Daniele Liverani is a widely known musician thanks to his participation in bands such as Empty Tremor, his rock opera Genius or his more recent adventure TWINSPIRITS. As the last chapter of the Genius saga has been released recently and also his album with TWINSPIRITS is hot, in HallOfMetal we couldn't pass up the opportunity of exchanging some words with this brilliant guitar and keyboard player of Italian origin, with the intention of updating ourselves about his life and works.

-HOM: Daniele, apart from the absolute pleasure of talking to you, we want to congratulate you for the great year you are offering to us with both the work Genius and your new adventure TWINSPIRITS.

Thank you very much, it's a pleasure also for me to have the chance to talk with you! Your web site is great and has been always supporting good music, so thanks to express interest to talk to me! I'm very gratefull to you for this.
Yeah! This year is a very busy one I have to say. The last episode of Genius ("The Final Surprise"), then my new band TWINSPIRITS first album, and let me tell you that I also have an instrumental project for Lion Music, called 'The Cosmic Year' with Virgil Donati on drums, Rufus Philpot (Planet X also) on bass and Tommy Ermolli at the guitars, with me on keyboards and the new Khymera (Frontiers Records) album that is on the way to be finished...so as you can see a lot of work!!!

-HOM: If you don't mind, we'd like to start this interview looking back at the past to know more about your beginnings in music. What can you tell us about your years of learning and then improvement till nowadays in Empty Tremor?

Well, going back to the early beginning, I started to play piano when I was a child (at 6) attending a local classical school that gave me all the theory and armonic notions, then I selfapproached guitar at 16 (1987),
applying it all the classical notions I learned from classical piano experience.
I studied hard the guitar on those early years, recording a lot of guitar instrumental demos, that were including the first steps and idea of my first guitar album "Viewpoint", and my first experimentation on prog and heavy metal.
I've been forming different bands at that time where I played locally my songs, just to give you some names I formed Otherways, Exarule, Ring Road (this one actually was a DT Cover band in the early nineties...we were really one of the first DT cover band I belive...hehe).
I've great memoirs of that times, it's been a lot of fun...there were no big expectations...it was just playing live locally and trying to be the best as possible to impress and let people having fun...
Then, in 1993 (at 22) I won a national contest as Italian best guitar player and I won a payed trip and stage at GIT school in LA. I stayed there for a period, attending lessons from many of the biggest guitar player of the scene...It was a big learning opportunity for me! It was there that I put togheter the lineup to record the my first solo project album 'Viewpoint' that would have been pubblisched only later by Elevate records in 1999.
I also studied  bass at 24  and drums at 25, I always had a great love for both classic and quality rock metal music and for all the instruments involved in it....
Even if I did many demo tapes and music projects since back in 1987, I can say that my official recording career starts back in 1997 as keyboard player and composer with the first release of my progmetal band Empty Tremor 'Apocolokyntosys', released in europe by Pick Up/Risin Sun and in Japan by Fandango records.
Then in 1999 I released by Elevate records my first solo guitar record 'Viewpoint' (recorded during GIT period 1993/1994), a sort of progressive guitar oriented instrumental project with some cool musicians like Julio Mathis at drums, Joey Vera and Ricky Wolking at bass (4 tracks each)...
Then I start the idea of Genius and there's the rest of my story that we already talked about i think...:)

-HOM: In Empty Tremor you decided to play keyboards and leave the guitar apart, Why did you decide to change?

As always has happened in my life, the interesting situation that I've found always needed a keyboard player...so that's basically what happened on Exarule (My first prog band back in 1991), in Empty Tremor, and now in Twinspirits.
It's never been a real choice, since I love playing both guitar and keyboards at the same way, but it's been more a destiny that made me find myself in situation where the talented lineups I've been always searching for during my musical path were needing a keyboard player to complete the band!

-HOM: To be sincere I have a special weakness for Empty Tremor, especially for the last two albums you released: the incredible “Eros and Thanatos” and the great “The alien inside”. What is the situation of the band these days?

