NeroArgento is a multi-instrumentalist, producer and a songwriter, but most important is a creative force of nature, his ability to bring electro into rock or metal is outstanding. With a brand new album released this year, we got the pleasure to get to know better who’s NeroArgento, so here’s our interview with Alessio Ferrero aka NeroArgento.
So, let’s start with a little introduction of you, who’s NeroArgento and how this whole project started?
Well, NeroArgento is basically a one man band, a single person that likes to find every time something new to work on. This project started few years ago, after being drummer, bassist, guitarist and vocals for several bands, I decided that the only way to be completely satisfied with my music was to create something completely alone. The band life is pretty difficult to handle, when you would like to create something completely yours… So I began to record in my studio some riffs, without a deadline and step by step… I started something concrete.
What were your main expectations when you started this ambitious project?
Since I didn’t know the direction of the project, at the beginning there weren’t main expectations, just first of all to create something completely mine.
There’s a collage of different influences I hear when listening to One Against All. Musically, who are your biggest influences?
In the last year I’ve listened a lot of electro music, every kind of. Of course in this last work my rock/metal soul crossed the electro mood of the last period, so I can tell you some names like The Prodigy, Pendulum, Die Antwoord and NIN.
It’s easy to be drawn into this whole Linkin Park re-animation meets this kind of Ministry remix style blend with electro pop tunes. Well, let’s say that’s quite hard to define your sound, how would you describe it?
Yes, definitely. Sometimes even I have some problems to find the right words, but at the end, when your product meets a lot of influences and genres we can still call it “crossover”. Crossover is not dead, it’s only changing and is an actual way to describe the crossroads of a lot of genres, more than ever.
One Against All is your new album. How was the whole recording process?
At the beginning I wanted to create the whole thing very slowly, but once I began with the first riff and the first influences, it seems that all the hidden ideas in the back of my brain magically went out so fast, so, once that I created the main sound, everything came so fast. Drums after drums, guitar after guitar, while the vocals were the last part, together with the last arrangements, they took more time to sound how I really wanted.
What is the typical songwriting process you go through to create a song?
There isn’t a standard one… Sometimes I have the whole chorus in my mind and begin with a guitar riff or a simple keyboard, while sometimes playing drums I find a good groove and record it, then I keep going with the song, instrument after instrument, I define the structure, I record vocals and at the end, the longest process. I arrange every single second of the song to get a compilated but catchy production.
Why name it One Against All?
With One Against All, I define exactly my need to make my own stuff alone, especially after several delusions by some people in the past. Music is something to share with the right people, if you haven’t the right people around and you are able to do your own stuff, do it. I told to myself “You can do everything alone, on your own, you are one against all“.
Your connection with Japan is quite huge, you have some serious hardcore fans there. How did that happen?
Yes, I’m so happy about that. It began with my first album, Three Hours Of Sun, my past label Coroner Records found a great deal with Japan and from that everything began, I have to say first of all thanks to them. While for the last record, a great label called Go With Me, that knows me since the first album released by Media Factory, contacted me directly for the new album.
What are your plans for the rest of the year?
So, this summer I will play some great shows and some dj-sets with a free download 80s style EP and I’ll shoot a couple of videos, while we are waiting for the worldwide release of One Against All!