réalisée le 17 mai 2006 par téléphone. Retour à la version traduite en français.

Galathrandir : Buongiorno ! Come sta ?
Luca Turilli : Hello ! Fine, how are you doing ?

Great ! How were those two weeks of promo ?
Super! Quite full of stress though. I had to move from Germany to Paris.... And a lot of interviews everyday, 6 or 7 interviews per day! You can imagine all that?

Aren't you too much bored to answer to so much interviews ?
Not really and that is very strange because I speak too much. You know how are the italians, they speak a lot!

Yeah, French too you know! (laughs)
(laughs)

I saw that your two albums have already received a great welcoming from the journalists !
Yeah this is fantastic because for sure, until now, these are the best critics I've collected since my first solo album.

Personally, I think that it is due to innovation...
Absolutely...and the particular thing is that the better critics I received are from people who like the old stuff.
Some journalists who listen to modern metal did great reviews.
Some people from other styles were great too. It's important for me because that was quite a risk.
Anyway, my second solo was released 5 years ago, and, for sure, the music that I compose now can be definitly a bit different (laughs), and in some way more modern.

And this is great to innovate !
Absolutely, with Rhapsody our style has evolved, and if nobody had innovated, the metal scene would be the same for everybody! (laughs)

How did you get this idea to create a new band?
It was very important for me because, you know, there's this saga with rhapsody and the music that you compose has to be really connected to this saga. There's this kind of limitation. And of course we can make a lot more things, but we have to stay in this Lord of the Rings' world. So for me it was important as I feel more like a composer than a guitar player or a keyboard player. And for me it's also very important to compose, compose and composing every day, to compose a lot of different songs! There were some songs that, for sure, did not fit so well with Rhapsody.

It was important to create something else, like this new band Dreamquest, where I can compose different songs sounding extremely modern. For an artist it is very important to have different possibilities to express a part of your soul. And today it's fantastic to have these 3 bands, and I can finally reach the infinite possibilities of composition.

How did you compose the Dreamquest album, because you were at the keyboards so...
At the beginning I wanted to play the guitar when I brought the demo four/five years ago, but now only three songs from this demo are on the album and I had time to decide that I would be the keyboard player, so I composed the last songs more in this direction. Songs like "Virus", "Sospiro divino", "Lost Horizons", they are really "new". They are full of keyboard parts because I knew that I wanted to play them live. And now I am composing the second album because I want to release it on the next Spring, and to be finally on stage next year.

Do you think it is normal to have this mix between classical and metal music ?
The importance for me is to always have these symphonic elements. When I was a child, there was my mother listening to these albums like Bach, Beethoven or Mozart. So I came up with this classical music. So when I started to listen to heavy metal, I immediatly liked all the bands which were trying to connect the metal with classical music. I don't really like metal which is not symphonic, this is very rare! If I had to listen to something else, it would be different styles of music. But I have always connected metal to symphony, because what is great is the contrast between the powerful parts of the guitars and this atmosphere that you can create with the violins or the orchestra. So of course, even if I created this new band which sounds really more modern and electronic, we decided, with the management, to put the word "symphonic"inside the definition of this music.

I wanted this new Luca Turilli album to sound very symphonic and very choral-like, especially because I dedicated this album to Mother Nature, which is the better way to translate the amazing landscapes of Mother Nature into music, then writing a kind of symphonic approach.

Which symphonic bands do you like in particular ?
Oh my god, there are so many ! (laughs) I always liked Symphony X, they are very good now. Then... So many ! (laughs) Okay, there are a lot of new bands with this symphonic approach, of course Nightwish which is one of my favourite, I also like Within Temptation, another band with my favourite singer.

What do you think of the link between fantasy and our real society, particularly in the lyrics of your songs ?
Let's say that in Rhapsody it is more particular because in the lyrics of the song I have to stay connected with the saga and make people understand very well what is happening because otherwise it is very difficult to explain to them. So the lyrics have to be very basic, but at the same time I use some metaphores to give more emotions inside. So it's like a moment of my daily life translated into this fantasy world. And then in Luca Turilli and Dreamquest it was totally different because I finally had the possibility to speak about something modern, so the lyrics are very different from Rhapsody. For example Luca Turilli's deals with my love for Mother Nature, and how she was able to influence my style of composition, very intimistic.

