Groupe:

DGM

Date:

27 Juin 2016

Interviewer:

Blaster & Evanessa

Interview Andrea & Simone (face to face)

Hi Andrea and Simone, it's great meeting you. Let's start right away with your new album. So it seems, after listening to the first tracks of “The Passage” that you opted for a more melodic and catchier approach but without losing the energy and the progressive elements of your music. “The Secret”, divided into two parts, is not a fast double bass power anthem like “Hereafter” or “Reason” were…

Simone : Yes! Actually, after the three albums I did with DGM that all started, as you say, with that kind of fast song with double bass and such, we surely wanted to try something a little bit different this time. We love lots of different styles, you know power metal, progressive music but also hard rock like Whitesnake, Mr. Big and other stuff… So when I started writing the first songs for “The Passage”, “The Secret part 1” is one of the first songs I wrote actually, I tried to combine some hard rock elements with the usual DGM style.

Did you think about putting the two parts of “The Secret” together in one track?

Simone : The two songs were written separately actually… And then I found out they had the same tempo and would work together very well. We incorporated some little melodies here and there, they obviously had some common points and then we worked on the lyrics to make a long song… but we’re not really the kind of band that likes to do twenty-minute long suites so we decided to keep them separate after all. But I think the first part really sums up everything we ever did with DGM, you have the melodic piano part, the guitar/keyboard duels, the catchy chorus… while the second part is more the experimental side of this album. There are slightly different things compared to what we did in the past. You have a progressive verse, some Kansas/Genesis instrumental parts in the middle…

I love the second part of “The Secret”, it’s so controlled and steady with a great atmosphere, a bit unusual for DGM, I must say… it kind of reminded me of the band Pagan’s Mind…

Simone : Yeah, I get it… probably because of the sound, the keyboards and the fact that Mark’s singing is a little bit different. You know, we still love to play straightforward powerful songs but I think that a band should try to discover new paths and change some things along the way and not try to repeat the same things over and over… And for me, it’s not easy to write great songs that are always in the same style. For example, once I had written “Hereafter”, we tried to write songs that kinda sounded like that song but it didn’t turn out for the best I think. So why try to repeat yourself when you can actually create something different?

Absolutely. And the third track of the album, “Animal”, confirms that… it is also different as it sounds like DGM but mixed with more hard rock elements. It shows that “The Passage” is absolutely not a copy of the previous album.

Andrea : Exactly! That was the idea. We had discussions about the tracklist and we were all big fans of “The Secret”… especially the first part. At the beginning, we wanted this song to be the first single but we quickly realized that we couldn’t have a single which was around eight minutes long…

Simone : Yeah, we would have had to shoot a movie!! (laughs)

Andrea : Yes, exactly. But talking about “The Secret”, parts one and two, and then “Animal, we realized it was everything DGM could do. Everything we had done plus a couple of new things… so we decided to start the album with these songs.

It is a very catchy start indeed…

Simone : The main target with this record was really to make each song recognizable. We like when people sing our songs… “Animal”, for example, is the easiest song on the record.

Yes, it is an obvious choice for a single…

Simone : Yes, the label chose it for us actually. It might not be the most technical and impressive song on the record but our fans know what we can do…

Andrea : Yes, they know how technical we can be…

Simone : A lot of people told me that it was the most hard rock oriented song but there are still lots of things going on in this song… if you pay attention to the details, it’s actually not as simple as it may seem. At the beginning, I wanted a song that I could play live without having to look at my guitar, you know… but in the end, it still got a bit more complicated. (laughs)

Talking about “Animal”, we can hear the opening theme of “The Secret” at the end of the track. And then it reappears later in the album, the chorus for “Ghost Of Insanity” also recalls that theme… Are all these songs somehow related, like in a concept album?

Andrea : At the beginning, when we started writing lyrics for “The Passage”, the idea was to write a concept album… but it didn’t turn out that way, every song conveys personal emotions, feelings, interpretations and we could not really make a story out of that so we decided to keep the songs as they were and follow the usual path…

Simone : Yes, this melody returning on several songs was not really planned at the beginning. I came up with it when I wrote “The Secret” and every time I gave a song to the guys, our keyboard player tried to put this melody here and there. And as we really see this album as a whole, we loved the idea of having this musical concept. It’s not a lyrical concept like “Operation: Mindcrime” but it’s musical… it gives a sense of continuity even though the songs are different.

Lyrically speaking, what were your main sources of inspiration for “The Passage”?

Andrea : There’s no specific theme. We’re not a political band, we just think about our lives. Most of the lyrics are based upon personal experiences. For example, “Fallen” is a song I wrote which is about the mistakes you can make in your life, I can relate to that, personally, but I think everyone can relate to that as well. We try to give a positive dimension to the listener through our lyrics. We try to make you think but also give some keys, you know, that help you solve some problems.

