Added by Electronic Brain | 18 December 2013

SLEEPING ROMANCE

Sleeping Romance is a new Symphonic Metal band that comes from Modena, Italy. They originally released a demo under their former name of Hybrid Resolution before line up alterations and a name change. Their debut ‘Enlighten’ has now been released and Dave Scott got the opportunity to put some questions to some of the band to find out about this new female fronted act.

I understand there is a concept behind your new album, can you explain a little about it?

Federica: I think that the main theme is the idea of growth as a man, a woman, or as human. That’s why we talk about the album as a sort of journey into our soul; from loss, fear and defeat to bravery, release and rebirth.

I don’t like to use the word favourite but is there any one track in particular you would single out?

Federico: I think every song on this album has a personal story; every track was born and grew in a different way. I think ‘Free Me’ and ‘The Promise Inside’ are the songs that represent the album in the best way. ‘Free Me’ is the second song that I wrote and it talks about an important moment from my life…oh and I love the orchestral part…it was really hard to complete it! ‘The Promise Inside’ is the first song that we completed with Federica and it signaled a new era for us. During that song you can find a classical piece of music; we have re-arranged an extract from Passacaglia by Handel!

I really like the beautiful cover; who created it and was there a special reason you choose that person?

Francesco: We absolutely love the album cover! I think it's amazing and it represents our music in the best way. We chose Felipe Machado because he is a great artist and he has made so many covers for Metal bands like Blind Guardian and Rhapsody Of Fire. He understood, in the right way, the mood of our music and he made a really beautiful cover.

Who was responsible for the technical aspects of the album such as mastering?

Federico: I recorded, mixed and produced the album. If you produce music like Symphonic Metal you need to have a clear idea about what you want and which kind of sound you are looking for. Usually you will find so many tracks with so many instruments and every one of them is important. Orchestral and Metal music are great together but you need to be sure what you are doing. After a long search for the right studio to master our album in, we chose Roberto Priori and his Pristudios. He is a great musician and great producer and he understood what we were looking for. I think he has done a great job.

How does the finished album compare to your original vision?

Federico: I had the original idea for this project in 2009 during a short period of my life when I lived in Rome. I started to write music with the idea to create Metal music that can fit with cinematic music; something that can be used for soundtracks that is majestic and powerful but also romantic and can tell you a story. When we asked Roberto Priori what he thought about ‘Enlighten’, he told us that he sees a castle on a mountain with colours of blue and dark. I think this image fits with our music; a romantic picture with dark colours.

You released ‘The Promise Inside’ at the end of October; have you any plans to make any videos to accompany it?

Federico: We are already talking about making a video clip for ‘The Promise Inside’ and I do think that we need a killer video to promote the song and the entire album in the best way possible. Now we are looking for the right director for this video and, after the tour, we’ll start working on it!

You have been touring with Theocracy through Europe? Have you any more touring plans lined up and is there any prospect of you playing in the UK?

Lorenzo: At the moment we are planning everything very slowly and gradually. So for now we will do the tour with Theocracy then we will evaluate any other chances and of course we really hope to be able to play in the UK sometime soon.

Now ‘Enlighten’ is finished what next for Sleeping Romance?

Federico: Right now we are working really hard to promote ‘Enlighten’ in the best way possible but we are already talking about the new album. We have several ideas and we need to organise them and then we can start writing again!

Lorenzo: But first we really hope you all enjoy ‘Enlighten’ and we hope and want to come to play in your beautiful country as soon as we can! Stay metal and you will be enlightened!

Federico: Hope to see you on stage soon!