Interview with Fabio D’Amore [Serenity]
Fabio D’Amore has been the bassist for Serenity for three years now and has featured on their last album, Death & Legacy as well as their upcoming masterpiece: War of Ages. Nico catches Fabio for a quick chat about the upcoming album and the recent addition of Clémentine Delauney to the band.
Nico: What’s the meaning behind the band’s name?
Fabio: Serenity is a sci-fi movie, based on the fanta-western TV series called Firefly. It’s an awesome movie, and the also the TV series is incredible. When the band was put together, the influence of “Firefly” on our artistic work was huge, so the the logical result was taking the name of the spacecraft as the band’s name.
Nico: What are the main themes and concepts of War of Ages?
Fabio: On War of Ages we developed once again our historical themes, as we did on Death and Legacy, our previous record, but this time we focused on different points of view, and different stages. We talked about characters such as Elizabeth Bathory, Henry VIII, Napoleon, Nero, Beethoven, and so on. The lyrics are telling the stories of these people, that for good and bad influenced our past, the past of the whole humanity.
Nico: How do you feel War of Ages differs from the previous album, Death & Legacy?
Fabio: Musically the two albums are different, especially concerning their structures: Death and Legacy was a long album, with many long songs, and lots of interludes, kind of like opera you have to concentrate on each single detail. War of Ages is a direct album, shorter and effective songs, no interludes and passages in here, somehow catchier and yet fluent.
Nico: Clémentine Delauney joined Serenity earlier this year. In the past, the band have used guest female vocalists, is there a specific reason for recruiting Clémentine Delauney as a permanent member of the band?
Fabio: Clémentine started touring with us during the Out of the Dark tour 2011. We’ve been touring with previous female singers in the past, and all of them have been great and we’re still thankful for the jobs they offered Serenity. Clémentine just fit perfectly when we played a trial show earlier in September, before starting that upcoming tour, and we were all really satisfied. We all improved together and she continued performing for us for
all other shows we had, and we found natural to start discussing about her joining the band permanently. It came naturally, from both sides.
Nico: How do you feel the band’s overall sound will change now with the addition of Clémentine?
Fabio: I wouldn’t talk about changement, I’d better talk about improvement. As stated before, our sound and our shows together got better and better, and we definitely found the right formula with her in the band, where the new songs find incredible improvement and the old ones got a new life and a stronger sound.
Nico: What song do you feel defines the new album, War of Ages?
Fabio: That’s a difficult question… But perhaps I’d say the brand new single Wings of Madness. It has everything of the band’s skills : heavy riffs, great vocal melodies, bombastic sound and groovy parts.
Nico: Are there plans for a UK tour later this year?
Fabio: First we’ll have a show in London in some weeks, and we are really looking forward to this, since the UK has always been great for us. Just think about last year’s headlining tour, where we were able to play in London and Cardiff. We’ll for sure have some other shows in the UK later this year.
Nico: If you could replace the soundtrack to any film with your own music, which one would it be and why?
Fabio: Mmm… That’s again difficult…I think each member of the band would have a different opinion and answer! Come and ask us directly after our show!
Nico: Serenity have been on the scene for a decade, how do you feel the metal scene has changed since Serenity formed?
Fabio: There’s definitely a saturation of offer in the market, and it’s still increasing. I think there’s too much and less quality lately… That’s also a reason of the whole industry’s decay and I am not completely sure this will ever get better again.
Nico: All the members of Serenity live in different parts of Europe, does this make it more of a challenge when it comes to song writing and studio work?
Fabio: It’s definitely challenging! Organising rehearsals and scheduling song writing and studio sessions have been more difficult lately. For three years, we now have to organise our activity, basing also on transportation issues, and gathering everyone’s plans. But it’s working fine, although it’s still difficult to handle, from time to time.
Nico: On the note of the members coming from varying parts of Europe, have the language and cultural barriers ever been an issue for the band?
Fabio: Austria, Italy and France are of course countries with many differences. In the beginning it may be difficult, but you have to give it time to get used to each other, and I can now say it’s not a problem at all. Sometimes you learn from each difference and you can enrich our own background, so I think it’s an added value.
Nico: Which musician, living or dead, do you hold the most respect for and why?
Fabio: Freddy Mercury – he’s still the artist and frontman that changed the life of many other musicians… His voice, his artistic soul, his performances have been lessons to learn for everyone of us!
Nico: What song do you feel defines Serentiy as a band?
Fabio: I don’t think there’s only one song that can tell what Serenity is. I’d say each album we released is very different and there’s something that makes our sound.
Nico: Is there anything you’d like to say to our readers?
Fabio: I’d like to thank everyone is reading now this interview and I’d like to invite you all to our upcoming tour: we’ll bring along the best show possible and you’ll get to know this new and fresh album War of
Ages. You’ll love it!
Serenity’s new album, War of Ages, is due for release on 22nd March via Napalm Records.
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- Serenity – War of Ages (valkyrianmusic.com)
- Interview with Alex Cook [Narcotic Death] (valkyrianmusic.com)
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