PIER GONELLA 05/03/23
MM: How impatient are you waiting for the release of your new instrumental album "667" at the end of April
PIER GONELLA: Hello Seb! I'm definitely excited! The new album "Pier Gonella- 667" will be available from April 24th. Easy to find in digipack by http://www.musicart.eu/buy667worldwide.html or in digital stores by https://songwhip.com/piergonella.
When preparing an album, it's usually finished many months before its release, for the promotion it through webzines, magazines, etc. But you are satisfied with the result and would like it to be on the market immediately. I must also say that I'm very pleased with the tracks and soung production. It's an instrumental album, but it's not at all self-celebratory or demonstrative. The main guitar take the place of the singer, making melodies and chorus,it's a melodic hard rock album. The lineup is the same as the previous album "Strategy" with Peso from Necrodeath on drums and Giulio Belzer on bass.
MM: Why "667" as a title
PIER GONELLA: It's a funny story. Most of the tracks were born from my guitar ideas, but some were born from Peso's drum ideas. In the song "Floor 666" he recorded some rhythms on the "floor tom" and then told me “keep them on the computer and try to write a song over them when You are inspired”. Some months later, I let him listen to the finished song and he was very pleased and said "we know one more than the devil!" That's how 666 became 667.
MM: Will you be having a release party
PIER GONELLA: We'll actually have a presentation gig. We'll play live the new album in a nice club in Genoa (Italy) where we live on 29 april. We'll present the album and since we all work also as teachers in our music school "MusicArt," we'll have various student bands as special guests. It'll be a very fun evening.
MM: Tell us your plans for the year's festival and tour-wise for this album and what are your plans with NERCODEATH
PIER GONELLA: As "Pier Gonella," at the moment we have this gig on April 29th, another one on May 20th in a nearby club, and one in a summer festival, "Padova Metalfest," which is very well-known in Italy. Every year, the most famous Italian bands play as headliner,but we don't know this year's lineup yet because it hasn't been announced. As we did with the previous album, we'll play in a club in Rome, and then we'll see what happens. When we play live we alternate instrumental tracks with some covers with bass player Giulio as singer (Van Halen, Black Sabbath, and more). We don't have a very well-known name, so we're very happy with these few concerts. With Necrodeath, everything is much easier. The band has a very solid name, especially in Italy, and the newl album “Singin’ in The Pain” just released is collecting good feedbacks so we have several gigs in Italy between March and April, and we're closing several summer festivals.
MM: Who would be your ultimate 3 bands to go on tour with
PIER GONELLA: If we're talking about bands that I play with, I would say Necrodeath, Pier Gonella, and Mastercastle. If we're talking in general, and I could choose fantastically, I would say Slayer, ACDC, and Iron Maiden.
MM: The first concert u ever went to
PIER GONELLA: I think it was the Iron Maiden concert in Genoa in the early 90s, where they presented the album "Fear of the Dark". I don't remember if it was shortly before or after that concert that Deep Purple played in Genoa with Joe Satriani on guitar.
MM: The last concert u went to
PIER GONELLA: Lately, I haven't been to many concerts, but I remember the second-to-last "Rock The Castle" festival in Italy, where I played with Necrodeath in the afternoon and then in the evening I saw Slayer, Overkill, Phil Anselmo, and many others.
MM: If there was a heavy metal song about yourself what would it be called
PIER GONELLA: Perhaps I would simply title it "Peter Kilt," which is a sort of English translation of my name, "Pierangelo Gonella." I remember a side project when I played in Labyrinth called "Amazing Maze" where we changed our names to English, and we chose Peter Kilt as my name.
MM: Final words for your fans and our readers
PIER GONELLA: Thank so much for this interviews. I invite all readers to watch the "Pier Gonella Margarita" music video, available on YouTube starting from March 20th. And as always, I leave this link
http://www.musicart.eu/buy667worldwide.html
for all those who read my interviews where they can purchase the Pier Gonella 667 Digipack at a special price.
