Melodic Metal outfit TEMPERANCE released two albums during the COVID pandemic and with touring back in full swing, had the challenge of promoting two albums on one tour. On the London date of this tour, Rock Out Stand Out’s Lotty Whittingham spoke to guitarist/vocalist Marco Pastorino about the tour, choosing songs for the setlist and recording music.
Hello Marco, how are you doing today?
I’m fine, the weather is fine. Very strange for the UK honestly but the previous days, the weather was crazy.
You’re on tour, how has it been so far?
Fantastic, this is the first tour after COVID so we are very grateful to be part of this tour. I think the bill of the tour is quite cool. We have Edge Of Paradise from USA, great people and that’s the most important thing for me. The opening band Carved from Italy, they are very good friends of ours and we did some gigs in the past together. The feedback from the audience has been amazing, yesterday was the best show of the tour so far but hopefully tonight will be better.
I was going to ask where you played last night.
Darlington.
Ahh OK, there’s been some obscure towns on the list which is great. It’s usually the big cities when bands tour here from Europe.
Yes, it’s usually London, Manchester and Glasgow if we head to Scotland but we also played in Edinburgh and other cities. Tomorrow, we play in Wales for the first time.
Is there anywhere in particular you’re looking forward to playing?
Honestly for us, every place has something cool. In every country, every place and every city there is something cool. Maybe you meet somebody you have never had the chance to meet before, for example tonight I hear there some fans coming from France and other places so it’s pretty cool.
You’ve released Viridian in 2020 and Diamanti in 2021 so this tour has been promoting both albums on one tour.
Yes, and I think the setlist is quite cool. Basically, tonight we will play lots of stuff from Diamanti for sure, but also three or four songs from Viridian. As I said before, we didn’t have the chance to promote Viridian in the UK. We were supposed to play some headliner shows and four shows with Tarja in 2020 but everything was postponed so this is our second time here this year as we played in Camden in March at The Underworld which was amazing.
Since you’re promoting two albums on the same tour, was it a bit more difficult when putting together the setlist?
Not only for this reason but in general because we now have six albums, it’s quite difficult. Basically in the last year we decided to push the latest album for example in this tour and the previous gigs we did, we didn’t play any songs from the first and second album. Just because we can’t play for three hours, I would like to but it’s not possible. Now we will play six shows in a row. Also, different fans have different tastes so some might want one song to be played and another one will want another track to be played so it can be difficult.
On both Viridian and Diamanti, which songs were the most challenging to produce?
Honestly, right now Viridian is OK, the album I mean. About Diamanti, I think the longest track The Night Before The End because it’s seven minutes and there are tonnes of different things, there is a break in the middle with only me and the piano and then we put tonnes of different layers so it’s quite difficult. I don’t know if we will have a chance to play it tonight because our scheduled set time is one hour.
One of my co-editors had a question and it relates to your song Breaking The Rules Of Heavy Metal. Is there anything else you would like to break the rules of?
For sure we are a metal band, but we try to put different stuff here and there in the album. For example, in Viridian, the last track was a gospel track Catch The Dream. There isn’t a lot of metal bands with three melodic singers, tonnes of choirs and vocal layers, I think that’s our way of breaking the rules of heavy metal.
Speaking of having three melodic vocalists in the group, when it comes to recording albums and tracks, do you already have in mind who is going to sing which part or practice together to see what works?
Good question. Usually, I write ninety percent of the stuff for Temperance. From the first moment, I have in my mind the verse will be sung by Alessia [Scolletti] or this will be sung by me. The funny thing with Temperance is that when we recorded vocals, we are in the same room altogether. So, we will record all sorts of stuff and then maybe me and the others will say what we could change in the parts as they don’t fit the voice. There’s no sort of egos in doing this, the final result is the most important thing.
Which five people would you invite to a dinner party? They can be dead or alive.
These probably won’t be at the same dinner party but some heavy metal guitarist from the past or something like. The guy who discovered USA, but musical wise I would love to go to dinner with Dio, he is one of my favourite singers so far but also probably my favourite drummer Jon Bono from Led Zeppelin. I also think someone outside of the music, but I think three is enough. I would also liked to have my grandfather as I never got to meet him.
Do you have a message for your fans?
In general, music has some big problems right now. So you have to support the bands, you have to go to as much shows as you can because right now people aren’t sure about seeing shows as they maybe cancelled or postponed. However, if everyone acted like this, it will be a huge problem the music industry. You have to support as many bands as you can on tour because we’re trying to do something like it, not because of money but because it’s our real passion. It’s also a great thing to create connections with the people. If you have the chance to buy some merch, do it.
Thank you so much for talking with Rock Out Stand Out Marco.
