GABRIELE BERNASCONI
Official website: www.clairvoyants.it
Official Facebook: www.facebook.com/Clairvoyants
*Interview was done in April 2014.
Touring.
"Well, with Clairvoyants we haven’t been on many long tours actually, so my experience might notbe the most exemplifying one, but I’ll do my best! Being on the road is a dual experience: I feelthrilled and very excited as I anticipate the great gigs to come, and at the same time I often feel tiredand a bit stressed by the lack of proper sleep, the tight schedule, the food, the toilets… But by thetime I set foot on stage, all the worries are gone and I live the moment, the wonderful momentswhen you express yourself and you find the deep link with the audience. Those moments are worthall the stress. Otherwise, there wouldn’t be so many bands on the road, right? Taking into accountthe pros and cons of a tour, I would say that it is far more gratifying than stressful; however, I canimagine than being on really long tours (like many months in a row without going home) can bereally tiring and a bit alienating. I don’t know if I would really like to do that. If the stress of living onthe road takes away the joy of being on stage, it doesn’t make sense anymore, does it?"
Plans.
"I am in the final stages of a solo project, a concept album with many great guests where I wrote allthe music and lyrics. I cannot say much about it because some guest musicians are still workingon it, but I can say that it will be very interesting and exciting for many metalheads. I’ve beenworking on this project for quite some years now, and I cannot wait to see it finished".
Creating music.
"About creating music, well, for me it’s the whole point of it all. Live performance can be great if you play great music, and to write great music you have to work hard on your composition and arrangement skills. It’s a neverending learning curve. Creating music is about expressing your thoughts and feelings, it’s like exposing your personality in a way that’s impossible with words. And as our personality is everchanging,I feel that I have to adapt my music to those changes. I have always loved heavy metal and hard rock, so my music doesn’t stray very far from those, but I don’tput a priori limits on what I do.
I find inspiration in a lot of things. Often I feel the need to write a song about a specific experience that I lived, to come to terms with it and turn the page. Some other times I just like to write a story, to lose myself in the images and sounds that I am creating. But even when I am just improvising on a guitar or on a piano, I always draw inspiration from what I have inside. Writing music is a very deep process, it always draws up things from my conscience, it evokes feelings that maybe lied hidden there for a long time. Sometimes it can be healing, sometimes even damaging. But it’s part of life, it’s a beautiful and deep way of expressing oneself. Even if I’m writing a hard rock song about partying and having fun, it’s still a part of my life that I am describing! The hardest part of this process, for me, is to listen objectively to what I wrote and try to make it“flow”. It is a complex process, where you have to try to judge a part of yourself. You have to be humble and truthful, and try to focus on parts that need to be rearranged,parts that need to be discarded, sections that need to be longer or shorter, and so on. I make music that other people are going to listen to, so it must make sense in some way. Listening to a song is like going on a journey, be it long or short, and I have to make sure that my music accompanies the listener during the whole journey, staying focused all the time exactly on what I am trying to express".
Against the rough time.
"Through the years, a subtle certainty deeply rooted itself in my soul: it is OUR responsibility and ours alone to give meaning to the things we do, even to the things that happen to us. I don’t think there is inherent meaning in things that happen: I do not believe in any divine principle or anything that transcends the reality we can perceive. So, when I find myself in rough times, I take the time to understand why I am in a bad mood, and how I can change my outlook on things to a more positive one. And when I change my outlook, everything becomes more positive. In the end, we can only act on ourselves: I cannot change the mind of other people, nor the things that happen. For example, I recently lost my father: I know I cannot bring him back to life, I can only change the way I see his death. I mourned him, took the time to feel sad and angry at the world, and then I moved on.Everything flows; we just need to give ourselves time to flow along with life. Life cannot be always joyous, and it must not be always sad. We just need to accept that the universe pulses, ebbs and flows".
The beginning.
"I was 15, and with my first band (called Broken Fate) we decided to try and write an original song. I was still learning how to play guitar and sing properly, and I was pretty bad at both, but I had a lot of enthusiasm. I remember sitting on the couch with my best friend, who was the bass player, strumming chords and trying to figure out which notes the bass was supposed to play under those chords. We were still in our early studies of musical theory, so I remember that the bass line we came up with was… well… pretty weird! Nonetheless, to our earsit was beautiful and moving. The song was called “Scythe of Love”, and the lyrics (written by our drummer) were about how pleasure and pain are inextricably entwined when you love someone that doesn’t love you back. When I sang those lyrics for the first time in front of a crowd, I felt like I was finally doing something that really mattered in the world. I was bringing a bit of myself into other people’s lives, even if for a short time. I was still a high school student at the time, so “changing the world” was still just a big and epic idea in my head; but when I sang my own music for the first time on a stage, I realised that “changing the world” forme is not much about big changes in the world itself, but more about small but meaningful changes in people’s hearts.Looking back now, I know that my vocal line and singing were quite bad, and that my guitar solo was pretty embarassing, but I will always keep a fond memory of those first simple notes that started my career as a composer. And now that I am more than twice that age, the simple words“Scythe of Love” acquired a much deeper meaning".
Family or dream? Music world.
