RanestRane - Behind the scenes of the cine-concert

In Cervia, we had the chance to get to know the Roman band RanestRane better. Their highly distinctive "cine-concert" project is about to give birth to a fourth work, "H.A.L.", which we were lucky enough to hear in an absolute preview the night before.

Maurizio Meo, Riccardo Romano, Massimo and Daniele Pomo interrupt their well-earned rest to give us a long chat about cinema, progressive rock, science fiction and a few linguistic considerations.

Many before you have already attempted projects involving scoring films, usually instrumental soundtracks supporting silent films. Your formula stands out quite a bit from the norm, offering something more structured, with your own lyrics interspersed with the film's audio. I'd like to start by asking how the idea for your particular "cine-concert" was born.

DP: It came from the need to create a higher threshold of attention, one that would go beyond the simple progressive or alternative music fan. I think it's usually difficult in our country to promote a genre of music like the one we believe in. So, to attract a hypothetical "average" listener - meaning someone not particularly attuned to progressive rock - to a debut band like ours, we thought of tying our music to images.

We didn't have the financial means to follow a path a little - forgive the blasphemy - like "The Wall", with a film born afterwards and tailor-made for an album that already existed with its own independent theme. We couldn't afford our own Alan Parker, so to speak, nor did we have friends who could help us with that. So we decided to take a pre-existing film and build a concept around it ourselves. Clearly, auteur films were more suited to this in terms of pacing and narrative, much more dilated and less bound to rhythm compared to your average blockbuster.

The idea for "Nosferatu" came from my passion for Herzog and the thought that the character of Dracula could potentially be interesting even for those without a particular passion for cinema. That's where it all started; we saw that the response was good, as was the level of engagement, so we twisted the knife with an even more famous film, Stanley Kubrick's "Shining".

Afterwards there was a gestation period for the third episode. The idea of "2001: A Space Odyssey" was a natural continuation driven by our passion for Kubrick, but at first it actually seemed almost sacrilegious to us, given such an important and imposing soundtrack, one that almost completely overwhelms the film's dialogue. But I believe that if there's respect for the artist's work, you can somehow pull it off. The only difference compared to the past was that we distanced ourselves further - in fact, completely - from the original soundtrack.

The most striking thing I noticed listening to "A Space Odyssey: parts I - 'Monolith'" is that I found it much more independent from the film compared to your past albums. It's really something that easily stands on its own, without the support of the images.

DP: Yes, this time our mission to make our music independent of the film, turning the latter into a mere "bonus", was pursued with greater persistence, and we think we've made very important progress on this front compared to the past.

We got confirmation of this during our European tour, when we had to adapt to situations that didn't allow for the film to be projected behind us, as we normally do. Even though our language was incomprehensible to 99% of the audience, the response was still excellent, so the music proved to be evocative beyond the images or the lyrics. Of course, having Kubrick backing you up helps immensely...

RR: I think ours is a new kind of project, and the most exciting thing about doing something that's genuinely new is that you have no points of reference. Clearly we have our musical references, and there are truly many: Pat Metheny, Pink Floyd, Genesis, to name a few. But when it comes to cine-concerts the way we conceive them, there's nothing.

Along the way, we've refined our own personal technique, which was probably not free of mistakes as it developed. In "Monolith" we believe we've further sharpened the tools at our disposal, having come to understand over time what had worked in the past and what needed rethinking. For example, we believe it's right to make use of the film's dialogue, because it's a fundamental aspect of our project. However, this dialogue needs to be made intriguing and interesting - we can't just stop, breaking the mood, and let it happen in a flat, throwaway way. It was already starting to grow in "Shining", it's more focused in "Monolith", but the upcoming "H.A.L." will prove to be a real leap in quality in this regard. I think on this record we managed to keep the tension high throughout. "H.A.L." never drops the ball.

DP: This will then be taken to an even greater extreme in the final chapter, "Starchild". Consider that the album will start from the death of HAL 9000, and as is well known, from that point on there's no more dialogue until the end of the film. Perhaps that's where we'll reach the sum of all this. Just imagine that gorgeous psychedelic section of the final journey. Then again, let's be honest, if the dialogue in our cine-concerts stays too isolated, not perfectly blended with the music, more often than not, after a few listens, you even start skipping it.

I think one of the high points of "Shining" is precisely during the scene with "il mattino ha l'oro in bocca" [the Italian dubbed line for "heeere's Johnny!"]. There the suspense rises and explodes in the famous line "well, what do you think!", which you don't follow up with any further dialogue, since it would be superfluous.