I'm sorry to say that I've left the band since 6 moths ago...I really had too much things going on on my personal music, that I had to make a choice, and I decided to focus on the new projects that I'm developing at the moment like Khymera, Twinspirits and Cosmics (the project with Donati/Philpot/Ermolli).
You have to consider that I had to complete also the last episode of Genius in 2006 and really I had no more time for everything and I decided to leave Empty Tremor...but they are still alive and kicking and they recentely told me that they finisced the 4th album writing...and I hope that soon they will be able to produce it.
You know...sometimes you have to make decisions in life...and since the day has 24 hours only, I had to choose what best was suiting my personal feeling in music at the moment...you know.

-HOM: Combining it with your job in Empty Tremor, you released two albums on your own (“Viewpoint” and “Daily Trauma”), and if we are not wrong, it was then when you knew the drummer Dario Ciccioni, who has been with you in all your adventures since then. Regarding this, what has supposed in you life the fact of knowing him?

The meeting with the drummer Dario Ciccioni has been very important to me, it that has probably inspired me most of the writing of the Genius saga project, Daily Trauma, and even Twinspirits nowadays...so everything that happend after our meeting in 1998.
His drumming is so catchy and intelligent, and also very appropriate and elegant at the same time. He was an amazing young talent back in 1997...he was a 14 years old boy that was playing drums like a monster mature musician both technically and expressively!
I can say that Dario is a really strong point of referement in my musical creation path, and my life changed in someway since I had the chance to have a drummer that really could enanche my compositions as I've always wanted...and also great and special friend personally of course...you know, there's a magic that you can't explain sometimes, and we are really magic friends! :)

-HOM: In 2002 you dazzled the heavy metal community with the release of the first chapter of your rock opera Genius. How did the idea for this project come up?

The storyconcept I used for 'Genius' trilogy  was written by me many years ago. The original name of this story was 'Daily Trauma' and it's a short book that I wrote  back in 1997. I love to write fantastic stories, not tipical sword and horses fantasy concepts, I prefer pretty much psycologial and futuristic stories, I've always been fascinated by alternative reality concepts and human subconscious ...
Gradually I developed that 'Daily Trauma' little book story.
I added more details, more concepts and story events...and I started to think that it would have probably worked for some kind of music project too...So as a first natural step I composed, with the help of the great drummer gear Dario Ciccioni, some instrumental music that followed the events of the story. I  created a lot of melodies and ideas that would have been used and developed also in the later trilogy.

The result of this first step of creation on 'Daily Trauma' story was an instrumental album of 18 songs. All the songs were stricrly connected to the story , even if it was all instrumental music. I have the produced  this album with that music and I called it 'Daily Trauma'  too.
I wanted to have everything in my hands in terms of sound and so I decided to play Guitars, bass and keys. Dario Ciccioni played drums (same team situation of Genius Trilogy...)
Daily Trauma album is a sort of instrumental soundtrack idea, to be listened while listening the story that would have been inserted in the booklet. The style is heavy and modern but in many points is very various and includes many styles.. That sort of album/book has never been released and is still in my hands...I will probably release it after the trilogy, cause I don't wont to reveal the ending of the Genius trilogy story!

I've always been attracted by big classic operas of the great past composer. Infact later I tought that the 'Daily Trauma' story would have worked great also for a more complete  Rock Opera with many singers...and I started to push myself more far and started to write down a complete music and lyrics score of an opera in 3 episodes that followe the same concept,  where the character would take the voices of the singers and a narrative part would be acted by a storyteller voice over during the album...So here's how 'Genius' trilogy is borned.

I decided to call the opera 'Genius' cause 'Daily Trauma' was already the name of my book that I wrote down in 1997 and also the name of the instrumental album i already recorded.
I wanted to keep separated the 2 stuff...anyway Genius is the main character of 'Daily Trauma' and I also thought that it was a smarter name for a opera....
So basically we have a story written in 1997, an instrumental album never released recorded in 1998 and then I started in 1999 to work at a 3 album rock opera trilogy.

