to someone that has yet to hear the band?
Tommy: A brand new conception of progressive music! We tried not to be the umpteenth copy of Dream Theater, Symphony X and all that breed of bands… Just wanted to offer a new way of thinking about music.

I believe you just played a show in Italy, how did this go and are there any more gigs lined up or being planned?
Tommy: The debut show at the Zona Rock Festival has been absolutely amazing for us all! We spent more than a year working on these songs and trying to arrange them for the best live impact, but now we can say that we really had a blast on stage!  We are trying to get a deal with some agencies and have a tour planned to play our music live!

How has the initial reaction been to the band and new album?
Tommy: As usually there are very positive reactions but negative reviews as well. Music in not something you can pinpoint.

What do you hope the remainder of 2007 will bring for Twinspirits?
Tommy: we’re already scheduling the recording session for our next album, but we mainly hope that we’re able to play our music live as much as possible.

Anything else you would like to tell the readers of Virtuosity One?
Tommy: Thanks for taking time to read this interview. We hope you’ll enjoy our music.

Web Links
Official Twinspirits website
Official Twinspirits myspace profile