Hi, I’m Mattia, and I play bass in Qaanaaq. I’m one of the founders of the band, the two others being my brothers Luca (keyboards) and Nicola (drums). Our inspiration comes from different genres of music, with an obvious focus on Metal and Progressive Rock. We like to mix different influences and create songs that don’t follow the classic structure: we like to evolve them and let them take different and unusual paths, following just what suits us. The other two members of the band are Enrico (vocals) and Miki (guitars), who took the place of our previous guitarist, Dario, that left the band at the end of 2017. Our style is something between Avantgarde and Doom, with definitely some Progressive rock and maybe some Death.
2. When did you decide you wanted to be in a band?
When we grew up, our parents used to listen and play music all the time, so it’s kind of in our blood! I was always interested in playing the bass, so I took some lessons and started playing by myself, then joined different bands playing different genres, just for fun. When in 2010 all of us brothers were without a band to play with, we started playing together just to see what could come out of it, and it actually worked from the first jam! So, since then, we started this project that took us well beyond our greatest expectations!
3. What is different about being a musician than you imagined?
I don’t really consider myself a musician so I don’t really know how to answer. We all play music as a passion and we dedicate to it the free time that we have, and that’s usually very limited since we all have a family and a full time job.
4. What gear do you use and why?
I play a Warwick Corvette Standard bass, with a fretless modification. Only a Warwick can both growl like a tiger and meow like a small kitten! I use a litte overdrive thanks to a custom made pedal, created by my friend Andera “DIMO” Dimolfetta, the same guy who made the fretless modification to my bass, he’s a great handyman! As an amp head I use a Behringer BX4500H UltraBass with 450watt of pure power, and then there’s a four 10’’ cone amplifier by Celestion. All this grants me great dynamics for all situations.
5. What music do you listen to that would surprise people?
Haha, I really don’t know what is more shocking: extreme metal or pop music? I have an open mind and listen to really everything without any kind of limit.
6. How do we find your music and merch to buy?
You can find our music both on physical media (CD) and on a digital format on all the main sellers and digital platforms. We don’t have any distribution channel for our merch, we just sell t-shirts at our concerts.
7. How did you get a record deal? Or do you want a record deal or are you DIY?
After recording our album, I personally spent around two months contacting via e-mail as many record label as I could and eventually we chose the offer that was more interesting. We signed a deal with Total Metal, a subsidiary of Metal Scrap Records, and we’re very happy about it, they really stood behind us a promoted us in a great way.
8. What bands do people compare your music to?
What satisfy us the most is when, after hearing us playing live, people say to us: “Wow, you’re very unique! I can hear something from this band, or something from that band, but mixed in a very original way”! Even on the reviews that we received there were very few comparison. We’re just Qaanaaq and we’re very proud of it.
9. Are you pro Spotify / streaming services ? Or do you think it hurts sales?
I could be pro or against it but that won’t change a thing. I understand why an artist that live off his music and see his income lowering can be against it. But the are also some pros: there are less people in between the artist and the listener that can take advantage of their position, so maybe a musician is more in control of his music; and also, we may be returning to music created and played just for passion, and not only artificially created to make money.
10. What’s the ultimate goal for the band?
To survive our personal commitments! Sometimes it’s really hard to find the time to jam, compose and play live in between our daily duties.
11. Will we see you tour?
Touring in the States would be a dream but we don’t have the means and the time to do that, sadly.
12. Who would you love to tour with?
Definitely with the bands we’re fan of, but the list would be too long and different for any of us, so it would be too hard to write some nome down now.
13. What is your favorite song of yours and why?
My favourite song is “Red said it was green”, because is the first that we composed and is the main reason why we continued!
14. Why should people take the time to listen to your band over the thousands of other bands?
Because they can have the chance to be amazed. You can’t really say that we’re predictable!
15. What are your favorite music websites labels podcast etc?
That’s not actually something I look for so I can’t answer this question.
16. Is imagery important to you? Do you judge albums by the cover?
No, I can’t say I judge an album by the cover. That said, choosing carefully the cover of an album is an important part of its success. At least for me, old enough to have bought CDs in a music shop.
17. If you could choose a cover song your band mates would hate what would it be?
Haha I’m actually the one who propose the most outrageous cover songs! But the first one that I proposed was selected, and you can hear the result on our album, and the second one may be done, so I should step up the game and propose something very shocking next time!
18. Is the record or live show more important?
They are both important elements for a band. By having an album or an important live show as an objective can motivate you to better yourself as a musician!
19. Name 3 people dead or alive you would want to play your music for.
Definitely Erik the Red, who discovered Greenland, since our band name derives from a remote town of that icy land! Then George A. Romero, director of the movie Zombie, since our first song of the album talks about zombies. and for last I name Neil Gaiman, a great inspiration for the lyrics written by our singer.
20. Lemmy Ozzy Dio and Rob Halford in a cage match who wins?
I think that Lemmy would have knocked out everyone, himself included hahaha!
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