It was already clear back in 2018 that Kalidia soon was going to have all the way uphill and so it was! The Italian power metal band led by Nicoletta Rosellini a few months after our latest interview announced an amazing record deal with Inner Wound Recordings and the release of its second studio album, “The Frozen Throne”, that allowed the quartet to gain even more recognition outside its own country. As 2020 was supposed to be a beautiful year for the band, a completely unforeseeable obstacle has come between the band itself and its plans, which also included the release of the band’s third album; despite the struggle, a new announcement gave fans a reason to smile: in fact, the band announced the reissue of the very first record, “Lies’ Device” that soon is going to be released. We managed to exchange a few word with Nicoletta about this upcoming reissue.
Hi Nicoletta, welcome back to Femme Metal! Here we go again two years and a half after our latest interview. How are you doing?
I’m tired, just a bit stressed duo to this whole situation but I can’t complain!
Before talking about Kalidia’s latest news, I’d love to make a step back and disgress a little about the band’s latest studio album, “The Frozen Throne”, that was released in November 2018. First of all, how has the album been welcomed both by the press and those fans who were waiting for this second album of yours?
It’s been a record that brought so many changes to us. Of course it has been the first record that we’ve released through a record who believed in us, maybe even more than ourselves, and the label has promoted it very good. The outcomes have been beyond any expectation! We knew we created a very good product that, somehow, didn’t let anyone down. Indeed it was a huge step forward compared to the first record, but I have to say that even the first single has been well welcomed, especially when we’ve released the single. It has been something crazy, for real! The video became viral immediately and it gained a lot of recognition. As the videos progress, even when we released the album, both the reviews and our fans gave it a well reception and it keeps on being well received even after two years and a half, because it’s a record that gains its own streams over Spotify and it sells! We’re beyond satisfied!
If you could make an appraisal, what would you like to share after two years and a half?
I’m gonna say what I exactly feel right now, because, of course, we’ve just finished writing the third album and the comparison with “The Frozen Throne” has been quite tough, because, even after two years and a half, I consider it as a record in which I wouldn’t change a thing! In my opinion, it was a record that has all the features we were searching for and that we did want to express, so it was quite challenging to give a follow-up of such a great record!
This second album has been released right after your signing with Inner Wound Recordings. How did the cooperation with this label come to life?
Actually, as it happens more or less in every band, we sent the album to some labels, we’ve been submitted to some proposal and, despite it wasn’t the biggest one, Inner Wound was the one who offered the most compared to the others and it was clear that the label was willing to invest on us, because it really believed in our music. After two years and a half, we’re more than happy about the work that the label’s team has done, especially Emil, for real! He believed in us even more than ourselves and everyone keeps on believing! It’s very stimulating and exciting to work with people who have honesty, clearness and the will to grow together. It’s something very intriguing also for the artist!
The album brought you to perform both in Italy and abroad. How has the record been welcomed especially by the foreigner fans?
I must say that it has been really well welcomed, both the streams and the sales went really well, especially in North America and in Finland. The album has been well received particularly abroad than in Italy, because, as you know, “no one is a prophet in their own land” and indeed the record has entered some charts, like iTunes and Amazon, in its very first week. This record gave us a lot of satisfaction! The album has also entered the charts in Germany, UK, France and Finland, where it reached the first position, even if it’s indeed very simply, considering the high number of habitants and metalheads in that country. It was something nice to read but less meaningful, even if it reached the first place also in France on Amazon for what it concerns the rock and rock/metal charts. Yes, it gave us a lot of contentedness, it was really well received and even at our own gigs, people showed up, there’s always been a great turnout.
Back to the present day, Inner Wound will release soon your debut album’s reissue, “Lies’ Device”, so the question pops up itself: how come did you opt to release a more modern, or better modernized, version of this first record? Was it due to the fact that, perhaps, the label did want to re-distribute the record or are there other choices behind?
