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Well, it was the year 1998,
actually towards the end of the year,
when Kaledon were born.
Initially, it wasnít supposed to be
a major project, as I was in another band,
and I was mainly trying to work on
something different.
I used to play ìprogî before,
and perhaps it wasnít enough,
thatís why with Kaledon
I wanted to do something more clear-cut,
what we have actually been doing so far.
Obviously, the priority at the beginning was to find
the right people,
in order to start everything straightaway.
I remember, I first called
Paolo Lezziroli.
I started playing with them,
and I have been one of the makers
of this great and exciting story.
Back to 1998,
when Alex contacted me in the first place,
telling me that he had been kicked out
from "River of Change",
his previous band,
and I remember he told me:
.
And I said yes
and I was positive about it
even because
it would have been my first ìrealî experience
and I couldnít let it goÖ
I just couldnít.
My story with Kaledon
beginsÖ
Well, letís take one step back.
Basically,
when I was still at school
I used to have a friend,
whose name is Alessandro Masetti,
and he was a great metal guitarist
and together
we decided
to start playing at home,
mainly cover songs
but also to start
working on some original stuff.
Alessandro told me he had a dear friend,
who was a bass player,
and who could have been useful
for the line-up of a new band.
And this bass player was in fact Paolo.
We took it from there, and we started practising,
networking,
getting literally in tune with each other,
especially me, Alex and Tommy.
Especially because I used to play with Tommy
in another band,
and we would play some ìbadî thrash
though we werenít serious about it.
We were playing for fun, basically.
We can say that we are the three members
who have been in the band from day one.
So it was us, who decided to complete
the line-up of the band,
and I remember we read once a personal ad
of someone called Daniele Staccini,
a drummer,
and well we contacted him
and he accepted immediately.
We met on the street,
next to a coffee shop,
we explained him the situation,
what we were looking for,
and he just said that he was up to it,
that power metal was his music,
Stratovarious, Gamma Ray,
and Savatage were, indeed, among his favourite bands...
SoÖ he was exactly the person we were looking for.
And then we met at the recording studio,
and we listened to Daniele playing,
and Daniele was good.
Considering our priorities at that time,
he was the right person.
It was then four of us, and we thought
we could keep going on,
we were alright,
but obviously we needed a singer.
Actually we had few problems for the singerÖ
I mean, it took some time
before finding someone, say, permanent.
Yes, and I remember that we had
Alessandro Penta for few months,
then even a woman,
Roberta Della Casa,
who played with us,
but even her only for few months.
Then immediately,
on January 1999
we entered this competition, "Emergenza Rock",
it was a music competition
wherein new bands had to perform live to an audience
and then there was
the voting, and the bands with more votes
would have continued playing.
It worked in this way:
who sold more tickets continued in the competition.
Because it brought more money to the organisersÖ
Anyway, we decided to enter the competition,
and it was our very first gig.
It was the 24th of January, 1999
but unfortunately Alessandro Penta
didnít show up,
because Alessandro
was ten years older than us, and
he was working already,
and I remember that he worked as TV cameraman
and there was a last-minute
job for him
which he couldnít possibly turn down.
And so we went on stage
without the singer.
And our performance was instrumental.
Then, later on, a friend of Tommy
introduced us to Anthony Drago.
I met Kaledon
after I came back from Los Angeles,
towards the end of the 90s,
through a friend, Giorgio Amendolara,
a musician.
I was in a shop
and that day I met Alex Mele,
who explained to me his project,
his new band
that he had formed just recently,
and he also told me that he had left ìRiver of Changeî,
another band which I knew.
So Alex involved me in this project.
And the whole thing was very important for me,
even because I had just returned from Los Angeles
and I was going through a sort of stagnation period.
It is thanks to Kaledon if I went back to music,
and going on successfully.
And the first phase was actually very positive,
we changed the drummer immediately,
because unfortunately there were ìtiming problemsî
and we contacted Dario Sacco,
a good drummer renowned in town.
Me and Anthony met
at the Gamma Ray concert,
and he told me that he was singing in a band,
and they needed a drummer.
I told him I was playing already for other bands,
I also had my own band, "Cheope",
but he just said:
>
So we metÖ
We started practising with him
and we were more serious, more convinced.
We got to be the opening act of Ronnie James Dio
June 16th 2000
Well, a great day to remember here in Rome,
because,
besides the very interesting situation,
the audience responded in a very positive way,
and still today I get goose flesh just to think about it,
because it was a really good concert.
