Interrogation: Luca Minieri of Illogicist

It looks like the lineup of the band has changed since the recording sessions for "Polymorphism of Death", as you no longer have a bassist. What happened there, and what progress have you made on finding a replacement?
Yes, we had some problems with the lineup after the recording of "Polymorphism of Death". The other guitarist and bassist left the band due to personal problems, and it was very difficult to find new members in the town and valley where we live. Luckily we have found Diego, a very good guitarist, and last week we also got Emilio, our new bassist. The lineup is now complete.

Oh wow, I didn't know the other guitarist had quit as well. It's you and the drummer that are the core members of the band, correct? Why do you think the other members decided to quit?
Yes, the other guitarist quit because he was having some problems with his real band. The bassist quit after that due to his studies. But now the new members absolutely kick ass!

You must have been quite lucky to have found replacements that are talented enough to play your material... How did you go about locating these new players?
They live here in Aosta valley! There is not a large metal scene here, and everyone knows each other: They were looking for a band to play in together! We have been very, very lucky! It's great to play with them, and we are all good friends. I think they will make a good contribution to the new promo material (three songs again), which we will record in September.

I know you just did a live performance at the end of May. Did you just perform without a bassist, or did you have a session musician or a friend that helped out?
We weren't very lucky in that period. We were playing with another bassist, but a week before the gig our drummer Remy had to begin his military service, and it was impossible to do that performance without him.

How long will Remy's military service last, and during this time will the band have to be put on hold in some way, or will you continue to work on practicing and writing during his absence?
We were lucky again, because Remy is doing his military service here in Aosta, and we can play every evening without any problems. As I mentioned before we are working on three new songs that will be recorded in the first half of September. They're even more progressive, I think.

One of the things that I like about your demo is that you've found a way to show your influences without copying what they were doing. For instance, it's obvious from listening to the demo that your playing has been influenced by bands like Death, Atheist, Cynic, and so on. These happen to be some of my favorite bands of all time, but I still think it's a good thing that with Illogicist you are able to manipulate those influences along with your own writing styles in order to create something that isn't a carbon copy. Was this an intentional move? A lot of bands just try to copy Cynic, but no one can do that properly, you know?
Ever since Remy and I created the Illogicist project, the idea has been to play something different from the other classical European death metal bands, but we have never tried to copy or imitate other bands. The influence of American progressive death metal is strong: Chuck Schuldiner changed my approach to the guitar. Fewer virtuoso solos, more attention and focus paid to rythmical parts and song structures, the developing of a sick sound, the use of chromaticisms. Another influence for me is Ron Jarzombek and his Spastic Ink project. We have not tried to copy other bands, we just play our music and try to develop our own style, because I think that it's not a good thing to imitate other bands, and like you, I also think it's impossible to properly do that. They are/were genius!

How would you describe your approach to composing songs? What steps do you take to ensure that your playing style is something that stands on its own? I know that part of this process comes naturally to most guitar players, but what other elements are involved for you?
I play, play, and play again every day! The process of composing Illogicist songs is quite simple. I start writing down some riffs or some guitar parts, and Remy and I will try to make something good from it through improvisation, or I'll just start writing down other riffs and working on the song by recording a demo version on my PC using multi-track software. Then we listen to it together and if it's okay with everyone we start arranging the different parts. For this style, the only thing that I look for during the composing process is some sort of a sickness in what I play. I like to play sick notes, chromaticisms, etc. That's all!

You didn't include lyrics with your demo, but you have referred to the lyrical content as an expression of "frustration", further stating that together your music and lyrics should express a "dynamic and emotional vision of suffering and introspection". Talk about your lyrics, both the content and the way you approach the topics.
The lyrics are written by Remy and I. We don't like to talk about everyday events or about fantasy or something like that in our lyrics. We only try to write down the feelings and emotions that we have in mind, in a quite abstract way and without any external influence. The human mind I think is the most complex thing in this world... we don't have a problem finding our source of inspiration, heh. Talking about the "Polymorphism Of Death" songs, "Warped" is about this polymorphism of death, a sort of change in human form, but not in human mind: Life flows down from conscience to the ground, the body changes, but the mind's state, the state of a would-be god, doesn't change. It's a sort of nihilistic vision. "Visions of Decay" is about the questions that an ideal person asks himself: Questions about the sense of life and the sense of death. There is always this contrast between a man and his ideal god, a god created by man himself to become stronger, to believe in someone... to create a sense of life. "Grimaces" talks about human pains and in particular about the fear of losing control of our own bodies: A sort of separation between mind and body, soul (as the more introspective part of our mind) and flesh.

You seem to be interested in philosophy on several levels. Are you inspired by the writing of others at all, or is most of your work inspired by your own philosophies based on your personal thoughts and observations?
Sure, Remy and I like philosophy, just philosophy in general, it's like a path to reflect about life and our own lives. Our work is mainly influenced by our own ways of thinking, but our thinking process, I think, has been certainly inspired by other philosophers, in particular by Nietzsche's early ideas.

How would you describe the scene in Italy, especially for this type of technical and progressive death metal? I know there is at least one other band of this style in Italy, Esicastic, but it seems like bombastic styles of power metal are more popular there to some degree.
Personally, I don't think there is a real technical and progressive death metal scene here in Italy. I know some bands... sure, but here the scene is more focused, as you have said, on power and symphonic metal genres... a sort of fashion I think.

Aside from Illogicist and Esicastic, are there other bands of this nature in Italy that you would suggest checking out?
I don't know many bands here in Italy, simply because my influences are quite restricted to bands such as Iron Maiden and Death. I've listened to some songs by Coram Lethe, they're a good technical death metal band. Check them out! And of course I think our stuff is quite interesting.

I know that you're currently looking for a label. Has there been any interest at all based on the strength of your demo, or are you having a hard time?
Yes, we're still looking for a serious label. We're in contact with some labels, one in particular seems very interested in a deal with us. But for now we'll record the new promo, because our sound is becoming more mature and progressive, I think. Many labels liked our work on "Polymorphism of Death", but this genre of death metal is very difficult to sell. That isn't a problem for us, but it is for the labels, sure!

Well, I think that's all I have. I certainly look forward to hearing more from Illogicist in the future. For now, if there is anything you want to close with, please feel free...
Thanks a lot for this interview, Andrew, and for your support in Aversionline. Thanks to all of the people around the world that support Illogicist, and to all real fucking heavy metal bands. Remember what Evil Chuck said… "Support music, not rumors!"

September 30, 2003
Additional question from EmptyWords:

Luca, what has happened since this interview?
We have signed a three-album contract with Crash Music Inc. Hopefully it will be a really good chance for us to spread our music and play live in countries outside of Italy. We are very happy about that, because now we can concentrate on the new material.

For the upcoming album, we will record all three songs of Dissonant Perspectives: "The Soul Feeder", "Knowledge Curse" and "Dissonant Perspectives", and I think 5 or 6 new songs. I really like the first demo tracks but I think, because of the evolution during the last year in a more progressive direction, that they don't exactly fit the current style of Illogicist anymore.

We will enter the studio in November to record the new material for our debut full-length album. Now we have to rehearse a lot playing our new songs and working on them. The album probably will be available in February/March 2004, and then we will start playing live to promote it.

For more information on Illogicist visit their website at www.illogicist.com