Liva is the first Canadian band to mix metal music and classical music since 1997!

0:00 Hi, you unto censure? Wow crazy young wacoume of America. It's time for the Adventures of Pipe Man on W four c hy dot com best pompkas is number one internet radio station. Here's your host, the pipe Man. Are your hortal.

0:44 Dog's This is the pipe Man here on the Adventures pipe Man W four c Y Radio. And I'm very excited about our next g because man, what amazing musicians and artists they are, you know, and uh they're from one of my favorite areas of the world. And uh so what let's welcome to the show. Uh here from Liva. How are you? Did I pronounce it right anyway? Yes, yeah, you got it. Callo. It's my first name, Leva, it's the last name. It's Italian. Oh my family name.

1:30 Oh see. So now you can speak Italian on the show if you want. I probably understand you're Italian better than French. So because in Jersey there's lots of Italians. And I'm Italian. I'm actually an Italian Jew. Okay. So my grandfather actually was like, uh, you know, old school Italian. If you if you catch my drift. Okay, that's pretty cool man. So that must be the reason why you're so good at, you know, matching up metal and classical music because I don't know. I think it's the Italian you that does that.

2:18 And man, this latest song that you guys did is absolutely amazing. I think you're right because Italian we maybe we have the melody inside of us. Maybe it's the opera thing. I listen a lot of opera. It's maybe in the culture singing. Yeah, yeah, I'm always I listened to a lot of music. I'm singing all the time. It's maybe from the culture. Yeah, you're you're you're the one, and you make this. I think you're the first one because the head you made the finger on that point. You know. Well, I'm a classically trained classical guitarist. So the mix. We are the first Canadian band to mix mel and classical music because you know, when you study in classical college and university, you have to sing in choir. And my wife at this time and she she's still a soupano singer, classical singer. And two things. When I sing in a choir,

3:52 I sing in Latin. And one day I tell to me, hm hmm, if I mix medal with this kind of Latin feeling, it would be probably it could be sound good. And on the other side, my wife, when I go to see her in concert, she sing, she sang. At this moment, she's still singing, so I'm gonna talk in the past. She sang in Spanish, German, French, Italian. Wow, there's opera, there's sacred music, secular music. But when she sang in the sacred music, I don't know I from back end there or lots of Italian composers. Her voice was so lovely, so there was a special thing that said to me, okay, if I mix her voice with my music. She played viola violence, the biggest violent, So it's a viola and I write for her. She was I don't know what to say in English, but in French muse, muse is a person. You write for her because yeah, she inspired me.

5:15 It's the same in English. Actually, so she was my muse. I write all the lyrical things for her voice, her viola with my metal background. Now the sound starts there at the end of nineteen ninety eight. The band start at ninety ninety seven, but she came in the band in ninety eight, and then all the sounds of Leva came after that. So question. Is it. Would you say with all those languages, would you say it's easier to sing a different language or to speak in a different language, or do you think maybe from singing you feel it more so it's easier to remember.

6:11 You know, singing a song is not talk, right, it's very it's very little different. You can't sing in Spanish in German, but you cannot talk in German easier than you. So, but her voice, the manner, she the color, all the stuff that's that was in the music inspired me. Nice. I love that. And you know, I remember though, when I was in college and I was taking like a music theory class. I was so happy because I was a total metal head and they were telling me, well, you know, for all those people out there that think like and this back then, you know, oh, metal is not really music, and uh, you know music and they're not musicians. But what the professor taught me was that metal actually is a derivative of classical music.

7:11 Yeah. Yeah, the metal and the classical music or or are so it's the same, the same energy, it's the same kind of rhythmic. There's a lot in common, more than jazz jazz. It's another thing it's blues the country maybe, but so people never talk never always said metal and classical are different. Everybody think about that, but it's false. When when you explained to them that it's the same energy, you have the same rhythm, they all agree with you.

7:53 And you listen to some of the like really old school classical music, it is pretty heavy, and especially if you go for the time that it was composed, it was probably the heaviest thing there was back then. Yeah. The you know, the there's you know in metal, there's virtuosity you in in in the era of back and and there's lots of Vivaldi, There's there's lots of virtuosity that we found in metal. The more the every sound I think arrived in the Romantic era, when orchestra are more bigger, the sounds are more, uh, the darker.

