Another band from the land of pizza, opera and Vespas! Mirco “Mitch” Conti (lead guitar) took on the challenge of answering all of our questions…
Simple things first – where are you guys from?
Hi everyone! We are from Rome, Italy.
How did you meet?
Matteo and I met in about 2012 on a service site for musicians. From there we started playing at home together, refining technique, synchronism and understanding between us. About Matteo and Tiziano, I think because they played together several years ago or they saw each other playing at some contest in the same city… Now I don’t remember exactly, so I won’t tell precisely how cause I’m not sure! I met Tiziano in late 2017 / early 2018 when the band was formed.
How long have you been playing as a band?
Well, we are a young band. The band was founded by Matteo Passaretti (Matt) in earlier 2018, so we have been a band for 3 years and a half, but considering that we got put in lockdown for coronavirus in March 2020 we have played live for only 2 years. Fortunately we had worked hard in the time prior to Corona and our first EP came out more or less in the same time of lockdown. Obviously since the lockdown has begun we haven’t played rehearsal but just by our own at home because of all the restrictions.
Before you get sick of being asked… where does the band name come from?
Well, this is a good question. To be honest the name is nothing more than an incitement to wake up, not to live life passively but to take it in hand and react to what gets in our way. You know when maybe you raise your eyes to heaven looking for answers or a sign or whatever? Well more or less that’s it, but you have to “wake up the sky”, you have to wake up out of your sleep and take the reins of your life because it is yours and yours alone. For us this is an incentive.
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What are your influences?
For this question I could draw up an infinite list! But I will limit myself to the most important and significant for us, the band that all of us respect a lot is Bullet For My Valentine. We grew up with them and they’re a big influence of us as musicians and as a band. Of course a legendary band such as Metallica have a lot influence too in our style, and we take a lot of inspiration from bands like Asking Alexandria, Motionless in White, Trivium, In Flames, Dream Theater, etc.
Of course we have different tastes. As an example I’m totally out of mind with In Flames, and Matteo with Metallica as Tiziano is with Lamb of God… but we mix all our tastes and Waking the Sky is the result. (mitch)
Describe your music. What makes you unique?
What makes us unique? I can’t honestly say for sure, but I could say that it is due to the heart that we put into the lyrics. Our songs speak about particular themes that we will see later, and our aggressive sound with some clean melodic section generate a really good mix that we love as a metalcore fans too. So I would say that this mix makes us unique.
Do you have any particular lyrical themes?
Yes sure, our lyrics are mostly about particular themes likes the loss of a loved one or exploitation, introspective reflection on our emotion. We put ourselves into our songs and our lyrics.
What’s your live show like? How many shows have you played?
Our shows have been various, from the first with very few people in front of the stage to having a few hundred people who exult our name. Now they also know the lyrics and sing with us, pogo and obviously cause a lot of chaos. We really miss all of this.
What’s the wildest thing you’ve seen or done at a live show?
The craziest thing I ever saw was at a Rammstein concert, a giant penis shooting foam at the crowd. One the funniest days of my life!
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What kit do you use / guitars do you play / etc.?
We usually use any amp that we find on stage when we play live and for our effects pedals: we use a chorus pedal for clean and a distortion pedal with added tube scream to make our sound more loud. We both have this pedal. As lead guitar I use a booster to increase volume level while playing solos, wah pedal and delay. Our bassist, Big, plugs directly into the amp.
The rig: Matt usually use a Flying V Jackson or ESP Ltd EC 401 with EMG 81 60. I usually use an ESP Ltd V200 modified with EMG 81 60 and ESP Ltd MP 600 (Michael Paget from Bullet For My Valentine signature) with EMG 81 85. Big usually uses a Warwick corvette with 5 strings.
What, if anything, are you plugging/promoting at the moment?
We are working with Rock On Agency and we deeply thank them for all they have done for us until now!
What are your plans for the next 6 months or so?
We are hardly working on new tracks for our future album. Now all the restrictions are less than before so surely we can do a lot of rehearsal and continue working on the future album.
If you were second on a three-band bill, which band would you love to be supporting and which band would you choose to open for you? A chance to plug someone you’ve toured with, or a mate’s band we’ve not heard of before!
Without doubt we would choose to support Bullet For My Valentine, that would be a dream that comes true. To be the opening act for them and play the same stage, it would be amazing!
For a band that could open for us I would say a mate’s band that is not famous. There are a lot of good bands out there that needs to be found, they’re very very good! A lot of bands are very promising and they need a boost to get their names out.
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