Interview with Helreidh

How would you classify your music?

Definitely Progressive Metal. As a blend of such two characteristic yet evolving genres we think that this definition is quite appropriate

Do you all have day jobs and if so whay do you do?

Well, three of us (Franco, Yorick and I (Alex) ) are attending the civil service, which is alternative to the military service, while our new keyboardist is a
shipping agent and Salvatore, our new drummer, works in a photographic lab.

How did the band get together?

The band got together almost four years ago when Yorick and our former keyboardist Daniele Soravia (University students, back then) decided to start an all-instrumental group. The band also featured Luca Roggi, formerly on drums with Black Jester.

The necessity to give an appropriate narrative support to the songs led to the choiche of Franco,previously with Asgard, as a singer.

After a few line-up changes the band got a recording deal and hit the studio with me on bass. Recently, due to physical problems, Luca Roggi had to leave the band and just a few months ago our keyboardist had to do the same, since he had to move to Milan, in order to follow his working carreer.

Fortunately we found two skilled guys to replace them not in a very long time, so now Helreidh is:

Yorick: guitars and backing vocals
Franco Violo: lead vocals
Alex Arcuri: Bass and backing vocals
Ivano Massa: Keyboards
Salvatore Bonaccorso: Drums

What are your musical backgrounds?

While the previous line-up was more rooted in classic prog-rock, now things are a bit different.
Salvatore comes from a classic metal background,
Ivano played prog, but also a bit of everything in cover bands and I also play many different styles. I was featured in Alex de Rosso's debut album (Kickin' the bucket) and now I'm studying jazz.

What kind of music do you like to listen to when you're not playing?

Well, our influences speak for themselves; maybe I'm the most "adventurous" listener, since I enjoy almost everything, from the Beatles to Primus and from deBussy to Charlie Parker.
Franko likes classical music very much, too.

What do you do to relax?

Yorick is an avid reader, whereas Franco likes to play volleyball.
Unfortunately we don't live close to each other so we rarely get together to have fun. Personally I like to read comics (Calvin & Hobbes, for instance) and to play other music styles.
Ivano and Salvatore are the only two working guys in the band so I think that in their free time they like to have a break and rest!

If you had the chance to jam with any band, who would that be?

Yorick claims he'd like to jam with Dream Theater. I don't know if the rest of the band would feel like it!

What's the best thing that has ever happened to you?

As a band, our concert in Holland on March 21st, '98. We met a lot of nice people, both in the working staff and in the audience, and the experience itself has been electrifying!

What's the worst thing that has ever happened to you?

Finding ourselves jammed with a management agency which was nothing short of pure crap! Fortunately when we insisted on seeing some results of that "management" (inverted commas are necessary!), they let us down for good. I say "fortunately" because we already spent way too much time.

Who writes the songs?

I'd say almost entirely Yorick, at least for the lyrics and the backbone of each song. The rest of the band (particularly Ivano and I) takes care of the arrangements and Franco keeps an eye on the lead and backing vocals melodies. Those aren't fixed roles, though, it's just how most frequently things go.

Where do you get your inspiration from?

It depends: we may develop some riffs or melodies for a while and come out with some interesting stuff, dut most of the time, if we have a topic or a story to write the music around, that's where we get the inspiration from, depending on the feelings we may have about it.
Musically speaking... our influences, once again, have their big part.

Who thought of the band's name and how did you choose it?

Yorick came up with it.
The word comes from an ancient Icelandic mythological poem, calle the Poetic Edda. One of the compositions featured in it is called "Helreidh Brynhildar" (Brynhild's journey to the Netherworld) and its meaning is, therefore, "journey to hell".

Which are you personal favorite songs and why?

I think that "Suite de F." is the favorite song for all the band members, mostly due to the fact that it's the only one composed and arranged entirely by the line-up that appears on the CD.

All the other tracks were composed in the early Helreidh period so they went only through a re-arrangement.

Obviously some of us have thir personal favorite songs: I don't know about Ivano and Salvatore who only recently joined the group and had to learn them all backward and forward (and they MUST like 'em, ha ha!), but as for me it's "Endless wars" because it's simple yet effective.

Yorick also finds "Tale of the crypt" very close to him, because it's his first composition, conceived with Daniele long ago.

Do you play many gigs and if so where?

We don't play very much around, since our music needs at least a medium sized venue to be fully appreciated and such big events aren't easy to organize (especially if you have a jerk for a promoter).

Anyway we played a bit near Treviso and near Milan, in Genova and,of course, in Holland.

What is you view of the music scene in (wherever you live)?

This is a tricky question because we dont' live very close to each other. I live in Padua, where there's a nice alternative-indie rock scene and jazz as well (although I'd say blues is the mainstream);

Ivano and Salvatore live in Belluno, where the situation is similar to Padua's one, while Franco and Yorick live near Treviso, probably the most prog rock-oriented city in our region. Don't forget that Asgard came from there!

Generally speaking it' not an easy situation for us, since although the city of Treviso gave birth to groups like Asgard and Black Jester, that kind of music is much more appreciated abroad, as we saw in our Holland gig.

What band would you sy have had most influence on you?

I'd say that as a group we draw our inspiration from such metal giants as Iron Maiden and from the major progsters like Dream Theater.

Those are the extremes, though, and therefore for the middle ground we feel we're influenced by Savatage, Queensryche and Marillion.

What are your plans for the future?

Our producer recently came up with the idea of a double mini-CD with a preview of the forthcoming album on one CD and a bunch of covers on the other. We'll probably put an acoustic version of one of the songs featured in "Memoires" as well.

Any last words or remarks?

We hope that a new web site will soon be available, since a friend of ours is working on it...
so we'll let you know!!