Hey guys. How are you doing?

Good, thank you for asking.

You released “I Must Have Missed It” back in November. How do you feel about the release?

Great! We held a release show on November 14th at The Bog in Scranton Pa and had a great time, with a good turnout.

How much of a challenge was it to work on the album?

It was kind of a personal challenge to make everything as precise as we could, and to choose songs that all fit together well. We also had some technical challenges during he recording process, which gave us some trouble, but overall we had a lot of fun and are already looking forward to creating our next album.

How is the prog/psych scene these days in Pennsylvania?

It’s actually doing very well. Just in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre area we see many bands and venues working together to create and showcase original music.

What is your opinion about the new wave of prog bands?

We are admittedly a bit out of the loop, we feel like, with a lot of new bands. But, we are often surprised by the talent and originality, we see at shows.

Can you tell me something about your influences?

We have been influenced, over the years, by so many different artists, from the classics like The Beatles, and Zeppelin, to more local acts like And The Money Notes, and The Teeth. We think all these influences probably inadvertently show themselves through what we create.

What are you listening to these days?

Most recently we have been listening to The Extraordinaires, Father John Misty, The Eastbound and Down sound track, and The Bitter Tears to name a few.

Your five favourite records of all time?

That is a really hard question, but off the top of our heads, we’ll just say. Dark Side Of The Moon / Pink Floyd, You’re My Lover Now / The Teeth, Jam Tarts In The Jake House / The Bitter Tears, The White Album / The Beatles, Electric Lady Land / Jimi Hendrix.

Can you tell me a little bit more about the gear you used to record “I Must Have Missed It”?

We used Logic Pro 8, which we ran on an iMac, with a few condenser mics and an interface in a small studio space we built ourselves.

Besides the release of the album, are there any other plans for the future?

Of course! We’ll always be playing, recording and practicing as long as we live!

Any words for the potential new fans?

Check us out! We love every single one of our fans!

 

Follow Family Animals on Facebook here.

Australian progsters For Millennia have come up with a debut EP “Where The Ocean Ends” last July. The group from Adelaide shows a huge potential and talent on the release, and it will be really interesting to see what they come up next with. Guitarist Oliver Green introduces us to the For Millennia world.

What does the band name stand for?

It took us quite a while to decide on a band name with which we were all completely happy. We had some interesting names in the beginning, from ‘Pariah’, to ‘Silhouettes’, to ‘Redivider’, but we didn’t feel as though these adequately reflected the intentions or personality of the band and its music. ‘For Millennia’ came to fruition shortly before we began recording our first demo. Literally, it is a representative term for ‘thousand years’ or a ‘very long period of time’. It was a rare occasion in which all of us completely agreed and how we felt it could apply to what we had written and what we wanted to do in the future enabled it to stick right from that day forward. The name was also unique and had not been taken by any artist, meaning that we would be an easy band to find and contact without confusion; always a bonus!

Where did For Millennia take its roots from?

For Millennia took its roots, and came to be, from various reaches of the Adelaide Hardcore, Rock and Metal scene. Rory and Oliver knew each other through connections between their past bands and were both interested in creating a metalcore band with progressive metal influences. Oliver and Henk met each other the night before the band’s very first practise and Dominic joined the band shortly after. We interacted extremely well as both people and musicians right from the start and have continued to ever since. We knew what our goals for the future were and continued to work towards them collectively to the present day.

How would you describe the sound of For Millennia?

We like to think that we have a pretty diverse sound which appeals to different musical tastes and preferences. We have a number of fans who are into completely different styles of music and this really owes itself to the fact that we’ve played shows with many bands of different genres; from prog metal to grunge, metalcore to post-rock, heavy metal to jazz-fusion and everything in between. We take large influence from contemporary rock and metal from the 2000’s era, as well as progressive rock and metal, and even some elements of metal/hardcore and combine it into a sound which we are happy to call our own.

