Interview with Frank & Enzo, Arachnes (February 27th, 2006)

Italian band ARACHNES has just released their brand new album called “In Praise of Science”, so I did an interview with the awesome guitarist Franco “Frank” Caruso and his brother Enzo “Vincent” Caruso (Lead vocals, keyboards, Hammond, Korg synthesizer, piano and backing vocals).

Peter -Hi, first off I just want to congratulate you on your new album "In Praise of Science". Are you satisfied with it?
Enzo - Thank you for your congratulations! Yes, we’re really satisfied with it. We’ve our own philosophy, it’s really simple: we always believe in what we do, not caring the trend, what we really care are the emotions of our audience. So that, we’ve always the sensation that the last work has something more than the former on...and this is for us a very important input.

Peter - Where do you see the main difference between "Primary Fear" and your new album?
Enzo - ”In Praise of Science” is an album essentially prog., which has always been one of our characteristic, but this time we’ve really  stressed this aspect, feeling it like a legitimate process! I could say that the fundamental difference from the former one is this. And then it seems to me this time everything is more cured, we’ve worked hard in the phase of editing, and this is really a product of our heart, surely a labour of passion!

Peter - How did you get your name Arachnes?
Enzo - The name is homage to the maiden who dared to brave the goddess of mythology in the art of panoply. For this reason she was turned into a spider, and from here the name. She was a very determined girl. Thank God, we’re still humans! I hope any producer doesn’t try to convert us, anyway  I think it would be a useless effort, because  we’re really Mediterranean and for this reason also obstinate, both I and Franco!

Peter - How would you categorize the style of the band? And did you ever consider or try playing other styles of music than the one(s) you are playing now?
Franco - Our music has always been affected by many trends, both for everything concerning the band, and for the other settings in which we work. It’s inevitable: we work for television, we did it for the theatre, and there you had to get used to pass from rock to classical music, from fusion to new age and so on in a single moment. All this experiences leave a sign, which is really positive for us, it’s a manner to enlarge our lexis, and it’s like speaking many languages. I think Arachnes music in this moment is a mixture of prog-power with classical allusions.

Peter - Which song do you consider to be the best one you have ever written?
Franco - I don’t know…it’s like asking a father what’s his best son!!! I don’t think there is a better and a worse one, probably there are songs in which you reflects yourself more than in others…simply! This is possible if at the base there’s an honest and sincere mood of working, which is what we are trying to do.

Peter - Do you have any touring plans?
Enzo - We are trying to do everything that post production implies, and it’s a hard work because we want to keep everything under control. I only hope that standard of live performances could get better. Who is not personally involved in this field, can’t even imagine the difficulties and the compromises we have to face! I’ve spent a life playing live, and I don’t let anybody play on me easily.

Peter - Let's speculate - you have been granted a free slot on a tour of your own choice - who would be your ideal touring partners?
Enzo - We love deeply Deep Purple. But we’d be sorry to play up them!! Aside from jokes, I really wouldn’t know... I’d like to play with an orchestra with Franco and the others of the band. It was a very unforgettable experience when a played in an Orchestra some years ago, but unfortunately I had some problems with the director of the orchestra, because my timing was too precise in comparison to the bows section. Mah, these metallers?

Peter - What do you like to spend your time with besides music?
Franco - Music is our natural way of speaking. .for me everything has its own musicality. Also Enzo has the same feeling; he may compose a song, for example, after a day spent in mountain... and in that song you can find the synthesis of the emotions and of the perceptions of that day…it’s simply his nature!

Peter - I thank you very much for participating in this interview and sharing this information and your thoughts with us - these last lines are entirely for you. Any final words you would like to round off with?
Enzo - Thank you very much for the space you’ve dedicated to us. We like to end with a realization: many people congratulate us for our lyrics besides for our music. This is for us a further cause of personal satisfaction, and this is the symptom that public is less naïve than industry has always thought. A question: isn’t it that a less cultured public is convenient to anybody? A greeting from Arachnes!

Arachnes - In Praise of Science

Album available on Scarlet Records.

Click on the album cover to see more info on Arachnes.