A Thank you for your interest in our band, we're glad that “Shifting” got your heart and ears. Its starting point goes back to our debut EP “Red Square: We Come in Waves”. The reviews that it received underlined the lack of a strong personality, since the record was too much similar to Isis, Neurosis, Cult of Luna, etc. Our aim, then, was to get rid of these influences and bring our real sound to life. However, instead of trying to sound not like Isis or any others, we searched inside ourselves for the sound that could represent us the best way possible. That's how it started. Then, working constantly on it, day by day, we finally arrived at “Shifting”.

Q Did all the band members throw ideas into the melting pot or did you have one uniform concept from which you built the picture up gradually?

A First of all, we discuss the idea and the concept the song has to deliver; ideas that usually have been developed individually in advance and only later taken to the rehearsal room. There we start a sort of brainstorming to make the aim of the song clear to everyone. If properly done, this process leads to one uniform concept that should be almost the same for every one of us. Once we get there, we turn up the volume and we really get the writing process started. I am usually the one who directs the works but everyone brings his own idea to the table. Finally I would define it as a democratic, collective and at the same time very focused job.

Q There’s such a mixture of styles on “Shifting”. I’m sure you’ll be pleased to know that it’s very hard to categorise. For the benefit of potential listeners, I’ve read that you have been compared to Isis, Tool, Mogwai, Shai Hulud and Radiohead amongst others. I sensed a Post Rock/Metal feel about it in terms of the drum style, harsh vocals and patient build-up but realise there’s far more to it than that. How would you describe your music?

A It's even harder for me, man. I would say it's a dark, heavy musical flow based on dynamics, expression and eventually emotions. It's an unsteady ground that can lift the listener into another world, if he lets it happen. Sure, it's made up of songs, but there are no real structures except this idea of development the songs bring on. It's like our music is telling a story and development is a necessary part of it. No development, no story. It's a very fluid form of music that can be both heavy or soft, dark or bright, fragile or strong. At the end there's no definite shape, as you just said it's all about shifting.

Q Where “7th Moon” has a dark ambient and even industrial feel to it, the following track “Caofedian” has a reflective melancholy and builds up to a highly emotional and powerful climax. On “Black Waves” you superimpose a mixture of moods onto a hypnotic base. When developing the structure of your tracks, do you give priority to the moods you are creating within them?

A Absolutely! When we start the brainstorming process, we often think about a detailed emotion that must not be compromised by anything. So we won't let it be drifted out by any unnecessary individual or collective urgency. Many bands give priority to violence, speed, aggressiveness, but this seems to us like a useless competition that has nearly nothing to do with music. Instead, as far as we can see, the purpose of music is to deliver emotions. So, we are always ready to bend or modify not only structures, but even melodies, harmonies or anything to build the feelings we want to deliver. You know, sometimes it also happen that we have to restart from zero, throwing away many minutes of music that could also be good but not corresponding to what we are looking for! Those are the moments when I really would like to grab my guitar and smash it on the floor...

Q I’ve only heard two tracks off your 2008 album “Red Square: We Come in Waves”, but from what I have heard of it, you appear to be playing more with the senses on “Shifting”. Is that a fair assessment?

A It is. “Red Square” was born just as a way to test ourselves and it was nearly an accident that we got signed by Lifeforce Records. So it's quite fair to say that it's yet an unripe album. It's a debut and it's not intended to be an ending point, as “Shifting” is just a starting full length and I'm pretty sure that this is not gonna be our final shape, if we'll ever get to have one. Indeed I tend to think that we'll never settle into a safe place. We are way too much teased by the paths that music discloses in front of us, to just sit and rest where we are.

Q How long did it take you to record “Shifting”? Was it a difficult process and at what point did you decide it was complete?

A Well, the recording process was quite quick. It took like twenty days to do everything from recording the parts to have the final master. But the work we did before took about a couple of years and was long and stressing too.

Q I’d like to ask you about the track “Prometheus Bring us the Fire”. To start with, your singer sounds like a male version of Sade, introducing a sense of smooth, emotional calm. How did you come up with the idea of adding anguished Post Metal screams into the mix, or did that come first?

A Uhm, I don’t see that it matters what comes first. Let’s say that there are many ways you can use voice: you can whisper, you can scream, you can just sing and so on… As for any other instruments, we just didn’t want to avoid any solution in advance. So we tried to find every time the best vocal expression, ending up with a bunch of different ways of singing: there are whispers, there are screams, in-tune yellings, plain clean parts, etc. Having a talented singer surely helps in doing this!

Q For me, “Shifting” has a nocturnal feel about it. As well as “Prometheus Bring us the Fire” which I mentioned earlier, there are discreet jazz sections and the haunting sound of the trumpet is used to great effect on “Hades” and elsewhere on the album. It’s like being in a bar in San Francisco at midnight. Is this the atmosphere you’re aiming to create with the slowed-down jazz and the trumpet?