Tell us about your debut EP “Where the Ocean Ends.”

We believe that ‘Where The Ocean Ends’ really displays what we’ve got to offer as both individuals with different musical backgrounds and as a band of musicians. It conveys our varied stylistic approaches to writing. Each song has its own personality and we wanted each song on the release to sound like it ‘belonged’ with its counterparts. An overarching theme of the EP is of resolution, accepting the darkness which comes with the light and understanding that the good will always prevail over the bad.

How did the creative process for “Where the Ocean Ends” go?

We didn’t really adhere to a specific creative process when developing ‘Where The Ocean Ends’ as we’re a band that tends to take our time when writing material; we’re always willing to wait a little longer to write new music if it means the end result will be better. The majority of the songs on the EP came to fruition rather spontaneously through jamming with one another, but others were built from ideas that some of us had created on our own which were then brought into a full band scenario. ‘Ocean’ is a good example of this, as the foundation for the entire song, the bass component, was written by Dom prior to even joining the band and when he brought it before us we all added our individual touch to it and made it our own. We wanted to make sure the EP began and ended on a similar note, which influenced our writing of the first and last tracks ‘Freedom In Death’ and ‘Solace In Silence’ respectively. Both songs are based around a watershed experience Henk had and we believed that the use of this ‘recurring theme’ concept assisted in enabling us create a narrative for the EP.

Where do you draw your inspirations from? How does the song writing process for For Millennia go?

We tend to take inspiration from our personal favourite artists and seek to combine different stylistic approaches in a way which sounds fluid and appealing. Most of what we have written has been a result of full-band jamming and working with each others’ ideas in the moment, and we plan to continue to do this as it enables each of us to feel as though we’ve contributed equally to the song writing process rather than just playing along to one particular member’s ideas. That being said, we sometimes feel the need to mix it up and bring ideas to the table to see how they work for everyone and if they can be developed into something which suits our stylistic aims.

Which bands or musicians influenced your work at the most?

One artist that has influenced that band as a whole has been Caligula’s Horse. We played a show with them in January 2015 and since then have followed them closely, attending all of their shows here in Adelaide and seeking to attain a similar level of professionalism and maturity when it comes to musicianship and band interaction, both on and off stage. Individually, we each have different musical tastes and preferences. Henk is influenced by early 2000’s rock and Nu Metal bands such as 30 Seconds to Mars, Oliver is into more groovy and progressive stuff like Tesseract and Dom and Rory are into more contemporary and melodic death metal bands like Mutiny Within, In Flames and Darkest Hour.

Being a young band, what are your expectations from the scene?

We approach being in the band by trying not to expect anything really, as for the most part, a lot of success is based on building friendships with other bands and supporting the scene. The scene is not going to be kind to you if you expect to get everything without giving anything, so we look to support other bands as much as we can and hope that they will return the favour at some point; that’s how all bands grow. Most of the people we’ve met within the local prog scene have been very supportive of what we’re doing and it’s likely because they’ve been where we are at some point and know how tricky it can be to do things like release a debut EP or put on your own show.

As a band coming from Australia, do you find yourselves being “far” from what happens on the global progressive metal scene?

Yes and no, but only to certain degrees really. Social media makes it fairly easy to find out about and keep up to date with new and popular bands coming through the ranks in the European and North American scenes. We’ve all been to shows in the last year or so that have had some fantastic bands come across from all over the world. Even still, Australia has its fair share of outstanding prog bands that are breaking into the global prog scene and doing really well overseas at the moment. If we keep at it, who knows? If we’re incredibly lucky, maybe we’ll find ourselves eventually becoming a part of the global prog community.

What does the future hold for For Millennia?

