EMQ’s with MADHOUSE
Hi Everyone. Welcome to our new EMQ’s interview with Italian based Hard Rock band Madhouse! Huge thanks to them for taking part!
What is your name, what do you play and can you tell us a little bit about the history of the band?
Hello everyone, we are MadHouse and we are a female fronted hard rock band from Pavia, Italy.
MadHouse was founded in 2012 as a cover band even though Filippo Anfossi (rhythm guitar) and I have been collaborating musically since 2005.
In 2015 the meeting with Marco Barusso (who has collaborated with several artists including Lacuna Coil, Thirty Seconds to Mars, Coldplay) allowed me to give life to our unreleased original songs.
How did you come up with your band name?
I chose to call the band MadHouse from an episode I experienced when I was 15 years old. My father took me to an exhibition of paintings created by the guests of a psychiatric nursing home. Some of them were painters, others were not. Through these images they told their reality in a strong, simple and extremely communicative way. I have always maintained that the artist is born with, sort of, “coloured glasses” through which he sees everyday life with shades, colours and shapes often different from those seen by others. The one who creates lives a sensitivity, often misunderstood, that needs a vehicle (art) to be able to express itself at its best. Artists are often called crazy… The encounter of different sensibilities and personalities has created our musical reality, our “asylum”, the MadHouse.
What country are you from and what is the Metal/Rock scene like there?
We come from Italy and the rock and metal scene is linked more to the underground world or to foreign bands.
In Italy the mentality is more pop.
Italy is old minded, old-fashioned.
What is your latest release? (Album, EP, Single or Video)
After the release of the EP “You Want More” in 2015 we published, in March 2019, “MadHouse Hotel” our first full-length produced by DysFUNCTION Productions (Fear Factory, Logan Mader, Dan Korneff, Alteria, Logical Terror, Klogr, Trick or Treat).
The title of the new album consists of two words in opposition to each other: “MadHouse” which, in addition to being the name of the band, means “asylum” and represents a place where you are locked up against your will in antithesis to “Hotel” where you usually choose to stay.
The album is a concept composed of 10 tracks where each track represents a hotel room in which each listener, taking the key to his room, chooses to stay to find or search for their size.
The message of the album is enclosed in the key of the “MadHouse Hotel” that gives access to the rooms.
The key symbolically represents the capacity of choice that each of us has to live our lives to the fullest. It is an invitation to look inside oneself, sometimes fighting one’s own fears and insecurities, to better understand what surrounds us and to really undertake the path of life that most represents us and can make us happy.
Who have been your greatest influences?
Our background is very heterogeneous.
Certainly what has influenced us the most are the historical rock and hard rock bands (Alice Cooper, Bon Jovi, Iron Maiden…)
What first got you into music?
The need to communicate and the need to tell our experiences!
If you could collaborate with a current band or musician who would it be?
Alice Cooper.
If you could play any festival in the world, which would you choose and why?
Rock in Rio is one of the biggest music festivals in the world in which you can find rock legends and pop icons together.
What’s the weirdest gift you have ever received from a fan?
We receive a lot of gifts from fans and we are very grateful for that. Gadgets, portraits, letters, handmade gifts. The craziest thing that happened was when one of our fans tattooed the “MadHouse” logo on his arm.
If you had one message for your fans, what would it be?
No matter what happens in life. Never give up, never surrender because it is always possible to change things and be reborn. Be true, powerful and positive!
If you could bring one Metal/Rock star back from the dead, who would it be?
I guess Ronnie James Dio
What do you enjoy the most about being a musician? And what do you hate?
Being a musician is a wonderful thing. Going on stage is a privilege every time. I can’t find a negative side.
If you could change one thing about the music industry, what would it be?
Italian Talent shows. They are useless and give a wrong vision to the new generations of what music really is.
Name one of your all-time favourite albums?
Iron Maiden – “Piece Of Mind”
What’s best? Vinyl, Cassettes, CD’s or Downloads?
Today digital music is very useful because it allows you to get anywhere in the world.
On the other hand, however, it leads to a more “fast food” way of listening to music.
Vinyl, Cassettes, CD’s are perhaps less fashionable, less smart but it’s the way our generation has always listened to music.
What’s the best gig that you have played to date?
It was a beer festival in Northern Italy in front of 2500 people.
If you weren’t a musician, what else would you be doing?
I personally have always dreamed of making music my profession and after so many years of commitment I have made it. I have worked for several years as an employee in insurance companies. But at a certain point I decided to pursue my dream.
Which five people would you invite to a dinner party?
Johnny Depp, Alice Cooper, Bruce Dickinson, Jon Bon Jovi and Jani Snellman!
What’s next for the band?
The promotion of the album began immediately in conjunction with the release of the album and so the tour began with the showcase and provides live that will touch both Italian and European cities. We have just returned from dates in Croatia, Hungary and Czech Republic. Now we’ll do other dates in Italy and we’ll go abroad again in the autumn. Then the first video of the new album will also be released soon.
What Social Media/Website links do you use to get your music out to people?
Our website and our facebook page.
https://www.madhouseband.it/
https://www.facebook.com/madhouseliverockband/
Jaffa Cakes? Are they a cake or a biscuit?
There are traditional UK biscuit-sized cakes… Jaffa Cakes are definitely cookies.
Thank you for your time. Is there anything else that you would like to add?
Thanks to your editorial staff for the support you give to our project and a greeting to all readers! We invite you not only to our live shows but also to listen to our new album “MadHouse Hotel” which is available on all digital stores. Follow us on our website www.madhouseband.it and on social networks as “madhouse rockband”.
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