Actually, the first record went completely sold out right after the release of “The Frozen Throne”, because, of course, as soon as you publish a brand new record, you also sell a lot of your previous material! We sold everything we had in storage, right after we started posing ourselves some question. Perhaps, the thing that diversifies us from many bands is the fact that the first Kalidia album was actually the very first recording we’ve done, the one that, maybe, tons of bands or musicians did when they were around 18 yrs old with their first band. It was our very first experience, it was for anybody, because no one never composed anything original, no one has entered a studio so yeah, there was some naivety, maybe related to our inexperience or because we had no clue about what to do. “Lies’ Device” was a record that has some good idea concerning the songwriting process, but it didn’t have any novelty, it wasn’t an opus. It was indeed a very good record, but it was also very approximate! Back then I recorded all the vocals in two days only, while for “The Frozen Throne” I recorded one song a day… The approach for both the records has been very diverse! We started posing some question, asking ourselves if it was good to reissue the album, that sounded like a very awful demo, or, on the contrary, if it was okay to fix some little thing here and there. We came up with this idea already for some time but we never considered to actually do something similar. Then the lockdown came in and it has thrown a spanner in the works for so many things, from gigs to the brand new record that, actually, is ready and arranged, even if we don’t have a clue about when it’ll be recorded. For this new one, we’ve renewed the cooperation with Lars Rettkowitz from Freedom Call, he already produced the previous one and since he has his own study in Germany, for us it’s a bit impossible to reach the country and to actually record; consequently, Emil seized the opportunity and he said: “Given that you mentioned something about it, maybe we could take advantage of this lockdown in which we can’t do so much and we can try to work on the reissue”. We’ve re-recorded some part, for example we’ve recorded in our home the guitars, we’ve recorded both in the studio and at home. I would say that, at least, we’ve managed to give a very good sound to a record that, in my opinion, deserved a lot, and it was really well received by the fans. I hope that this new reformulation can be appreciated, because we didn’t overturn the record, we just gave it a more professional sound…
As I said earlier, the album has been released over seven years now. How would you compare the feedbacks you gained back then to the ones you had recently?
Mmh, I have to say that both the singles we’ve published have been actually well received, it went even better than I expected, because we’ve seized the sound, but there are the same songs in it, even if they were quite naive and “young”. The feedbacks have been extremely positive, even if I recall that when we released the album a lot of people said we were promising but we needed something more… The album reviews were always a bit “borderline”, while the audience grew little by little and surely “Lies’ Device” gave us a good starting point for the second album, which is actually the real, first production we made in a more serious way. If we started from the scratch without releasing nothing back in 2014, probably “The Frozen Throne” wouldn’t have been as successful as it is now, also because the very first video became viral – I don’t know how this happened – and we didn’t invest a thing with the sponsorship. Everything was so natural and real! This also gives a big help when you introduce yourself to any label, saying: “I did this, my video did this, I sold nth copies”. Surely the feedbacks grew and we do not regret anything, because if that record sounded like a demo surely has been important to us and for our career.
Except for the album cover and the album sound, what are the biggest differences in this new release compared to the primal version of the album?
We’ve basically re-recorded all the instruments, ‘cuz bot hour performances and the audio weren’t that good! We’ve left the original keyboard parts because, given that the first issue doesn’t exist anymore in its own physical version, we didn’t feel like outurning the whole album. We could have done a super edition with all the re-arranged, re-orchestrated songs, but honestly it wasn’t something that we wanted to do! We just wanted to give a slightly better confession to that record without upsetting it, because, you know, these changes are never particularly popular… so, expect for the keys that have been just slighty adjusted, everything has been re-recorded without any great changes! It has been mixed and mastered by Paolo Campitelli, which was our sound engineer first for some time and sometimes he gets to the stage and plays some guitar. Everything’s kept in the family.
I must say that Paolo made the record much more dynamic and interesting. “Lies’ Device” takes a new guise. We could say that this is the “best twin” of the original recording…
Exactly! This is the reason why we didn’t want to distort the record, since that the first edition won’t exist anymore, therefore this will be the only one edition of “Lies’ Device” that we’re going to sell in a physical format. We really wanted to have an audio quality suitable for current productions and concerning this matter, Paolo was certainly on the trail!
Are you happy about the final outcome?
