Interview – Temperance

After their tour was cancelled with Tarja Turunen, we were still able to catch Michele and Alessia, from Temperance, for an interview. 

What was the main inspiration and ideology for Viridian?
Soundwise, we started back where we left our “style” with “Of Jupiter and Moons”, giving even more priority to the interchange and gameplay of the three vocals, that are more than ever the power-point of Temperance. Concept-wise everything moves around the meaning that the color “Viridian” has for us. Viridian is a mixture between green and blue, and green and blue are the colours that we associate with mother earth. Trees, nature, leaves, grass are green, and green is also the color that is associated to hope. The seas and the skies are blue…so basically whatever comes from nature can somehow be related to green or blue, and Viridian is somehow the “sum-up”, the “mixture” of this two colours. We’re not talking about a concept-album, but this topics are often recalled in many sentences during the album. 

For those who may not have heard of you before, could you give us a short summary of who Temperance are and what you are about?
Temperance is a band who’s peculiarity is having not only one lead vocalist, but three lead vocalists, and the vocal harmonies are the basic element that characterize the choruses and the overall sound. In our songs you’ll find the single voice of each one of the singers being highlighted in certain moments as much as an interplay between the three voices giving life to something unique in the metal-scene. The style of the band is based on catchy and bombastic choruses, with a lot of sing-along melodies, surrounded by a modern sound with heavy bass and guitar riffing and a modern and fast drumming. We also like to pass from some electronic-influenced stuff to some really heavy/symphonic style. Last but not least, Temperance also define its sound with positiveness: we play our music to release positive energy to our listeners, so forget about any dark/gothic/negative message if you’re approaching to this band! 

What gets you pumped and excited the most; going into the studio to record or playing live shows, and why?
We are a live band. Since the very beginning of Temperance one of the main goals for all the musicians involved was to perform as much as possible in as many countries as possible and still, our dream is to reach as many places as we can performing as many gigs as we can. The stage is where we belong and in general we like to think that live music is where music really exists: this because a live show is true, direct and only live there’s a real connection between the listeners and the band. It’s a give-give relationship. This is also one of the reasons why we try to realise our albums with great efforts to make them sound as close as possible to what we are live. Even in this modern age of music, we still ord with real amps, with the least vocal tuning that the market allows, with the most analog instruments we can arrange… 

How does it feel being on the same bill as Tarja?
Having our band on the same posters is just amazing. We feel honoured and amazed. We’re talking about the Queen of symphonic metal, the one who invented this style basically. I think that every symphonic metal band should feel thankful for what Tarja did because most of the bands wouldn’t be where they are without her! Regarding the tour, well, even if the tour for now lasted only a couple of shows due to the cancellation because of the coronavirus, the environment was amazing. Everyone was kind, on the professional side everything was running smoothly and the crowd loved us in every country. 

Is there a particular city or venue that you have always wanted to play at?
We love Japan! Some of us already played there and the memories coming from those performances are just unique and amazing. Some others didn’t have this chance yet, and this is already a good reason to dream about it. Reaching Japan with the new line-up to bring there the last new albums would be a dream coming true. At the same time as said before one of the main goals of Temperance is to reach every possible country and there are places where we never played: South America, some of the European countries like Ukraine, Latvia, Denmark (and others…even countries like Israel, Tunisia, India, China are lands that we never had the chance to touch…

What’s the next big milestone for Temperance?
Through the years Temperance never really had the chance to perform in the big European festivals. The hope is that with the new deal with Napalm Records and the growth of the band we’ll finally have the chance to play our cards in this situations too. Wacken, Metaldays, Bang your Head, Hellfest, Sabaton Open Air, Graspop Metal Meeting, Metal on the Hills, Tuska Open Air, Rock Harz, Sweden Rock, Download…we never played ANY of this fests as much as all the others we didn’t mention here. Let’s keep our fingers crossed as this is a goal we really need as a band and we want to achieve! 

Do you have any advice you’d like to give your younger self that you wish you had known?
We believe that if we are here right now, it’s because of how things went in the past. If things went different, maybe we wouldn’t be where we are and we might not be the people that we are now, so it’s pointless to have regrets and to try to change the past. What we’ve done helped us to learn and to become who we are right now, so the only thing we could tell to this “younger versions of ourselves” is: just follow your ideals as you’re already doing. Nothing has to be changed or done differently. 

If the Coronavirus was a person, what would you say to them right now?
Honestly, this topic is something that is really, really disappointing right now. People are dying, for our experience the world is into the biggest crisis we’ve ever seen in our life, the hope is just that this thing will be over as soon as possible with the least deaths possible. Instead of telling what we would say to a human-version of the virus, I’d rather take the chance to invite all the readers to stay safe, respect the rules, to stay at home and be strict on this as this is the ONLY WAY we have to make this whole shit end and if even just a few break the rules…more people will die and this thing will last longer… 

~ 

We would like to thank Temperance and Metal Blade for giving us the time to answer our questions during this uncertain period, and that all members of the tour stay safe and keep the music alive. You can find Temperance online here.