The group is about to go on stage and write the second part of Spiritual Revolution, the opportunity for us to ask some questions to David, singer and keyboard player of the group.
Jean-Christophe : Could you describe in a few words the band Sailor Free, his genesis, his music ?
David PETROSINO : It's hard to do that in few words and not to sound “wikipedian”. We have been friends and we have played together before Sailor Free started. With this band the main goal, since the beginning, was to create an own sound, free from genres and labels. We never had the same musical passions, but we've always shared the same goal, the same approach.
Jean-Christophe : Spiritual Revolution is your third album after the eponym Sailor Free in 1991 and The fifth door in 1994, why so many years between the two albums ?
David PETROSINO : We stopped our live activity with SF in 1996, working on other projects, but our personal, artistic and musical relationship didn't stop. We actually started working on this wider musical project some fourteen years ago. And we had to manage how to do a big production without big money.
Jean-Christophe : A prog concept album in these years of easy listening music, techno and short radio tracks, why this choice ?
David PETROSINO : The only chance we have, as artists, is to be honest and follow our personal sense of beauty and meanings. If you start cutting here and there to make it more “accessible” for the established taste, you are f...inished. I think the question is: do you want to do something to have success, or you want to do something, than try to make it successful?
Jean-Christophe : In France, the release of a prog album is a real adventure and there’s not really an audience for this music, is it the same problem in Italy ?
David PETROSINO : Yes, definitely. I think the question is around the word “professional”. This word means quality and money. To have good quality you need good gear, professional collaborations and all the time needed to think and to do. The problem is that mainstream and majors practically control every way to make it professional. And this is wrong! But I think it's a struggle we have to accept.
Jean-Christophe : How arrived the idea of the album, the concept and the notions of spiral ? Is the story inspired by real events ?
David PETROSINO : It has been a long process. We started inspired by a story included in The Silmarillion of Tolkien. Beren & Lùthien is a small story, a chapter of the book, but is so amazingly full of matters and meanings that we plan, at first, to write a musical or a rock opera on it. We had many meetings and sessions trying to catch our idea of spiritual revolution, the story of entropia, the music... Obviously we had stops. Some four years ago we met people from SRP spiritual revolution people; it's a movement and a website with creative ideas for change. The spiral is energy and gives the idea of the big global change that is growing in the whole world.
Jean-Christophe : Who does what, music, lyrics, is it a common work ?
David PETROSINO : I had many musical project in my career, but I must admit that SF it's for me the real band. Although I write the lyrics, I write with The Hook most of the songs, everything comes out from common work. We often start with improvisation on a specific idea, or matter, and the collective arrangements are parts of the composition process.
Jean-Christophe : There are many musical influences in the album, Harmonium, King Crimson, Pink Floyd... Could you tell the readers witch musics did you listen when you were young ? (for me it was JS Back, Johnny Haliday, ACDC and after that Genesis... yes, I Know)
David PETROSINO : Well, I don't know Harmonium (and I'm sorry about that) but I think that King Crimson and Pink Floyd influenced music and musicians for decades. I don't know what to say, I'm honest. I love and loved so many different music styles... If you want I can make a list of a twenty, but I'm sure I would forget something important.
When I was very young I thought that I was good in doing the music I like to listen. But that happened long before Sailor Free started. At a certain point you realize your real vibes and start to tell your own story.
Jean-Christophe : Could you give us a top five of 2012 albums ?
David PETROSINO : 50 Words For Snow – Kate Bush
MMXXII – Killing Joke
Wovenhand The Laughing Stalk
Childhood’s end – Ulver
Heritage – Opeth
Jean-Christophe : Stupid question, Spiritual Revolution is inspired by JRR Tolkien, have you seen The Hobbit and what do you think of the adaptation ?
David PETROSINO : Yes, of course. I must admit that a trilogy on the Hobbit, that is not The LotR, sounds a bit commercial, doesn't it? But I'm so deeply excited about Jackson's reconstruction of the Middle Earth, that I’m happy to have other nine hours to spend there!
Jean-Christophe : What are your projects now after this third album ? Live ? Writing and recording ?
David PETROSINO : Hopefully the three of them! We mean to play this SR on stage (we'll start touring in spring), and than, being this album Spiritual Revolution part 1, we have to release part 2... we must complete the story. It's our mission.
Rédigé par Jean-Christophe le 18/01/2013