Tregor Russo, Dionisyan's founding member, has been an artist, music teacher, actor, director, radio speaker, and photo reporter among other vocations. What inspired him to form the band? What bands did he previously work with?
I made DIONISYAN for the very important influence that Sicily had on all fronts of art, culture, politics, democracy, history and more in the period of Magna Greece, from the eighteenth century to the two hundred before Christ.
Surely DIONISYAN are the never life as I love DOOM METAL especially the extreme one, rich in techniques, complex, intricate and complicated in the compositions. Dionisyan were one of my first most appreciated and internationally recognized projects.
I have composed and arranged all my albums entirely, but the one that has sold more than twenty thousand copies is the second album Delirium and Madness which came out in 2017, then The first ep Land Of Dreams was instead printed in 2012, while the first album The Mystery of Faith in 2014, both also with excellent international acclaim.
Inside me, there is a constant catharsis, synonymous with change and at the same time my music also changes. My visionary madness as a multifaceted and whimsical artist can be contagious and intriguing. In all DIONISYAN Albums I have combined classical music with progressive rock and metal!
There are no specific categories, you will see what I will come up with.
To fuse atmospheric doom metal with melodic death metal, prog rock, medieval, ethnic, Middle Eastern, and classical music, what was the inspiration? How much are the other band members involved in this development?
I am a Professional Artist, Music Teacher, Composer, Arranger, Singer, Poet, Writer, Actor, Movie Director, Music Producer, Sound Engineer, Artistic Director, Radio Speaker and Photoreporter.
In all my Music Productions I have played 6, 7 and 8 string electric guitars, classical guitar, 4 and 5 string bass, drums, keyboards, percussion and various ethnic instruments, having also written all the lyrics and English poems for all the concepts of my Albums.
In my productions innovative, original and revolutionary ideas are proposed, amalgamating various genres including Metal, Classical, Jazz Fusion, Progressive Rock, Traditional Middle Eastern, Ethnic, Latin and Folk.
My great passion, professionalism, elegance, refinement are the ingredients that distinguish me as an Artist, always ready to experiment and evolve with a very personal style that makes all my works unique in their kind. Yes, I studied in various academies and became a first-level teacher of music, as well as composer, arranger, orchestrator and opera singer.
I love music since I was practically born and from an early age I was a child prodigy, destined to take this path that would lead me to realize my professional career.
With whom are you collaborating in Dionisyan? Was it difficult to find other musicians who wanted to cross over so many different genres to work with?
I Played all the Instruments in the Recording Studio, I directed the male gregorian singers who took part in the recording of Album of which an opera female singer and the little female chorus, alternating their voices and vocal techniques, with a great result, recluting them from the regional Academy Music of Palermo.
For the third Opera LAST MILLENNIUM I had decided to propose it as a one man band, among other things I have always done everything I therefore did not change anything, except for the fact that the sessions were only for doing live concerts.
Currently I don't feel the need to have others in the Band, then one day who knows to make lice concerts…
What is the importance of classical music in Dionisyan's songwriting?
The Last Millennium’s Third Opera was deliberately written, composed and arranged in polyrhythmic contrapuntal polyphonic by Me, throughout the Album is also the first and the second album a great musical innovation dawns where together with progressive melodic death metal and atmospheric doom metal, melting and combined classical music, music baroque, Gregorian chants, creating a unique masterpiece of its kind, among other things playing all the instruments being a multi-instrumentalist, singing in Clean, Harsh and Growl styles to give a deep identity of my Innovative Music.
How much experience do the other band members have and how does this benefit Dionisyan?
Alone I worked on this last Third Album for a total of two months, as all DIONISYAN’s albums and ep, creating the main melodic lines with the seven-string electric guitar, and then writing the other compositions and arrangements for the other musical instruments!
For that Third Opera LAST MILLENNIUM my ways of composing music was intricate and complex as always, but Last Millennium is different from the others, over the years I have created my own. Style, making it unique for the richness of the details that I put in each of my compositions to make my works very fascinating and mystical at the same time.
My way of composing usually follows the realization of a score of the main melodic line of a rhythm guitar, on which I then compose everything else in superimposition.
The music gradually and currently mixes doom metal and baroque music, giving the band a good standout. Escaping the commonplace where many bands meet, DIONISYAN makes a difference, presenting distinct and refined music.
So far, the band has released an EP and three full-length albums. Are they all independently released or do labels assist you in promoting and distributing any of them?
In this period me, the Decibel label and Ocularis Inferno managements promote together the third Album LAST MILLENNIUM of DIONISYAN, as well as being my last seventh album in my career.
They are a little label but in this absurd and chaotic period that we are living in the pandemic, everything has slowed down, or almost completely stopped due to the infections and we are waiting for the plant from Austria to print the physical CDs, postcards and T-shirts to finally be able to sell to all my fans around the world.
The band came to the fore in 2010 and in 2012 released the Land of Dreams Ep. Subsequently came the full-lengths The Mystery of Faith - (2014), Delirium and Madness (Concerto Grosso Opera №2 in G Minor) - (2017), and in (2021), Last Millennium.
