1.For those that have never heard of you before,can you tell us a little bit about the band?
1. Under Siege was born during the summer of 2015 when the first songs were outlined by Paolo Giuliani (Vocals) and Daniele Mosca (Guitars). Immediately the two recognized it as a promising project and soon Under Siege became a complete formation, when Gianluca Fiorentini (Guitars), Livio Calabresi (Bass) and Marzio Monticelli (Drums) joined the band. All of them were already actively involved in the local music scene.
2.Recently you have released your first album, how would you describe the musical sound that is presented on the recording?
2. Well, although our music can be roughly described as melodic death metal, spiced with glaring folk elements, our sound is quite heterogeneous. It becomes evident for anyone listening to our first album: we like to mix different influences in our songs. You can easily find power, viking, symphonic and atmospherical hints. Our efforts are focused on building aggressive, solid and imposing sound, without thinking too much about genres and schemes.
3.What are some of the lyrical topics and subjects the band explores with the music?
3. Lyrics are one of the things we care the most. It recently became easy to lighly talk about blood, battles or swords, especially for some kind of metal music. But we are not telling fairytales in our songs. We are not fantasizing about dragons, magic or random violent "vikingish" stuff. Battles, invasions, violence and revenge: these are things all of us must face everyday! Even if they assume more subtle forms nowadays. Of course we use metaphors, and evoking images fom a long-lost and distant world... but our call to arms, our cry for courage and pride: they are absolutely real.
4.What is the meaning and inspiration behind the name 'Under Siege'?
4. As we already said, we hide metaphorical meanings in almost everything we write. We are all "under siege" one way or another. Our life is under siege. And our values, our future as well. Modern society deprived us of so much: it offers distorted models, and synthetic, empty ideals. We all need to become aware of this attack. But on the other hand, we are called to strike back! We are called to besiege the very enemies that threaten us and fight for what we do believe is right. We must be ready to fall for the very things we consider worth to live for. This is our battle. This is the real siege!
5.What are some of the best shows that the band has played so far and also how would you describe your stage performance?
5. Every show is different. We like to play near Rome, because we can feel the heat and the enthusiasm of our friends and our people (those dear bastards). But when we have the occasion to play somewhere far from home, and if we can catch the attention and the ears of new folks: that is absolutely awesome! Nothing repays your efforts as a metal band more than looking at complete strangers headbanging, body-slamming and getting absolutely wasted with your music.
6.Do you have any touring or show plans for the future?
6. We have a couple of good upcoming dates. In March we will open for Skyforger, here in Rome, in the second edition of Mister Folk Fest, a quite special metal event for this city. But generally speaking playing live is becoming increasingly hard in Italy. Live clubs prefer to host cover-bands, (mostly classic rock bands) because they grant them more visibility than emerging bands. So you can find dozens of "Metallica-tribute" or "Pink Floyd Jam" nights... while good original musicians struggle to play for 50 minutes. Some bands sadly hit the bottom: we know guys that actually paid to play before more notorious bands. It is just disgusting. We hope things work differently abroad. And we are actively searching for shows out of our borders.
7.Currently you are unsigned, are you looking for a label or have received any interest?
7. We received some proposals: none satisfying. Some were just absurd attempts to take our money. One of us defined them "wolves and vultures of the music business", ahah! We would be glad to work with a serious and professional label. Hopefully we'll find one. Well... hopefully they'll find us.
8.On a worldwide level how has the feedback been to your music by fans of folk and melodic death metal?
8. Most people were shocked because they didn't expect from Italian guys to play Scottish bagpipes or use Gaelic dialect! Ahah! But overall the feedback has been more than satisfying so far. The album has been self produced and self-published so we are twice as prideful of the results: far above our expectations. We love to find out that people enjoy our music.
9.What is going on with some of the other bands or musical projects these days that some of the band members are a part of?
9. One of our guitar men, Gianluca, is carrying on his other symphonic black metal project: Nazgul Rising. The first album, released in 2014, has been a discrete success, and the second one will be released by the end of this year. The bass player, Livio sings and plays the keyboards in a dark-wave duo: "Raziel, the blacksmiler". They recently begun to perform live. Our drummer, Marzio, has begun to have rehearsal with an hard rock formation: "Hardrunk". Paolo and Daniele are fully engaged in Under Siege
10.Where do you see the band heading into musically during the future?
10. Who knows what tomorrow brings! We hope to spread our message and our music as far as we can. Even in this digital era of social networks, web promotion and digital distribution... we still think that the most important thing about music should be playing it live! And of course we want to start thinking about a second album as soon as we can!
11.What are some of the bands or musical styles that have had an influence on your music and also what are you listening to nowadays?
11. Influences from Amon Amarth, Ensiferum, early Turisas, just to name a few, are clearly recognizable in our music. On the other side, when it comes to our individual tastes, we listen to every kind of music, sometimes choosing unexpected genres like progressive metal, blues, traditional celtic music, punk, hard rock. Even classical music sometimes. The way we keep ourselves open-minded helps us composing better songs.
12.Does Paganism play any role in your music?
12. Nice question. Let's just say we find something fascinating in pagan traditions and beliefs. Even if we are not involved in paganism in a religious sense, we recognize in it a spiritual dimension free of any hypocrisy or paradox, that puts in first place the most important thing of all, our mother nature. Paganism is pure, sincere and proud. It is an ancestral voice calling, and sometimes you can hear it clearly even in these modern era. It's hard to explain: it's just in our blood. In all of us.
13.What are some of your non musical interests?
13. We are quite “normal” guys. Some of us are interested in sports and martial arts; some others in informatics and videogames and we also have two bikers in our band. We all love to go out, drinking, feasting and being loud. We like to eat well and we all have a strong relationship to beer, wine and whiskey!
14.Before we wrap up this interview, do you have any final words or thoughts?
14. We hope that everyone who listens to our music will enjoy it and maybe raise a toast to us. Cheers guys! Thank you so much for this interview. Stay metal and keep the siege strong!
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