Wind Rose Interview

Wind Rose didn’t only release a new album this year, but there are things going on live as well. Time to chat with Claudio about a few things.

Dwarves in Time

Wind Rose started quite a few years back. How did you guys meet?
“Hi everyone, Claudio here, guitarist of the band. Francesco and I were together in the same school of music in my small hometown in the province of Pisa. The school set up a Christmas concert and put us in the same band to play a couple of rock songs. The keyboardist Federico is my cousin, we started the band together and we included Francesco some months later. Cristiano started teaching bass at the same school of music, while Federico the drummer we got in touch with him when we were looking for a new drummer after the former one left the band.”

Was the idea for the dwarf theme there from the beginning of the band, or did it came later. And how did you came up with this idea?
“The Dwarf theme came out in 2014 when we were writing the song “The Breed of Durin”, so it was 5 years after the band was formed. In the beginning the band was meant to be a fantasy themed one, then we moved to the Dwarves specifically. We decided to write that song about the dwarves in the novel “The Hobbit” and then we found out that our music actually was going along well with the forges, the halls, the hammer and the anvil; so after then success of “To Erebor” we decided that this was our path.”

Upwards

How was the bands life in the early days?
“We have always believed in the band since the beginning. The first years were pretty difficult because we didn’t know how to move in the music business and we were not sure what a band needs to start a career. Every year we did a step further, we started with paying to join some tours, to being invited at no cost to us, then to being invited and they also paid us.”
When did you got the idea things really got on going?
“We realised we could really do something when the single ‘To Erebor’ was released, from that day everything came more easily until we met our current manager in 2018 who brought us were we stand now.”

You have changed from label quite often, how come?
“The first label was one of those who only get money from the band, the band buys from them, no promotion, no gigs… I don’t blame them, it’s how it works, in the beginning you just need someone who takes care of all the bureaucratic stuff, but of course we already had the plan to change it for the 2nd album. We moved to the Scarlet Records label that had a good name in the Italian scene but we found out they didn’t believe in the band and thus did nothing for us. So again we decided to change label for the third album, whatever but not Scarlet Records. In 2016 we got in touch with Inner Wound Recordings and I would say that’s were things began to look interesting. Inner Wound is the partner label of Ulterium Records, which is a nice name in power metal, they released our third album Stonehymn and for the first time we had a label who really believed in the band. It was really good to work with them, we made a lot of plans together and in the end the album was successful indeed. The change to Napalm Records was inevitable if we wanted to reach even higher goals, as most agencies and festival don’t answer your emails if you are not signed to a major label. Napalm is working well for us, let’s see where this goes.”

How do you feel Wind Rose music has developed through the years?
“In the first album we played a folkish progressive metal, it was good music but we felt it was too niche to allow the band to go further. The second album was a bit more catchy even though it still had some prog vibes, a really good power metal album with no “wows” in my opinion, not so original. With the third album “Stonehymn” we removed the prog component almost completely to give space to catchier songs, still maintaining our variegated creativity. I think that the last album “Wintersaga” is the definition of Wind Rose’s music, we have achieved what we were meant to be, and I also think that we will not change our sound in the next albums.”

Second Attempt

You were supposed to go on tour with Arkona and Metsatoll through America. What happened and how do you feel about missing out on this tour?
“It happened that the US immigration office didn’t approve our submission to obtain the visas because we are not enough famous yet to play in their country. We decided to withdraw our application in order to not risk to receive the definitive denial that would have badly marked our name for the future attempts. To miss that tour has not been a good thing because the new album was about to be launched at the same time and would have been a great thing for promoting the band in the US, but we are already working on the second attempt!”

Do you have plans for another tour?
“We are touring in Europe in Jan / Feb 2020 with Gloryhammer. There’s nothing else confirmed at the moment, but we are working on another tour that might be confirmed soon.”

Wintersaga

Now your album ‘Wintersaga’ is released, are you pleased with the result so far?
“We are incredibly happy of the results of “Wintersaga”, in 1 month from the release it has had a higher amount of listens and purchasing than all the other albums together in all these years… How could one not be happy?!”

You’ve told a us a bit abouth this, but can you explain a bit more in what way this album is different from the other ones?
“The main difference between this album and the others is that it is perfect on every side: the production, the arrangement, the playing, the orchestra, the songwriting, the contrast between the hits and the longer songs. The older albums were to me like “random”, meaning that we didn’t know yet what people expected from our music, so it’s like we were still trying what the best formula was. After the success of the single ‘To Erebor’ we had a better idea of what we were meant to do, so we pointed straight to the goal with ‘Wintersaga’.”

Some of the songs are of the very happy kind, some others are quite serious. Is it difficult to mix these things into one album or in a setlist?
“From what I see people appreciate the fact that we can do both things, when you listen to a Wind Rose album or see a live show there are many different scenarios, from the epic serious moments to the tavern chants. Our songs can have different atmospheres but the band and the stlye always remain the same, so it’s not difficult to put the two things together, it comes naturally and people is ok with that.”

Is there anything else you like to say to our readers?
“Thank you for reading my interview and for being interested in what’s behind “Wintersaga”. We really hope you enjoy the album and we hope to see you in the Netherlands in January with Gloryhammer and in July at Into The Grave!”

By: Michel