As a publication based in the United States, most of our perspective on the music industry and the results of the COVID-19 pandemic have been based on the way that the U.S. has been handling the seeming crawl back to normalcy. 

While the internet has been a vital resource for connecting with and learning about the states of other countries- especially those across the sea- we have been extremely fortunate over the past few months to have the opportunity to speak directly with a variety of international artists about their experience over the past few months and how it has varied from nation to nation.

Last month we had the opportunity to chat with Italian band Arya- who have spent the past year trying to put together their recent album For Ever after Italy’s lockdown prevented the band’s members from uniting to finalize the release until mid year. 

And now, with a push to solely online promotion, the band has shared with us how their lives have changed over the past few months and what they think this means for the future of music.

You can read our full interview with band member Luca Pasini below, and be sure to stream their latest album, For Ever, out now.

Second Society Report: How are you holding up during this insane year that is 2020? Hopefully your friends and families are staying safe and healthy!

Luca Pasini: We’re surviving, as of now only a handful of people I’ve met personally have suffered from Covid, and some of them live in the UK! Nonetheless I really hope all this will end soon, besides the annoyance of having to wear a facemask everywhere except for home (which, for someone wearing glasses like me, is really unpleasant), this constant sense of potential danger and uncertainty about the future is really stressful. At least, being a really lonely person, I don’t suffer from lack of social interactions as much as others.

SSR: Did you have any big releases or tours that were put on hold because of the pandemic? How has that affected the band? (could be personally, financially, morale wise, etc.)

LP: When the situation suddenly became desperate in March, we were slowly recording lead vocals for the latest Arya album For Ever. Italy has been the first European country to implement a lockdown, which has been particularly strict, and we had to wait months before we could meet each other again to finish it. At least now in Italy the pandemic situation seems better than in most other European countries, so the initial sacrifices have led to some results. Considering that most of the songs were composed in 2018, and the instrumentals were mainly done by summer 2019, it has taken a really long time for us to finish this album, which was finally released on October 20.

I’ve worked on the album mix during lockdown, despite half of the vocals being still missing, in order to use all those days of worrying home isolation in a productive way, and to have the album ready as quickly as possible when we could have met each other to record again. We tried to track something remotely, but it didn’t work out. It’s difficult to record yourself if you don’t have any experience or anyone taking care of the engineering side. As soon as the lockdown was lifted, we met again for the remaining recording sessions, and started all the boring self-promotion work to prepare the release.

SSR: How have you been spending your newfound “downtime” while the world has been essentially shut down?

LP: Besides music, I’ve watched many movies and attended many streaming lessons from the school I’m enrolled to. I’ve also contributed to the episode about the Republic of San Marino of the famous YouTube show Geography Now, which I still haven’t watched to this day (I live a handful of kilometers away from the border and have loads of pictures and information about that microstate).

SSR: Have you picked up any new hobbies while quarantining that you’d like to share?

LP: I’ve tried to become a better blues guitar player, but guitar isn’t really something new for me! I’ve practiced a lot of jazz as well: at least I finally had time to play my instrument for hours, something I hadn’t had the time to do for a while before.

I’ve discovered a YouTube channel that uploads views from cabins of Swiss trains travelling through the Alps, and I really enjoyed it, but I wouldn’t consider it a hobby either!

SSR: Have you worked on any new releases during this time? Any that are already out or that we can get a sneak peak of?

LP: I’ve recorded many new ideas that may become Arya songs in the future. I’ve also worked on a collective album together with many Italian musicians, most of which I still have never met in person, whose profits went to fund the local Red Cross. I recorded many guitar and bass parts for it, using other people’s ideas as references, and a famous audio engineer (Riccardo Pasini, who recorded bands such as Nero di Marte and Stormo) put all the material together in a coherent way and mixed it. The end result is available here: https://desertsessionhomeedition.bandcamp.com/

SSR: If already out- what was the inspiration for the release? Have you written any songs specifically about the state of the world right now?

LP: The album we released last month is a very personal record for us, but is also much older than the pandemic, and deals with a totally different time in our lives. I can’t imagine ourselves writing lyrics specifically about the pandemic: everyone right now is constantly mentioning it, people are arguing everywhere about daily figures and government decisions: I think there’s little we could say that could feel interesting, original and different from the polemical statements that are already bothering us all the time. Being part of that noisy choir would mean that we had a definite opinion about what’s going on, but I don’t think we have: I think even those governing us don’t really know what to do.

Moreover, when I’m thinking about lyrics for a song, even a really personal one, I like to imagine that anyone, anywhere and in any moment could potentially empathize with it: this pandemic will soon be over, and who knows what we’ll end up thinking in the future when we’ll remember these days! If I ever wanted to write about a specific event, I’d do it when it has been over for a while and I can see it in hindsight, so that the topic is more about my present memories of the event than the event itself.

SSR: How has it been being an artist in a time when you cannot tour? How have you been working to promote your music and expand your reach?

LP: During the last few months we lost again the possibility to perform live due to a line-up problem so, right now, even if we’ll be releasing an album next week, we’re rehearsing to be ready to hit the stage again as soon as all this will be over. We have no hurry: we wouldn’t have been able to book gigs anyway!

Being a band based in Italy, promoting our music on the internet has always been really important for us, often much more than live shows in our local area, that never end up gathering a big audience and creating much hype. Right now we’re working hard in order to make sure our new album won’t come out totally unnoticed, but we would have done all of this anyway.

SSR: Do you have any words of advice for fans that are feeling particularly bummed out about the live music world coming to a halt?

LP: Here in Italy we’ve been blessed: live music events have been able to take place since May here, despite some limitations and safety regulations (that haven’t always been respected). Anyway, I’m sure nobody, except for some big corporations, is really happy to live under these circumstances, but I’m afraid there aren’t many shortcuts one could take to live regardless of what’s happening. We have to be patient and wait, even if for years we’ve been taught that anyone could instantly get whatever he wanted, and that destiny doesn’t exist.

SSR: When the world returns to a safer spot and we are able to (hopefully) attend live shows again- say in 2021- what do you hope to achieve?

LP: I would really like to be ready to perform again in the best possible way, to be able to book shows in various parts of our country, and consider planning some international touring as well. We have to make sure we find from now people interested in our music that could one day attend one of our concerts.

SSR: Is there anything you wish your fans would know about you or about the current state of the music world?

LP: I have no idea on how the music world will be after the end of this pandemic. Here in Italy it was already really hard for small underground bands, there was almost no money involved in this business, so probably we’ll be less affected than other countries that used to have a more liveful and thriving scene, and whose governments did nothing to mitigate the effects of the pandemic on it.
You can stream the band’s latest album For Ever out now, wherever you stream music, and be sure to connect with them via social media to stay up to date on all future releases.

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