ataraxia

Ataraxia - December 2001 Lyon (F)

- Can you tell us where the name Ataraxia comes from?

- (Francesca + Giovanni) It comes from greek philosophy. It means a "peace of the soul". It's a way to overcome pain, suffering and also joy. It's a way to overcome all the things that happen usually in a normal life, to get a sort of equilibrium, a sort of balance. To overcome passions to get the wisedom of someone who has lived conscient of this experience. Something that is not possible of reach, it's just an illusion, it's just a name. But not something that can be reality.

- Isn't there a contemplative aspect in Ataraxia? It seems quite paradoxal; your music is so moving and brings so much emotions, whilst a state of Ataraxia should be something that is neutral in some ways...

- Yes. I know what you mean. Even if the tracks are moving, they move emotions and things like that. This means that this status, I mean Ataraxia, is like Nirvana for instance. So you can reach the status of the soul, of your mind, with every song. But this is something that you have to reach yourself. Any means is suitable this way, and I think our music basically helps to get this status of mind. I don't think it's a matter of good tunes, sad tunes... every tune can take you to that. We especilally think our music can help. You just told, and other people told, that our songs are full of emotione, and this is strange. As I told you it's an overcome, so it's a journey. Songs have those emotions. Step by step, those emotions have to be cleaned just to get a sort of peace, a sort of balance of give the idea of beauty. It's difficult because beauty can be considered as something personal. I want to say a beauty that is more sublime. Something general that can be take and seen by everybody. Universal beauty.

- How did your work evolve since the first tape releases like Nosce Te Ipsum, for example? Did it change?

- Yes, of course. Many things have changed: the musicians, some of the musicians, and also the music. The beginning was very harsh. We began using instruments in a very harsh way. We were more linked to post-punk and gothic dark music. It was a sort of fight agains the world, against ourselves, to find that balance. Step after step, we learned to appreciate our work, not just to throw out rage and pain. And that moment was the moment of our third tape. We began creating music that was also pleasant. Always nostalgic, never happy, never full of life; but it gave an idea of hope at least in dreams, at least in your imagination, if not in your actual life. And from CD to CD have always put songs that move our envelopping gentle, and gives an idea of pleasure, what I imagine in ancient Greece, that color, that environment, even on songs that are harsher who remember our past. Also the technique of the musicians has improved. So we are no more used to use instruments like tools or just like weapons, we want to caress our instruments. And inside we are more healthy, more conscient of our possibilities also. In the last years, Francesco, a new member has joined the band, so we have eliminated all the electronic things. We have just a keyboard that is played in a very classical way. Now we use percussions and male voice, so we have the medieval on one side and the etherial on the other. And also something that I should call "music of the travel". Everything we receive when we travel we can transmit to our music. The experience of different countries, of different mentalities, of different people passes through us and we give it back. It's a sort of world music (laughs)... in a way... experience of the world...

- How did you get in touch with Roger Karmanik and Cold Meat Industry?

- Roger (pronouncing the swedish way). The first time I wrote him because Iwas curious. Our band was born in about the same time Cold Meat was born. He comes from the punk movement and I have also lived that time. I was curious to talk to someone from a different country. We began writing each other letters. He's very busy and it's difficult to have a real correspondance with him, but in that case, we shared ideas abour music, about life... and production. He appreciated immediately our music, and began releasing it. We have a good relationship with him. He is someone who lets you compelety free to decide, to chose. He respects everything he says. It will go on with the next CD. It's a good collaboration.

- So, it's not an exclusive contract? You can release stuff elsewhere?

- Yes. In fact we can. We signed a contract just for the releases he will produce. We are free To do everything else. We are respectful, because we don't want to produce a thousand things, but if there is the need to do something with someone who is actually involved. Calliope will be produced by a Brazilian guy who is a friend of us, and follows the bad for a while. He decided to do this for the 15 years of the band. So, it was a good reason. We had problems with some previous labels we had because of that thing of independance. Not just music, because we have always been free musically. Sometimes ccontracts kills creativity because they put you in a situation like you have chains. And we are sure we can not create in these conditions. So we needed absolutely something like that.

- What is the weight you put in live concerts related to studio work?

- I think we put the same energy on the two things. And I think we couldn't just be just a live band, and we could not be just a recording band. The live activity is actually very important to create. It's a communion among the members of the band. That energy is to give and to receive. After many years, many things have improved. We have travelled in Europe & Latin America. We have reached the possibility to write music. We have been in Greece, and we have written music inspired by this travel; we have been in Portugal and we have written music inspired by this travel... So it's something complementary. In the studio, as Francesca said, we are inspired sometimes by travelling. It's always a question of the soul as I've told you before. We put in music what we feel; then Francesca creates a story, creates the background for a song. Musically there something that grows inside us. Even when Francesca creates the base of vocals she really feels what she's singing. She has an imagery and she sings about that. It could sound sufficient but it's not. It's always a question of the soul, and emotions. You always put in music what you feel. Even if you don't think of it at the moment. I think music is basically a good means of expression. I couldn't be in another art. We are happy about it. I would like to add that we have the cance to have Vittorio the guitar player who is very good at recording and mixing, and we do everyting alone; he does. So we can produce our things artistically. And we give our final product to the label. So we can control everything and decide what to do, how to do... so it begins and ends with us.

- When I first heared about Ataraxia about 10 years ago, a friend of mine from Rome sent me a tape saying "it could be an excellent 4AD band". What are your influences? Did this 4AD sound influence you at the beginning?

