Interviews: KALIAGE

On this new occasion, we have had the opportunity to interview the  Post-Metal/Progressive Metal band KALIAGE from Italy. Check out the interview and follow the band on their FACEBOOK PAGE.

1. Where did you get the idea for the band name, you planned it or came out just like that?

G: The name comes from the contraction of the phrase “age of Kalì”, a tribute to the well-known goddess of destruction. This dark age described by Hinduism cult matches perfectly with our present days: it’s the last dreadful step which brings to a total destruction required to clean all this mess up and move forward to the new golden age. We don't put our faith in any religion, we don’t need them anymore nowadays, but we totally agree with the description of our historical era.

2. Why did you want to play this genre?

D: We feel the need to utter all kinda feelings we want to show about the age of Kalì but we don't need any boundaries when we want to be as more expressive as we can. Usually we say we are a post/prog metal band but anyway we can't collocate us in these genres properly. I think there is not a specific cataloguing for our kind of metal music.

3. Did you know each other before the band was formed?

S: Partially yes. Guido, Dario and I grew up together and we started to play together in several bands before. We met Luca for the first time in the end of 2016, and after a short chat talk, we were straight away on the same page. One of us straight away.

G: At that time, I was looking for a wide-minded drummer and he was looking for a band which could give him the chance to complicate his life! "Prog at first sight".

4. Each band member favorite band?

G: Tool is the band that really changed my life. Their music is something alien, nothing in their songs can be taken for granted. Long-lasting pure innovation.

D: Nevermore, because they developed a new conception of metal: heavy, dissonant and obsessive riffs joined with elaborated and unusual vocals. In my opinion they showed to the world that a song can be extremely heavy without abuse of blast beat and fast tempo.

S: Isis über alles. They are the perfect balance between atmosphere and a brutality

L: I cannot fail to mention Chuck Schuldiner and his traveling companions in the Death project. They have ennobled forms and contents of a musical path that risked imploding in itself.

5. Who or what inspires you to write songs?

G: The world around me. I’m not a poet and I don't like poetry so much, so I just describe what I can experience the dark age with my five senses and with my clear head, I just give my point of view on a subject that I'm interested in that moment. I don't believe in precepts and tales based on faith and/or superstition; I believe in everything that can give proof of its own existence through every mean we can state real. What dwells beyond our reality has always been the reason to fight one each other, discriminate, kill and dominate, it's time to stop with all this shit.

6. Where was your last gig?

L: We played here in Varese just before the mandatory stop we needed to be total focused on the album mix and mastering. I can tell honestly, at first this album producing has been a real pain in the ass.

7. Where would you like to act?

G: We’d love to play in the closest Italian neighborhood in countries such Switzerland, Germany and Austria, then straight to the north, where the magic is in the air.

D: In these countries a brand-new underground band seems it could be more warmly welcomed than in our country, up there, people need new waves, new words, new faces. Italy is an old woman who just needs something reliable as the past glories... such a shame...

8. Whom would you like to feature with?

S: With artists who think about music like us, there is not a limited choice. Underground artists who come from metal or other scenes can be as equally genius as the big names we are used to worship.

9. Whom not?

G: There is no limit besides the trap artists, I can't find anything good in their works. This music is like a constant headache to me, nothing to share with genius artists of the real hip-hop/rap scene.

10. Any of you has ever suffered from stage fright? Any tip for beginners on how to beat that?

D: Oh, for fuck sake, yes! Every one of us suffered of this bad ill, the only cure is do exercise constantly, and after, be sure of what you want to communicate through your music.

G: When I was younger, I was always scared of the stage: I was the lead voice in a couple cover bands, and I was not able to feel comfortable in other’s words. I loved those songs, but they did not really belong to me, so I felt me constantly insecure every time I sang ones. When I started to play and sing my songs, everything is changed.

11. What bands have inspired you the most?

G: Such band as The Ocean, Isis, Tool, Death and Intronaut showed me a new way to write songs differently from the safe-and-sound rock/metal riffing. I can find everything I supposed to wish in their music, every time I listen to their works, I can find something new, particular and hidden in the magic midst of the harmony. We'd like to be one of them, boundless.

12. What's the weirdest thing a fan has ever asked you for?

G: A couple of years ago a guy got on the stage and ask us if he could become our beer tap during the show... You can only image what a mess he was going to do...

13. What do you think of your fans?

G: Our fans are smart persons who want more than a plain easy-listening sound, I think they do not want to get bored; they expect a lot from the music they choose to listen and we have to live up to their expectations. 

14. What do you think of our site?

S: Your site is plain and simple; everyone is easily able to find anything they need with no problem. I think the promotion sphere becomes always more important nowadays, a band without a great backline support risks to remain in the shadows.

15. Something add?

G: We’d love to thank you for the time you gave us. I hope everyone who listen to our music will be able to feel something wavering under his own skins every time one plays our song in his playlist. See you soon on stage! Bye.