-HOM: In the three albums you have released under Genius, you have surrounded by the best metal voices, Was it difficult to persuade them to get involved in your work? And, something we would appreciate, Have you got any remarkable anecdote about them/or with them?

Basically I submitted my idea to all the labels of the world heavy metal scene.. Frontiers records liked the concept and the overal project planning I exposed to them.
So they offered me to work with them to build up a great Genius project giving me the possibilty of chosing the cast from a list of over 30 great singers that were already working with Frontiers...so the deal with Frontiers has been really the key that has turned this Genius project into a worldwide interest project that has been able to get very famous singers into his cast. It was a great time to deal with all those singers for the casting...probably the best part of the production!
But I also wanted to include some singers that was not in the Frontiers list, Oliver Hartmann and Danilel Gildenlow and the great Midnight were contacted by me directly.
I knew that anyone else would have singed their parts better, and so searched them and I asked them to join the cast and after having listened to the preproduction demo they accepted!
 
To have Midnight back on the scene again is a dream come true form me...and even more in reason of the fact that he sings my lyrics! He's still a great voice and interpretation like at Crimson Glory times!
Let me tell you, I was a pretty hard work to convince Midnight to even think about partecipationg, he's a very misterious person...I know that many producers and musicians have tryied to get him back at the microphone into heavy metal with no succes,and I must say that I'm very happy that I did had success in this hard job!
Initially he was very cold and distant, but as soon as he had the chance of listening to the material he changed a lot his behaviour and we started to become friends... I think that the main reason that induced him to accept the part has been the story and the lyrics that he liked very much since his first listen...I could not explain why he's never accepted to sing in other projects if it wasn't for this...
Anyway I know that he liked a lot and had a lot of fun acting Maindream character on Genius Rock Opera.

I'll give some comments of some of the singers that I've been working with trying to remember some anectode:

*Russel Allen
Well, I'm a great fan of SymphonyX music and it was a dream come true for me to work with Russell...he's an amazing singer and really  fitted the needs of the character 'Dream League Commander'. For this powerfull commander I needed a very rough voice and a very intense interpretation....so I really tryed since the beginning of the production to contact and offer to Russel this part.
I was very happy that he accepted to listen to the material and that he finally accepted my offer. I remember that he was leaving for a long tour with Symphony X and we worked hard and very fast to complete his recording befor his departure...it was a very special moment! I think that the emotion of hearing my lyrics singed with such a great power and intensity is really unique!

*Edu Falaschi
I asked to Edu to sing the song "Playing In Their Dreams" cause I needed a very melodic voice that could have express the feel of that song.
The melody of the vocal part is not easy to sing, cause it's very instrument oriented and it was born originally as a guitar melody that you can hear also in the album "Daily Trauma" in the song "Perpetual Gratitude". Both this song and "Playing In Their Dreams" song are connected to Jason Becker. In the story of the second episodes infact Genius and Twinspirit meets Jason and he will help them to find out the right way to find the little european price. It's a very moving moment where Jason can play a warm melody for the two friends, cause in the dream's world he was still able to play...like if all his fans that was continuing to dream of him playing were giving him a sort of immortality in that dreams world realm.
I remember that Edu told me that was very happy to sing that part, being fan of Jason too. He really felt this song very close to his sensibility...and he did a great interpretation very warm and melodic.

*Jeff Martin
I've always been a great fan of Racer X in the late eighties and I had a song "Valley" that in my opinion would have fit perfectly the insane and very rock voice of Jeff. I contacted him and he was very happy to hear the song.
I remember that he was very positive and accepted suddenly to sing the song and I was very emotioned to have him in the cast!
I asked him to ask Paul Gilbert if he wanted to play guitars and that song...it would be an honor for me to have Paul playing togheter with him on the song "Valley"...but he actually said to me that it was a pity cause i liked a lot my guitar playing and the solo that I recorded for that song "Valley"...so he convinced me to keep my version... he he!

