Discover the heavy metal, industrial sounds of Stealth
HI THERE THANKS FOR ANSWERING SOME QUESTIONS FOR US.
IVAN: Hi, my pleasure
PLEASE INTRODUCE YOURSELF FOR US WHO ARE NOT FAMILIAR WITH YOU AND YOUR MUSIC AND TELL US A BIT ABOUT YOURSELF.
IVAN: I am Ivan, the main songwriter, vocalist and second guitarist of Stealth.
Soon after me and Daniele, our bassist formed the first line up of Metal Militia in spring 1997, Lorenzo (guitars) and Roberto (drums) joined us at the beginning of the following year. This has been the line up until summer 2000.
We changed our name into Stealth during spring 2000 while the original line up was still in place. Since then we had some changes in the band's lineup over the year and our new drummer Michele joined us 6 years ago.
Our band is a mixture of genres from Heavy Metal to Industrial and Nu Metal. We love experimenting with various styles but we also like maintaining a precise standard of sound.
TELL US A LITTLE BIT ABOUT YOUR NEW ALBUM OR SINGLE?
IVAN: We just released a new single called 'The Fake New(s) World' which includes two new brand songs. It is our 13th official release and the only two songs we released since our latest album 'Fight For Your Faith' was released in 2014. The songs maintain the previous album's standard but with a more updated and modern sound.
The main song is featured on the compilation 'Metal is Forged Here' released by Metallurg Music, a Ukrainian label/PR we have been collaborating with for a couple of years.
WHAT INSPIRED THE ALBUM OR SINGLE?
IVAN: Our guitarist Lorenzo wrote the lyrics of the main song. Both songs included in the new single were inspired by the world of fake news that today has the power to distort reality with often very serious consequences.
CAN YOU SUM UP THE SINGLE IN A FEW WORDS?
IVAN: I think our new single adds a new step to our band's evolution. From a style point of view, it's still us but maybe with a more rough sound. The lyrics focus on the pandemic and the misleading information of unchecked social media.
WHAT RECORD CHANGED YOUR LIFE AND WHY?
IVAN: 'Black Album' of Metallica. I listened to that album for the first time in 1994. It sounds modern today, let alone at the time. That album is one of the reasons why I started playing the guitar and later formed a band.
DO YOU HAVE A FAVOURITE MUSIC VIDEO FILMED BY YOUR BAND OR ANOTHER ARTIST?
IVAN: One of my favorite video is Metallica's 'King Nothing' even if there are a lot of Metal music videos from the 90s and 2000s that I like. My prefer of our videos is '7 Hours Under Fire'.
WHAT WOULD WE FIND YOU DOING WHEN YOU'RE NOT MAKING MUSIC?
IVAN: Working, reading books and also traveling when I can. I visited a lot of places, from Australia to South America and most of Europe and touring with the band gave me the possibility to travel a lot too. I also have a passion for astronomy. I like reading books and watching documentaries on TV about it. I would like to study the subject more extensively one day and maybe get a degree.
DO YOU GET NERVOUS PERFORMING LIVE, IF SO HOW DO YOU DEAL WITH THAT?
IVAN: Sometimes I get nervous a couple of hours before the performance. But when I hit the stage usually I forget about it and just start playing, focusing on the performance.
HOW DID YOU FORM THE BAND?
IVAN: It was having a pint of good beer more than 25 years ago. I was sitting in a pub with my actual bass player Daniele. We were in the same group of friends and we were talking about the idea of forming a Metallica cover band. Then, in a couple of months, I told him we would have played in a rock/beer festival the following August. He was shocked because there were not other members apart from the two of us at the time. In few weeks we recruited a guitarist who was a good friend of mine and Daniele's cousin at the drums. So the 3rd of August 1997 we played our first gig ever.
HOW DO YOU WRITE? - DO YOU HAVE A KEY SONGWRITER, OR DO YOU ALL WORK TOGETHER?
IVAN: I am the main songwriter and author of the band but also the other members contribute a lot in the songwriting. For example Lorenzo composed most of our latest single while Daniele is actively taking part in the band's upcoming music compositions. Usually, I start recording an idea for a track that I have in mind and then the other members add their parts. But it's not always like this. There's not a precise songwriting process, everyone gives his contribution.
About the lyrics, most of them are written by me, but sometimes Daniele and Lorenzo write something and then I fix the metrics of the lyric before recording it.
WHAT INSPIRES YOU?
IVAN: I'd say bands like Fear Factory, Machine Head, Metallica and Iron Maiden influenced our latest recordings. But we are constantly experimenting with something new. We are open to all kinds of music styles, both heavy metal and not. Daniele loves hard rock and discovering
new prog metal bands together with Lorenzo. Michele, our drummer, is a big fan of Tool and Iced Earth. And finally me, I'm more into industrial and Nu metal in general.
WHAT IS NEXT?
IVAN: We will play at Renaissance Festival in London next May our first gig after long time. We have some new projects in line and we are composing some new songs . We are about to start recording them and they should be released by the end of this year.
PLEASE TELL US ANY SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS SO WE CAN SHARE.
(official website)
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