Stage of Reality's latest album, Digital God, explores the influence of technology and AI on human behavior, blending powerful electronic sounds with thought-provoking themes about modern society.
1. Your
new album, Digital God, marks a significant shift in your style
with more electronic sounds. What inspired this change in musical direction?
ANDREA:
Since the release of our first album we've always tried to evolve and to adapt
our sound to what we wanted to communicate. Since we've started to talk about
"tech" stuff we've felt the need to get a more "tech"
sound. We also want to experiment, we get bored of our recordings before we
release them, so as soon as we can we try to reinvent ourselves and to imagine
a new sound for our ideas.
2. Digital
God is a continuation of the story from The Breathing Machine.
What made you decide to revisit this concept 10 years later?
ANDREA:
Actually we've never abandoned the idea behind THE BREATHING MACHINES, this
band was born because of it and not the opposite, so even in our second album
you can find WAKE-UP a song which make a link between the first and the second
album talking about fake news and social media that are getting stronger in the
nowadays communication. it was 2017, things have changed a lot since then and
here we are, talking about AI and all the consequences.
3.
In Digital God, you explore themes surrounding technology becoming
a new “god” in our lives. How do you think technology and AI are influencing
human behaviour today?
ANDREA: I
think technology has always influenced our lives since the industrial
revolution. Topics have always been around how many people could loose their
jobs if industry would start to use machines, then computers and now AI. But
this is not the point at all because actually people live far better today then
in 1850, so something went good in the end and technology is part of this good.
of course the way people use technology is the point of the our concept album
and this is how it influences our lives strongly. People have started to be
slave of technology and to use it in a wrong way, especially to cheat and to
became someone they are not
4. The
album critiques ignorance and its role in making new gods, like the
"Digital God." Can you elaborate on how this theme is reflected in
your lyrics and music?
ANDREA:
exactly, ignorance is the point. People don't know how to use technology and
demand everything to it until the point they cannot live without it anymore. So
we've imagined a world where there's a Digital God who feed himself with human
souls and feelings, he takes them from human beings leaving those people empty
and unable to have feelings anymore. But actually the Digital God is the result
of human ignorance, so people wanted him, they needed him and now that he's so
powerful they cannot do anything against him. We tried to imagine this world
where only music can set human beings free again, because music it's the
universal language and because music can go everywhere without barriers and
borders.
5. With
fake news and misinformation being such prevalent topics today, how do you hope
your album will resonate with listeners on these issues?
ANDREA:
it's difficult to answer, I think that a lot of people can be offended by our
message, because they are convinced to have the knowledge, they read news from
so called alternative press and they think aliens surround us, politicians are
reptiles who feed themselves with newborns and so on.... I mean, those people
won't ever listen to our album, I don't think we can change this kind of
people, but the message remains and if more artists start to talk about it,
maybe in the future we could live in a world with a little less ignorance. Who
knows? Too naive? Maybe.
6. The
track “Five Senses” was originally released in The Breathing Machine and
now has a brand new version on this album. What changes did you make to the
song, and what does it represent in the context of Digital God?
ANDREA:
Five Senses is a track that talks about feelings and how feelings are important
in our everyday lives. Together with Save Me, Filling That Grave and Take Me Up
it represents the emotional part of our world and it's the emotional part of
the album either. We've always wanted to make a new version of this song with
Damiano on vocals, with new drums and guitars and now also with electronics and
loops. We play Five Senses live since 2014, so on each performance it becomes
even more actual and modern. It was a natural choice for us, We could have
chosen other songs from THE BREATHING MACHINES, but we really wanted a ballad
to fill the emotional space inside DIGITAL GOD.
7. Songs
like “Sick of War” and “My Inner Prison” seem to touch on deeper emotional and
societal conflicts. What message are you hoping to convey through these tracks?
ANDREA:
Sick of War talks about war and it's a sequel to Warlord from our second album
STAGE OF REALITY. It's a topic that makes us all very sensitive and I think
it's a dramatically dangerous thing to talk about. We live in Italy and we
don't know how it is to live in a war zone, we are surrounded by media talking
about it but it's always so far away from us. everybody talks about it, but
only few really understand it deeply. So, when we start to think about a new
album there's always room for talking about war. My Inner Prison was written
during Covid 19 pandemic and it's a beautiful picture of how we were feeling
those days. The mental prison is the real dangerous one, staying home because
of new sanitary rules it's not so bad if your mind is really free. A lot of
people felt in prison because actually they live in prison everyday without
even knowing and My Inner Prison depicts right this.
8. Can
you talk about your songwriting process? How did the band approach creating the
sound and narrative for Digital God?
ANDREA:
This album was written in a totally different from the previous ones. It all
started with electronic patterns, synths and pianos, then I sent the draft
tracks to the guys and everybody added his own instrument ideas. we worked like
a team but everyone was at his own home. Smart music production... LOL
9. Given
the album’s heavy focus on technology, what are your personal views on the
future of AI and its role in society? Do you see it as more of a threat or an
opportunity?
ANDREA: I
see it as a big opportunity, but when we talk about AI we don't have to imagine
filters, voice transformation, digital editing or digital music creation, we
have to understand that these tools are just machine learning, a way to teach
AI how to do things and a way to collect data. The future will be completely
different and no one can imagine it, it's always been like this.
10. The
song “Welcome on Stage” introduces the album. Can you share the idea behind
starting with this track and how it sets the tone for the rest of the record?
ANDREA:
it's the first track we've started to work on when we decided to take the
electronic direction, it was more an experiment than a real song. In the very
beginning it was even shorter, just one chorus and no verses at all. Then we
decided to make it a song, an unusual one but still a song. The final sentence
was the one who made me think about a new god. "we are immortal and strong
as a God" this is the feeling we got when we're on stage (the stage of
reality of course) and this is the way people should feel while listening to
music, the way to defeat the Digital God!
11.
After being together for over a decade, how has the band evolved, both
musically and in terms of your dynamics as a group?
ANDREA: we
are all grown up, everyone with his own businesses, lives, families, so it's no
more like ten years ago, but we are mature, musically speaking and we are smart
enough to know how to keep on rocking with the band even if it's not the main
business of our lives. What we miss most is leaving for a tour, a little bit of
on the road life together like in the past, we hope to do it again soon.
12. With
the release of Digital God, what are Stage of Reality’s future
plans? Any tours or special performances in the works?
ANDREA:
future plans should involve touring and promoting our new album, right now we
got nothing planned, it's very difficult to set a plan but we all hope to have
something exciting to do from here to next summer.
Stage of Reality – Electronic Groove Metal
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