*Rob Tyrant
Rob is a friend of mine, living in Italy we of course know each other personally, we started togheter with the same label Pick Up Records back in 1996, he was with Labyrinth and I with my band Empty Tremor and we were moving the first steps on international music scene.
He's an amazing voice and he has done also a very important musical show here in europe as one of the main characters (Ramses) called 'The 10 Comandaments' so he was the right person to involve in a project like Genius...

*Eric Martin
Well, what can I say.I've been learning playing guitar on the Mr.Big records and it was another dream come true to work with the great Eric Martin.
I thought at the beginning to assign to him the character Seventree and the song 4 "Valley", cause I had in my mind the great song "Colorado Bulldog", that was a similar shuffle rock tune, (even if not odd signature he he) but after we spoke a little we agreed that the song "My Dear Son" could have express bettere the potential of his great voice and sytle, and I think it's been the best choice.

*Johnny Gioeli
Johnny has been presented me by Frontier, being an artist of their roaster. He's very strong singer and the part of King Oddyger is really perfect for him. In a first time I intended to offer this part to Jorn Lande, but after listening Johnny I really thought that he was perfect for this part.

*Liv Kristine
Also for this part I was in touch with Cristina Scabbia of Lacuna Coil at the beginning, but after some other researches and demo casting I thougt that the voice of Liv Kristine was really the perfect one that I was searching for this Klepsydra character...very sweet and emotional voice.
I was a very singular situation, cause he was going to give birth to his son exactly in the days that she was recording the "To Be Free" song and it seems that his baby has waited exactly that she had finisced the song, cause he's born the day after the vocal recording sessions...
This was a very singular situation...but everything has gone well! :)

-HOM: Is it true that you have definitely closed the chapter Genius with the release of what seems to be the last part?

Yes, definitely. The Genius story is finisched and there won't be any other album of that concept. Actually it was such a huge and monumental amount of work that really kept me and my mind busy for olmost 10 years...I can ensure you that it was a lot of fun, and satisfaction but also a lot of stress to handle everything...I will be waiting some time before thinking to a such big and long time project again! :)

-HOM: Let's talk about your last musical proposal, TWINSPIRITS. The first question that comes to my mind is, Where did you find Tommy Ermolli? I think his work is very impressive in the whole album.

Tommy is a new incredible talent from Italy that I discovered back in 2002, he was only 13 but had already the maturity of an adult musicians in terms of expression and tecnique, it's been a similar metting like with Dario actually! He was performing at a local music exposition and catched my attention for his incredible playing and expressivity.
We played togheter in several combinations after that meeting and his skills has been growing constantly during these years, so I decided to give him the spot in this Khymera line up, his melodic and extremely expressive guitar sound and is incredible taste has given to the Khymera project a great gain of quality and emotions.
Now he's also in Twinspirits with me, and I'm so happy and proud to have such a great guitar player for expressing my music.
It's not excluded that in the future, when he will be more mature we'll be cowriting songs in Twinspirits...let's se what will happen!
We very similar to my musical philosophy and way of living music, he's one of the more passionate musician I've ever met...really! And you can feel it also listening to his playing!

-HOM: To avoid any doubt, what about the other members? Where do they come from?

The assembling has been a process that has taken years and basically it’s the result of all the talents that I’ve been discovering during my previous musical experiences like Genius and Khymera. Infact I’ve discovered drummer Dario Ciccioni  working with me on Genius rock opera and Tommy Ermolli for Khymera.
I discovered the Alberto Rigoni while he was playing with his Dream Theater cover band Ascra, where he demonstrated to be a great bass player.
The singer Nico was selected among a long list of demo that we got while we were seaching for the right singer….he appeared to be the perfect fit for the album in terms of power, range and expecially versatility. These 3 aspects have been the most important while selecting the singer for Twinspirits.
The core of the band is placed in about 350 Km of distance from each others except the singer that is in Denmark, but after all is only about 2.30 hours of plane….so we are near each other after all.

-HOM: What themes do you deal with in the lyrics of “The Music That Hill Heal The World”?