DP: True. "Shining" is a work we felt was very personal, since it came about during a particularly intense period in our lives, marked by both harrowing episodes like the loss of a parent and opposite ones like a birth. All these things got mixed together during the album's writing period, which incidentally deals precisely with relationships within a family. I was actually talking about this with Riccardo Romano on the drive over here: it's a record that, when I listen to it, brings back strange feelings. There's so much of us in there that you forget about until those tracks start playing again. It's a bit like the art of writing, through which you exorcise negativity and amplify positive energy.

MP: Especially since we're talking about works that easily take 12 months to make, during which you can go through every kind of experience!

DP: Yes, especially considering it's a double album, like "Nosferatu" as well, for that matter. "Monolith" and "Hal", in that sense, were each produced individually in less time, even though the trilogy as a whole will ultimately be the most demanding work of our musical career.

I think it was a good idea to split the concept of "2001: A Space Odyssey" into three chapters. It lets you maintain a steadier presence on the market and put out more accessible releases, which feel less daunting than a demanding double album.

DP: Absolutely. That said, the double album does have its own charm in progressive rock, because it immediately makes you look like a band wanting to propose something significant. In my view, the prog fan isn't looking for simple things, and also wants to be a bit astonished. Some bands, though, lean a little too hard on that factor and end up being overly baroque...

Well, that's perhaps the main plague infesting progressive music, especially today. Being so predictable and contrived in the relentless pursuit of the show-stopping effect!

DP: Exactly! In any case, our choice to start right away with a double album was a move that gave us a certain kind of visibility immediately. Once that initial imprinting was done, it was important to start considering the fluidity that a single album allows you to have. In fact, "Monolith" worked much better in that respect, it's a more cohesive record. You know, you listen to "Shining" and it's a bit of a shame to stop halfway through, also because there's little point in listening to a concept album only partially.

From what I recall, the track lengths on "Monolith" are decidedly longer compared to the two previous works, which were broken up into many small "scenes".

DP: Right, and I don't know if I'm correct in thinking this, but maybe we were a bit wrong to give those records that shape, because we could have also created longer, more organic compositions rather than favoring so many small passages.

RR: Well, "Monolith" benefited from some forward planning. I'm not saying we imposed strict boundaries on ourselves, but we already had clear ideas about it, like making a single album. That's an aspect that shifts the composition process quite a bit. Just think about the ending of that record: writing an ending for an album conceived as a standalone piece is not the same as writing one meant as the first act of a double album.

Then there are other aspects. Personally, for "Monolith" I wanted to create a suite. Ultimately, all our albums are like grand suites, but here I specifically wanted a single track with the typical structure of a progressive suite, and that's how "Semi" was born, perhaps our most choral work.

Anyway, I think the shift from a more fragmented structure, made up of small episodes, to one with just a few macro-acts, was also encouraged by the similar structure found in the film "2001: A Space Odyssey", with those so drawn-out scenes. Am I wrong?

RR: That's right, but it's somewhat the essence of the cine-concert project we're carrying forward with RanestRane. Although, incidentally, it's not certain we'll keep pursuing this style much longer; one of my wishes, so to speak, is to create a classic album of songs with this band, one that isn't tied to a concept, let alone to a film.

You're reading my mind, that would have been my next question!

RR: It obviously won't be the next album, and frankly I doubt it could happen right after this trilogy project is concluded, but it's something I'd like to do at some point in the future. Naturally always in our own style, in the way we understand progressive music. Maybe even just a few tracks with a very complex structure, a collection of small works.

Yeah, we're a bit strange because usually you start with simple records and then every so often a concept album slips in. We'd do the opposite! (laughs, ed.)

But, going back to how the film influences your songwriting...

We do want to be independent, but we never fully cut loose from the film. Sometimes it constrains us, and sometimes it helps drive the inspiration process, especially by dictating the tempos. For instance, over the years we've really honed our synchronization technique. There's a moment on our upcoming album "H.A.L." where we play a syncopated melody synced to a jump-cut zoom into HAL 9000's eye, right as its homicidal madness begins with the killing of Frank, Dave's crewmate.

DP: We started doing this kind of thing with the axe swings from Jack Nicholson in "Shining", as well as with the bone-to-spaceship ellipsis in "Monolith". There, obviously, the film helps you out, and if you don't have the projection live, or worse, can't keep up with it, you lose that element entirely.