Dionisyan's music from the beginning stood out for including atypical instruments to metal.
The music gradually and currently mixes atmospheric doom metal and baroque music, giving the band a good standout. Escaping the commonplace where many bands meet, Dionisyan makes a difference, presenting distinct and refined music. You know religion has no weight and does not revolve around my life and neither in my art. Yes in Italy people live in Catholicism but it is completely subjective.
Everyone lives religion on the basis of their beliefs, their mentality, the standard of living, the type of rank to which they belong, traditions, customs and so on. Certainly I speak of Christian religion in DIONISYAN because I am fascinated by many aspects that I like to analyze and examine in my albums, especially in the new third album LAST MILLENNIUM by my DIONISYAN, where I wrote a Concept to talk about an old Sicilian Prophecy.
How does each of your releases represent a step in your life evolution?
My first artistic and cultural memories date back to high school, that's where I started writing without stopping. “I loved French decadence and Italian romanticism. I saw myself again, as a character, in the poignant Foscolo or in the Leopardi complex “. It is a world, that of sensitivity and suffering, which I could no longer do without. An exploit of emotions that leads to an intrinsic change of personality. “I am extremely tormented. Sadness, melancholy and loneliness become my inspiring muses. Elements dealt with, in fact, in my first two books entitled Catarsi Redentrice, published by La Zisa Edizioni in 2018 and Al Rintoccar dei Sensi Assopiti published by Ex Libris Edizioni in 2020 both in Italy and in Europe, which I dealt with the themes of the contemporary era such as philosophy, spirituality and religion ". Love is precisely the noblest feeling at the basis of catharsis. "Love is something personal. Knowing how to listen and understand becomes fundamental. Like a flower that must be grown every day ". These and many other Words of mine are found in my first Two Books, in which I have constantly evolved. My Art that is transformed. Mute. I am also the Artist who pulls violent and sanguine music out of the guitar permeated by the poignant and melancholy melody, that is, In August 2021 my new Third Book entitled "Le Ferite Dell’Essere" published by Melqart Communications Editore was released, dealing with themes such as the absence of the ego, mental decline, self-centeredness, decadence and spiritual rebirth, inspired by my life experiences, enriched by some artistic photographs which I was able to rewrite my soul with a pen. Here I wrote aphorisms, long lyrics and thoughts which then became elements of the lyrics of our lives. While for my books I began to deal with the theme of love. It also deals with the mystery of faith, resurrection, philosophy, psychoanalysis and much more”.
Tell us why your song "In The Mirror Of My Soul" was chosen for a promotional video for your album "Delirium and Madness - Concerto Grosso Opera N° 2 in G Minor".
I Chose IN THE MIRROR OF MY SOUL song because is one of complex baroque doom metal song of the album with a typical baroque guitar virtuosism, giving a special atmospheric sound at the song.
The second work of my DIONISYAN was Delirium And Madness, a true Opera Metal but in the key of Baroque Music, in the full style of the Concerto Grosso of the first half of the eighteenth century.
I composed, arranged, orchestrated all the music and played all the instruments in the recording studio, I directed the two female singers who took part in the recording of the album of which an opera singer and a modern singer, alternating their voices and vocal techniques, with a great result.
How many promotional videos has the band produced in total? What companies have you worked on these videos with?
As Director, Executive Producer and Actor, I made and released the two Official Videoclips SPHERES OF HOURGLASS and DISMAL EMPTINESS I collaborate with Olga Kann artist graphic from Ukraine for the second lyric video PREDICTIONS and with Modotive artist graphic from Italy for the first Lyric Video GARDEN OF LOST SHADES.
All the promotional official video and lyric video were created for the Third Album LAST MILLENNIUM.
You can watch on Youtube the first promotional Lyric video "PREDICTIONS".
The second promotional Lyric Video “GARDEN OF LOST SHADES”.
The frst promotional Official Video “SPHERES OF HOURGLASS”.
The second promotional Official Video “DISMAL EMPTINESS”.
The Lyric Video and Official Video are taken off upcoming Third Album "Last Millennium" which will be released worldwide on June 10th 2022 via Decibel Productions.
Does Dionisyan have anything new coming out in the near future? If so how soon can we expect its release?
Actually I am working on a new Double Album with my other professional musical project GATES OF EDEN, which I created an original, complex, intricate and innovative Progressive Ethnic Metal!
In the meantime, I want to thank you for having interviewed you and let both my old and my new fans know what I do in my artistic and cultural life.
I invite you to buy your copies with the postcards and t-shirts of new Third Chapter of my DIONISYAN band, entitled LAST MILLENNIUM.
Pre-order "LAST MILLENNIUM" to get limited edition jewel case CDs, postcards and T-Shirts. Stellar production with amazing music compositions and arrangements, melancholy lyrics of the Third DIONISYAN's Metal Opera.
-Dave Wolff
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