There are many themes in this album that are telling about problems of actuall society and way of life, war, misunderstandings, hate, and so the message of the last song of the record is a message of hope, that everything will get better, and that the music could help to heal the world from all this bad things…being a message that can unite people.
One of the main themes anyway is war, sadness of loneliness of nowadays society, low self esteem of most of the people around, but also poisitive issues like friendship and hope that everything can get better, with the help of music also….
In particular the song "Fire" is dedicated to a young soldier that died in Iraq, I think this is the more intense moment of the album….I’m very happy of how that song has come out…it’s a very sad issue, but I think it’s important to spread the message of what war is causing all over the world.

-HOM: The TWINSPIRITS album has been produced by yourself, Did you have any previous experience in this field? How was the work in the studio?

I've been producing it by myself, yes. But I have some people around my that helps me since the first Empty Tremor records at Fear Studio basically, like Gabriele Ravaglia for instance. He's been working with me in most of the records I've done, and for Twinspirits has done the mix, togheter with Simone Mularoni at Fear Studio.
So my role of producer has not been in the tecnical details, but as an overal coordinator of the production, choices about sounds and arrangements basically...

-HOM: The album was released only a few days ago, so we are not going to ask about the reaction of the people, but How has it been received by the specialized press?

I and the band are very happy about the press and media reaction about this first Twinspirits album. We already did many interviews and I found out that most of the reviews were positive. It was obviously a great satisfaction for me and the other guys, I must say that Lion Music is doing a great promotional-distributional job since the record is well distributed and visibile world wide, expecially on the web, and this is important nowadays i believe.

-HOM: It is commonly said that the real environment of the musician is the stage, so Are you planning to go on tour? Have you presented these songs on stage?

You're definitely right and that's why we hope to play as much as possible, this is also the main aim for this new line up that I've put togheter, after many years it the studio (For Genius mainly) I need some real live playing! We hope to come also in your country as soon as possible!

-HOM: We know you are a very eager artist, according to the great number of albums you have offered to us in the last years, so the next question is obligatory. Will we have any new project soon, or are you going to concentrate on TWINSPIRITS?

As I've already told you I've left Empty Tremor, It's been a difficult choice, but I had so many projects going on in my musical life lately and I just had to  decide what to do, since I had no time for everything.
I felt my collaboration with Empty Tremor was arrived at the end and that was more interested in other musical plans, and I decided  then to concentrate on my own music basically since I really like the writing process more the all the other aspects, and let the guys of Empty Tremor go on for their path...best of luck to them!
For 2007 in fact, after the last Genius episode release in February by Frontiers, and the brand new release titled 'The Music That Will Heal The World' in June by Lion Music, I have new 'very progressive' instrumental album titled “The Cosmic Year” under the moniker of COSMICS scheduled  for late 2007  winter with Lion Music, with Virgil Donati on Drums, Tommy Ermolli at the guitars, and Rufus Philpot on bass, and I am already producing another KHYMERA  album with Dennis Ward on vocals and same lineup basically, that is going to be released in the future by Frontiers records as usual... So as you can see I' like to keep me busy.
Anyway Twinspirits is a real band, and I will push this as my main project, and I hope to find the way to play live as much as possible with this.

-HOM: What kind of music do you like to listen to in your free time? Do you usually follow the progressive scene?

I don't have much time to listen to music unfortunately, but when I have, I really listen to every style of music, from classics to heaviest metal! I do follow the progressive scene of course, but I wish I had more time to listen to all the new bands that are coming out...they are so many!

-HOM: Is there any new band that attracts your attention? Taking the advantage of the fact that you are with Lion Music, I have to recognize that the debut of your label partners Awake is very interesting.

Awake are very interesting! you're right....I think they are a great surprise and a very promising band! I will be listening to their record with more attention, in the future since I've found it very interesting.

-HOM: Well I think with these questions we have enough information about you, so we're going to finish the interview giving you the opportunity of telling some words to our readers and your fans in Spain.

Thank you very much for your support, and I hope that Twinspirits music will be givig you positive and good emotions!!!

-HOM: So that's all Daniele, and as we said at the beginning, it's been a pleasure to talk to you. We are looking forward to enjoying your art on stage very soon!

Thank you very much, your support is very precious!