Salvatore Andrea Ciccarelli, Ciro 'Kirion' Silvano, Graziano Ciccarelli
Jumpscare
Graziano: In all honesty, the pandemic hit us shortly after the release of Don't Close Your Eyes, we are still fresh from its release, despite it being now in late 2019 / early 2020. We have been able to do so little for this album that It would not make sense to rush to make another one without having accumulated more experience both individually and as a band. We don't want to repeat ourselves and we always want to try to release the best material possible. We are a relatively new band that just turned 5 years old in November 2021, we don't want to release something if it doesn't satisfy us first as artists and as fans of metal.
Kirion: Obviously we are not with our hands in our hands, we are starting to compose material for the next releases, but we are giving priority to improving our scenic impact and our live show. So we can say that on a scale of 10, 7 goes in the preparation of the next live engagements and 3 in the composition. We always try to take the time to compose, we have so much "meat to cook" under this point of life, that we want to give the right priority to things without neglecting anything.
Andrea: We also did a big upgrade of equipment for our live set up, trying to reduce the things to take to a minimum in order to be always ready to go on tour and have our sound always, drastically reducing the editing and editing time. soundcheck, since we have a left-handed drummer and we use the backing tracks, every second counts, in the set up, as many times a set-up speed of our instrumentation is required in a rather short time.
Salvatore: Regarding our recent innovations at Jumpscare, we have just signed a collaboration (which is more a synergy, because my brother Graziano and I joined the creative team) with the "HUGIN & MUNIN HANDMADE" brand, which deals with objects and runic / metal themed merchandising using only eco-sustainable material. You can visit the site: it.huginemuninhandmade.com, and if you use the JUMPSCARE discount code, you support both the shop and us as a band.
Kirion: We still remember that METAL TEMPLE review! One of the most precise and accurate we've ever had, feedback was amazing! In any case, the creative process of "DCYE" was particular as the album was composed before I joined the band, so I joined when the instrumental part was already over. The melodic death metal and early 2000s metalcore was an inspiration for the kids, who tried to put together a little bit of everything they liked. Regarding the lyrics, I was inspired by the things I looked around me: society. Trying to convey a message of revenge and hope as we have no positive views on today's world. We have tried to highlight what needs to be changed and what is not right, trying to "charge" the listener to never close his eyes to adversity! About our own inspirations, I'm a fan of Metalcore and Deathcore, I learned to scream and growl with early BMTH, Suicide Silence, Chelsea Grin and Make Them Suffer!
Salvatore: I started with grunge and prog-rock, but in the end in the early 2000s I was really into melodic death and modern metal in general!
Andrea: I am a fan of death metal and progressive, my biggest inspirations are John Petrucci and Check Schuldiner, so I would say Death and Dream Theater. Then I approached Melodeath through In Flames, Dark Tranquility and At the Gates.
Graziano: I come from hard rock and punk, then I evolved my range of listening to really everything! Like Andrea, Salvatore and Kirion, although we have different musical origins, what we have in common is modern metal and above all what concerns the putting together of power and melody, for this reason we have put all our influences in a melting pot trying to find our sound!
Salvatore: Unfortunately, due to the pandemic we haven't done a big tour yet, we are focusing on mini tours or "power weekends" before we can tackle a long tour, but in the end, whether it's a single date, the emotions are always the same! We have lived through all colors! From the super nice club full of people with spectacular bands and owners or from the super weird club, where we were seen weird just because they had two left-handed band members and we used the backing tracks! Nothing "creepy" though! In the end the sensations are always the same, you play - you have fun - you experience situations at the limit of human decency (hahaahahah) - you get off and go home! The memories we have of each date are spectacular, sometimes "catchphrases" are born which we still use today and which are usually part of our pre-show ritual! If I had to tell you a recent memory during one of our live shows, I would mention our previous live in the theater with R.O.T. and Cremisi! We had a lot of fun and made friends, so much so that we still feel today!
Kirion: Talking about the individual creative process in a band like ours is difficult because our creative process is to put ourselves completely at the service of the music we are writing. We do not have a single composer: everyone must be an active part of the creative process because everyone can contribute his ideas. For this reason, we talk about band creativity. Let's start from a piece that inspires us, from the world around us, from the sensations we want to give and receive with a song, to the mood etc ... We are lucky enough to have our own home studio (VAULT LAB) where all the magic happens: we spend hours there to find the right melody and the right composition that satisfies us, but we are all like a single organism: everyone gives hand to each other because the hero of the day must not be the single musician, but the song that we will play together!
Andrea: I am speaking on behalf of everyone saying that the warm up before playing is both important as a pre-show ritual and to avoid dangers and be more prepared and "hot" for our show! Then we usually circle around and scream a couple of our own high-impact phrases (the ones that Salvatore said before), to energize us and remind ourselves that we're there to rock and have fun first and foremost!
