Chiara talks about the new album “Animus” and more
We had an amazing conversation with the singer of the symphonic power metal band Moonlight Haze, Chiara. She spoke to us about her career, the band and all the details of the new studio album “Animus” and much more.
You can watch the interview on the Youtube link below (in English), or read the interview transcribed below the video.
WATCH THE INTERVIEW BELOW:
READ THE INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT BELOW:
Playfonic: Welcome Chiara here at Playfonic. Tell us a little about the history of the band Moonlight Haze, how did you start?
Oh, well. It all started in 2018. Well, it was actually Julio, our drummer and keyboard player, main composer of the songs. He called me because we used to play for another band together. And in late 2018, he called me and he was like, I am sorry that we don’t play together anymore. So I wanted to create a new band. I’d like you to be the singer.
And at first I was like, well. I’m not sure. And you know, like creating something from scratch can be extremely hard and extremely demanding.But then a couple of days later, he sent me an email. And the subject of the email was top secret songs. So we basically already composed three demos that ended up being included in a tracklist of Lunaris, our debut album. So that’s how it all started. And yeah. I was so excited about the songs that he sent me, that I spent the whole night writing the vocal melodies and the lyrics. And a day after I called him back and I was like, Well, the new songs are awesome, and now we’re going to look for some other musicians that would be capable of playing such a demanding stuff.
And yeah, so we wanted to have very skilled musicians, but also we wanted to be surrounded by. Like. Kind. And Smart people. So we looked for musicians that we already know personally. So the first that came to my brain, the first name was our bass player, Alessandro, and I had the chance to see him live many times with Elven King,and I knew he was a great bass player and also a very nice person.So it was like, I want you and my band.
And basically the same thing happened with all of the other members of the band. Marco and Alberto, we called them, and at first they were like, Well, are you sure you want to start a new band from scratch? And then we sent them the Songs, and they basically fell in love with the music just like me. So so yeah, that’s how we all decided to join the band. Yeah.
Playfonic: What does the band name mean?
I came out with the name Moonlight Haze, because we mainly composed during the night time. So sometimes it feels like. The moon. Is like making us going crazy. I don’t know. I get a lot of inspiration from the moon for my lyrics.We all like writing during the nighttime. That’s basically why the band is called Moonlight Haze.
Playfonic: How was the production and writing process for this new album?
Well, it all started in summer 2020. And we released our second album, Lunaris, in June 2020. And yeah, as you can imagine, that was quite like a tough time for shows and festivals. So we had a lot of gigs planned for that summer. That ended up being canceled because of the pandemic. So we decided, like the five of us decided to gather in a very isolated place up in the mountains, like in the middle of nowhere because we had like a couple of festivals that we were about to play in the next month.
So we gathered in a place up in the mountains. And we I mean, we always have new melodies in our minds like every time, sometimes while I’m driving, I like seeing cars, I just record some humming stuff and send them to Julio. And the same goes for Julio. Sometimes it’s like, Yeah, I have this melody in my brain. And well. We decided to spend an entire week up in the mountains, basically to rehearse for the upcoming surviving shows. And also, we wanted to like, OK, let’s see what happens with the melodies we have in mind. So that’s how we started. That’s where we started composing the album. And then another couple of lockdowns came in the following months.So I think that, well. Writing this new album together, even if we were far apart from each other because of the lockdowns and everything like, kept us together and made us feel even more connected somehow. So that’s also why we decided to name the new album Animus, which is a Latin word that has many meanings.And the most important, I mean for us are.It is courage and also will and also life for us. So even if we were on lockdown, we never lost our hope and our will to bring our music. Or while that’s why we decided to call the new album Animus. Yeah, I think. There’s a kind of like. There are many layers to this song, and in many songs there is a light and dark side and a bright side like, yeah, I’m I’m on. Lockdown, but still, I’m daydreaming about having fun with my friends, like playing gigs and everything. So it’s, yeah, pretty much like that throughout the whole album.
Playfonic: Do you consider this album a concept album?
Well, this is not a concept album, because all the songs are like they’re not strictly connected in terms of lyrics or stories, not there is not a story going on throughout the album. But in a sense, they’re all somehow connected. Well, we wanted to bring this message of positivity and rebirth. I have to tell you that writing this new album was very therapeutic for us, so it helped us quite a lot to cope with a with a worldwide situation. And all the negativity that was going on with the pandemic. Yeah, a lot of uncertainty about the future. So yeah, it helped us. So that’s why we wanted to give this message of positivity and rebirth. It felt. Like, yeah, but. Like a rebirth to publish these albums. And we really hope this time we will have the chance to play many gigs.To actually promote the album. Yeah, that didn’t happen with our previous album. Yeah, we’re going to yeah, we’re going to play a gig in a couple of weeks. It’s going to be our release party the first of April. And yeah, we’re really looking forward to playing the new songs live and also like the song taken from lunaris and also the first album because we feel like those songs really need to be played live. And we’re very much looking forward to that.
