Alessandro Del Vecchio – Interview

Alessandro Del Vecchio – Interview

07 Aprile 2015 0 Commenti Denis Abello

Interview by Alessandro Lifonti
versione italiana

MR: We are very proud to chat with the best Italian musician, songwriter, and producer of the aor/melodicrock scene: Mr. Alessandro Del Vecchio! Alessandro, thank you for your time! It’s a great pleasure to have you with us!
AD: Hi! It’s my total pleasure to be here with you guys!

MR: Ale, what kind of music did you listen to when you were a child? When did you start listening to melodic rock?
AD: Well, I’ve been listening to rock music since I remember. My father fortunately raised me the right way with his favorite bands: Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, Genesis, Uriah Heep, Jethro Tull. I still remember the blue greatest hits of the Beatles spinning endlessly home. My first real approach to melodic rock knowing it as a genre was in my teens with Bon Jovi.

MR: What is the best musical memory of your childhood?
AD: My father putting LP’s on the table loud enough to scare the neighboors and my mom. Especially when he was listening to live albums by Jimi Hendrix. But my life changing experience in music was when I first listened to Bohemian Rhapsody and heard that voice inside saying “I wanna be a musician and be like Freddie Mercury!”.

MR: When did you exactly realize that you could play music for a living?
AD: Honestly when I started I didn’t even know this could be a work. For me being a musician was just a life choice and I didn’t even imagine that making your own music could make you pay the bills. I had my first paid job as a musician when I was 13 and turned professional when I was 18.

MR: You’ve started your career with Edge of forever. You play and sing one of the three albums of the band. What would you like to tell us about EOF, and is there another chapter in sight?
AD: Well, Edge Of Forever is my baby. I’m in so many bands and projects that I feel home with just few of them. But EOF is where my heart is. We’ll be doing a new album this year in our 5-years long term album works.

MR: Moonstone project is probably your first big step in the music business! We have two albums with legends such as Glenn Hughes, Ian Paice, and many more artists. You played on the first record, and wrote and produced the second one. How does it feel to play and work with all those big names?
AD: I have to tell you that Moonstone has been one of my first steps into working with Major League players. Working with Glenn, Ian Paice, Carmine Appice, Ken Hensley, Steve Walsh, James Christian and all these top guys felt strangely natural. I knew I was born to do that and worked hard to be there so I approached the albums and tours with them knowing that if I was there I maybe was capable enough to be their guy in that moment. Moonstone turned into several tours with Paice, Hughes, Bernie Marsden and Carmine over Europe and it’s been one of the funniest and most accomplishing bands I’ve been in. I owe a lot to Matt Filippini. He believed in me and the music we wrote has a special place in my heart cause we wrote the whole “Rebel On The Run” album without any limitation and rule which is a pretty rare situation in a “inside-the-box” business like music biz.

MR: In 2014 you played, produced and wrote some songs for three great releases, and I’m talking about: L.R.S., Three Lions, and Rated X! Alessandro: there are way too many awesome musicians involved in these three albums/projects! Please just tell us anything you want about these guys, and also a little bit of “behind the scenes” 😉
AD: Let’s start with L.R.S. I simply love this album and loved working with these guys. Honestly it’s been just amazing. I had Tommy, Mike and Josh here and we had a great time making great music. When these three guys are around they mean trouble. I’ve seen it all with them but nothing beats when Tommy got lost in the woods around the studio. I live in a natural park. 2 mins walk out of the studio and you’re in the wild. While we were tracking guitars Tommy decided it was the right moment to go out in the woods without a cell phone in a place he didn’t even know. For nearly 5 hours we didn’t even know if he was alive or what! Then out of the blue somebody knocked at the door and there was Tommy who started telling us what he saw and how he got lost and how many times he passed close to the studio and didn’t know he was that close!
With Three Lions it’s been all very smooth and cool. Nigel came and sang the whole record in 3/4 days. What a great talent and working with a legend like Vinny? And here again nothing can beat the night I took them to a pizzeria and the house was packed. So we had to wait almost 1 hour for the table and another hour for the pizza. I never saw somebody drink so many beers like Vinny. I lost count but that was pretty astonishing especially for a guy like me who doesn’t like alcohol!
With Rated X has been a bumpy road. A great experience musically talking but to create an album with a band feel in the distance has been a nightmare sometimes. I wrote majority of the record so I’m pretty proud of it and thanks to this album I had the chance to finally work and share music with Joe Lynn Turner. The result was a 70’s vibe record with great musical delivery. We will go out live this summer and that’s pretty good!

MR: Now let’s talk about the one and only: Mr. Fergie Frederiksen! The day that he passed away he left an emptiness inside our hearts! You worked with him! What kind of man, friend, and musician was Fergie?
AD: Fergie. My dear brother Fergie. You could’t but love a guy like him. I never met a musician with less ego than him. Even if he was that great singer we all know he always told me “I’m here to give the best experience you can have with me”. He walked into my studio with great respect for me and a total commitment for the songs. We shared amazing stories while being together and I’m proud I can call him a friend and a brother. What an incomparable loss.
MR: It’s time for Hardline! We are all thrilled because a couple of weeks ago the band announced that there’s going to be a new album! In my opinion Hardline is a very underrated band! You have killer songs, and a very powerful singer: Johnny Gioeli! What can we expect from the new record?
AD: Bad music. You have to expect really bad music! Just kidding! The album is almost written. I already wrote 14 songs but there are still 3 in the process of being done. This is gonna be really good I can promise you. Johnny is excited about the new music and there’s a piano ballad which will make you all very happy.

