First of all hello and thanks for having us over! Well, since the band's inception we've had three core members: Vlad Voicu on lead vocals and guitars, Tony Di Marzio on bass and Il Diverso on keyboards. The project started out between me (Vlad) and Tony wanting to put together a band that fused various genres of music like modern metal with electronica and goth rock. Shortly after we were joined by Il Diverso. The rest of the line-up has been a bit of a revolving door throughout the years as we've changed drummers and live guitarists more than once. As of now the band consists of Vlad, Tony, Il Diverso and Daniele Di Gasbarro on drums.
2. Who does the majority of the writing? Is it a group thing or does someone handle the writing duties?
We're not much of a jam session band. That seems to work for others but it was never our way. Vlad handles the majority of the writing, both music and lyrics, and then the rest of the band comes in and brings their suggestions production and sound-wise. We generally feel it gives a more cohesive feel to the songs if at least the main structure is written by the same person.
3. Where is the band based out of ? Where did you want to the band to end up? What was the dream city to have as your home base once you got out of your scene?
Right now we're based in a small town called L'Aquila about an hour's drive north-east from Rome. It's a bit of a shit hole where, as a musician, you either drink yourself stupid or you've gotta dedicate yourself 100% to your project because there's not much else to do. Most people around here tend to do the former, we prefer the latter. Ideally we'd like to have a town like Berlin or Tokyo as our home base. Both are modern and interesting towns with a very rich cultural side to them as well and both are home to a number of artists we really like. So we're working towards moving to one of those places but you never really know.
4. What is your genre? What bands do you use to explain to people what you sound like?
We've went through a number of labels from industrial metal to goth rock but honestly we don't care much for what people would call our music. These days we prefer the term 'alternative metal' because it's vague enough that you can get away with a lot of stylistic choices, haha. As for bands, well I guess we've got elements of HIM, Depeche Mode, Prodigy, and most of the nu-metal crowd like Korn or the early Linkin Park.
5. Can we buy anything from you Cd's shirts etc and where can we buy them?
Sure thing: physical copies of our debut album 'The Taint' can be ordered either through www.agogerecords.com or through our facebookpage(www.facebook.com\theNexusBand) via private message. If you prefer digital then you can grab a copy of our album off of pretty much all of the various online stores such as itunes, amazon etc. Shirts and other merch are on the way too.
6. Do you have studio time lined up anything new coming soon?
Actually we haven't booked any studio time yet but we're well into putting together material for our sophomore album. Pre-production is due around this winter so look forward to updates on our social media about the actual recording schedule coming up around early 2019.
We have actually. We've toured the UK during the last quarter of 2013 in support of our EP 'The Death of Art' which came out that same year. We didn't play with any famous bands back then although there was a really cool Welsh band, Florence Black, who have been doing pretty well for themselves lately sharing shows with Stone Sour. They played with us on a couple of nights on that tour. Also we're opening for Tiamat in St Petersburg and Moscow later this autumn. Does that count?
8. What is your favorite band? Who are the bands who influenced you?
It would be hard to narrow it down to just once since we all like very different music and come from completely different backgrounds but we've been influenced by bands such as Type 0 Negative, Tool, Korn, HIM, Prodigy, Rammstein and Dir en Grey.
9. Do you have a website? And do I have to verify that I am 18 to enter it?
Not really, we're mainly based on social media. Websites are starting to feel a little antiquated since most people nowadays hang out on Facebook or Twitter and prefer keeping all their contacts on the same platform.
10. What about your music do you want people to remember? What is the quality you want to hit people when they hit play?
The most important thing for us is the overall atmosphere and feel of the tracks. We want the general mood to stick with the listener more than anything. That and the melodic aspect of each song. We always try to make the melodies and the atmosphere take the listener on a journey into a very specific place in one's mind and soul.
11. Name a person who is integral to your band that nobody knows about , what person drives your band like they are part of the band? Who is the extra member ?
We don't know if there is somebody like that for us. We're kind of self-contained as a project and we don't have much of an entourage outside of the band. So there probably is no extra member. We each have people that we look up to and turn to for critique or advice but it's hard to choose one specific person.
12. Tell nerds like me about your live rig and equipment.
On to the fun part: For the vocals there's nothing crazy going on, just a tried and true Shure Beta58A through a TC Helicon Mic Mechanic for a tiny dash of compression and delay/reverb. The main guitars are a Gibson SG standard and a japanese Jackson Dinky loaded with EMGs (81/85), going through a Boss TU-3, a Dunlop Cry Baby wah into a Laney VH100R boosted with a Hustle Drive by Mooer with a Boss NS-2, an Electro-Harmonix Small Clone and a Hardwire DL-8 by Digitech in the Fx loop, though we're slowly switching over to a Fractal Axe Fx for the sake of convenience. On the low end, we're running an ESP J-5 and a Yamaha Myung signature 6 string through a Korg tuner, a Super Symmetry compressor and a B7K preamp by Darkglass Electronics, running a DI straight to FOH. We use Ernie Ball strings on both guitar and bass (13-72 on guitar and 50-135 on bass if we want to get super specific). All of the electronic parts are handled by a KorgRadias with a couple of samples triggered through a Korg nanoPAD2. The drum kit is a mix of Gretsch and Premier shells with Sabian, Zildjan and Meinl cymbals. The pedals are Tama and Dixon.
13.What is your musical guilty pleasure that you are ashamed of?
Hmmm... there's a lot actually. Everything from Balkan folk music to certain Italian rap music, David Hasselhoff and above all Gunther and the Sunshine Girls. There you go!
14.If you could custom build a band who would be the members?
If it could be anyone we'd have to go with Wes Borland (Limp Bizkit/Black Light Burns) on guitar, Toshiya (Dir en Grey) on bass, Tuomas Holopainen (Nightwish) on keyboards, Mike Portnoy (Dream Theater/Winery Dogs) on drums and Mike Patton (Faith No More/Peeping Tom and many more) on vocals, with the whole thing being produced by Trent Reznor (NIN). That would make for some very crazy but interesting music.
15.Message to the fans? What is it?
We would simply like to express our gratitude in being lucky enough to share our music with all of you and we look forward to seeing you guys at shows in the hopefully near future. In the meantime you can expect new music pretty soon, so follow us on our social media to stay updated on what we’re up to musically and otherwise!
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