Graziano: Without them, we are nobody and we will never be nobody, for this reason every single person who supports us, shares our songs, sees our videos, writes us messages, fills our hearts, because a band is great only thanks to the fans who put their heart into it ... from the bottom of their hearts: thanks! Hoping that the "Scarers" are more and more and are more and more numerous and passionate, because they are our vital energy!
Graziano: Italian metal scene is full of amazing bands from North to South of Italy. That's crazy because over the years we just met a lot of talented guys from other bands. Italian metal has some great band that kicks asses worldwide such as Lacuna Coil, Rhapsody, Fleshgod Apocalypse and some "newcomers" (just to name a few) like Elvenking, Hideous Divinity, Genus Ordinis Dei that are Really doing great stuff worldwide. Speaking about Naples (our hometown) and South Italy there are tons of tons of bands most of them are really talented, but we have just few places that give space to underground metal. There are a lot of organizations and also artists that supports the but the problem I think is the same everywhere and that is the lack of possibility to have big spaces to host big shows here, in the past there were a lot of big shows, but those big venues are closed or they decided to make another type of music, but heavy metal is surviving in club and venues, we hope that underground metal will be popular more and more. But there is a bit of distance between "mainstream metal scene" to "underground metal scene". For now, speaking about Napoli and South of Italy, even if there are a lot of talented guys, nobody reached the high level as the band mentioned because they are from mostly from the center to north of Italy. The fact that there are not a south Italian band signed to a major label or at level of the band that I mentioned at the beginning of this question it's the spirit that aims us! We want to prove that South of Italy have nothing less in comparison to other parts of Italy and Europe. It means to work a lot, but we are motived with such reviews like this one and we are working to get higher and higher every day. And the love for this music and this culture is pretty huge, and those are the daily motivation from we woke up when we go to bed.
Kirion: I learned directly how to scream and growl by practicing imitating my favorite bands and then refining the technique.
Salvatore: I started out as a bassist, but I also play other instruments (guitar and bouzouki). As far as singing is concerned, I have ventured into past projects, but I have never studied a proper technique to do it, we went a little to sensation and I too imitated my favorite artists of my childhood.
Andrea: I fell in love with the guitar and concentrated on perfecting myself, I've never sung!
Graziano: I wanted to sing, but we're not there at all! hahaah When I was 8, I tried to play the guitar but I drummed on it ... so then I literally "threw myself" to play the percussion and the drum kit! Sometimes I sing in the shower hahaha! I speak on behalf of everyone saying that looking at our favorite bands, and being passionate about music, they are the ones who inspired us to try, to try to make our passion a full-time profession! We don't give up!
Kirion: I had my best practices during the shower in my own life! Anyway, I try to imitate and doing sing-alongs to my favourite tracks!
Andrea: I do not sing! I stay really in quiet during the shower hahahaha!
Salvatore: Sometimes yes! Whatever I'm listening at the moment. Usually, I over-think under the shower anyway!
Graziano: Yes, and I'm proud of it! I sing everything from Righeiras to Morbid Angel! Vamos A la Playa oh-ooh-oooh! hahaahahaha
Kirion: We hope that not only the music, but also our message will be appreciated as we put a lot of effort into producing not only beautiful music (but we don't judge on that ") but also good lyrics. What we did on our album is a criticism in its entirety to all modernity and to the whole system of life that surrounds us, it is an invitation to reawaken consciences to understand that no one can impose our lifestyle on us and that we must make our voice heard!
Salvatore: With this record we focused our attention to what is going on around us, speaking about war and its consequences (Dead Bodies), about we are destroying our planet (Earth Decay), about how personal relationships (whether in love or friendship) are no longer true and are dictated by a materialistic impulse that sees people's principles fall for pure "opportunism" (Falling Tears), regarding the cycle of life in the modern world, which we wanted to maximize to the utmost to make it clear to the listener how the way of life and our routine are harmful for everyone and to look for another answer because another answer is possible (Mate Feed Kill Repeat, the first Slipknot album inspired us in the title cause they wanted to bring to the light the same message too), we then compared the paralysis of people to react to the abuses of this society as a sleep paralysis (Paralyzed), how the violence reigns in this world (Seventh Circle) and in the last song (Sickness) we told of a figurative encounter between man and illness and how this forces man to annihilate himself.
Andrea: At the end of those messages, however, being hopeful and wanting to carry a positive message, we always leave room for the revenge and the victory of man over materialism. While the title track (Don't Close Your Eyes) contains everything we want to convey with this album, the main message of our work, a message of revenge and above all to remain vigilant and active in this reality without suffering it passively.
Graziano: A different world is possible: Don't close your eyes! That's our "motto"! In particular Seventh Circle was inspired by the Dante Alighieri's Inferno (Divina Commedia) chant XII, you can hear a spoken part by Salvatore (bass) extracted by the original opera of the Italian poet (in original language, our mother tongue). A little fact for all of you guys: The "monster" that is in the album cover, it is our mascots that we called "SCAREHEAD". It represents all the meaning of eight songs in one entity, if you look to it closer!!!
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