A I totally agree. I have the same jazzy feeling, listening to those parts. Anyway it was not done with this precise purpose. Thinking about Mudra, for instance, there was this part where Luca has a vocal solo on a very smooth instrumental part. It was quite nice but everything was like frozen, restrained. So we thought that a trumpet could have played a solo like it was an answer to the vocal parts. We tried it and it ended up to be exactly what we were looking for. And it was nearly the same for Hades, where we have this long guitar part decreasing and nearly begging for a trumpet solo. It’s only later, listening to the songs, that we realize how close we were to jazz. By the way we would never have done that on purpose. You know, jazz is made for real musicians, not for amateur kids!

Q When I reviewed “Shifting”, I made the observation that it is an international work. The track titles take us across the world, time lines and cultures via India and Ancient Greece, while “Drifting Lights” evokes Africa. The one which intrigues me is Caofedian, which my research tells me refers to an Economic Development Zone in China. How did Caofedian come into your lives and find itself on the album?

A Caofedian is a metropolis projected by Chinese government intended to be the third millennium city. I don't remember exactly how we got to this... I think some of us, probably Luca, found an article on the internet. Anyway I remember that when we read about it I feel like it's just another challenge to nature and human limits, in disguise of a green healthy project. The thing that really got my attention is that, this time, it isn't made by western people but by the biggest power of eastern countries. A country that, for history and tradition, should tend to live harmonically with nature and environment, like the Yin and Yang philosophy for instance. Instead they finally surrendered to the western behaviour of gobbling up and controlling everything. It doesn't seem that far from what we did to Africa, where we took guns and capitalism for everyone but people still starve and die. However, the song is the story of a man who's building the highest tower ever. Slowly he rises, just like the song, until he reaches the sky, where unfortunately there's no more air to breath. At this point, while he's blacking out, his instinct forces him to fall down and we follow him in this fall, while he's repeating like a mantra: “So far so good, so far so good, so far so good”...

Q Have you ever thought about using your music as a soundtrack or accompaniment to movies or TV dramas, or does this area not interest you?

A I think it's one of the most interesting musical areas. Indeed having images to follow somehow gives you limits, and limits are always a teasing and challenging task! Unfortunately no one ever offered us such a thing, so we never had the chance to do it. You know that often there is orchestral music for the high-budget productions or electronic music when there's no big money involved. An original rock music soundtrack is not a very common choice, but especially now, after the advent of post-rock, I think that it's clear to everyone that you can do ambient film music also with loud guitars and drums!

Q How did At The Soundawn form as a band?

A Just for fun! It was like ten years ago more or less, when we decided to spend some time together playing music. We were all coming from local bands but we never played together, unless we were quite close friends. It happened that we all quit our previous band at the same time, so the chance was right there and we didn't miss it! It was the year 2000 and nothing really happened until 2005 or 2006 when we gave birth to At The Soundawn. So we could say we had a very long warm up period that finally took us to our actual shape only when we decided we were able to do it!

Q Whilst I sense a strong band ethic, to the point where your publicity does not emphasise individuals within the band as some do, do the band members have their own side projects in the musical or artistic world?

A Not really. Some of us sometimes go and rehearse or play live shows with other bands, but there's no real project beside At The Soundawn. You know, we are still working so hard on it, to make the band popular, to take our music to everyone, that it drains all our energies out. At least for me it's like this. I put so much of me into this band that I don't have anything left for other acts or at least for other serious projects. Anyway I think that, if ATS will finally found a steady ground one day, then we could start working on side projects.

Q Moving to the live scene, what do you consider would be your natural setting: a jazz club or a metal venue?

A Any of them as far as there is an open-minded crowd. Both extreme metalheads and pure jazzist can stay at home. Our music is for lively people ready to discover new sounds and suggestions!

Q if you were given a free choice, who would you most like to accompany on tour?

A Uhm... tough question. I love Radiohead, but they are way too far from us. And we still have to properly taste club shows, before entering a stadium! So I would say Katatonia or Porcupine Tree or even Dredg.

Q I see that you have a few concerts lined up in Central Europe. Do you have any plans to come over the UK?

A Not yet, but we would definitely come over there! Now we have some shows around central and Eastern Europe, then we will try to arrange something. By the way if some promoter or booking agent is reading this and is interested in taking our band to the UK, just feel free to get in touch! We're cheap, nice and clean!

Q After “Shifting”, what is your next creative project as a band?

A I don't know, man. We are still waiting for this album to be spread, in order to see where we can go with it. Well, there are a couple of things we would like to discuss for our next album, but it's way too early! We will talk about it in a couple of years or so, ok?

Q Finally, is there any message you’d like to pass to our readers in the UK?

A Sure! Come to our MySpace profile (myspace.com/atthesoundawn), become our fans on Facebook (facebook.com/pages/At-The-Soundawn/96894544757?ref=ts), spread the word and join the dark side!

Thank you very much for your answers and for giving such pleasure with “Shifting”. Good luck to you all, and hopefully we can look forward to welcoming you here in the UK soon!

For more on the band check out http://www.myspace.com/atthesoundawn

Interviewed by Andrew Doherty

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