We’re starting 2016 off by releasing a brand new single called ‘Final Taste of Bliss’ which we believe is a real step up from what we’ve written in the past. We’re launching the single on January 22nd at our first headline show with some local metal bands. We are also currently in the planning stages of shooting our first music video, which will be in support of this new song, and will likely be released shortly after. We’re also looking to write and record a new release later on in the year and we’ve already come up with some pretty interesting conceptual ideas for it. We aim to establish more friendships within our local scene and play some interstate shows for the first time. Finally, we’d like to focus on improving as musicians and as a band in order to reach the goals we have had since we began.

Stay tuned for more For Millennia news via the band’s Facebook page.

Guitarist and composer Dan Logoluso is in the studio, readying his solo album “Back From a Journey.” In the meantime, Dan had some spare time to talk with Progarchy about the release and other topics.

Hey Dan. How are you doing?

Hi Folks, I’m fine thank you. I wish you and all readers a great musical 2016!

You are currently preparing an album titled “Back From A Journey.” How do you feel about the release?

I’m excited and relaxed at the same time. I feel that this album has given me a whole new energy, sort of a musical rebirth, which is definitely a very good feeling. I do look forward to the album release but i want to work slowly, step by step in order to do all the best i can. This solo album is the first of my career under my Name, i want to center the target!

How much of a challenge was it to work on the album?

I have been working very hard for the past 14 months. During this period i have dedicated many hours composing, finding the right ideas, colors and mood. I have listened a thousand times to all of the songs, in my car, at home and even walking on the road. I had to fight with those bad days when you don’t seems to have any sort of inspiration and the album seems motionless. Other days, the writing seems to fly free and now, finally the writing is done. Now i can concentrate on the production and promotion of the album. I’m taking care of all steps meticulously, it’s hard but i hope to see the results very soon.

How is the prog scene these days in Milan?

There are several prog bands in Milan and near the city. A lot of good musicians and most are really prepared, the scene is certainly active and very interesting too!

What is your opinion about the new wave of prog bands?

The prog music, as all music genres, is always in evolution. I think that the new prog bands are working very well in many aspects, such as the sound, technique and precision, but i have difficultty finding great songs like there were in the past. It seems like the real sense of music has desappeared, the art of music must be to open your heart to the audience not to simply show your skills.

Can you tell me something about your influences?

I have grown with classic Metal groups like Iron maiden, Metallica, Pantera, Megadeth. Through the years I have listened to virtuoso artists like Steve Vai , Joe Satriani, Andy Timmons, John Petrucci and Dream Theater, Angra, Symphony-x, Mr Big, Extreme, but also classic rock like Kiss, Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix or Jazz artist like Bireli Lagrene, John Scotfield, Wes Mongomery, Charlie Parker or Flamenco guitarists like Paco De Lucia, Manuel Granado, El Camaron. Thanks to my parents, when i was young, i also listened to a lot of Italian bands and artists like Pooh, Adriano Celentano, Lucio Battisti, I nomadi , Formula 3, Mina and others.

What are you listening to these days?

At the moment, after several months of listening “Back from a Journey”, i’m listening to radio music. Not only metal or rock but also commercial music, both to relax and to assimilate new melodic ideas or different ways of songwriting.

Your five favourite records of all time?

1. Alien Love Secret (Steve Vai)
2. Images and Words (Dream Theater)
3. Rust in Peace (Megadeth)
4. Porno Graffiti (Extreme)
5. Ear X-Tacy (Andy Timmons)

Can you tell me a little bit more about the gear you use to record “Back From A Journey”?

I will certainly use my main guitar, the Esp Horizon Fr II and my Amp Blackstar Series ONE 100. I have been using them since 2010, they highlight my music approach and help me to sound natural, thinking only to the music.

Besides the release of the album, are there any other plans for the future?

At moment i’m focusing only on the release, but at the same time i’m planning a videoclip and a tour to promote the album in Italy and in other countries.

Any words for the potential new fans?

If you are searching for an emotional, dynamic, virtuoso and melodic music you must listen to “Back from a Journey”, soon my music will go down into your heart!

Follow Dan Logoluso on Facebook for future updates.