Simone : Almost every song is about a real situation, something that really happened, but we don’t mention names or stay too close to our own experiences so that everyone can see themselves in the situation… We deal with universal themes, you know. For example, “The Secret” is basically a love song. It’s not a Whitesnake “baby, baby” love song, I mean, I listen to Whitesnake… but it’s told in a darker way.

You shot a video for “Animal”, will more videos for “The Passage” will see the light of day?

Simone : We should release a total of four singles but only one will be a real videoclip with the band and it will be for the song “Fallen”. The other ones will be lyric videos, one for the song with Tom Englund and I think we’ll have “The Secret part 1”… We think these four videos will represent the whole album quite well. You’ve got the fast one, the proggy, the catchy…

As it was the case on “Momentum”, you have two special guests on this record, a guitar player and a singer, Michael Romeo and Tom Englund… Can you tell us more about this choice?

Simone : When it comes to having guests on an album, we love to have guests that we personally know. Before thinking about promotion, marketing, that kind of stuff… every guest we’ve ever had, we’re really close friends with them. This time, for Romeo, the song “Dogma” was the more “Symphony X” song on the album and when I started to work on the solo which really calls for that type of playing, I figured “Why try to copy the original?”… so I picked up the phone and asked Michael if he wanted to play a solo on this song. With Tom, it was really easy because we played together in the band Epysode and we played together at the PPM Fest in Belgium so we really became close friends, even outside of music business, we call each other every week, talk about everything… So “Ghost Of Insanity” has a kind of Evergrey vibe and then, like it happened with “Dogma” and Romeo, I thought it would be a good idea to have Tom’s voice on this one. We’re really big fans of Evergrey, we love Tom’s voice, it’s so passionate. So I picked up the phone and he said “Ok, I will sing but you have to let me come to Italy to record it!”…

You didn’t do it the modern way, sending files to each other… that’s quite rare these days.

Simone : Yeah, obviously we did it like that with Romeo because he lives in the US and he would not come here for just one solo, you know… But yeah, Tom wanted to come to Italy so it was great. And what happened is that he decided he didn’t want to listen to the original singing on the song so he could do his own thing. For me, that’s the best way… because you don’t want a guest to sing your way, you want him to sing his way. So I showed him the lyrics, he changed them a bit and started to improvise in my studio and it was great. He really added something to the song. He did not just perform what I wrote for him.

Andrea : This way, he stayed Tom 100%.

Simone : Yes. So, that’s the way we choose guests : mainly because we are fans and friends of the musicians we invite.

Andrea : We could ask for bigger names but we prefer to go with people we really like.

Simone : And I think that people who like DGM also like bands like Symphony X or Evergrey, so it’s an obvious choice. And we appreciate the fact that the musicians who accept to work with us like our music. They do it, not paying attention to money or stuff, because they like our songs. That’s cool.

There was a three year lapse between “Momentum” and “The Passage” and a four year lapse between “Momentum” and “FrAme”… Does your music demand more time than it used to when you released albums once every two years? Or is it more because you have other preoccupations besides DGM?

Simone : I think it’s half and half. We are really critical of what we do when we write songs. We started writing the first songs for this album three years ago but we love to listen over and over again to the demo versions of the songs to see if they get boring. We take all this time because of that and we also try not to repeat ourselves too much, and we have to find new sounds keyboard wise for example, new solutions for vocals or even for production and we try over and over until we are satisfied… And we have our daily jobs too, I have my studio and it keeps me very busy. It sometimes happens that I can’t write a song for six months because I’m busy working with other bands.

Simone, once again, you produced the album yourself... That’s a position you find comfortable, I guess…

Simone : Not at all (laughs)!!! You know, when I have to produce other bands’ albums, it’s not stressful at all. It’s been my daily job for fifteen years, mixing everyday, and I’m really objective because it’s not my band. But when it comes to DGM, it’s totally different. It’s really stressful. Every aspect from writing, arranging, recording, editing organizing… Especially mixing is the most demanding because you’re alone and you’re not objective about what you do. You always think it’s great because it’s your song… and then you compare it to other albums and say “No, it’s shit!” (laughs)… So you start all over again.

Andrea : He’s always fighting with himself when he’s mixing. He’s a perfectionist so we get one sample, then a bit later he sends us another one “oh, that one is even better”… and then another one “this one works better” so we have to calm him down (laughs)!

Simone : They know that for a month, they will receive like thousand mixes everyday!! (laughs) But you know, it’s good like that because I wouldn’t really like to give my music to someone else. I’m a bit of a f control freak, I like a lot of producers these days but I have been the main composer for DGM for years now and I really have a vision of what I want to have in the end. It’s difficult but it’s also easier, I don’ have to explain to another person “a little more like this, a little less like that”, you know… and I don’t want to be annoying to another producer. I don’t want to turn into an asshole… so I do it myself.

