Bio: The Heretic’s Dream project was born in 2010 when guitarist Andrej Surace and singer Francesca Di Ventura came to the UK.
Due to their different musical influences, ranging from various forms of Death Metal & hardcore to more melodic mainstream sounds found within pop rock/metal, the music they began writing was not pinned down to any one genre and held itself well within its diversity, also with the added help of English bass player Rick Sivier, who provided a classic groove bass approach and assisted in the early stages of the song writing process.
The band has gone through numerous line ups during the last 2 years, counting on musicians coming from the UK and from Italy, despite the band’s busy activity in the UK, especially in 2012. The band has performed more than 90 gigs over the last 24 months.
The debut album, “The unexpected move”, recorded in February 2012, is available for digital download through recommended online stores such as Amazon, iTunes etc, under the Videoradio Edizioni Musicali & Discografiche recording label (associated with Italian National Television), which the band signed with in April 2012. The album has obtained numerous good reviews, both in Italy and the UK, and has been on air in different radio stations in Italy, the UK and Canada.
The two official videos released for that album were awarded as Best Recommended Videos on UnoTv in October 2012.
The band has supported Blues/rock artist RICHIE KOTZEN in Rome in November 2012, and was the official support act for CRUCIFIED BARBARA on all their Italian tour in December 2012. The new album, “Walk the time”, recorded at the Kick Recording Studio in Rome throughout June, will be released in September 2013, under Videoradio label. Two of the 11 tracks have been produced by Gabriele Bellini, who featured as a guest star in the band’s single, “Chains of blood”, which was released in March.
Further guest stars appearing on the new album: Terence Holler (Eldritch singer), Steve Volta (Pino Scotto), Pier Gonella, Gabriele Caselli, Marco Pastorino.
The band will be releasing the new video in November. Directed by Adriano Giotti, the video symbolically represents the pain of feeling tighten by social constrains and judgements and the will to get free and express ourselves and be accepted for what we really are, following the message of “Outcasted”, the band’s new single. Outcasted, together with The broken silence, will also be part of The Underworld Collection II, produced by Gabriele Bellini.
The new album enlightens the evolution of the band’s sound, though still keeping the tendency for exploration into different genres which is a characteristic of the band. The track “Believing in you” is an example of the many and varied skills of the band, with a flute solo from the drummer Maurilio Di Stefano and a bossanova/swing performance by the guitarist Andrej, while the track “Behind the mirror” demonstrates Francesca‘s skills into the goth/dark.
The album sound is totally unique, and perfectly figures the band’s ability to sweep into trash metal, goth, progressive, pop metal.
Walk the time exposes some of the experiences we face through our existence, the intricacy of human relationships, between father and daughter or a betrayed partner or a lifetime friend, the disguised place into a society that so often forces us to wear a mask.
“Take your time to listen to your soul, identify your talents, and let your passion grow. Live your life to the full, explore your possibilities, seek opportunities and overcome your limits.
Walk the time of your existence.”
Heretic’s Dream are:
Francesca Di Ventura – Vocals
Andrej Surace – Guitar
Carlo Nicolucci – Guitar
Jacopo Greci – Bass
Maurilio Di Stefano – Drums/Flute
The band has experienced different line-up changes, mainly due to the intense live activity in the UK where Andrej and Francesca live, who started the project in June 2010 when they came to live in London. Most of the musicians joining the band were old friends Andrej used to play with in the past, but others (like Rick Sivier, the bass player for almost 1 year) were chosen locally (in the UK). The current line-up is doing good, travelling all around Europe but mainly playing in Italy.
Genre: Music chooses you, and all you can do is following this inner burning instinct. Music is a necessity, the only way we know to express ourselves, talk to the world, and heal our souls. We say we play alternative metal but have a listen to our new album and tell me which genre do you recognise in it: it’s a blend of rock, prog, thrash, goth, metal, even bossanova swing. Our main objective is to shock the listener’s ear and mind, to give him the expectation from one song to the other. We want it to be an unexpected journey, very personal.
Evolution of musical and thematic elements: The new album, “Walk the time”, keeps the same approach into a tight crossover of the previous album, though the sound is more metal, through darker guitars, a riding bass, a triggered drum. From the lyrics point of view, the new album is the result of a painful year, full of difficulties both from the line-up side and the personal one. The album is a journey into the time of a life, Francesca’s, very intimate and personal, into her relationship with her father, her fears of being an inadequate mother, the suffering of being judged by society, the bitterness of witnessing her partner fighting against racism. But, in the end, all human beings are sons, spouses, brothers, workers, parents, part of society, so walking Francesca’s time anyone can find himself.
Lyrics, themes and concepts: As said, our lyrics are always very personal. The singer, Francesca, who is the author of the lyrics and the melodies, does not know any other way of writing songs but bringing out her feelings, her fears, and her hopes. In a brave way we believe, because it is not simple to tell to the world you are afraid of not being a good mum, or the daughter your father wished to have… Though a direct line with the listener is created through her stories, and distance cancelled.
Ideas about the album: We believe the new album has the sound and the message we wished to spread around. We are also happy with our stage presence and ability to involve the crowd and establish a good energy flow. I’d say we need to take more care of the band overall image… But it’s not simple when your line-up changes so frequently…
Reception: We started playing some tracks of the new album some months ago, to “test” the crowd reaction…which has been quite positive up to date. There is feeling like seeing the crowd dancing and having fun with your music!
Composers: Music mainly starts from Andrej’s riffs; he then usually records a beta version of the song via midi files, to give everybody an idea. Then all the others refine their lines, we all arrange together the track. Eventually Francesca puts the melody and the lyrics down.
Inspirations: We all come from different music background: Andrej from thrash/death metal, Carlo from symphonic goth metal, Jacopo loves death metal but he also studies jazz, Mauirilio’s favourite band is Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Francesca has spent her youth with Madonna and Depeche Mode…Putting together such different music universes is a dream, the dream of a heretic.
Next step; live or studio: We are now busy promoting the new album, “Walk the time”, out since 15th October 2013. We had a full October in Italy and November is going to be busy too. We will be playing in Italy and in Czech Republic. Overall, I guess Italy will be our main stage for next year because of the label and our roots…but we do have promotions in Germany and in Brazil so we hope to increase our visibility in other Countries too.
Future plans: We hope to get the attention of some International booking agencies, and to push spreading our music around!
Preference; live or studio: We all love the studio time but being on stage…is far the best time.
Preference; cater to the audience or music for its own sake: Establishing a contact with the listener, bringing him into our world and let him discover something new, hear something never heard.
Greatest Accomplishment: We are a young band; we started in June 2010… Nevertheless, we can definitely say the greatest accomplishment has been facing all difficulties and yet keeping the band alive. Love for music has been always so strong to allow us beating all the complications and overcome the hard times.
Maybe from a technical point of view, supporting Crucified Barbara in their Italian tour and Richie Kotzen in Rome.
Anything else? Dare to ask music to be more than sound waves. It has to be a multisensory experience.
Curious about them? Read (hear and see) more on their Official Site, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, iTunes, ReverbNation and YouTube!
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