And very personal !
Absolutely, and I also used a lot of metaphores because for me it was not important to explain in a very basic and childish way what it was dealing with. So if people understand it's good but if they don't understand, anyway they can still enjoy the music (laughs). It was very important to express the words I liked within the lyrics. And in Dreamquest, each song deals with something different, so for me it was very good to use total different styles of lyrics for every different songs.

It's like opera, it narrates stories...
Yeah it is why I used the Italian language, like I already did in Rhapsody, because it fits perfectly. And I have songs in which I speak... I don't know... Like in "Dolphin's Heart" I speak about this event that happened in Italy with this dolphin that saved a little child... So I used different kinds of languages through the album.

Talking of society, do you know that there is a debate about metal because it is not really represented in the media and the radios...
It is very particular because the metal in general now contaminates every kind of music. For example in Italy, or in the USA, there are bands that ten years ago would have been labelled as metal and now are labelled as pop. It is very strange because it really seems that the metal was able to contaminate all kinds of music in the world. And this is really particular beacause I hear some heavy guitar riffs in the normal pop bands nowadays. It is very particular too for a band like Rhapsody which has always been apart and hasn't got so much commercial possibilites of course. On the other side there are bands like Nightwish wich has kinds of commercial tracks. You find their music in the modern movies so it's great for them.

It makes this music more accessible to the public.
Yes but for a band like Rhapsody it is more difficult because for example if you buy Nightwish's single then you like also the album, but if you buy "The Magic of the Wizard's Dream" and then "Symphony of Enchanted Lands Part II" then you will be a little upset ! (laugh) But Rhapsody's music is what we like to do, in that direction, if I want to become more commercial I do something like " 'Dream" so I have all the possibilities. So yes in Italy there are lots of metal in pop bands now and I'm willing to see what will happen in the future.

Because when you talk about metal to people in general they think of satanism, Marylin Manson...
Yes I think that typical metal has contaminated the pop and it seems that the real metal is only the extreme metal.

Yes and it's strange because Symphonic metal is between the two in fact... And the situation is totally different in Finland for example.
Yes it's true and for example the Prime minister knows Nightwish's songs, it's fantastic for them... But only Finland can have something like this ! Not in Italy and France fo sure ! (laughs)

Now concerning your career what are the goals that make you go on ?
Until now one of the best moments was when we received the first positive answer after we sent our demo all over Europe, and now not so much time ago when we received the positive answer from Christopher Lee, it was another fantastic magical moment!
Now there are lots of goals because we have to go on with the saga, in September/October will come out the new Rhapsody, there is the support for Manower before the end of the year, and we will be in France in 2007 again, and then I want to bring Dreamquest on stage at the summer festivals.

So you won't have much time to sleep !
(laughs) Yeah but the composers always prefer to compose than sleeping !

What could you say to the readers that are still hesitating to listen to your music ?
First of all I want to say that this is not an album for guitar players. I feel myself more like a composer than a guitar player, and my solo album is not about guitar just because I am a guitar player, like other people do. But there are still people saying "Oh I expected more solos" but this is absolutely not my intention.
And I think these two albums really represent a good testament of what my tastes are, and a kind of evolution compared to the previous albums, because I am not the kind of person who likes to compose the same thing during ten years. I listen to a lot of different music so if one day I have the idea to create five bands it would come out with five releases! (laughs)

There are some people who find that Rhapsody's last albums are too bombastic, too huge, and that they liked it more simple...
Yes but the fact is that Rhapsody became successful because of this, because of this film-score metal. And in the end this was also our trademark, so there are people who think this, and another big percentage of the population who would scream if Rhapsody was one day less bombastic, and they would hate us! (laughs) And so if we want to make something else, we can make it on solo albums.

And what would you say to the readers who don't like your music?
Buy something else ! (laughs) I don't pretend to convince people to buy all my albums, and then they hate it and use them as frisbees ! (laughs) But there is no problem, I respect the tastes of everybody. There is probably a thousand bands which I really don't like...

OK, we'll make the reviews of your 2 upcoming albums, and I'll send them to you!
Right, super! No problem!

Now I won't bother you anymore, you must have plenty of things to do... Thank you !
You don't have other questions ? Okay, it was a pleasure to speak with you !

Galathrandir : Grazie mille ! Buena Serata !
Luca Turilli : Buena serata !

Merci à Arode de Rhapsody France pour avoir rendu cette interview possible.