Playfonic: Can you tell us a little about the composition of the album cover art? Who developed it?
Well, yeah, we. Like it very much. Too. Thank you. Glad you like it as well. Once again. The cover artwork was designed by Beatrice, who is the girl who also takes care about all the pictures of the band. And she also designed the previous cover artwork. And so we’re very, very happy and very proud to be working with her. We realize that we we are so happy that from the very beginning, we’re keeping the same team like in everything, same line up, same same girl. And also Simone Mulrooney who did the mix up, mixing and mastering of the new album. All of the three albums. Is good because it makes a connection. Everybody knows each other. And with time, the connection is growing up, like with us. So yeah, it’s a very nice way of working.
Playfonic: What are the musical references for you and the band?
Well, kind of hard to tell because. Each one of us in the band has different influences. I mean. Julian, like power metal, for sure. But we also, like everyone in the band, listen to different genres.I like everything from classical music to pop music to Celtic music to metal music. And I’m not only talking about power, metal or symphonic metal, I also like Death Metal, some other stuff. So I don’t know. Very hard to tell. Too many, too many to mention.
Playfonic: I noticed that on this album, you started screaming and doing some gutturals with your voice in the song. How did you learn to do this?
Well, actually. It is something that I started with a second album, Lunaris. There is a song called The Dangerous Art of Overthinking, and there I also sing some harsh vocals as well. And yeah, as I told you, I like many different styles of metal music and also I really like harsh vocals. And above all, I like to experiment with my voice a lot. So, yeah. And when it comes to deciding how to sing a certain part of a song, I like to think about my voice as if it was an instrument. I mean, you can switch like the effects of the guitar, but. You you. Can do something similar with your voice. I mean, your voice remains the same. You cannot change your instrument, but it can somehow modify the sound so you are producing. So that’s how I like to think about my voice. So I want everything to help the song to deliver the message within the lyrics. So even. In Animus, which is the title track in the second verse, I decided to use the harsh vocals to represent the darkest part of our inner self. That is afraid of falling or failing. And yeah. At the same time. By the end of the song, the same harsh vocals turned into something extremely positive. So they basically have a double meaning. So it’s like, of course, harsh vocals are powerful, violent in a way. That gets into the song. You can like somehow turn like your demons into something that helps you go through situations or like go beyond your limits, and that’s why I decided to to add them to the song.
Playfonic: You’ve already produced some music videos for this album and really, really good music videos. Do you plan to release more music videos for the songs?
Well, I can’t tell you, but there might be. There might be a new video. Who knows? And yes. I’m very glad that you like our videos. We are very lucky because our guitar player, Marko, is a video maker. So when it comes to like, thinking about a new video, it’s very nice and productive to talk to him about the lyrics. And try to translate the lyrics into images. So it’s something very creative, and I think he’s great at doing that. For example, let’s talk about “Animus” the title track again. We decided to read the lyrics. And the connection with our lyrics and sports were very clear because the lyrics talk about never surrendering, never giving up,never being afraid of falling and failing.
But this sounds very much connected to sports. And you had this idea of involving Nicholas Visintin, who is an Italian parkour champion. And we were very surprised because when we talked to Nicholas, He was surprised as well because he said that our lyrics perfectly match the spirit of the parkour, which is like, You fall down, you try to jump again. You have to try again and never be afraid. Yeah, not to be afraid of falling.
Playfonic: For people meeting your band for the first time, what song do you recommend they listen to?
That’s another tough question. I’m pretty sure that all of our songs are pretty diverse from each other, so hard to tell. Hmm. Maybe in some song we decide to, like, reveal more of our symphonic side, and some more power metal. You probably notice that we are kind of obsessed with Japanese and Asian culture in general, so there’s a lot of that as well.But all different songs. So I don’t know.
Playfonic: How can people buy your products?
Well. They can buy directly from the band, the physical copies of the very limited editions of the vinyls. And they have to hurry up because the blue red vinyls are selling out very fast. They can buy them directly from our Bandcamp page. And they can follow us on our official social media. We’re on Facebook, Instagram.