Alright… I think you’re doing a great job but isn’t it a bit dangerous? I mean, we all know some musicians who have a vision and want to take care of everything, sometimes not realizing that they need serious help.

Simone : Yes, you have to know your limits. I think it’s easy to take your CD and put it next to another one, a big name, like Symphony X for example, and see if it sounds decent. For me, sound wise, it has to be on the same level. I think the day I will end up doing a shitty mix and I won’t be able to make our music sound like it does on some great records we like, I will be the first one to say “Ok, I give up, let’s hire someone else”.

Will there be limited editions for “The Passage”?

Simone : In Europe, there will be a digipack version and Japan will have a jewel case edition with a bonus track, an acoustic version of “Animal”. At the beginning, we wanted to include a DVD of our performance at the ProgPower Fest in the USA from last year… But we actually ended up deciding that we’ll put the DVD out on its own. There’s this project of having a double DVD, the first will be the ProgPower show. At the time, it was for the album “Momentum”. Now, we’re going to play a big festival in Milan and there will be new songs, so it would be cool to film this and include it in the package. We’re discussing this with our label.

Let’s talk labels now… What motivated you to change from Scarlet to Frontiers?

Andrea : We were not looking for a new label. It just happens that Frontiers called us when our album was almost finished and their offer was really good so we couldn’t say no.

Simone : We were happy with Scarlet Records, we didn’t want to leave but Frontiers have more money which means better videos, better promotion, production etc.

Andrea : Yes, Scarlet really did a good job, we haven’t got a single bad thing to say about them.

Simone, you also work with other bands from Frontiers… You recently played on the Sunstorm album.

Simone : That’s actually the reason why they called us. They called me to write some songs for Joe Lynn Turner and he was one of my heroes, being a Rainbow and a Malmsteen fan, you know, so I was psyched. Then, they asked me to play the guitars on the album and that’s how Serafino, the president of the label, became aware of DGM. He’s more a rock guy, you know, but he realized we were melodic enough to be on his label. He called me and said “I listen to Hereafter everyday, what a great song! I love it!”… And then he made us an offer.

Andrea : It was a hard decision because we had spent many years with Scarlet and we became friends with them so it was not really easy to say that we were leaving but it had to be done. It was a good decision for the band.

Let’s talk about the line-up now. There has been quite a few line-up changes in the history of DGM… to the point that there’s no one left from the original line-up, right? Do you think that, in a sense, these changes have allowed the band to evolve and offer some music that stays “fresh”?

Andrea : For sure. I can speak as one of the oldest members of the band now… I think it helped to change our music. It’s true that many members have left the band but we have been very lucky to find the right people. When Diego left the band, we were in a kind of panic… but then we were lucky to meet Simone. The music changed a little but the quality remained. It was exactly the same with Mark, our singer. Tita, our previous singer, was very good but Mark arrived and he’s great and he really brought something.

Simone : Mark amazes me every time. Album after album, he sings better and better and he takes less days to record his parts, lines that are actually more difficult… he’s great!

But now, this line-up hasn’t changed for almost eight years… so, you’re in danger of repeating yourself now!!

Simone : Ha ha ha ha!!! Yes, you’re right! I will have to fire someone! (laughs)

Something about the name DGM… I read somewhere that the band was named after the initials of its three original members… As they left long ago, did you eve think about changing that name?

Andrea : When Diego, our previous guitar player, left the band, we really thought about changing the name of the band but we already had a lot of albums with this name… so we asked Diego what he thought and he had no problem with us keeping the name DGM so we decided it was easier to keep it.

Simone : I think the attitude of the band is really the same. Even if music can change, evolve… the approach is the same… so we stay true to the name DGM, to what it represents.

New album means new tour. You already have a date in Paris in September, I believe… Any other dates in the works?

Andrea : Yes, we’ve got a concert in Paris on September 20th. We’ve also got a couple of dates in Belgium, one in the Netherlands, then we’ll go to Switzerland, Italy, Japan in November.

Simone : We’re also working really hard to go to South America for the first time.

Andrea : We’ve actually got quite a lot of dates coming but we still have to wait for confirmation. Some are not official for the moment.

Simone : We’re also planning a small European tour, like two weeks, for next year, probably March or April.

We’re running out of time… The last word is yours :

Simone : Every band says their last album is the best, I mean… But yes, we really believe in this record. We really think it’s our most mature album. We’ve really worked on having no filler, we spent a lot of time working on it. I just hope that people won’t judge the album on the first song that they hear because it’s really diverse. I think it’s the best thing about it, that we can have all kinds of music we love in just one record.

Andrea : It’s like a big book!

Simone : Yeah! So buy the album!! (laughs)