Digging the grounds of modern heavy music, we found a newcomer band, which has many interesting things to say and offer. They come from Italy, they play in a melodic/progressive hard rock style and they are named The Sunrise. After listening to their nice latest album, “Rising In Loop”, Myth of Rock contacted Tommaso Elia (guitars, backing vocals), who gave his thoughtful, precise answers, on behalf of the band. Come on and let the sunshine in!
by Raquel Miranda
Introduce the band to the readers please.
The Sunrise is a hard rock/progressive band from Venice (Italy) formed in 2019 with the first intent to be a rock cover band; we discovered really soon that we were mentally and spiritually oriented on original music, we had not idea of the process or the way to do it, but we decided to do the jump. It wasn’t really easy at the beginning, and it still is really hard to process but it’s just “us” and we like it.
Why did you decide this name for the band?
The name “The Sunrise” basically comes from a really light brain storming; “how should we name a band and not be foregone? Which is the first thing that you think of when you process the concept of something new?”, so this name represents for our “something new”.
The Sunrise is a band that comes from Venice, Italy. How strong is the hard rock scene in your country nowadays?
Actually the hard rock scene is not so strong as it was some years ago. Now it’s the era of trap and drill music, Italy nowadays is really influenced from the English’s wave of drill music. The rock scene it’s a bit hidden inside clubs, concert halls and pubs but it’s not gone… We can praise some really strong and heavy bands like Lacuna Coil, Inverno, Rhapsody of Fire that are always on the run. Rock’s not dead, but at the moment we’re living some sort of “era change” and you know, the wheel turns.
After a first phase of experimentation and the publication of a self-produced EP, entitled “Rise” in 2019, which combined different genres, such as pop, progressive rock and metal, you signed with WormHoleDeath Records. How did they find you?
Well…It’s a really genuine old style story to tell; after that self-made EP we were not really happy about the result to be honest, so we decided to work more, to write more and after one year, “Brand New Disorder” was born; that was the record that gave us the possibility to be labelled by WormHoleDeath, after we sent some e-mail requests they called us back to talk, because they liked it and basically that was the starting point.
What incredible visions did you have for this EP back then in 2019?
Wow… 2019… it feels like thousand years have passed from that EP; well as told before, we had a really strong attitude, we wanted to make our music, we wanted to be ourselves on stage and to create something that represented us, we had not the knowledge or the equipment to do it, but we made it anyways. It wasn’t perfect, probably it did not sound good enough…but it was ours and we were so proud of it.
“Brand New Disorder” saw the light of the day the next year. What music genres did you use for this album and what were the main lyric themes?
“Brand New Disorder” is like a melting pot of sound, ideas and effects that we decided to put together in that record; there’s not just one leading genre inside it, you can find some classic rock, some country lines, some sad ballad style section and some hard rock… well, the magazines and the radios were brutally in contrast with each other, someone loved that LP and someone had some very strong criticism about. The concept of the lyrics was the “fil rouge” that gave to that album his meaning; it talks about the social situation of 2020, the political conflict and the will to escape.
“Rising In Loop” was released on the 4th November 2022. It’s very different from the previous one, musically and lyrically. Can we say that with this one you found your true identity, your musical cosmos?
I really appreciate the citation to the album outro “Cosmos”, so this record is our new work-base, on which we finally found the style, the sonority and the typology of arrangements we meant to produce. Yes, we can say that we have found our “musical cosmos”… don’t know precisely which musical genre it is, but that’s ok, we’ll find out.
Describe the recordings of “Rising In Loop” and the whole production process. Who did the mixing and the mastering?
Oh man, it was really long, it took about one year, because we were in the middle of the lockdown, so the first part of the writing process was done in social distancing… next we had the demos ready and we started to write down every single arrangement, there’s a lot of sound and layers inside, especially for voices it was really hard, but we figured it out at the end. The mixing and mastering process was done by our colleague Marco Chiereghin a.k.a. Ripples, that made his magic.
Who is the main composer and lyricist in The Sunrise? How is a typical The Sunrise song composed?
The main writer of the band is Giorgia Chiereghin, the lead singer, she does a great job everytime! The composing is usually made by me, the guitarist and producer then gives the lines to the band and next we all work together for the final result.
How do you make decisions in the band?
We have not a defined way to make decisions, we usually have a briefing together to manage things and we come out with a democratic decision at the end.
What is your dream music collaboration?
We really would like to work/share the stage or open for Lacuna Coil; they are our landmark for the Italian metal scene.
If your music was a color, which color would it be?
Definitely PURPLE!
How would you describe the feeling/the atmosphere of your music?
Just two words: nostalgic and pragmatic.
How did the Covid-19 pandemic affect you?
Unfortunately, we had not the possibility to play, to move or to make music in the way we like; it was very difficult.
Which are your plans for the future? A tour maybe?
Actually we are practicing a lot to propose a really good show with dress changes, light and projections, we would like to bring “Rising In Loop” on stage entirely like a movie experience.
Could you leave your message to the readers, please?
Quoting the outro “Cosmos” we would like to say “We are all just passengers who walk on a thing that we call home, that’s not home, this is where we pass our days before the tiny shine light will burn”… Have fune guys, treat each other right and be yourself, our time is now.