8:41 Composer looking for new chords, more more darker chords, you know, Wagner and then all the modern stuff, Travinski, the Russian. Uh So at this time it's very clear that it's a kind of heavy metal before the time. Yeah, and that's why you know, like when you take bands like Metallica, who I've done Symphonic, Uh, you know albums of their their songs. It's really not that much different when when I hear like stuff like that, it's not that much different to me. It's just I think it's filling in the blanks. Actually it's it's adding a little more depth to it.

9:26 Yeah. The difference between what we do and what Metallica did with the orchestra, the difference is that when I composed, the orchestra is already there, yeah, not after the song was. This is the big difference. You know, if if at Field at thinking when you composed Master, but Pet, it shouldn't be. It couldn't be different, very different. So I'm I'm I'm in this kind of approach. I compose for the drum, the bass, the guitar, the vocals, but there's still space for the orchestra. Yeah, right from the beginning, not after, because after it's maybe too late because all the walls of sound is full, so there's no space for any any room for any other instruments or vocal.

10:28 And I love, I love with this new song. How you know you combine the operatic voice with the guttural metal voice. You think you saw the clip the video clip? Yeah, yeah, yeah, so it's. The story of sand Song and Dalila. Maybe in vain English it's Deliah delia. But yeah we say delilah. Yeah, because I keep the Latin pronunciation. So yeah, you know this guy, this song, the concept of sand Song and Dalila I have. It's around two thousand and eight, two thousand and nine. I always think about that, but I didn't found my music to be under the text.

11:20 So there's no chronology in my my my songs. I when today, in fact, if I found and if I found a new idea, but it's it's only a five seconds, but the song maybe will be finished in two years. So I'm not a kind of composer, kind of guy who Okay, today I have to start composing the new album. I take my old ideas becomes new ideas. So sand Song and Dalli La was a concept in two thousand and eight, two thousand and nine. But when that's in the singer sopranos singer came in the band in twenty twenty, I thought it was the moment to do that song.

12:14 There's two songs on sound song one and two. Okay, so when that's in came I have the all all all my ideas was there the cast. You know, she's a woman. I'm a man. I'm gonna do sound song. She's gonna do dli la. You know, it's it's like a movie. I want I want you for this, this cast. I want you to do, to do the the another the woman so mice. And in two thousand when I brought my new ninth string I played ninth string guitar. Man nice, it's so heavy. I have to modify my ams and it's a new way to see the new for me. But it's, uh, what are you saying English?

13:04 My my my brain is here, but my guitar is the continuation of my my brain. There's an expression maybe in English. So when I played the nine string guitar from what three years ago, four years ago, this this instrument I have, I found new music and the text from San Soo was complete for me. This is what my new music, my new guitar, my new singer, all the elements were there to finish that song. You know, that's life.

13:48 And that is kind of I think that is a classical music type of thing. You know, I think a lot of the old school classical music. It wasn't written in one day. It was built, you know, at a foundation, and you're built on top of that. Yeah, well there's there's lots of a composer who made the symphony. You know, there's number symphony number one, two, three, four, but it's not chronological. Yeah, maybe the right the fourth, the first, the first one is the fourth, and then the last one is the number one. So there this mind. I love it. I love it. Well that that comes from being technically trained, right, you know, like it's it's a little different, it's a different thought process, and it always is. It's always blown my mind how people don't realize how technically trained most death metal bands are, you know, and you know that they just all they hear is loud and heavy, but they don't hear the intricacy of the actual musicianship.

14:57 Yeah, but there's this few are classically trained. There's one one guy of a band, the the it's almost the guitarists who take lessons when they're young drummers, singers, basement they always self self thoughts person. But there's so many guitarists who have lessons with with with the prof with with So. What I'm going to say is, uh, that's yeah, so I'm classically trained, so it makes me a different composer. Uh, there's another one thing I would I would like to say it's the and you know an onion.

15:55 It's many you have to peel yeah, yeah, yeah, So my music is like that. I make it appeal and then another one. So when you listen to the song, it's okay. I today I listened one peel oh, but the other day I listen to another. It's it's always different. So I I I have to I move the perspective when you listen it's it's I always take my music in that minding. I love it.

