Musicians in Lockdown: Arya Interview

Italian metal band Arya have only been together about five years, and they have already released four full-length albums as well as an EP. Their latest album titled For Ever, just released last month, upholds the experimentally elevating tension and brewing ferocity that they’ve deeply rooted themselves in since their first release. Each song is a medley of dissonant riffage, perilous vocal layering, and baffling polyrhythms with a constant underlying ambience that curiously ties it all together. It takes a few listens to fully grasp a sound with so many clashing elements going on at once, and a great deal of courage and artistic integrity to write music as such.

Arya sat down with The Outer Void to discuss their musical ventures and writing processes:

What have you been up to during the pandemic?

When the Italian government first locked us all at home (we were among the first in the world to do it, but it kind of worked) we were finishing to record lead vocals for our new album For Ever. I spent the first weeks mixing it even if some of the tracks were still instrumental, in order to save time and complete it as soon as we could meet again in person. So it happened, and during the summer we started the release process, shot some kind of videos for most of the tracks and managed to play a single concert at an important short film festival. We also worked on some new music together. By the time we actually released the album, one month ago, the pandemic got worse again, new restrictions have been enforced in the last weeks, and meeting again in person is becoming increasingly difficult, while we have no idea on when live concerts will be allowed again.

Has the lockdown impacted your songwriting this year in any way?

I don’t think anyone of us would consider writing songs explicitly about the lockdown, it’s not a topic in itself that leads to interesting considerations besides describing what everyone is already living through. The impact of it and its consequences on people’s vision of the world seem much more fascinating, but so far we’ve never decided what we wanted to sing about before having composed anything.

We always have some demo recordings of riffs and half-finished songs to work on: the fact that we can’t see each other very often anymore is slowing down our songwriting, but I don’t see it as a totally bad thing: we need some time to decide what kind of band we’d like to be in the future and what we want to keep from what we’ve been doing in the past.

What’s your favorite show you’ve ever played?

Near Santarcangelo di Romagna, a small town a few minutes away from where I live, there’s a commune built by a group of artists called the Mutoid Waste Company, which was founded in London in the 1980s but later chose to settle there, on a field near a river in the middle of the Italian countryside, next to a collapsed bridge. It’s a crazy place, full of sculptures made out of rusty car parts, many old trucks and buses and some really great people. In 2017 we had a chance to perform at a huge birthday party held there, together with some great hardcore bands. There were people with flamethrowers, a fire-breathing frontman dressed as the pope and a huge crowd of punk fans from many parts of Italy and the UK. For me it was a really mind-blowing event, and I became way more interested in hardcore music after that. There’s a vlog I’ve filmed during that party, you can find it here.

If you could tour with any band/artist, who would it be?

I’d realistically like to share a tour with our mates of Invasion Incorporated, a really good metal band from our city. We’ve known each other for years, I’ve played bass live for them on some gigs just like our previous bassist did, while one of their guitarists did the same for us on multiple occasions. We’ve been inspiring each other a lot, and we’re really good friends. But thinking big, I’d really like to share time and gigs with bands such as Nero Di Marte, Bent Knee, Karnivool or Periphery.

What 2020 album would you recommend to someone who believes there’s no good new music?

Uhm, we’ve just released one called For Ever, but I don’t think it would impress anyone. What about Palimpsest by Protest The Hero? It’s exciting, has memorable choruses and riffs, challenging instrumental parts and its songs are about really relevant topics for this historical moment, especially if you’re from the USA.

What are your plans for 2021?

I’d personally like to be able to perform live again and to see the band have a fresh start after some quite problematic years. We’re always working on new music, but we’re absolutely not in a hurry to release something new soon, considering we’ve just put out our fourth full-length album. The pandemic is making everything extremely uncertain, so we’ll see what will happen.

Arya’s new album For Ever is now available on all your favorite streaming platforms! Check out the video for the track “Flares” below.