I shared great moments with Anthony,
because he was the one
always messing around in the studio,
as usual...
here in Rome we say heís a ìbrawlerî
After that concert we haveÖ
I recorded with them the last demo, ìGod says Yesî,
which included other three songs, I think,
which we started spreading around,
but after this demo
we started encountering some troubles, I mean,
Dario Sacco decided to leave the band,
because, well, technically
he had never been a stable member of the band,
because he was already playing with ìCheopeî
and obviously he wasnít at ease,
or maybe he wanted to spend more time with ìCheopeî,
anyway, as a matter of fact, he left.
And we contacted another old acquaintance,
our current drummer, David Folchitto.
I got a text message...
it was.. a summer day...
I was hanging out with my friends in Via del Corso, in Rome
and I got this text from Alex...
and the usual promises,
there on paper:
And initially I took things lightlyÖ
I said:
>
in the end, a little bit of power metal, at that timeÖ
I was playing only in one band,
say, I had plenty of time.
Ad thatís what happened,
because basically
we started advertising heavily our demo,
in order to get the first contract with a record label
and so other problems...
Many record companies replied to the....
well I call him ìthe bossî
but itís "the King" Alex Mele,
Many record companies replied that my voice
was too ìrock-styleî, too much Paul DiAnno style
too much David Lee Roth, style
and rightly so, they were looking more for a Kiske style,
more power metal.
Hence, my decision to leave Kaledon,
a quite difficult decision
as we also had our fights,
as proper rock bands do.
I was a bit upset,
because I truly believed in this project,
but Kaledon have been having a great career afterwards,
with this singer,
and I was absolutely happy for this.
After Anthonyís story,
letís move directly to speak about
the singer who has been with us for seven years.
Meanwhile, "River Of Change",
Alexís former band,
with Claudio Conti as lead singer,
well they had, basicallyÖ
they kicked out Claudio Conti too,
or wellÖ actually, he was the one who left.
So, considering that we liked Claudioís voice,
we decided to contact him,
and Claudio obviously agreed immediately.
And I was very happy, I listened to their demo,
I really liked their music,
and I joined the group immediately.
Basically, with this new line-up,
which has been, actually, the more lasting so far,
well, we changed the old demo,
we took out Anthonyís voice,
and put Claudio Contiís voice instead.
And it was with this new demo
that we got out first contract with a record company,
the Northwind Records.
Why
this contract:
Northwind Records was looking for various bands,
for a tribute to Manowar,
hence, after Claudioís arrival
we started looking for a keyboards player.
We did the same thing as for the drummer before,
adverts on magazines,
ads left on notice-boards in the shops,
and then Daniele contacted us.
I was looking for a band
more or less like Kaledon,
basically into power metal.
I replied to an ad, which I found
in a music store,
precisely, a music store in San Lorenzo, in Rome.
I was there with a friend
only to buy some records,
and I just started checking the ads on the noticeboard
and found this ad by Alex: that a band
named "Kaledon" was looking for a keyboards player.
As I was looking for a band at that time.
I decided
to call Alex.
We talked and we agreed to meet,
to try a few songs,
because they had to record the tribute
to Manowar in quite a short time.
Hence, we tried few cover songs.
This demo and the Manowarís cover song
were fundamental to sign the contract with Northwind.
I remember the first album
as the quickest in terms of actual recording
not in terms of ìBPMî but,
in terms of
time that I needed in order to play and record the songs.
It was always good at first go,
one song after the other,
60 minutes.
I didnít ask
to be part of the Guinness Records
because Iím sure someone
has done better,
but, anyway,
Christian had more time, in this way,
to work on other aspects,
mastering, mixing,
even though I need to admit that the first album sounds likeÖ
how can I put it...
underground?
Yes...as first album
it was quite hard,
I mean, we didnít have experience in the recording studio,
it was like a new world,
hence that album was inevitably affected
a little bit
by all this.
I remember perfectly
when we used to meet at the record studio
precisely, for "Chapter 1"
we had decided to start up
with something peculiar, symphonic,
in Latin,
amazing,
I wrote the part
for all the elements of the quartet,
and we recorded the track
that didnít seem too bad,
but few weeks after, in the recording studio,
we realised that the vocals
were
a bit inaccurate
and the general outcome for the track
wasnít exactly pompous.
Hence, the day after,
both Claudio and Alex were contacting me,
asking me to write in very short time,
basically in one or two days,
a new opening track for the album.
And, hence, this is how "The Calling" came out.
In 2003 we were recording the second album,
"The King's Rescue" Chapter 2,
always at "Temple Of Noise" with Christian Ice.