MR: Revolution Saints! Frontiers gathered three brilliant musicians who recorded a fantastic record produced once again by the best man around: Alessandro Del Vecchio LOL! Ale, what do you think about this record, and why doesn’t Castronovo leave the drums behind and start a new career as a singer? His performance on this cd is unbelievable!
AD: Deen never left his drums behind. Did you hear how he bangs those drums on the record? What can I say? It’s been just an incredible experience. Imagine an Italian guy producing these legends in just one album. Add the fact that I’m singing on a song I wrote featuring Neal Schon. Add that all singles have been written by me and that the album charted on Billboard. The album simply turned out great and I guess it’s gonna be my album to beat in the long run.

MR: You produced many more albums such as Shining Line, Lionville, Revolution Road, and lately mixed Room Experience; this is all great stuff! Anything you want to say about these projects?
AD: Shining Line, Lionville and Room Experience all share the same guy in the cockpit: Pierpaolo Monti. We all know him as Zorro, the masked man of AOR:-) Zorro is a real friend. He supported me and believed in me back when I just started so I owe him a lot. Still “Strong Enough” from Shining Line is one of the best songs I ever worked on. Revolution Road (how many revolutions do we have with me???) is a great record that was more of a bluesy version of the typical melodic rock thing and features an amazing guitar work.

MR: You also wrote songs for Find Me, Place Vandome, Wheels of Fire, and so on….! How can you still be that inspired when it comes to writing songs after all the songs that you wrote so far?
AD: I’m not always inspired honestly. I’m not those kind of guys that sit at the piano and write. I write when I have to write and this just keeps all the music I have in me for the right moments. Lyrically I always try to find something different even if the aor-love theme “has” to be present, you know what I mean. Also I get inspired because I don’t listen to the genre I work in that often. If you think that my favorite genre is Americana and R&B, that gives you a different angle on my writing.

MR: You’ve been producing Ted Poley’s new record! Is that correct? How do the new songs sound like?
AD: This is gonna be really cool. The songs are catchy and every time I hear Ted’s voice I find myself smiling. Love Ted and it’s gonna be awesome to play live with him too!

MR: Musically talking, In the last years, you have become a mainstay of Frontiers. How did your partnership with the italian label start?
AD: I just sent the right email in the right moment. And I found myself writing for what became Find Me. After a week I was writing for Johnny Gioeli’s solo record which turned out to be my first production with them and the rebirth of Hardline with Johnny and me at the helm. I respect them a lot and they deserve every single success they have. What a great label. I can’t say anything bad about them. Nothing! Serafino gives me the opportunity of working with the music I love and with all my teenage idols! Who’s Luckier Than Me?®

MR: Frontiers Rock Festival is not that far away! There have been several problems last year, but in the end Italian fans have a second chance that they don’t have to waste this time! Don’t you agree?
AD: Well, I don’t see it as a second chance. I think that if you’re a musician and you’re a fan of this kind of music you should just be there for the sake of supporting the scene and the music you love. Honestly I thought Italians could be a bit more open-minded but, hey, you got what you got and who came last year and will come this next edition will enjoy and love it.

MR: This is something that I already asked Pierpaolo Monti in a recent interview: in your opinion why the Italian aor/melodicrock scene is still that far from the other european countries?
AD: I don’t think there is a melodic rock scene anywhere. This genre has such a little scene worldwide that talking about scene, especially Italian scene, sounds kinda wrong to me. Melodic rock gigs in Stockholm or Stuttgart or London have the same numbers as Milan. If we talk about underground bands you’re lucky if 100 to 200 people show up. These are the real numbers. If you talk about big bands it’s all different. Toto sold out concerts for years in Milan and Italy but still this doesn’t make us a melodic rock country, doesn’t it? If you talk about the attitude of musicians, I’ve been almost anywhere with music and everywhere I’ve seen the same topics. Jealousy, anger, envy, disappointment and rage between bands. This doesn’t change depending on the flag of your country unfortunately. What changes is the individual. If you work hard, you’re competent and you’re respectful and reliable, well you’re gonna make it. It doesn’t matter if you’re Italian, Hungarian or what. If you’re really good, nowadays with the internet, you can be anywhere you wanna be. But your wishes have to walk along with the effort and sacrifice in being really good and not just being an amateur pointing fingers on somebody else for your blames. Amen:-)

MR: What are your plans for the future? Projects, any news in sight?
AD: I guess they are too many to mention. I got my feet into a lot of great records coming out that I don’t wanna just name one. For sure Hardline and Edge Of Forever hold that special spot on the calendar:-)

MR: just name a few artists you would like to work with in the future…
AD: Journey, Whitesnake, Anneke and probably some pop singers like Alanis Morissette!

MR: We often see your father with you at the gigs! How important is for you to have him by your side on the road?
AD: He is the reason why I’m a musician. And his endless support and encouragement is still today one of the reasons why I am here. Making him proud is my main goal. I also wish I could give him back at least a little percentage of what he has been giving me. I couldn’t ask for better parents and a better family honestly. I also ride my Harley Davidson with him:-)

MR: Just name your top five bands….
AD: Queen, Deep Purple, Toto, Journey and Rainbow…and the list might go on and on!

MR: and how about your top five albums…..
AD: Queen “Greatest Hits”, Deep Purple “Burn”, Genesis “Selling England By The Pound”, Rainbow “Rising”, Black Sabbath “Heaven And Hell”.

MR: Ale, thank you once again for this interview! See you in Trezzo D’ Adda! Rock on!
AD: Thank you Ale (hey nice name man!) for giving me the opportunity of talking about my music and share my art with your readers! See you in Trezzo and you guys keep on being the great site we all know you are!

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