Playfonic: So in the last song of the Animus album, “Horror and Thunder”, there’s a male voice singing together. Who is the guy that sings?
It is a very mysterious special guest. Well, you know that in every band, there is a guitarist who doesn’t play a regular guitar, but he plays like a larger, bigger guitar with less strings. But sometimes they call him the bass player. Yeah, that’s how our bass player, Alesandro. Yeah, there’s just kind of a funny story behind that song. Song Horror and Thunder is inspired by an actual story that happened to us. A real horror story that happened to us. Well as I was previously mentioning, we spent an entire week up in the mountains, like in the middle of nowhere. Yeah, we had a great time. It was only the five of us. And like, we played quite a lot. We rehearsed, we composed some new melodies and everything went very smoothly. We had a lot of fun during the last night we had. We were. A little bit sad, you know, because we were about to leave the morning after. And suddenly, out of the blue, a big and violent storm like a hailstorm came to our area. Yeah. So we were like. As I said, in the middle of nowhere, there was no wi-fi connection. Our mobiles stopped working at all. No electricity. And there were these big ice cubes from the sky hitting our cars. And we were like, That’s what’s going on here.
Well, maybe it’s a sign we have to stay here forever. Oh yeah. And our bass player was, yeah. Couldn’t help. Like. He was pranking me all the time like he was hiding behind every door. There was no light because the electricity went down. And He was hiding behind the doors and popping out when I was walking by and every time, I was screaming like, very loud so that something was happening. My brain is sort of like, Oh my god, we’re in. We’re in a horror movie. We were in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of the forest. A big storm and no electricity. And I don’t know, my mind started wandering. And then I took my revenge because I forced him to sing the verses of the song. And in the verses, he had to admit what he did to me, like scaring me to death.
Are you sure you were singing the song? Yeah, that’s how it went. Now you’re going to. You’re going to tell people what you did to me.
Playfonic: But is everyone ok, no one got hurt?
No, no. We were all fine. It was just a matter of letting you know when you let your imagination run, you think about funny, funny stories or horror stories and anything. Yeah, yeah. It was fun anyways. And actually, it was also very. I don’t know. Wild nature. Full power. We were surrounded by nature like the trees were, as I say in the lyrics the trees were dancing to the wind. It was nice. Beautiful and scary at the same time. We survived. And it gave me inspiration for the music.
Playfonic: What is symphonic metal to you?
It is very important to me. Of course. Otherwise I wouldn’t play, you know in a symphonic power metal band. I don’t know when I found out about symphonic metal. I was like 16 or so. I actually had been playing the piano for many years, then back then. And of course, I was very much into classical music. But at the same time, I had started listening to metal music, but I didn’t know about symphonic metal. And then suddenly I listened to WishMasters by Nightwish, and I was like, Oh my God, this is perfection! Like classical music and metal music intertwine together. I was like, Oh my god. I want to. I want to play that style. So it’s basically, yeah. I don’t know. It ‘s perfect. And then there is the mix between the classical and the heaviness of the heavy metal. That’s my favorite thing about symphonic metal. Like the melody and at the same time, the power. And Violence of metal. I mean, violence in a good way. Metal is a violent kind of music, but it’s powerful. Yeah, it can be played very loud. So that’s what I like the most about symphonic, metal and melody.Like bonded together. Really good.
Chiara: What. Is your favorite song taken from animus? Playfonic: I think for me, one of my favorites is the title track “Animus”. That is my favorite one and I like it’s insane because it’s very energetic, too.But my favorite one is Animus. But I really enjoyed the opening of the album because there’s a big choir and it’s powerful. That gives you, well, this is what we’re going to have in the album.
Chiara: Thank you. Thank you. We thought it was a nice opener. Yeah.
Playfonic: So would you like to leave a message for our fans in Brazil.
Well, we hope. We will have the chance to visit you very soon. Yeah, we really can’t wait to bring our own music and see you. To meet you in person very soon. Hopefully. We’d love to play in Brazil. So who knows, maybe,sooner than we all think? It was really a pleasure meeting you and talking to you. Bye bye.
Playfonic: Thank you so much for giving us the interview.
Thanks for reading our interview with Chiara from Moonlight Haze. We hope you enjoyed it 🙂
Oh, well. It all started in 2018. Well, it was actually Julio, our drummer and keyboard player, main composer of the songs. He called me because we used to play for another band together. And in late 2018, he called me and he was like, I am sorry that we don’t play together anymore. So I wanted to create a new band. I’d like you to be the singer.