16:35 And so this track, how is it going to fit in with the rest of the new album you're going to drop with? Like does it all go together to tell a story or is it each a separate composition from different times, different mindset you were at? Uh, I always looking for old text, old poems. Uh, I'm for this album ichimundus. I didn't found a concept for all the album. So the way I worked is small section. So it's a section for me. I found so beautiful texts, quite different poets for the room era, for the antique, the antique feeling, you know, because when I'm looking for texts. When I go to the library and maybe, man, I could read a thousand of texts, poems, thousands poems, and I have to choose only maybe ten.

17:54 So it's it's very special. When I I have my music first I met maybe Okay, I have ten music, ten songs. So when I go to the library, I'm looking for ten poems. There's a special connection. Man. When I found I read the books, I found fact. Oh this is one. This is goes to text text one goes to music number one. So this is the manner I work the music. It's like satellites, the ten ideas all all over my head.

18:39 Yeah yeah, yeah, I can library. Oh this one goes to this one. So this is again the classically trained them methodic methodic. This is the right term, methodical, methodical. Yeah, there you go. So how do people reach out to you? Guys? You on socials on the web check out the new uh this new song and then all the other ones that will be coming uh later. How would you say that? Tell everybody how they can reach out to you on social media on the web, I'll check out your new music and all that good stuff.

19:23 The official website is Leva band dot com. This is my leave up band dot com. This is the official website and then you go to the bandcam for all the streaming. It's a very good side bandcam because there's the band have more money than the Spotify things and the auditor that they don't pay for musicians. So no doubt leva. Band dot com. We have the Facebook official page, a YouTube channel Liva Music, so this is We have also a TikTok Instagram, Instagram. But you know, I would like to uh to see that the guy John Asher from Montreal, he works very well for the promotion. He asked you to for this interview, so I appreciate.

20:23 Yeah, he works very hard. Oh yeah, I deal with a lot of publicists and he makes life easy too for me as well, which makes it makes you want to interview people because if it's made difficult, it's like, yeah, no, I don't want to. So I love it and uh, man, I love your music. Everybody's got to check it out and thanks for being such a great musician and thanks for being on the Adventures pipe Man. Yeah, we hope to play in Florida one day if you know so. Some booker we often man. And I go on tour. I do festivals all over the US, UK and Europe. But you know, you got the d WP festivals here in Florida. You gotta get on.

21:07 I'm non Florida and the United States. You gotta get on those because those are the big festivals over here, and you need to get onto. Uh have you ever played heavy Montreal? Every Montreal doesn't exist at all, it's sir, But the big festival does not. It's not the same anymore. Huh No, not the same. Maybe one day they will button for nowadays it does not, it doesn't exist. That's true of a lot of them out there. It's like the big boys are taking over all the festivals instead of all the little independent ones.

21:51 Yeah, they're still independent here in Quebec and in Canada. We have to to go. There's new one, there's a there's a lively, there's lots of people who wants maybe smaller thanues. You can. It's more easier to talk to the band. Yeah, yeah, times change, it's maybe. Uh So I look forward to seeing you. I look forward to seeing you live here in the States. Yeah, we hope. So, so keep keep on, let's keep in touch and we we can write it down some find something. Absolutely and you know you got you gotta bring the dog into the band.

22:34 Oh, the dog is in the studio all the time with me when I played the guitar. Yeah, yeah, still there and listen to me. And he was even answering he or she was answering questions on the interview too, So that's cool. Yeah all right, Well it's bad pleasure and your music is badass and I hope everybody checks it out. Okay, So thanks a lot, Dean, and have a good night, and thank you for all the fans and the Florida Listen to music on the website on the YouTube and you can bring you can I can send you to the album also physical album and I have a plan to make a vinyl. So I love it. It's it's more, it's not cheaper to do a vinyl, but it's an artwork, you know it is.

23:33 It's a full experience that I wish. I wish we still had that as the mainstay because I'll tell you what, I just have these memories of experiences with full albums that kids today will never have. No, no, we have to to bring bring them back. Absolutely well. I look forward to this one being in vinyl and look forward to more from you guys. Okay, thanks a lot and keep Eavy metal alive. There you go. Thank you for listening to the adventures of Patement.

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