The production had greatly improved,
thereby we improved greatly as well,
both in the recording studio,
and in terms of song writing,
but that album
was flawed by us being relentless,
putting too much together, and at the same time.
And this album also caused
some friction within the band,
I mean, we were working without interruption for two years
They had been two long years, indeedÖ
the first, the secondÖ one after the other,
and this led
to some problems, with David especially,
who, on January 2004,
decided to leave the band.
I didnít take part in the third album,
Jorg Michael played instead,
and it was no oneís fault, but mine,
and because of my state of mind at that time.
I had some personal problems,
and luckily everyone in the band was understanding,
it was a sort of separation without leaving
because, actually, I really never left the band.
I finished working on my parts,
creating them, and then someone else
recorded them, because of previous agreements, basically.
Then we should mention
the trip to Como,
destination "Mirage" recording studio,
where we recorded the parts for the drums
together with Jorg Michael.
And even that one was a very good experience,
especially for me,
because as bass player,
well, playing
songs with Jorg Michael as drummer,
well itís great.
We decided to make a music video,
"The New Kingdom",
we rented an ancient castle in Lazio,
and I decided
to dress in white,
for a change, instead of the usual black,
more typical of the metal-style.
But this choice was controversial
and we were heavily criticised,
at times even furiously,
there was also a parody of the video by Christian Ice,
it was just a genuine joke,
but with internet, You Tube,
and its worldwide diffusion,
well, basically
from a genuine and innocent joke,
it became something rather bad taste,
which, on the one hand, seemed to penalize us,
quite a lot,
because we stopped playing live
this song for almost two years,
perhaps we played it only on rare occasions,
but, on the other hand, it was still publicity, though negative
the name of the band was spreading around.
So, we changed recording studio and went to Peppe Orlando.
Kaledonís first experience, here, at the "Outer Sound"
was for them something different.
They were used to record
albums quite quickly,
without paying much attention
to detail, perhaps.
Here, instead, I try to work on
precision, and the guys perhaps found
themselves facing a different reality, and hence
worked on the tracks in a more meticulous way,
focusing on details,
making and re-making all parts many times,
as to make sure that everything would come out with
the right density, the right sound.
This thing,
I think, has been very useful for them,
because they have well improved in terms of song writing.
Then, as they wanted to change
their manager,
they contacted me,
we met,
we checked upon the things that could have been done,
there were many
many positive things,
We could improve
on all levels,
and, hence, we started this adventure.
After the third album,
we kept choosing always
Giuseppeís "Outer Sound Studios" to record,
because we were perfectly happy there,
and, hence, the fourth album,
"Twilight Of The Gods",
was recorded there.
We started immediately,
and after the criticism that encouraged us,
anyway, my English pronunciation had improved,
and our songs were much more fruitfulÖ
We started working on the fourth chapter,
but
we also started having some problems
with our old record company, the Northwind,
but it was still a good period,
though a bit turbulent.
Thus, we got to recording
in 2006
and while recording the fourth chapter,
we were looking,
almost anxiously, for a new record company,
and, in fact, the fourth chapter
was delayed.
We recorded it much earlier
than the period it actually came out.
Obviously between the third and the fourth chapter,
we were doing some concerts for publicity,
but we had stopped for some time,
we shot another music video,
and even that one
was better produced,
because we had the help
from a film director,
though this effort too passed unnoticed,
it was a bit anonymous,
and again,
while recording the fourth chapter
we were trying to change record company,
and we made it, eventually.
And we chose the "Hellion Record",
a German company
as far as distribution in Europe is concerned.
This album made us play live
much more,
I mean, we were touring in various places,
we played at the ìAgglutinationî with Gamma Ray,
in Germany... well, we were touring around,
but during this period
new problems emerged.
there were problems with Claudio
different characters,
maybe he was changing his way of seeing,
not in terms of music,
but maybe he wasnít into 'heavy metal that much,
as type of music,
I donít know... he was obviously tiredÖ
hence, even within the band
many problems emerged,
and I remember, in fact, that there was friction,
perhaps more than that,
but I think itís normal, in the end,
when thereís a fight
the actual confrontation is the worst one,
and things just got dismantled
towards the end of 2007.
There have been quite big changes,
even because
of the actual change within the band
with Claudioís departure.
Claudio Conti was the
second official
singer
of the band,
and his vocal style was genuinely power metal,
but at a certain point Alex Mele
opted for a change in the musical approach
of the band.
And the band got a bit closer
to a sort of hard rock music
of the ë70s and ë80s.