Yes, absolutely! We cooperate together and we’ve been friends for so long, so we made everything with calmess. If there was something going wrong, we spoke openly so this was a very good way to work together, despite all the hurdles because, indeed, it wasn’t that easy to record some little thing. We’re friends, we do respect each other professionally and everything was very easy under that point of view…
The album has been anticipated by a first single, “The Lost Mariner”. Compared to its original form, this new one seems to be more gritty, more ‘easy going’. A second single, “Black Magic”, has been released recently, what kind of feedback did you get, especially from the old fans?
As a matter of fact, almost everyone has welcomed the first single very well, but I guess that, if I’m not mistaken, there has been a comment, maybe on Facebook or on Youtube, which said: “I did like the original one”. I wanted to answer “Go and pay a visit to a doctor”. Both the singles are basically the same, with the only exception that the first one sounds bad, and the second one sounds better! How can you say that the old one is better? I don’t know, but sure, “de gustibus”. Actually, in my opinion, just because we didn’t want to revolutionize anything, those who enjoyed the first edition were not completely disoriented, on the contrary, they appreciated the opportunity to hear certain songs in a quality that was a little more professional compared to a demo.
The artwork has been renewed as well and If I can make an observation, I do enjoy more the new one! Jan Yrlund put his paw into it!
I have to say that we’ve been very happy. In my opinion, the artwork of the first album was quite peculiar, because it was basically a watercolour painting that we turned into an album cover. It was something very artistic, but in retrospect we could say: “Yes, if you take a look at a music shelf, you see that some other things sell more”. These are things that you learn gradually, but honestly I have to say that we still own that watercolour painting! I think that Federico owns it, he has it at his place and it has its own appeal! This new album artwork was really suitable to the idea of rejuvenating it and making it more “modern” thanks to some vivid color that fit well, for example, to a vynil which is a bit bigger than a normal CD cover. I’ve been quite surprised, the colors are beyond amazing!
The differences are, indeed, very obvious, even if the central feature is basically the same. What can you share about it?
Yes. Yan was in touch with Emil and he had been working with him for quite some time, we never had a direct contact with him but as soon as we asked for an advice, both Emil and us had this idea of keeping the original concept, revamping it. We just gave Yan carte blanche and he did an outstanding job! Maybe we just asked for a little changes concerning the colours, but the rest was awesome! There has been a great accord because we said what we wanted, more or less, and the 95% of the work was done already after the very first draft. It’s very interesting to work with these people, because you don’t waste time and they understand perfectly your point of view and this is also very important!
Concerning the old artwork, how did you come up with that idea and how did it connect to the lyrics?
Back then, a friend of ours did all the graphic work and he put us in contact with this illustrator called Anna Cirillo, whose work is impressing… We were a young but “vintage” band, we did like a lot the drawing and I would do the same right now! Actually, there’s not a real concept behind it. What you see in the front cover is the concept of the track itself, “Lies’ Device”, which reconnects to the fact that everyone wears a mask that we get, indeed, from this device of lies. Each of us grabs a mask and he/she wears it in order to live within the society. This was the concept that we wanted back then, we wanted these unidentified characters who are ready to get their own mask, to enter in the society. This was the very first concept we had.
Back then you released that record independently, seven years after the album will be promoted by a label who trusts you. What are your own feelings about it? How do you feel like having a label who promotes your work and helps the band to get even more recognition worldwide?
As we talked about this matter at the beginning with Emil, we didn’t have the idea of releasing this reissue via Inner Wound, we did want to keep it eventually as an independent release and he would have helped us with the promotion and the distribution. In the end, as soon as we talked about it at the beginning of the year, we changed our mind and we opted to release it with the label, because it could have been impossible to release the brand new album this year. We thought of promoting it with Inner Wound also because when you publish something new through all the channels, having a label can make a change! This is also the reason why we said: “If we have to make this, let’s make it together”. For this specific reissue, Inner Wound made us a deal that, even now, I cannot realize how they can treat us so good, it’s always a great pleasure working with this label and you see the passion everyone puts in it, they believe in this! They believe in it more than us, probably because if we had to invest in this reissue, probably we wouldn’t reach this level! Being supported is so satisfying and there’s a continual communication with the label, it writes us every single day and everything it does, it always asks for a confrontation, it’s such a beautiful relationship that I would love to be as strong as it is!
