Aura interview

You have a new album “Noise” which is anything but noise. It has been a few years since the last album. How did the band change since the last album?

First of all we should remember that there was a change in the band, the last guitarist was replaced by our original guitarist Giuseppe Bruno who had previously left the band for personal reasons. In these three years we have had the opportunity to gain new ways of thinking about music in general and progressive music in particular, while the previous work reflected the real side of the prog rock band, Noise is projected into the future with more songs that are very direct and with a more powerful sound without leaving the progressive aspect of the band. Consider Noise as a more mature album and much more personal than ever before. 

Was it hard to write “Noise” since it had been a few years?

No, it wasn’t, we wasted a bit of time in changing the line-up and in building our recording studio, because we wanted to create music without the influence of outsiders at all costs. So slowly we took all the time we wanted to make a record better than the last that had been appreciated worldwide.

How would you compare the album to previous releases?

We do not want to make comparisons because even after many years the way of conceiving the music changes, so we believe that every album needs to be taken as it is and should not be compared with previous ones. If there is a different sound, a different view, it was dictated only by the changes that each of us has matured. Noise is precisely our current vision of music and we are very proud as well as we are proud of what we have done in the past.

What are your influences musically as a band and as individuals?

The music we are all related to is ’70s rock with all its branches, including of course prog rock, also all the metal of the 80s and the 90s and many other things that do not concern with heavy music. We say that we let ourselves be influenced by good music regardless of genre. On a personal level we all love bands like Rusk, Pink Floyd, Iron Maiden, Led Zeppelin, Queen, Genesis, Slayer, Yes, King Crimson and many more.  

One interesting thing about Aura is that your lead vocalist is your drummer, Giovanni Trotta, which is unusual in rock music (unless it’s Genesis!). Was it ever the plan to get a “front man” or was Giovanni always the planned vocalist?

You see, our history is clear, we were born as a trio and Giovanni, at that time was already the singer, we’ve known each other since we were kids so we are great friends, we did not want anyone who didn’t have the same bond that there’s among us, we also rehearsed with some other singers but there wasn’t the same synergy in the band. I honestly believe that we will never change from this point of view.

Do you guys plan on touring, either Italy or some of Europe to support the album or do day jobs get in the way?

We are already playing around Italy and we have other dates in the future that will lead us in other Italian cities. We would love to be able to play as a support band with other bands in Europe but it is not easy for a band that’s self-produced like ours as almost all spaces are occupied by large agencies that promote many bands who are willing to pay large sums of money. Our live dates are in constant update and will be added from time to time. It’s also difficult to plan a European tour as we all have daily jobs to deal with and music, at the moment, doesn’t allow us to fully finance a tour.

Lastly, I’d like to complement you guys on the album. It’s a great album! Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions!

Thank you very much for the compliments and for the space that you have dedicated to us . We want to conclude by remembering that on our website www.auraprog.it all information is available about the band and you can buy our CD on the website at the following link http://auraprog.bigcartel.com/ as well as a digital download from I-tunes. Greetings to all the readers and to our fans, we hope to see you soon. bye for now.