ALIVE is a fanastic new Italian AOR band
who sent me a demo CDR a couple of weeks ago that was quite
stunning. Musically they play pure 80s AOR/Melodic Rock (TYKETTO
style), but they sing in their own language. The band has a male
and female singer which make them even more interesting. I think
this band has a big future ahead of them, because their songs are
really catchy and very melodic. Let's hear what they have to
say...
Please introduce us
your band, when did you form ALIVE and did any of you played in
bands before ALIVE?
A-LIVE were born in 1991, but the last band’s formation is
the one dating from 1997 onwards including:
Alessandra Borri
– solist & chorus-singer
Marco Carbone – solist and chorus-singer
Massimo Zunino – electric guitar, solist and chorus-singer
Alberto Laiolo – electric guitar
Paolo Baglini – bass
Giancarlo Marotta – battery
All of us have been part of various bands before and during
A-LIVE life and particularly: Alberto has played his electric
guitar together with the following bands: Midgard (hard rock
band), Wings of Destiny (Progressive); Massimo has played
together with Hamlet (metal); Paolo with Midgard; Giancarlo with
Onirica (dark music like The Cure); Marco with Midgard, Wings of
Destiny, Alla Dino’s Band (pop/rock/fusion), Progetti
Solisti.
Can you tell us all
about your demo CD?
The CD is formed by 8 songs entirely written by the band and their common denominators are freedom, fancy of life, positiveness, hope, hard links. It is a positive record where also an human tragedy like the war in the ex-Jugoslavjan Countries (“Dritto al cuore”) may help in finding out again the most ancient values like union, love, peace. The CD contains “La donna dei sogni” (winner of two national competitions) and “La notte” which are the two most representative pieces of the whole project. Moreover, for “La notte”, we have been contacted by The Italian Ministry of Transports for an advertising spot made in order to help to prevent the Saturday nights’ Slaughters (sad Italian phenomenon). And, also even if it has never been realized, we feel proud because the Ministry has contacted us in order to listen to our song.
How can people get
a copy of the demo CD, Where are your songs on the internet, do
you have a website?
Now-a-days the CD is not an official one, therefore we have sent it for the sake of promotion, only to recording sudios (not the majors ones), magazines and radios. We are now working to our web site which will be activated in the next future (during the Summer) and thanks to this the visitors will be allowed to listen to our music through the famous MP3 format.
Your music is 80s AOR/Melodic Rock, which
bands influenced you?
All of us have a
different musical background and for this reason inside this CD
it is possible to listen to various kinds of music. The greatest
influence is given by Bon Jovi, Whitesnake, Queen, Kiss, Led
Zeppelin, AC/DC, Iron Maiden, Def Leppard,Van Halen, Toto, but,
for example, Marco listen to very different kinds of music
(American pop, black music, R&B, Acid Jazz, Fusion).
Therefore, as you can imagine, we love all kinds of music and in
our pieces everyone of us puts his naturalest feelings and the
final result is the Band A-LIVE.
How's the scene like in Italy for AOR music and are you popular in your area?
In Italy AOR music has not a wide duffusion on the market, exception made for Bands like Bon Jovi and Aerosmith (which are note AOR) who live thanks to singles and ballads. It is a pity because often you cannot find records of this kind of music performed by very good Bands as not distributed in our Country. A-LIVE are enough known in our Region (Liguria) moreover in Genova and a little bit in Piemonte, but actually we absolutely cannot state to be famous. During our concerts clubs are always complete, but this is not necessarily a symptom of celebrity. Only when our CD will be published we will realize if our music is appreciated or not and if we are considered as good musicians.
Are there any plans
for an official CD release and do you have any contacts with
record labels?
With regard to the European market, we have contacts with United Kingdom, Germany and perhaps United States. Obviously we do not want to stop here. We are open to every kind of interesting proposal, English language singing included. Our next target, which will take place during the Summer season, is to realize the video for “La notte”, but all depends on the money available, considering that up to now we autofinance ourselves. We do not deny our willingness to play abroad in order to promote ourselves and to meet our European “Brothers”.
Your band is different than most other
bands, mainly due to the fact that your band features a female
and male vocalist, something you don't see in many bands, please
tell us when you decide to do this?
We have founded our Band with two singers just to differentiate ourselves from the others, but in reality there is not a specific reason for this, but for the fact that A-LIVE are the result of a kind of fusion of two different Bands, where from one side there was Marco and on the other side there was Lina (the old singer). Due to the fact that we are united by a great friendship, in 1991 we decided to have two solist singers (which at the end are three considering that also Massimo is a solist voice). The presence of two singers gives the possibility to have a wider repertoire, built on the vocal characteristics of every singer. Moreover we boast of a repertory of 60 covers plus the record’s songs.This allows us to always change the tracks-list of our concerts.
What are the plans
for the next coming months?
What about the next
months? We will search for producers in Italy and abroad, we will
try to perform concerts, to 
write new songs and maybe to make a tour
in North Europe (ah ah ah ah ah).
Finally, do you
have anything to add to our readers?
We now that you live in a fantastic Country and we hope to have the possibility to come and see you. If you are interested to A-LIVE and you like their music, please do not hesitate in writing comments, suggestions and eventual criticism. We love the approach with people. A greeting to all the readers of Strutter Magazine. For eventual contact pls refer to: kamar@libero.it. A particular thanking to Gabor, who’s great.