Recently Metal Express Radio had the opportunity to talk to Moonlight Comedy’s virtuoso guitarist, Simone Fiorletta, about the release of his second solo album Parallel Worlds.
You started playing piano at the very young age of seven. Who was responsible for your decision to get involved in music and how have they influenced you?
Hi Scott, before I answer your questions I want to thank you for this opportunity and for the words you have used in reviewing my album.
In the beginning I followed piano lessons mainly because my brother was a guitarist and my cousins respectively a bass player and a guitarist…so I thought there cannot be another stringed instrument in the family, could there?
What motivated your decision to move from playing piano to playing guitar? Do you still play any piano today?
I studied piano up to when I was 11. In that period I didn’t listen to much music apart from the Classical authors that my teacher recommended to me. However, I don’t mind telling you that I spent lots of nights at home with the guitar hidden, even if I was very small. At 12 I began to like my first Rock-Metal albums…I was crushed by those guitars so distorted and aggressive they made me shiver.
When you played piano you studied the Classical works of Beethoven, Mozart and Chopin. Did this have an effect on your guitar playing? Do you still listen to Classical music today?
When I began to play the guitar I wiped out the whole brief past as a pianist. At 12 my first scores were Metallica! Since then I have not played piano nor listened to Classical music. However, in Power Prog Metal I appreciate the big bands that have been able to blend orchestral music with Metal (Symphony X, Rhapsody, etc.). I think when listening to Parallel Worlds you will realize that there are Classical influences in my style.
You mention Steve Vai, Joe Satriani and Neil Zaza as influences. How have these gentlemen inspired you and your playing? Any other musicians worth mentioning that may have influenced you?
I would like to say that I have mentioned such artists like influence, landmarks, but I don’t intend to say that I repute me at their height or that my genre can place close to theirs.
I have lots of respect and admiration for Joe Satriani, who has made me aware of the Guitar Hero genre, instrumental music gets my blood boiling.
You must know that the guitarists that take my soul are those who don’t use any one technique but express and transmit their emotions with songs which could result in a fantastic response from people who have never gotten close to the music, so they aren’t able to understand if that is virtuous execution or not, but only that it is beautiful or not.
Steve Vai has the taste of newness, of innovations that we common mortals can only admire. I appreciate mostly his sweet and sentimental side.
Talking about Neil Zaza (I had the honor to open his concert in Rome in 2000/2001), stylistically speaking has some affinities with Satriani, perhaps a little more technical.
How can I not talk about Neil Schon? His guitar speaks, sings, laughs, cries to excite you!
Do you approach the writing for a solo release like Parallel Worlds differently then you would for a Moonlight Comedy release? Did you have songs already envisioned for this solo release?
Yes, it’s different. Mainly because with my band we usually compose music together, all five of us. We start with the instrumental layout, me and the drummer Andrea Scala, with him I have a special relationship. We have played together since we were 12 years old! Then the bass and keyboard (Armando Pizzuti and Gianluigi Farina) parts follow. We leave lyrics and vocal lines to our singer entirely (Emiliano Germani).
Regarding my solo projects, for example on Parallel Worlds, I began the passage layouts when I had signed the contract, thanks to Lars Eric Mattsson. All the traces have been entirely written by me; first I usually jot down a line of rhythmic guitar, then I add the lead guitar. After that, I program the rhythmic parts of drum, bass and keyboards to listen to how the song plays. When I am satisfied, I deliver these tracks to the other musicians (in this case Andrea Scala on the drums, Mario Mazzenga on the bass guitar and Valerio D’Anna on the keyboards) …and that’s how Parallel Worlds was born.
The music on Parallel Worlds is vastly different then the Progressive Power Metal you perform with Moonlight Comedy. What it a goal to develop something different or did it just evolve?
I don’t mind doing a different genre from the one proposed by Moonlight Comedy. The difference is in the fact that Moonlight are five boys united by Metal music, so when we write, each of us must express the Power Prog passion. But when I work at the soloist tracks, I don’t do anything else than bare my soul, my life. I find myself in life experiences every day and I try to set them to music, as if my life were a film and me the soundtrack composer. In this way passages like “For You” (in which I express the relationship with my mother), “The 1st Day of Life” (written when I knew that a friend of mine was expecting a baby) and “Blue Eyes” (composed by simply losing myself in my girlfriend’s eyes) were all born. When all is done, I also realize that Simone Fiorletta, “Actor III” in Moonlight Comedy, has nothing to do with Simone Fiorletta who we are now talking about.
You use vibrato on Parallel Worlds very artistically. Is this something you’ve worked at?
Scott, I would be a liar if I told you that I spend many hours training with the vibrato. Maybe the truth is that I have developed this technique to express myself better with the guitar. Sincerely, only after your judgment on my vibrato I have listened to the work again, trying to understand why it is so special. For me it’s all instinctive, I assure you that I have never lingered too much… did you want a different answer?
What’s next for Simone Fiorletta? Any plans? Will you continue to create solo release?
I have so many plans for the future. In this period I am doing a lot of interesting musical knowledge, and I hope they can yield something in the future. Regarding Moonlight Comedy, we are finishing the composition and arrangement of our second album. We should record it between December and January and maybe it will come out in the middle of the New Year, if everything goes according to our plans.
As far as my soloist career, with all sincerity, I can tell you that I want to wait for the responses of Parallel Worlds; if I realize by reviews like yours, to have published an album appreciated by world criticism, I will immediately be open to the idea to give a succession to this job within a couple of years at most. If I receive mostly negative criticism, I will try to improve my music, without diverging from my style, but I promise that a succession will happen … sooner or later!
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