Interview: Hidden Memories

Upon the release of their new single, ‘Over The Edge’, we caught up with Italian melodic metal maniacs Hidden Memories.

What are you guys up to just now?

We’re practising because we’ve got a lot of dates we’re going to play. And we’re working on some new tracks because we have a lot of new ideas that we are trying to bind together to make some new songs, but it’s very hard and we’re taking our time about it.

So tell me a bit about Hidden Memories. How did the band start?

The band was born in 2009. Like a lot of bands in Italy we were born in a group of friends and we wanted to play something just for fun. But we had the idea to make our own songs to play live, but the sound was not so great! So we changed the lineup and we rewrote the songs, searching for our own musical identity. but it’s very difficult because there’s a lot of bands, a lot of sounds, so to find our own way to play is very hard. So we worked on it and that lineup has played together for two years, and we’re gathering our ideas, trying to play our music our own way.

What are your musical inspirations?

There are a lot of bands. Even our friends’ own bands give us a lot of ideas. Every time we go to see a live [band], it can be a big band like Iron Maiden or, even when we go to see [fellow Italian symphonic metallers] Eternal Silence, we are inspired to write new songs and new material. Ninety percent of our ideas go into the trash but ten percent I really like. We like to exchange ideas with our friends, my bandmates. There’s a lot of ideas there!

So do you think that there’s like an Italian metal ‘sound’, or a scene, coming out of this exchange of ideas?

I don’t know. That’s a very hard question because there’s a lot of great bands in Italy. Even in the underground. But the problem’s not the bands or the crowd or the ‘scene’. In Italy it’s very hard to find places to play. There’s a lot of cover bands. When you are looking for places to play you find that there’s a lot of cover bands because the covers appeal to a lot of people and there’s a lot of money behind it. For a band which plays its own songs it’s very hard to find a place to play. It’s a pity because we have a lot of great bands with great songs and great artists. Even Eternal Silence: we really like them, they really work, and we think they deserve to support a lot of people. But here in Italy it’s very difficult to find a way to become a great band.

What do you think makes Hidden memories different then? What will make you a great band?

To become a great band we think you’ve got to find your own way to play, your own style, because there’s a lot of ‘copies’ of bands. And it’s really hard to find your own identity, as I said before, in this metal scene because there’s a lot of bands.So one fo the most important things to become a great band is to find your own way to play. And I think to become a great band you’ve got to have a lot of friends in the metal scene because you have to find a lot of people to play together. And of course i think the most important thing is to enjoy what you’re playing at the moment, because if to play your songs became ‘work’ and you don’t enjoy it anymore. It’s a great thing to make music and you have to enjoy it every time you play. i think this is one of the most important things to become a great band.

So you have many friends in the scene who you come together and play with. Who are your favourites?!

We’re playing together on a lot of dates with Eternal Silence. We are really happy every time we play with them. As i told you, we were born in 2009 so we’ve made a lot of friends who play together. For example, we played a festival with five bands and we’re all friends, there’s a lot of people to come together. And it’s great to come together and play our own songs!

What is a Hidden Memories live show like then?

We are always working on it, there’s a lot to do to make a decent live show! But when we play inf ront of people we’re trying to transmit the enjoyment that we feel when we play our songs. We run ont he stage and we jump: we have some platforms to go up to play our guitar. i think our singer is a great frontman: when you see him live you’ll lose your mind! We try to make you have fun and feel happy!

For someone who has never heard Hidden Memories, how would you describe your sound?

We’ve played for so many years so we have a lot of influences. So if you listen to our first album, i think you can hear a lot of influences on each songs. I think we’re a little bit heavy but very melodic. So e have a little thrash base but with big melodic voice: it’s a strange mix! We picked our singers because we really liked his voice. We put that voice over a heavy base because it’s a strange mix but we think it works. its different elements, different ambience, but we put our own mix into it to make it sound good! We hope it sounds good, haha!

Judge for yourself below!

Hidden Memories: facebook |