Black Knight Symfonia is a new one on me, having been brought to my attention by one of my reviewers, Phil. I myself thought perhaps an interview with Michael Fiori, who virtually runs the Black Knight Symfonia to be a good idea, so here goes!
Hi Michael, I have been surfing to your myspace site www.myspace.com/bksymfonia to find out more about Black Knight Symfonia. Can you tell the readers of this website more about the project, it's history and current members of the band?
Hi Dave. I found BLACK KNIGHT SYMFONIA in January 2008 with a childhood friend Julien “Siegfried“ that was playing piano and keyboard. We first began playing as an instrumental band and we were adapting classical music tunes (some Bach, Beethoven etc..) into a more neoclassical and symphonic metal way. We quickly composed our own music and we wanted to add female vocals to it so we put an advertisement in March in some magazines and local music shops. Two weeks later we auditioned Anaïs (Nymphadora) and we immediately loved her powerful and pure heavy/rock voice. In June Adélaïde (Arya) was introduced to me by a mutual friend that knew that I was looking to have real operatic vocals in my music and not just fake operatic female vocals like most of actual female metal band… Adélaïde was just the perfect Operatic singer for our band because she studied operatic singing many years in the conservatory of Nice and because she is also found of metal. In July Julien left the band to focus on his job and personal life, so I decide to also play all orchestral parts and keyboards because I was already composing all the music and I’ve been playing this instruments in my past bands. The alchemy between Nymphadora, Arya and me was so evident and strong that I composed the entire album during the summer spending sometime 6 to 8 hours a day developing our own musical world. We entered the Harkam studio at the end of July for “preproduction phase” and began recording the final album version in September 2008. We finished the recording mix and mastering at the end of December 2008.
BLACK KNIGHT SYMFONIA is a three members band with the ad of Leviathan as studio drummer.
- Anaïs (Nymphadora) is our female singer (heavy/rock vocals)
- Adélaïde (Arya ) is the opera (soprano) singer
- Michaël (Saga) . I’m playing all guitars , bass , keyboards and orchestral parts and I also sing all male and Black/Death vocals.
And have you been involved in any other musical projects?
I found my first band in 1997 it was a small local heavy metal band, and then I played in a Symphonic black metal band and in a Technical Death metal band. In 2004 I quit all those bands to focus on an instrumental guitar solo project called “Excalibur”. Then I found BLACK KNIGHT SYMFONIA in January 2008. In march 2008 I was auditioned and became main composer of the international Viking folk metal band FOLKEARTH and in the end of 2008 the manager of FOLKEARTH asked me if I’d also like to become main composer of FOLKODIA band (more pagan folk like) and I accepted. So right now I am founder and composer of BLACK KNIGHT SYMFONIA and main composer of FOLKEARTH and FOLKODIA. You can hear some of my composition on “Rulers of the sea” album from FOLKEARTH that was released by Stygian Crypt productions in October 2009
Your new album 'Heavenly Chaos' seems to me to be a very ambitious project...two female singers too. Can you tell us more about the music on the cd?
Heavenly chaos is indeed an ambitious project because our goal was to create an Epic concept album melting lots of different types of vocals (female vocals, operatic vocals, male clean vocals, Black metal vocals, Death metal vocals). And I wanted BLACK KNIGHT SYMFONIA to create music across classical music, opera, epic soundtrack and Metal, focusing on bringing a strong and own personality. I must admit that I don’t like much all those female fronted metal bands … they all sound so predictable and are putting music way underneath the vocals (that aren’t even real operatic like ). The music in “Heavenly Chaos” is Dark, powerful, epic and full of emotions. I don’t think our band can be compared to any other band..
What was the studio experience like, and did recording the album give you any major headaches along the way?
We had a really good time recording at the Harkam Studio. Our sound engineer who is also founder of FAIRYLAND, really understands well our musical personality and brought is knowledge in the mixing and mastering. The mastering and mixing process was quite a stressful time lol . When you want metal parts to be really well mixed with orchestral parts and still have powerful vocals on the top of it can givers some headaches lol.
Mentioning Fairyland, Ravenheart Music's reviewer Phil has made comparisons to Rhapsody and Fairyland and gave it an impressive 9/10. What has the media reaction elsewhere been like so far regards 'Heavenly Chaos'?
We got lots of good reviews so far, and it seems that the press recognize BLACK KNIGHT SYMFONIA as a really original band that can bring the audience into new unknown territories.
And for those who have not heard your music, how would you yourself describe your music generally?
The best way to describe our music could be: DARK EPIC LYRICAL METAL. I really think that all major elements of our music are represented in those terms.
I see you are from Monaco. I always associate Monaco with the Grand Prix. Is there much of a metal music scene in the small principality?
There aren’t any big metal bands in Monaco, but some locals heavy, thrash metal or hard rock metal bands in Monaco. We are really proud to be the band that represents Monaco on the international scene.
Musically, who or what are your musical inspirations at the moment, and what/who do you listen to when you are chilling out or relaxing?
I don’t get influenced or inspired by any band. I compose music when I feel strong emotions coming from “day life”, reading, walking in the nature, watching a movie etc. When I am relaxing I listen to lots of Epic soundtracks , sometime classical music, but most of the time I listen to metal , and I really listen to any metal style (from Death metal to Black Metal to Prog metal of neoclassical metal or even instrumental guitar metal).
And what are your hobbies when not making music?
My hobbies when I’m not making music are sports (ski and basketball), traveling, taking a walk in the nature and going to the movie theater.
What band/artist would you just love to tour with and hang out with?
I’d love to hang out with Yngwie Malmsteen or Steve Vai, because they are the two virtuosos that made me want to learn to play the guitar. I don’t have any particular band that I’d love to tour with, as I said before I like some other bands music but I am not a “fan”.
What are your band's plans for the future regards touring?
We don’t have any touring plan. Our main goal is to get signed by a label that could release and promote our first album. Then depending on the support that we will get from this label we will see if the conditions to tour are good enough to make a tour or not. Playing live traditional metal show isn’t my goal with BLACK KNIGHT SYMFONIA because it just don’t fit our musical world. I saw Epica playing live with computer generated orchestral parts and it was quite boring. They performed well the metal parts but I am really used to go to classical music shows with full orchestra performance and their computer orchestral parts wasn’t bringing the right mood that you can have when you listen to their albums. BLACK KNIGHT SYMFONIA dream and ultimate goal is to make a show with a real orchestra and a choir.
And do you have any future musical ambitions?
I am now finishing the composition of our second album that will be really more Epic and symphonic and also really more metal and intense.
And to finish, is there anything you would like to say to readers of this website regards anything really :) ?
We just want to thanks every listener and fans that are sending us really nice compliment and support messages. We are really grateful for your support! We also want to thanks the Ravenheart music webzine for showing interest in our band. We are still searching for an open minded label to sign our band and release our album “HEAVENLY CHAOS” ! So if you are working in a label or know someone running or working in a record company and if you love our musical world please just contact us we will consider every proposition. Stay EPIC and METAL!
MICHAEL (Saga)
Dave Smith (Dec 12, 2009)