Fortunately there's more we want to offer beyond these tricks. Something we share with bands we admire, like Genesis or Marillion, is a real care for melody, something those two bands, in my opinion, managed to bring out even more than other wonderful English prog bands of the '70s. That seems to be confirmed by the shows we've played abroad without video support. Our new fans abroad - even without the video and facing a language they don't understand - were largely struck precisely by the melodic side of our music. The Italian language has an undeniable beauty, but unfortunately we're often served artists who make us kind of "forget" that, so to speak. I'm referring, without naming names, to those attempts that badly imitate foreign hits, at the expense of those who instead reshape Italian music using ideas born abroad without stripping it of its identity.

Actually, one thing I appreciate about RanestRane is that, despite having a distinctly classic sound, you don't ape the typical clichés of the great bands of the past, a fairly widespread trend among up-and-coming Italian bands.

DP: Thanks! I get what you mean, all that fuss about how you have to play in odd time signatures, you have to use this or that effect between moog, mellotron and so on...

RR: The difference lies in being a music lover versus a music consumer. I experience the two as separate things, and for me writing music is an extremely personal process, something that leaves a trace of my passing through this world. Put it this way: if I had to choose between the two, I'd rather have someone play my compositions than play someone else's compositions myself. The first is a celebration, the second is a job. I have to admit that on "H.A.L." there's an actual quotation, maybe the first time we've done it so openly, of an artist we adore: Pat Metheny. But we feel that as a tribute, not an imitation. After all, we play progressive rock, but each of us has roots reaching elsewhere: singer-songwriter music and jazz, to name two.

DP: What's more, our periods of musical influence have always been experienced together, whether it was our Metheny phase, our Fossati phase, or some Floydian revival. Just like we systematically pass along to each other any new artists we discover.

MP: a decisive factor is also sharing our lives. We're like four brothers - besides the two "by blood", which are me and Daniele - who share a lot more than just the rehearsals we do together in the studio. Our lives are closely intertwined, beyond our differences in personality or how much visibility each of us prefers to have.

I imagine that you, being professionals, keep a pretty close eye on the current music scene.

DP: Of course, we don't just look at '70s music: an important reference point for us is Radiohead, maybe the last band we think really gave something truly decisive to music worldwide, a bit like U2 did before them. Then a lot of more recent stuff reaches me thanks to my drum students.

Earlier we were talking about the musical side of things between "Nosferatu", "Shining" and "Monolith".

Honestly, I had some trouble with the vocal lines on the first two albums, which were so heavily descriptive, with less emphasis on their musicality; with "Monolith" I notice you're going for a more metaphorical style and, above all, a more melodic one, better blended with the instrumental side.

DP: You know, each of us is a kind of kaleidoscope of different people taking turns, depending on the moment in life or the time of day. In mine, the drummer is dominant, it's my masculine side, the role I chose and wouldn't give up for anything. I love being the singer and lyricist, but that's not where I started. I obviously admire Phil Collins - as a committed "Collins guy" - for how he managed to master both roles. As a singer I'm decidedly younger and less experienced than in my job as a drummer, though luckily the combination of the two comes fairly naturally to me, despite the conflict that normally exists between the vocal part and the rhythmic one. It's really hard - there are moments when you have to give the groove with your voice and maybe at the same time end up out of time yourself! Fossati helped me enormously in learning how to give weight to the written word. I never like myself when I sing, even today, but I think "Nosferatu" and "Shining" were, for me, two records that were useful to my growth. On "Monolith" I actually feel more convincing.

I admit that playing drums paradoxically gives me a bit more confidence. I can always say: "if you don't like how I sing... well, try doing it while playing an instrument!" (laughs, ed.).

Then, ok, I do have my tricks. On the early albums I was more reckless, whereas on "Monolith" I learned not to put myself in too much difficulty, saving the more vocally demanding parts for when I'm playing something simpler. Also, having the rhythm more closely tied to the vocals really helps foreign listeners, who obviously don't understand our language, appreciate the music better.

And then I have a feeling that your recent lyrics carry a subtler message than in the past.

RR: Yes, think of the word that describes one of our latest tracks: "Semi". It carries a strong meaning that I personally associate with the whole concept behind "2001: A Space Odyssey", namely that we, our intelligence and consciousness, were essentially seeded on Earth by a higher energy that then placed these monoliths scattered across Earth, the Moon and Saturn (or Jupiter, as in the film's interpretation). These monoliths communicate with each other and transmit knowledge. So we are seeds of knowledge. In Clarke's book this concept is explained better than in the film.

DP: The monoliths are doors, especially the one on Saturn. In Kubrick's film this aspect got a bit lost, maybe because the director wasn't too interested in it, but in the book it's nothing less than a door through which Dave enters and goes on an actual journey towards a new state of being.

