1. Hi Roberto, nice to have you here at ALTvenger. Can you introduce Roberto Del Vecchio and his work to our readers? We would like to know more about you.
Hi Marija, thanks for your invitation. I started to compose music in 1994 when I formed Gothica. I released two albums via the Swedish label Cold Meat Industry. In 2004, after Gothica’s split, I created The Last Hour. In December 2008, debut CD of the same name came out on Other Voices Records. In December 2014, the new album “Deadline” came out on Seventh Crow Records and The White Room Netlabel. In 2005, my side project Les Jumeaux Discordants came alive by the union of my music and Aima. LJD is a ritual project that presupposes a strong interaction between poetry, image and music.
2. In particular, we are interested in your project “The Last Hour”. How did you decide to bring it to life? Did you feel a need to create something more, something that you haven’t yet told through music?
The Last Hour was born in 2004 when I composed the first song “Into Empty Depth” for the Cold Meat Industry sampler “Flowers Made of Snow”. The name The Last Hour represents my death and my rebirth at the same time. During our life we can die many times and rise again from the ashes stronger than before. I chose to create something new, something different from the past. I’ve always loved electronic sounds and synthesizers.
3. As I have listened to both of “The Last Hour” albums, I really find it hard to label them easily. They are dark and provoke certain feelings, I would say introspective thoughts and emotions, so where does the drive for such work generate from?
My music comes from the depth of my soul. I pour my feelings, my visions, each experience that I have, the universe and the art that surround me into my music.
4. What I have noticed is that your first album released in 2008 is a bit darker in expression, I would say dark ambient rather than dark or cold wave, so what are your feelings towards that album?
I sense feelings of love and death. My first album is like black and white photography where lights and shadows intertwine to draw infinite arabesques of love and death among the paths of restlessness.
5. Your instrumental tracks are no less impressive, I would name In Search of the Infinite as one. They can also be found on the second album. Were they something that you felt belonged to your albums naturally?
Yes. I’ve always composed instrumental tracks during these years. Music without words lets me dream with my imagination and they are so special and mysterious for me. Furthermore, I love cinema and soundtracks have always inspired my compositions.
6. What are the main subjects for your lyrics?
Lyrics talk about the fight between illusion and reality, life and dream, the door towards the infinite, the inconceivable worlds, the cosmic space, the nowhere. I communicate with the universe, with the silence of God, searching for a sense to breathe.
7. On “Deadline” we can still hear the core of your sound and expression, but in a way it is more diverse overall. It is less ambient than the first one and some tracks certainly have more beat and more recognizable tunes but what they share is your creative signature, the dark feel. What makes you so devoted to the dark-ambient-atmosphere sound?
It’s a sound that lives deep inside me. It’s due to my introspective character. I love solitude, to stay alone, to feel the dark sounds of existence.
8. On “Deadline” you have a cover song for Winning from The Sound. What made you choose that particular song?
“Winning” is my tribute to the memory of a great artist Adrian Borland and The Sound. “Winning”, with its overwhelming rhythm, is a song with great emotional intensity that touched me deeply. I love their music and I was impressed by their story. They were one of the most underrated bands ever.
9. Would you name some of the artists you find influential or inspirational for your own creation?
My favorite artists are: Joy Division, Depeche Mode, Dead Can Dance, Einsturzende Neubauten, Bjork, Blonde Redhead, E.A. Poe, Luigi Pirandello, Thomas Mann, Ingmar Bergman, Stanley Kubrick, Roman Polaski, Lars von Trier
10. Is there a general message you want to convey to your audience and listeners through your work?
‘Such men are like clockwork, which is wound up, and goes, it knows not why. Every time a man is begotten and born, the clock of human life is wound up anew to repeat once more its same old tune that has already been played innumerable times, movement by movement and measure by measure, with insignificant variations’ (Arthur Schopenhauer).
11. How do you feel about music industry at the moment, and do you think this digital era has made it more difficult or easier for the artist such as yourself to get to the right audience? What do you think about the importance of being present on social networks?
Nowadays music industry is always more business. Digital era helps the artist and social networks are essential to promote music, but the most important thing for the artist is music.
12. What are your further plans regarding music making and “The Last Hour”?
I’ve just finished the second album by Les Jumeaux Discordants released by the French label Athanor Records. About The Last Hour, I will start to compose new songs soon.