"It’s probably the most difficult choice in a person’s life. I have one thing to say: dreams are very strong, even if they seem weak and subdued in everyday life. An unfulfilled dream will sit stubbornly in your subconscious, nagging you every single moment until you try to make it come true. Let’s stick with music, as I am a musician, but this thoughts can easily apply to many other artistic dreams.The first step is being sincere with yourself: is this passion just something that you think you’d like to do, or is it something that you’d die without?The second step is to know the environment that you are going to face: the music business is aharsh world, especially in these last years when CD sales are at an all timelow, and the biz isdesperately trying to adapt to the new distribution media (music streaming over the internet). So don’t expect anything from the business or from record companies; they care about money, andonly rarely about art. YOU as the artist should care about your art, against all odds.The third step is to set the bar. If you set it too low, you settle for something that doesn’t really satisfy you: maybe a shitty contract with a small label that doesn’t care for you, maybe you don’t manage to play live as
often as you’d like, etc. If you set it too high, you’ll always feel inadequate because your goals are too far away: no one is born a rockstar, no one begins to play in big arenas,no one headlines a tour straight off its 1st album. So, again, be sincere with yourself and set your bar always a little higher than the step you just took, so that you keep advancing and you keepfacing challenges that you CAN win".
Dreams.
"We are all dreamers, in one way or another. I had a very clear example of this seeing my father fall into depression when he retired from his job. He dedicated all his life to our family, always working in the office until late, to earn enough money to let us live comfortably. He sacrificed his dreams simple ones, but dreams nonetheless to make his family live well. He dreamed about mountaineering, but his job and some health problems kept him from diving into that. So, when he finally retired, he was too old and sick to begin mountaineering again, and he fell into a deepdepression. I remember him saying “I had no passions in my life”. He was wrong: he had passions,as everybody, but he did not pursue them.Back to your question, we all constantly live our dreams. I became a singer because I dreamed of being a singer. I became a software engineer (yes, I am a nerd as well) because I dreamed of beinga computer programmer. We all have dreams during our childhood, and we all subconsciously (or consciously!) try to make them come true during all of our lives. I say that it’s impossible not to be a dreamer. You can be a disillusioned dreamer because you encountered too many obstacles and gave up, but your dreams are still there, it’s just that you do not believe in them anymore.
I have two jobs that I absolutely love (software engineer during the week, rock musician during theweekend), I built a house, I have a relationship with a girl that I love, and a lot of friends. At this point in my life, I’d like to build a healthy family and be a good father. I don’t really care about becoming a worldrecognized rockstar: I am a shy guy at heart, and I already had my share of great gigs and rock experiences. I’d prefer to write great music, the one that moves hearts. If I don’t earn billions with that, who cares. Right now, I’d like to keep working on myself and become a better person every day. That really means something, both for me and for those who live around me".
Critics.
"When I was younger, I always felt offended and angry when I saw that someone didn’t understand my music or criticized it, and I always felt very bad when someone criticized my way of singing. Now, honestly, I’m past that.There are two kinds of negative reviews and critics: 1) the ones written by those who couldn’t careless about my music, or who want to despise me because of their own personal reasons, and 2)the ones written by those who DID listen to my music, and honestly think that it can be improved. I don’t give a shit about number 1, and I happily read number 2. Now I thank those who criticize meand my art, because they make me understand its weak points. If I agree with them, I learned how to make my music better. If I don’t agree with them, I didn’t lose anything and I keep creating my music the way I like. Critics are VERY important, if they are made by intelligent people. If they are made by ignorant or careless people, they are nothing".
The most important thing in life.
"A very broad question with a very short answer: to live it fully and positively. Life can be beautiful, if we allow it to be beautiful. If we focus on suffering and negativity, it becomes a living hell. But as I said before, it is OUR responsibility to make our life better.I’d like to quote Marcel Proust: “The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes”. That’s what is really important for me in life: finding the eyes to see everything as beautiful as it can be".
World of music.
"Music, along with all the other forms of art, has a lot of roles. It is a very powerful way of communicating feelings and ideas, and brings forth a lot of different emotions. A simple sequence of a few notes played on a piano is enough to evoke sadness, happiness, bravery, fear… it is agreat and accessible way to express yourself. We are all born with a musical instrument inside us(our voice), so music is probably one of the most visceral forms of art. Yet, simple as it may seem,learning to play an instrument (or sing) in a very expressive way requires a lot of skill, practice and persistence, so learning to play is also a great way to better yourself. By playing an instrument and writing music, you explore your inner world, and that is probably the best thing about music (and art in general): it helps you get in contact with your inner self".
Better world.
"Well, my “better world” is not a world where everybody is happy. That’s simply impossible. My ideal world is one where everybody tries to live fully, with sincerity and a constant will to become better.That’s not perfect, but perfection doesn’t belong to this world. This should be the road to perfection,that we should all tread in the same direction".
To young generation of musicians.
"Inspiration is everywhere, and who knows… maybe even my few simple words can become inspiration for someone to try and take on (or take back) a musician’s career!One of the best things that we can do, as human beings, is to try to kindle hope and enthusiasm everywhere. If we stimulate our friends to follow their dreams and try to be happier with their lives,we contribute to make this world a better place. As I believe, this is probably the only world we’ll ever know, the only life we’ll ever lead; so it’s worth every effort to make it better.So, to all my fellow musicians who are reading this: hold on to your dream and never ever give up.You will face obstacles, rude critics, maybe economic difficulties, you will feel inadequate and inexperienced. But without obstacles, there would be no evolution. Fight to overcome every obstacle, one at a time, and in the end you’ll feel like you conquered the world. Fight for your dreams, as that’s the only battle worth fighting!"
To fans of music.
"I’d like to say a thing that’s easily forgotten: we live in a world where we EXPECT everything to be free. But making music, as with any other form of art, is an EFFORT. I’m not going to say “buy my albums”, as you already heard that a thousand times by every musician out there; all I say is support the artists that you like. Go to see them when they play live, let them know you love their music. The best reward, for me, is when someone comes to me and says “Thank you for your wonderful music”. That’s the real satisfaction, when I know that my art did something positive for someone. So, be grateful with the artists whose music you appreciate".