Aura

A burgeoning Italian Prog Metal/Rock act, AURA have taken a long time to develop into releasing their debut album in 2008, given their formation in the late 90's. Now they are on a steady stream of releasing fresh, new music, combining technical metal with 70's Prog vibes. Zohar shared a few words with them about the struggles of trying to 'make it' as a self-produced act, Italy's music scene and the band's musical inspirations.

Why did you choose to release 4 Eps before your first LP? Looking back, was waiting so long the right decision?

There is a problem: this is not our first LP, but rather the third

What are your plans for the near future? Will you be touring in promotion of the new album and where?

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

How if at all do all your line-up changes affect the sound of the band and dynamics in the band?

Currently 3 of 4 elements of the band are the original founders of the band, and this easily helps us following the road we had taken so many years ago. The harmony and friendship are the glue to our sound and our way of understanding music.

Why do you write in English? Did you ever consider writing in Italian?

We thought about it a lot but sometimes, considering our music genre  and the interest that Italy has in relation to this music, it seemed more appropriate to sing in English because it is a genre that is predominantly Anglophone.

What is your favorite country to tour in?

There is not a favorite place geographically speaking but without doubt it is a place where people are involved by the genre of music proposed and the desire to discover new music and new musicians, this place is absolutely Italy unfortunately.

Do you maintain a daily job in addition to your career in music?

Absolutely, we all have a daily job outside of music because in Italy it is really difficult to live as full-time musicians, it is not easy to organize tours and above all there is always a need for significant investment.

Is there a prog-rock scene in Italy? Do you feel you share some kind of camaraderie with bands in your home land?

In Italy there are so many good bands but there isn’t  a real proper scene because unfortunately as I said before, in Italy it is difficult to find many venues to  play at where people are interested in this or that Italian band. There was a great scene in the 70's but made use of an ideological movement and change was almost a social movement.

What inspires you to write songs? What do you usually write about?

We are inspired by everything that happens to us or what happens in the world, in fact our last album mainly concerns social issues and problems of cohesion that is perceived nowadays.

If you think about the younger generations  who are now living locked in a screen of a PC believing that that is the real world, as you can imagine  it is a widespread lack of real contact between people and this is only damage to sociability, and our exhortation to face together the problems of the present day, to rebel, to be together without being forced to accept these things imposed to us

Who are the artists that influenced you the most?

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 are not concerned 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.

Give us some advice to young upcoming bands.

The advice we can give to new bands is to be honest with themselves and be authentic, you  must put out  what you have within yourself without there being too many calculations in thinking that people will like this or that, if you are honest with yourself the same people will understand and will understand your music.