SPR (VIMH): Hi guys, congrats on your new album As Black As My Heart
SPR (VIMH): What is the significance of naming an album after As Black As MY Heart name? BlackLava: The name of the album was given by my girlfriend. in many things she has a creative eye that I like very much. She started from the idea of the album cover that directly waxed her! He used a heart with black tempera! It is a black heart throbbing like a volcano!
SPR (VIMH): What do the lyrics talk about? Which are your major lyrics’ influences?
BlackLava: The songs are very varied and have been written in different periods! some are inspired by TV series (Zombie - IZombie), some of them concern our life and some are metaphors! to write the lyrics I always start from the mood of the song
SPR (VIMH): Which are those elements that separate your new album from your previous albums? BlackLava: This is our first album! before we had an EP. the change was in the sounds, in the tuning and in the arraggi. In the New disc we are in Drop D and standard. in the old one we were tuned to Drop C. On the record we introduced a solo guitar!
SPR (VIMH): How would you characterize “As Black As My Heart” and what are your expectations from the new album? BlackLava: After that we wrote 4 more songs and released them as singles. We don't know when we will make a new record yet. The record was released in 2018 but we re-released it in December through our home record company Frozen-Heart-Music SPR (VIMH): How did the cooperation with Frozen-heart-Music Records occur? How’s working with Frozen-heart-Music and how much has he/she helped you on the whole? BlackLava: We signed a few months with them! we chose a foreign record company because rock music is not very popular in Italy. For now we have republished the album and the singles and we are promoting online. Unfortunately for Covid-19 we cannot do any kind of future program! SPR (VIMH): How’s the fans’ reactions been to the new songs on your live shows so far? BlackLava: Very well! the choice to be less metal is more rck was a very popular choice and we hope to be able to take it abroad too! SPR (VIMH): Do you prefer to be on the road or on the studio writing and recording? BlackLava: I like both! At the moment I would like to be around with my friends to play but unfortunately I can't! SPR (VIMH): How did you come up with the name The Blacklava initially? BlackLava: Our drummer had just gone to Turkey on vacation and he had eaten many typical dessert: The Baklava. when he came back from the trip, we were thinking about the name of the band and he changed the name of the Turkish dessert in “ The Blacklava” and everyone liked how it sounded. SPR (VIMH): How would you describe your music style to someone that hasn’t heard of you before? BlackLava: Absolutely not! It is a type of music that you can associate with many groups, even different from each other! We are New Vintage but with a 90's energy. Many groups are part of a specific musical context when you listen to two or three of them in the end they are all the same! I speak above all for the voice! All with the same pattern. Do not indeterminate I like them very same but if I put them in the same playlist they all look the same. I love and I loved the 90/2000 scene madly. There were very good and unique singers: Chris Cornell, Chester Bennigton, Jacoby Shaddix and many others. As soon as you hear them you know they are them. Instead I love the New vintage scene, Groups like The Amazons, Bad Flowers, KALEO, Royal Deluxe but As I said before for me the song works great but they are anonymous as a stamp. SPR (VIMH): Which do you consider to be the best male & female vocalist in metal history? BlackLava: For completeness, timbre, stage presence and live performance I would say M. Shadows.
Which is the record you wish you had written and why?
BlackLava: Infest By Papa Roach. I find that it is a complete album, gritty, well played and because I feel it mine
SPR (VIMH): Were you obliged to give just one album to extraterrestrials that would represent the whole human music, which album would it be and from which band/artist?
BlackLava: Led Zeppelin III
SPR (VIMH): If you had the chance to travel in time... where would you choose to go? To the past or the future and why?
BlackLava: I would go to the USA in the 90-2000 years. I would like to relive my life but in the USA. Reform a band and try to become famous there! Italy has a musical culture that does not belong to me and as a boy I always had to justify myself for the genre of music I listened to and there was little room for alternative bands! To learn better to sing I went to the Jazz Singing Conservatory and I was also a black sheep there. my classmates either listened to Jazz (some artists are really cool: Chet Baker, John Coltrane, Duke Ellington) or Italian Popular Music. I've always hated the narrowness of views! The world is wide and there are a thousand beautiful things and they can give a lot!
The BlackLava are an Italian band based in Turin, born in 2014. Their first EP “Sweet Meat” was released in 2016. In 2018 was released the first album “As Black As My Heart”, promoted with a tour in Italy, France and Holland. In May 2019 they publish an acoustic single “I’m Gonna Leave You” then in September a new song “Devil Inside Me”. In November 2019 they signed with Frozen Heart, a German record label.
The BlackLava are completely produced by themselves: Carlo Loglisci writes lyrics, music and produces music videos; Guitarist Francesco Priolo records and produces the songs in his studio in Turin; Diego Petrino, drummer, produces some of the graphics that appear in their logos and posters; Bassist Marco Stillavato manage the booking. The Blacklava has a Rock imprint, with some vintage vibes, but that looks to the future. Their live shows are energetic and engaging with high passion in both contexts: electric and acoustic. For fun of Audioslave, Foo Fighters, Royal Blood, Queens of The Stoneage and Black Stone Cherry.