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Haunting
and mysterious, refreshing and exciting, that's how we'd describe the
new album by The LoveCrave. Their new release really rocked this
office when it landed on our desks and it's just what the world of
gothic rock has been waiting for. Today
we catch up with the very beautiful and extremely talented Francesca
Chiara to find out more about the band and their music.
MM - Please,
introduce the band to our readers. Who are the members of The
LoveCrave, when was the band formed and where do you call home?
Francesca - Hey
first of all let me say thanks to England for a great welcome, we just
got to know that we are playing at Camden - London our first gig of
2007!
So The LoveCrave
was formed in year 2003 when me and Tank (guitarist) wrote a song
together. That song, which is “Can you hear me?”, had
something special within, it was the mix of all our history in music, it
was metal, dark and rock so we decided that we wanted to put together a
band of friends and start a project. We called Lakk on drums
(Tank’s best friend) and later on Simon on bass (my best friend) and
so The LoveCrave was born.
MM
- Where does the name ‘The LoveCrave’ originate from, and what does
it represent? Can you remember any of the other names that were
considered at the time?
Francesca - Originally the name was Love-C-Rave (C is 100 hundred in
roman numbers) so the meaning was The Hundredth Rave Of Love out of a
story that I wrote about a rave of vampires. It was easier to turn
it into LoveCrave which is one single word.
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MM
- How would you describe your style of music to someone who
isn’t familiar with the band and who do you see your target
audience as being?
Francesca - We consider ourselves
a rock band. We’ve got influences of all kinds, gothic, dark,
metal, electropop but basically we play rock and step on stage
wanting to scream something out! Our target audience goes
from the rebel 11 years old kid to the gothic 70 years old man
:) … let’s say we’ve got some range!
MM - Have
any of the band members performed in any other bands prior to
joining The LoveCrave?
Franscesa - Yes,
me and Tank used to have a band called The Flu, it was a new
punk gothic band and we toured a lot in Italy. We also
made a record for Sony Italy back in time. Simon played in
the Laroxx, a street metal band and Lakk had tons of bands he
played with in the past.
MM
- At
what age did you decide you wanted to be a musician/performer?
Francesca - I
was 12 when I first heard a song of KISS, I fell in love with
the harder sounds and never left them. Probably I took the
final decision when I was 16, when I had to decide if I wanted
to become a musician or a tennis player. Guess what I
chose?? J
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MM - What bands did you grow up with and how
have they helped to inspire the style of music you perform now?
Francesca - In the band we all listen
to different things but I can talk for me. I can give you a looong
list of awesome bands but probably the ones that really changed my life
were Iron Maiden, Queensryche, Nirvana, Metallica and many electronic
bands of the Eighties like Depeche Mode or Duran Duran.
MM - Your
debut album ‘The Angel And The Rain’ sounds fabulous, would you like
to tell us a little bit about each of the songs on it and any stories
behind them?
Francesca -
Wow
thanks, you know the thing, I think, that makes this album sound
“straight” and easy to listen to is the fact that every song has its
own world. We haven’t worked on the songs trying to make them
sound all the same but trying to understand the emotion of each one of
them deeply. So the album sounds like a movie with different
scenes belonging to the same environment. It would be hard to
describe each song, everyone of them has a precise emotion: the
instability of "Little Suicide", the rebellion of "Can
You Hear Me?", the eternity of "The Angel And The Rain"
or the slow loneliness of "Fading Roses" and so on till the
end.
MM - How
long did it take for this new album to be created from the initial
conception to the finished product?
Francesca - Nov
2003 we had the first idea and we went to Munich to do the final
mastering in June 2006 so it took us about 2 and a half years to finish
everything even if the songs were written very fast, in about a month
and a half.
MM - The
band are currently signed to RepoRecords for the release of this debut
album. How well do you think you fit in with the label and its
fellow bands? What was it about RepoRecords that made their offer
the most attractive deal on the table?
Francesca - You
know we are all around 30 now and we learned one thing in the years: you
have to listen to your heart also when you choose your business partners
or collaborators. That’s what we did with Repo. Since the
first phone call they did to us the guys at Repo never lied. They
told us exactly what they could do and what they couldn’t do for us.
They are working so hard that we could never complain for anything, plus
we all work together like a team and send each other tons of emails
everyday. That’s how things work out at the end I think.
MM - Do
the band have any plans to tour in support of the new album and will we
be lucky enough to see you over here in the UK some time?
Francesca - Yes
as I said before we are really excited about this upcoming gig of
January 20th in London. Camden Underworld is one of
most fascinating clubs of the world. I hope people will be curious
enough to come over to see us so that we can make a good show. We
will also do some big festivals next year and hopefully a tour …
can’t wait to be on the road!
MM - What
is the most memorable concert you have performed at and what made it
different from all the others?
Francesca - Mmm
it might sound strange but for me it was an unplugged show we did in
Milan a few time ago. It was a small club and we filled it with candles
and carpets and played our songs in acoustic, it was really
unforgettable!
MM - What
song do you enjoy playing more than any other live and why?
Francesca - Well
it’s hard to say but probably it’s “Little Suicide” since it’s
my favourite of the album, it has a magic that fills the hall.
MM - How
does the song writing process work within The LoveCrave? Is it
mainly one or two individuals, or more a team effort?
Francesca - Just
me and Tank. Usually one of us comes up with an idea and brings it to
the other. I take care of the melodies and of the lyrics, Tank
takes care of the production, but basically we collaborate for
everything until the song is finished.
MM - What
response have the band received so far from the music press and all your
fans out there?
Francesca - You
know it’s unbelievable for us, I mean we thought the press would have
been really bad to us, we were prepared to anything but it’s happening
exactly the opposite. We are in contact with so many journalists
and DJ's and they are all so nice and want to help us out. We are
receiving this help a lot more from the rest of Europe and from America
than from our home country, so it’s fantastic for us.
MM - What’s
the biggest misconception people have about you because of the music you
make?
Francesca - Since
we don’t really belong to a precise style of music and since we give
to the melody a really big space we found in some extreme metal
environments people saying that we are too pop and that my voice is not
enough powerful. I wonder why extreme metal sites want to review our
album anyway. This is what the band wants to sound so I guess it’s ok.
MM - Would
you like to tell all the readers what your website address is so they
can all check it out?
Francesca - Sure,
we’ve got two main sites: the official www.thelovecrave.com
and the MySpace page www.myspace.com/thelovecrave
where everybody can join us. We also started a street team few days ago
so everybody can help.
MM - In
3 words how would your best friend describe you?
Francesca - Ahahaha
this is a good question … mmm let’s see my best friend would say
“deep”, “ironic”, “determined” ...
MM - Tell
us one thing about yourself that most people would not know unless they
read this interview.
Francesca - Another hard
question… I bite my nails and I can’t quit!
MM - Lastly,
is there anything you would like to say to all the readers out there?
Francesca
- First of all thank you so
much J
, hope to see you at the shows and don’t forget to pass by to say
hi!!!
Pregiolla
J
(it means “cool” in Italian slang…)
Ciaoooo
Francesca
Chiara ++ |