Interview

Fake Idols is a new hard rock n’roll Italian band. The guys combine metal and rock influences to give us their selftitled debut album (NdSS : you can find the review of this album in your favorite webzine). Here are some clues to discover this new band. Forza !


Can you present the members of Fake Idols ?
Fake Idols are Claudio Coassin on vocals (ex Raintime), Enrico Fabris on drums (ex Raintime), Ivan Odorico on guitar (ex Slowmotion Apocalypse / Raintime), Ivo Boscariol on bass (ex Slowmotion Apocalypse) and Cristian Tavano on guitar (ex Jar Of Bones). Enrico and Claudio used to play together with Raintime. We think some of you already know this name since we played many shows in France. The best experiences we had over there were Hellfest in 2008 and a tour with WASP in 2010 that stopped in your country for some gigs. Ivan and Ivo come from a huge Italian metalcore band called Slowmotion Apocalypse, unfortunately no longer active because of a bad disease happened to the 2nd guitarist. Cristian is a pure rock soul that comes from Jar of Bones, a hard rock band that stopped its activity since a couple of years.
As you can see we all comes from bands with different genres and styles with different experiences as well, but we have a common thought : we just want to start playing again as much as we can and make you bang your heads in front of the stage !

How members from three different bands met each others to create a new one ?
We've always been friends when we used to play with our previous bands and we've joined a lot of gigs together. After the split of each band, something decided that someone of Raintime and the other 2 bands need to join forces in order to create something new over here. It's not that we had some phone calls and we decided to create a new project, it's been a natural process that involved each member in this situation. The only exception regards Cristian Tavano who's been the only one chosen after lots of auditions. He immediately seemed the perfect one for his rock n' roll attitude that could have been perfect mixed with the metal approach of the rest of the band.

Does the name of the band come from the Raintime song (NdSS : on the Psychromatic album) ?
Yes, we definitely took it from a Raintime song. It's not that we wanted to maintain a link with the previous band, but we simply liked it and we found it really suitable with the new project. And then, everybody is a bit fake, do you agree? (laugh)

Can you tell me why Raintime decided to split ?
It's a simple reason. The fact is that Raintime can boast 13 different line-ups over the years. The last period the band has changed too many members. The last departure has been communicated with an sms... It's been the peak of an unbearable situation. Constantly changing people inside a project can easily make you lose your identity.

Even if there are some metal stuffs, I found this album more hard rock than metal. Was it a will from you to disconnect Fake Idols from Raintime ?
We just wanted to create something far from what you usually hear. It's not that we wanted to do something that was necessarily far from Raintime at all costs just to say : " you won't hear any other Raintime influence anymore ! ". It's been natural for us to compose the album, creating the sound of a new band, with all the influences we have in our background. So you could hear a bit of Raintime, a bit of Slowmotion Apocalypse, a bit of Jar Of Bones, a bit of everything we've listened to and the result seems to be something more hard rock than heavy metal but it's just what has come from our soul.

Why and how did you choose to contact Mia (Crucified Barbara) ?
It's been simple, Cristian and his band, Jar Of Bones, were the opening band in the 2010 Italian tour of Crucified Barbara. Cristian and Mia keep in touch and when it was time to record the new album Cristian made Mia listen to the new material and she liked it a lot, especially the voice of our singer. So the band kindly asked her if she wanted to sing a song together with Claudio and the song choice was « My Hero » because it seemed the most suitable for the wonderful voice of Mia. Mia has made us a gift with her great voice and rock attitude, we are very grateful to her ! (smiling)

Why did you choose to do a cover of The Cardigans ?
Well the only purpose of Fake Idols was to take a great pop song and turn it to something stronger. It's been hard to choose the right one and a lot of tries has been done before finding the right one. When we noticed that nobody made a rock version of « My Favourite Game » so far, we've put all our effort to turn this classic into a hard rock tune. We are really satisfied about the result and now all the metalheads could sing along with us a pop song. That's nice ! (smiling)

Does Claudio definitely stop to grunt ?
Definitely ! Singing both vocal styles would have damage his voice little by little. Honestly there's no place for screaming and growling on this project and we think it's better using his powerful clean voice to frame the music we play. It's not that we don't like death metal or so, it's just a choice he made and a future determined line to be followed.

Concerning Claudio, the effect on his voice on « Switch » seems to be a tribute to Axl Rose, right ?
(Laugh) You're almost right ! It's not an artificial effect, it's just Claudio's voice in two different octaves. Guns n' Roses made a lot of this vocal solutions in their albums. When we built the song we tried different harmonizing but the one that immediately captured our attention was the two octave unison. Call it a tribute or not, but it's nice ! (smiling)

Does the cover refer to politics ? (it’s remember me nazi zombie movies (laugh))
Not really, the cover represents a fake idol as a mystification of the iconic power. The figure, both heroïc and decaying, is something apart from political concepts. It represents the other side of the reigning possessiveness belonging to the society hidden behind a mask of harshness and self-abnegation.

Is a tour scheduled to promote this album ?
We have some shows and festivals on the way to be booked for the upcoming months and we're just waiting for the debut album release to plan a tour with some booking agencies in order to promote it in the best way possible. However, since we're newcomers, it's not going to be so simple. You know how it is, all bands can tour, the problem is that you must pay buy-on to headliners and shit like that.

Except Secret Sphere, Rhapsody Of Fire, Elvenking or Lacuna Coil (and Fake Idols of course !), have you some new bands from Italy in which you believe for the future ?
Currently there are some Italian bands that are growing up a lot, like Ready Set Fall, Destrage, FleshGod Apocalypse and our friends Elvenking and The Secret. We really hope to follow their steps. We really hope in you guys as well ! Our destiny mainly depends on you little idols ! (smiling)

I let you the last words of this interview for the readers of Seigneurs Du Metal. Maybe in French ?
Salut les rockers ! On espère pouvoir bientôt tout déchirer sur scène en France. On kiffe la France !