Basically what should Kalidia fans expect from this reissue? Surely it will show off a brand new side of the band!
Yes! As I said earlier, this is not another album. We tried to keep the original flavour, just because it will completely replace the old edition and we didn’t want to turn it upside down. It’s a product that has a great sound and compared to other stuff, it may allow people who weren’t familiar with us to discover some track that we still play in our gigs. Perhaps people won’t be that surprised of listening to those songs without losing the focus…
Last year you’ve celebrated the band’s tenth anniversary. So far what has been the toughest obstacles and the most beautiful satisfactions you had? We already talked about this in our previous interview, but I’d love to renew the question!
What a good question! Well, let’s start from the beautiful things! The goals we’ve reached with “The Frozen Throne” made us understand that we could tell everybody our opinion and that we could have a more consistent fanbase that wasn’t formed by two or three people. We had an audience that followed us, who showed up at our gigs and who sang our songs. Surely it has been a great success under so many points of view. Currently the only obstacles we had are indeed related to the covid pandemic, that is pushing us to delay the recordings of our third album and, of course, the cancellation of all our gigs. Last year we had to play several gigs in Europe and also in Italy, from north to south, and covid pushed everything away! I consider this as an obstacle because the promotion with “The Frozen Throne” was a lack, especially abroad, because we don’t have a big agency behind our back and we kinda prefer managing our things by ourselves. Of course you’re a bit cut out from the festival, from tours and in order to have this, you shall need a huge bank account. For us 2020 should have been a great year in which we would have played a lot abroad, with beautiful contexts, but… Everything has blown away and we actually don’t even know if we will get those dates back which, indeed, have been a great loss and a stumbling block for the band’s growth.
A lot of people do know you also because of Walk In Darkness. How would you compare the creative approach of both the bands to somebody who just knows you but who would love to expand his/her own acknowledge?
As I often say, they are two opposite bands: indeed, they can coexist just because of this. Kalidia is a party band, it’s messy, and if you attended one concert of ours, you know that we’re very funny, we play a very easygoing power metal that, sometimes, is related to mythology but it sounds like an European classic power metal band. Walk In Darkness is indeed a very peculiar band, it plays a gothic metal music with so many nuances in it, which go from prog to symphonic and then again to modern metal with some growl, choirs and so on… There’s a lot going on and the themes are generally very general because Walk In Darkness is depicted with these faceless human beings, they represent the humankind itself. The way I use my voice is also very different, in Walk in Darkness my voice is more evocative, while in Kalidia is definitely more explosive. They are very different bands and for this reason they can co exist and show off two sides of myself to those who listen to me.
I know that Kalidia is now focused on the promotion of this reissue, but what will the future goals be, since there won’t be any gig at the moment…
Well, for sure as soon it will be possible, the following step will be the recording process of our third album, which is already written and arranged. We did want to release it initially last year, or at the beginning of this one, but actually this is not the proper moment to release brand new music, also because – as it happened for so many other bands who have released CDs last year – you can’t gain nothing from releasing something now. You cannot have any picture, any live review and all the things related to this area of interest. Sure, live streamings can be a valid hand concerning something, but it doesn’t create anything for the band, it doesn’t give anything to properly promote a new album. So, for sure, our following steps will be recording this brand new album, as soon as it will be possible, hoping for better times to come, so that we can plan something as well. We hope that we can do this before the end of the year in order to promote the music the best way possible, get back to gigs, we miss gigs! It’s basically a whole year that we don’t play any show and, honestly, I’m not a fan of seated metal gigs! We miss our live show dimension, the fuzz with our friends, which is also our concept, especially when we play as the headliner act! We hope that our future goals may include both these things, the record and live music!
Thanks Nicoletta, thanks for giving me this spot!
I’d love to thank all the readers for dedicating their time in the reading and I really hope that we could get back to normality soon, like seeing each other, exchanging a few chats after our performances and I would love to thank all those people who are supporting musicians right now, because it’s something we shall not take for granted! Indeed, it’s allowing many bands to stay afloat in a moment where all the earnings are less than zero and where you feel like quitting, but thanks to all those people who believe, hoping to get back to hug eath other soon!
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