Second chapter in their fast rising career, the follow-up to their acclaimed 2019 debut ‘De Rerum Natura’, Moonlight Haze’s ‘Lunaris’released on 12 June 2020. In our interview we talked to the singer Chiara Tricarico among others about the reactions of the album, the band and about her favorites. Thanks again for her cooperation!
Hello, Chiara! First of all, I would like to congratulate you on the album Lunaris!
Thank you, I’m glad you like it!
What was the general feedback on Lunaris?
Well, we have received a very positive feedback, so far.
You know, “Lunaris” was released last June, so it was right in the middle of the pandemic, so we did not know what to expect… but we are happy that both the press and the audience gave a warm welcome to the album and also the release party for the album in Milan was sold out (both shows). We were planning to play more gigs but they have been cancelled/postponed due to the new restrictions, unfortunately…
Your career is soaring extremely fast, because Moonlight Haze has only a two-year history, but you’ve already come up with your second album. Where did you get so much inspiration? What does the songwriting process look like in the band?
We got very inspired to write the second album like one month after the release of the first one. Both the writing and recording process of “De Rerum Natura” were such a beautiful experience that we could not wait to be back at writing and recording. We get the inspiration from many different things: everyday life, books, legends, movies, nature, colors and so on…
Usually Giulio starts writing the instrumental parts of the songs, then we share ideas and then I write the vocal melodies and the lyrics.
May I ask you who designed and made your beautiful microphone stand? 🙂
It was me! I’ve always been in love with custom mic stands and I asked some singer friends to suggest me a craftsman who could make my dream come true, so they suggested me the amazing Enrico from Radioactive Mic Stands who created my “Moonlight Mic Stand” starting from a sketch that I drew.
I think it clearly looks that the band members are close friends too. Did the band’s line-up get up quickly? How often do you rehearse? (I mean, how often did you rehearse before the covid situation?)
Well, I can say that we get along well, so far, ahah! The original idea of forming Moonlight Haze came from Giulio. We had been playing for the same band for many years in the past, and when the both of us were out, he called me and asked me to form a new one, because we have very similar musical tastes. I wasn’t so convinced at first, because starting a new project from the very beginning requires much effort. But then he sent me the first three demo songs he wrote and I immediately fell in love with them… so we started looking for band members together. I already had Ale and Alberto in mind, while Giulio really wanted Marco to join us. We all had been knowing each other for a long time from other projects/live experiences and we were super lucky that they fell in love with the songs and accepted to join us very quickly.
How often do we rehearse? Well, since Giulio and the rest of the band live on the opposite parts of Northern Italy (and even the other members, except for Alberto and AJ who live very close to each other, live in different cities in the North East) we do not rehearse very often: we prefer to meet for a couple of days before a show and rehearse the whole setlist instead of rehearsing once a week, which would be definitely too complicated for us.
When did you start singing? Was there a point in time when you decided that you wanted to be a singer?
I’ve started taking singing lessons when I was 16. Before then, I’ve always loved singing and I had been playing the piano for many years. So there was not a specific time that made me think “I want to become a singer”, but music has always been an important part of my life.
How did your family feel about your connection with singing? Did they supported you and your dreams? Is there any musician in your family?
They gave me the chance to attend music courses and also drove me to rehearsals before I got the driving license, so… yes, they were supportive! And yes, there is a musician in the family… my grandfather plays the violin and was the first person to introduce me to the world of music, because I spent hours listening to him practicing, and that it why I decided to play there piano when I was a child. I really wanted to play with him!
I can hear that your voice is well trained, and you can bring a variety of techniques impressively. When did you start training your voice?
As I said above, I started taking singing lessons during high school and I started with operatic singing. After some years, my teacher suggested me to also study modern singing and that gave me the right mindset to open up to other singing styles.
When and how did you get to love rock/metal?
Again, it was during high school. Before that I had been mainly listening to classical music and opera.
What reactions do you get in connection with your music in your country and worldwide?
Metal is not the most popular music genre in Italy, for sure, but we have many supporters here and they are amazing. About the other Countries… well, we really feel a strong connection with Japan, since we have many influences coming from the Asian culture and our music seems to be very appreciated also in Northern Europe and the US. Needless to say, we really can’ wait for the moment when playing live gigs and touring will be allowed again so that we can bring our music worldwide!
What is your best experience with Moonlight Haze so far?
There are many, actually. But some memories that will stay forever in my heart certainly come from the week we spent together in a very isolated place up the in the mountains, just the five of us, last summer. We had the chance to share ideas, rehears, work and party together, as well! Not to mention the high quality Italian food we cooked together… well, mainly Marco and Alberto did!
Did you have funny and/or strange moments during concerts?
I wouldn’t say that we had “strange” moments on stage, but many funny situations always happen! One of the most recent happened during the “Lunaris” release party in Milano, when I sang the Japanese version of the song “The rabbit of the Moon”… since there is a Japanese word in the lyrics that sounds quite funny in Italian (and it took quite a long time for me to record it without laughing) I had to sing the whole song on stage without looking at the other members of my band, because otherwise I knew I would have not be able to sing the rest of the song seriously.
What can you tell us about your personal life? What do you do for a living? Have you studied something?
Well, I like to keep my private life… private! About work: I am a vocal coach, but before deciding to be a full time musician I also got a Master Degree in Molecular Biology… I guess you can find some scientific hints here and there through my lyrics.
What are your plans for the near future?
It’ super hard to make plans during this crazy 2020… we have recorded some video contents to share with our supporters in the next weeks that will give the audience some nice insights to our album “Lunaris”. Then we are booking some shows for next summer, hoping that they will be allowed to take place. We have already announced that we will take part of the Rock Castle Open Air in Moravsky Krumlov, Czech Republic, next August and we are working on other gigs that we cannot reveal yet.
FAVORITES
Food: Sushi
Drink: Wine!!
Movie: hard to choose… one that I’ve recently watched and liked very much is the Hunger Games series
Book: same as for the movies… I would mention Dracula by Bram Stoker, which a read last year and that I really enjoyed
Singer/Band: too many!
Color: Black, green, purple
Moonlight Haze song: c’mon, it’s Iike asking a mother which son is her favorite!
Country: I’ve loved almost all the places I’ve visited, so far
Sport: hiking and swimming
Pet: cats are purrrrfect!