This made obvious
that the band could not have anymore
a singer like Claudio,
hence the change
with Marco Palazzi.
I met the Kaledon on January 2007,
I had the honour of opening their concert
during the release of Chapter 4.
I had the opportunity of meeting them,
become friends,
and during the change of the line-up,
I was contacted together with other people,
for an audition,
and happily they chose me.
Marco was for us the right choice,
especially for the new album, Chapter 5,
which is more hard rock,
compared with the other ones,
especially because the band
ìgot fed upî, and as Chapter 4
was for us the power metal album par excellence,
in our opinion obviously,
we didnít want to make a fifth album which was the same
and we, hence, plunged into something different.
During the recording of Chapter 5 I had
the possibility of working with
Mister Giuseppe Orlando,
whom I have heard about for other works,
and I need to say,
and I experienced directly
what I had been told, hence
utmost fussiness,
but also, well...
something that is a reward for the musicianís work too.
And we started playing live with Marco
and in those concerts people
noticed that Marco was completely different from Claudio
and we started receiving compliments
for his voice,
positive reviews,
even in Italy, something we didnít expect.
Letís go the ìlive dimensionî
the atmosphere of a Kaledon concert
what to say...
how to describe it...
Six nuts on the same stage.
Immediately after, actually...
I think while we were still in studio
working on the new album,
with Daniele,
the keyboards player,
we thought,
actually he rather came up with the idea
or organising this concert / event
for the tenth anniversary of the band.
The tenth anniversary of Kaledon
has been a fantastic experience
and also a great idea
come out just for fun, initially,
on my and Alexís part.
We were chatting on the internet, I still remember the day
and seeing
that Alex had updated the website with new pictures,
with previous members
of the band
just for fun I told him:
and I told Alex:
.
and letís say, it went in this way.
It was at "Stazione Birra", we had there
the tenth anniversary,
in Rome, last October.
And, in this occasion, there was also, letís say,
Marco Palazziís official debut,
because we were mainly recording
at that time... while the concerts were
basically
on small scale.
It was a great evening at "Stazione Birra".
The best thing
of this tenth anniversary,
at least for me, has been to be able
to play
for the first time with Anthony Drago.
When I got some time ago
Alexís phone call,
inviting me to Kaledonís tenth anniversary...
And after seven years,
it was amazing for me
getting reunited,
being able to close this circle,
and I was very happy that
they contacted me for this event for Emergency,
with so many people, such a good energy,
to go back on stage with them,
because it was real great.
For the tenth anniversary
there was a very nice coming back,
the coming back of Anthony Drago,
creating a very nice atmosphere
and personally I was glad,
we practised a bit together,
we sang side by side,
and I realised that he is a singer with verve,
with very powerful energy,
and for this,
heís really won my respect,
honestly, in such a short time,
I took to him at once.
Iím sorry that Claudio Conti could not
take part,
because surely we would have come up
with something very nice and peculiar,
with three voices
with different ranges
different tone-colours,
and it would definitely have been something more powerful
for the audience,
but anyway, there will be certainly another occasion,
probably in ten years.
The funny thing is that because of work
I couldnít be at the concert,
but I still wanted to leave a mark,
so
I printed out some postcards with pictures,
in this way,
without asking, nothing.
When we got them
the guys liked them.
The sales of the postcards during the concert
went well almost like the sale of the albums,
the postcard has become the symbol
of the tenth-anniversary concert.
When Alex decided
to make a DVD
of this concert,
we worked on their first DVD live,
taken in occasion of their tenth anniversary,
and I followed them live,
behind the mixer.
I was in charge of the recording,
working on the mixing here in studio,
on the mixing of the live concert here in studio,
and I need to say with excellent results,
because it was a great performance.
The shooting itself was technically exemplary,
and we were obviously happy
of doing this live concert,
even because
it doesnít happen every day, I mean, mixing a live concert
even work-wise
it was very enjoyable.
Afterwards, always...
me and Alex worked on
a quite complex idea,
in order to produce a final DVD
gathering together almost everyone,
all the stages
of our band
from the beginning, from 1998
up to now,
hence, well...
ten years after, in fact.
And I think this concert is really
a new starting point for the band,
a band that has already many projects for the future.
There will be a sixth album
shortly,
and so
weíre still working,
but I see this stage, of the tenth anniversary,
as a landmark for the story of the band,
to start again from here,
being aware of what has been done so far,
which I think itís not ìthat littleî
and, hence, I think, that
you will still hear talking about us, often.