I also think what we managed to do in the projection you saw yesterday evening, during the performance of "H.A.L.", is really nice: we reworked the scene where the computer's eye goes haywire. There we create a kind of reverse of images that runs backwards through the whole film, all the way to the scene of the ape learning to use the bone as a weapon. With this personal touch we try to reinforce the concept of the "seed", meaning developing an autonomous knowledge so powerful that it manages to create an independent seed of its own, the HAL machine. Unfortunately, a corrupted seed, because in the end it goes on to destroy the life of whoever created it.

Well, deep down HAL's criminal act is nothing but a survival instinct, so in fact a seed entirely compatible with the human one. In fact I really appreciated that reverse editing you created, because it offers a reading I had personally always missed: the parallel between HAL trying to kill Frank and David, and the ape "Moonwatcher" attacking the hunting tigers or the other apes that threaten its existence.

DP: That's true. HAL is nothing but a child, just as the Starchild born at the end of the film is a child too, another seed. It's all one cycle repeating itself, encompassing man, animal and machine.

Besides, the secret of Kubrick's films - as was also the case with "The Shining" - is that the director never shows everything, leaving you with open questions, opening up spaces where you can move around and eventually carry things forward yourself; a bit like all great directors do.

Music can be one of the driving forces through which to move within these spaces and have our say. No one will ever tell us whether what we say about "2001: A Space Odyssey", in particular about this succession of "seeds" from ape to man, to machine and then back to man, is right or wrong. The author is no longer with us... and besides, even if he still were, I doubt he'd have anything to say about RanestRane! (laughs, ed.)

Regarding the decision to sing in Italian: what were the reasons behind a choice that could be called courageous, given the context you operate in, and what resistance did you encounter, including from Italian listeners?

DP: Now you're getting right to the heart of it. The resistance actually came more from Italian listeners than from foreign ones! You see, prog fans want to be surprised, especially the foreign ones. I can assure you there hasn't been a single time when one of our new fans abroad, even the most critical and objective among them, pointed out something like: "Yeah... nice! But, damn, too bad you don't sing in English...". Never! If anything, it's happened often that they told us something like: "I didn't understand a single word, but I loved it!". Deep down they hear it as a kind of ethnic language - after all, Peter Gabriel is someone who often played with exotic languages in his music. His fans certainly never complained about that, but then again they were also primed to expect that kind of thing from him.

RR: You know, there's a funny anecdote. Once a Danish fan, who has a son, told us that he listens to our albums every morning in the car on the way to work, while dropping his kid off at school. Well, basically, this kid became obsessed with our band. You know, when I was eight years old and a huge Europe fan, I learned the whole album by heart, mumbling words I obviously didn't understand, mimicking all the sounds. Well, this little Danish kid did the same thing with us, learning our albums in fake Italian. It's a mind-blowing thing!

I tend to notice this kind of resistance especially in certain music genres, like prog, metal, hard rock. I mean, in singer-songwriter music, who would ever dare say something like "too bad it's sung in Italian"?

DP: True! And also, if I may say so, if people like Steve Hogarth and Steve Rothery of Marillion lent their guitar and voice freely and for nothing to our album, then our language can't have been that much of a problem!

RR: Besides being the first non-English-speaking band ever invited to play their special event, the Marillion Weekend. And who's telling us to sing in English? The Italians! (laughs, ed.).

DP: I mean, let's be honest... if you don't have a native speaker or someone with truly excellent English, singing in English is just a gamble. Consider also the command of language each of us has as a native speaker, with its own figures of speech, idioms... it's practically impossible for a lot of us Italians to write something of the same level in another language. Our language has to be our distinguishing trait, the one thing that can save us from just aping some great band of the past. Then again... if Steve Hogarth offered to sing an entire album for us, there's no way we'd turn him down! (laughs, ed.).

Let's close with what was probably a huge milestone for you: your appearance at the 2015 Marillion Weekend, and on the festival's most important night, no less.

DP: Between our huge admiration for Marillion and the distinction of being the first foreign band to play there, it was probably the biggest responsibility we've ever faced. There were a lot of our European fans there, and above all there were a lot of people who had backed our being on that stage that we didn't want to let down. That was the time I was most nervous, I swear, my heart was pounding so hard I could barely breathe. With a mic fixed right in front of my mouth, I had to be careful not to pant too much... it was brutal! On top of that, I just assumed Marillion wouldn't even be listening to our set, too busy getting ready to play after us. Instead we found all of them backstage at the end of the show. Hogarth was beaming, saying he'd never heard a response like that from their audience for an opening act. Coming back down to earth after all that wasn't easy - for us, the whole thing felt like an almost unimaginable dream.

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