- Strangely not at all. Because each of us had different musical experiences. I personally was involved in harsher things. I listed a lot to bands like UK Decay, Virgin Prunes, the first Current 93, everything that was experimental at that time and also noise and things like that... Giovanni was very involved in the new wave of the eighties, a bit more melodic, especially english things; Vittorio was more involved in ambient and electronic things of the seventies like Tangerine Dreams, Pink Floyd; and Francesco now especially with ancient music, medieval and accoustic things. So we have put together all our influences and this is the result. I don't know for 4AD. There are some voices, perhaps soinds. But at the beginning people were shocked because of my voice because they were used to listen to more graceful and higher tones. My voice was a male one, androgyn.

- It was pleasant. A special feature for Ataraxia at the begining...

- Some people said that, some others had other avice... (laughs) Some people think that perhaps a woman should sing in a way... I'm the two. I have the male and the female part and I'm conscient of that. I thnik we're just actors in a way. If one should play comedy he must look a certain way. If we have to create we must be the most inherant as possible. At that time we had a very different imagery than nowadays. We read gothic novels and had these ideas with the terrible things the church did in the past years. We had to recreate that atmosphere. We had to be inherant to that. We could not do pop ballads for instance (laughs). I mean if you have a theme you have to be inherant. That's the rightest thing. Luckilly we are not a band with all the people dressed the same way, thinking the same, reading the same books, listening to the same music... this is the richness, because he have differenet ideas but together the magic happens on the stage and when we record.

- Is there anybody in particular you'd like to work with?

- (Francesca) A big name... (laughs) If I could: Philip Glass.

- All your albums are conceptual. Do things come naturally or merger from a long time?

- They do come naturally. as I've said before there's always context. Francesca links Vittorio's melodies and mines. She links everything. She's very clever. So we talk about the project and then our melodies come out naturally. They can be das, they can be ballads, and there Francesca always reaches unification of the context. In the beginning, I was very involved in litterature and literally subjects. I always put that in music. I becan from the lyrics and wnated to explain all the things I have read, to transmit all the things I have lived through litterature. Now I think things have changed a lot. There are concepts, but based on images and colors. On situations I have lived out of litterarture. So the next album will be like that. It will be linked to other things, and we will begin to create all together for the very first time. It will be a collection of situation linked to places. For me the situation in fundamental with music and lyrics.

- You went to Paris to study paintings. Like following the steps of the templars, a way of linking your music...

- (Francesca) You mean like la dame à l'alcool. This was very strange. The first time I went to Paris, I went to that museum, and I saw that woman, and I saw myself in her. The face, and the dress. For me it was a shock. For two years unconsciously, I thought of that. After these two years, I went back there. I also had a dream in Mexico about that. I needed to go. I had the chance in the Summer to go there for two or three times and in front of that I discoved many more things. I linked that to my personal experience. I wrote some of the lyrics using sapho's poems that were very suitable. I collected everything. The meaning of the painting, the meaning of the five senses.

- Are you very popular in Italy?

- For several years we tried to be produced in Italy, but nobody answered. As soon as we took contact with Germany and other countries, we were produced. We have some things in France also and in Portugal... We also had many requests from Holland and other places. Things in Italy changed. And now we play a lot. We are one of the bands of this kind who plays everywhere. I'm very proud of that because Italian listeners now are very open-minded towards music in general. At the beginning they came to our concerts and laughed because we had theatrical things that were maybe strange at the beginning, music that also put together things coming from the church with something gothic, something historical, something baroque, ... Step after step, people has grown with us. Now it's great to play in Italy. We like a lot to play there like in other countries. We like to play in Latin America a lot. France has always been very good. It's the 4th time we play in France.

- Is there an actual scene in Italy or just individuals?

- The last you said. Now it's like this. Everybody separated and it's not very good. But we do not belong to this period. We were born in the 90s, and it was very different in Italy, we had many friends, many bands. We wrote each other, we played with with each other, we appreciated each other music, we gave advices... it was a continuous exchange, a great scene. Then many of these bands have died because they did not find contracts, a way to go on. everybody grows and if you have no satisfaction at all you stop. If you are very strong you go on, but it's very difficult. Now, musically it has improved a lot, I'm sincere, because we have many persons who have the largest influences. A lot of medieval things, everything. But there is not unity, not exchange. We are not really part of that anymore, so I can not say more. It depends on time, on age, on many things...

- Is there a special place in the world where you'd like to play?

- Mont Saint Michel, "sans doute". In Paris again, or in Greece on an Island. There are islands ogranizing concerts in ancient sites. Maybe one day. We have lots of opportunities to plays in wonderful places. In Italy, in Portugal, in Spain, but also in Argentina...

- What's you best concert souvenir?

- There are several. I don't know. There is not only one. The last one was in Portugal. We have played in an ancient cave that seemed like a cathedral. We have always told everybody that our music was made of water and stone, and that place was water and stone. The stone of the place were actual stones, and the water of the river was outside the big windows. Wen I was playing I could see the water and the stones. It was great.

- The worst concert?

- It was in the beginning. After 2 years we were playing, we went to a place where people had no reactions at all. It was not Ataraxia goal. It's important also that kind of experience. It's an experience (laughs).

- A Special word for the end?

- (Francesca) I hope that Ataraxia will have a long life. A still long life. If not, I hope it will finish naturally...

check the official Ataraxia homepage: www.ataraxia.net