LOMM: Can you give a little biographical and historical info; who is involved in the band, and how did you guys meet up?
Exsom, Tullio Roccasalva: The project exsom really came to life when in 2016 our new singer Stefano Dell’Ava joined the band. With this line up (Tullio Roccasalva: Guitar – Stefano Dell’Ava: Vocals – Juri Vukusic: Guitar, Lorenzo Sedili: Drums – Pietro Ferrari – Bass) we released our first EP “Roundtrip” in September 2017. During the next years we performed many gigs in Switzerland and Italy, ending with a very cool night in Milan opening for great Uriah Heep!
Now we just released our first full length album “Red Carpet To Paradise” and we’re working on many different music videos
LOMM: Pandemic has taken an emotional toll on everyone yet the arts have been hit especially hard. The musicians are vulnerable to financial upheaval. How have you guys have been holding up?
Tullio: It’s been weird. This pandemic gave us the chance to spend more time in our studio to finish “Red Carpet To Paradise”, which has been good for our creativity.
However the total lack of gigs really penalised the project financially. Releasing an album is pretty expensive but we made it anyway!
LOMM: Tell us about your genre, what does it means to you, why did you choose this genre?
Tullio: Actually for us is pretty difficult to understand in which genre to put our music.
We define our band with a generic “Modern metal” right because of that. We just like metal, electronic and so many other kinds of music. We put in our songs everything comes to our minds never minding of what genre this will be!
LOMM: Have you ever been on a tour? Given live performances? Is it tough for you not to be able to do so now?
Tullio: Yes, we had the opportunity to be on a couple of mini tours. One in Bulgaria and one in Switzerland. I think that playing live is the thing we miss the most. We miss the stage, the trips end over all the energy of our fans.
LOMM: What is the next step for you? How is the future looking?
Tullio: We are now working on some music videos to be released during 2021. Also we are already working on new music for the next album. Due to the pandemic it’s hard to know how the future will be, but we plan to play as much gigs as we can in the next years!
LOMM: Could you tell us about the lyrics / themes /concepts you focus on or plan to focus on? How did the ideas come about, and how do they influence the writing process? Who is writing the lyrics?
Tullio: Our songs mainly talks about personal life experiences or about some reflections on some topics that we care about. Some times we also just wanna have some fun and write about something less serious.
LOMM: Who is composing the songs?
Tullio: Mainly me and Stefano. Usually I write the music and he writes the lyrics and we end up with a “raw” version of the song. Than everybody in the band brings his own ideas and together we arrive to the final product.
LOMM: What bands do you draw your inspiration from?
Tullio: No one in particular, but there are some bands like In Flames, Bring Me The Horizon, Rammstein, While She Sleeps and a little bit Skrillex!
LOMM: Which is more exciting? Being on the road or studio?
Tullio: For sure being on the road is more exciting because of all the places you see, the people you meet and the crowds under the stage! But we love being in the studio writing new stuff e recording. It’s where our music takes life and we can be creative.
LOMM: What first got you into music?
Tullio: I think when my older brother started to play the cello. He was like 7 and I was 5. Then my sister too begun to play an instrument. So in my childish mind I thought that every kid had to play an instrument! You know, like everybody goes to school, everybody has to play an instrument! So a chose classical guitar. Than a few years later I discovered Iron Maiden and their guitar solos blew my mind! I remember me trying to play their solos on my classical guitar… that was just so hard! That’s when I bought my first electric guitar and started a band!
LOMM: What do you like the best about being a musician? And what is it that you do not like much?
Tullio: Personally writing new stuff and playing in front of an audience. These are the things that really makes being a musician worth it. The things I don’t like much are all the social media and promotion stuff. Now days these are a really important part of the music business but they are really time demanding. I’ll always prefer spending one hour on the guitar rather than on Instagram or Facebook.
Lady Obscure: I hear you, I am the same. What’s more important to you? Catering to the audience or music for its own sake?
Tullio: Personally I think that music comes first, but you always have to think about the audience that will be listening and try to find your right balance
LOMM: What is the most memorable gig that you have played to date?
Tullio: For sure the night in Milan when we played as opening act for the great Uriah Heep. We played in an amazing venue, on a stage where so many bigs have played before us. The crowd was huge and so responsive. What a night!
LOMM: What does your collection look like? Mostly Vinyl, Cassettes, CDs, Digital? A bit of everything? A total mess?
Tullio: I only have CD’s because I’m from the 90’s so that’s how a started consuming music and I never stopped. To be hones I like Vinyl better. They are bigger and much more fascinating but I never had a vinyl player and this always made me go for the CD’s, just because I could listen to them in my car or everywhere else.
LOMM: What Country/Region are you from and what is the Metal/Rock scene like there?
Tullio: We are based in Lugano, a little city in the southern part of Switzerland. There is a scene but it’s quite small also due to the few people that leave there.
However there are many bands and musician in general. The sad thing is that in the last 10 years almost every live club in the area had to shut down because of new decibel laws or lack of audience.
LOMM: Thank you for taking the time.
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