Paolo Raineri [Interview]
TMMP regulars will have read much about experimental instrumental group KoMaRa, comprised of David Kollar, Pat Mastelotto, and Paolo Raineri. Here, TMMP talks to the ‘Ra’ in KoMaRa…
How’re you feeling about the release of KoMaRa’s debut album at the end of this month?
I’m excited, can’t wait to release it! I’m really curious about what people will think about it! We worked really hard to make it better and better: billions of different versions, overdubs, changes in structure, thinking what to do.
And Pat’s team is just great: Adrian who helped us a lot with sounds, structure, mixes; Bill recorded amazing voices over the album and did some mixes; Denis with his stunning graphic work for CD [and] vinyl and, of course, Adam [Jones, of Tool] who created the creature of KoMaRa. Unbelievable team and very nice persons.
I want to mention also my bandmates David and Pat: it’s really a pleasure [to] work with great people and extraordinary musicians like them!
How did the KoMaRa experience affect you as a musician? What did you learn from it?
KoMara is a very formative band for me: I learnt a lot about how to make records [and] how to work with unbelievable hard workers [such] as Pat and David.
As a musician, I expanded my view and ability to manipulate my trumpet in real time. This band pushed me to explore deeply my musical language and all the different possibilities that I can create with my instrument. My sound is getting more aggressive (as you can hear on the album), but I also keep my very soft playing. It’s [a] contrast I know – but I love it!
Which moments on the new album are you most proud of?
I can say that every moment on the album is important for me and, I think, also for the listeners. Every single element on KoMaRa is important to make people understand what we wanna say with it. I have to say that I love contrasts in music, and on this record there are many of them.
If you wanna talk about the tracks, for me every song has a story inside. Some are long detailed stories – others are short and more foggy, dark and strong. But I will not tell you mine; I prefer that [the] audience will make their own.
A special mention must be to the cover art made by Adam. It’s the icon of KoMaRa, the perfect image that can make you understand what this album is about (or maybe not).
How would you describe your musical philosophy?
My musical sensibility as [a] listener is very wide and not focused on a single musical scene. I’m a very big fan of ambient music, extreme metal, traditional music, unconventional jazz and more. I love to listen music that has “soul”, that can tell something deep to me.
As musician I love [to] create new stuffs, new sounds without any musical barriers in my head, mixing and connecting a lot of different influences. I don’t have any particular dogma that I follow in a very strict way – if something is interesting to me I go for it, working like hell without thinking too much “why I’m doing it?” because I know I’m doing it because I need to do it.
Is there a spiritual aspect to what you do?
Sure – it’s not easy to explain, but I’ll try.
An artist is always face to face with himself with his doubts and feelings. [The] spiritual aspect [is] inside everything we do every day, within barriers or cultural boundaries, it’s wider and I think is part of human being. Something inside you feels something that pushes you to work, record, do your best, be focused on what you wanna say or tell and never being satisfied.
When I was [a] student my trumpet teacher told me: “Music is like a big stone; you work with it for years to make it smaller. When you feel it’s small enough in one second it will look [as] big as in the beginning to you, so you’ll start to work again and again. You’ll never see it small and you will always feel you need to work more and more on it”.
Beyond the new album’s release date, what does the future hold for you?
In September we’ll release album of The Blessed Beat with David on guitars and Simone Cavina on drums. We are working in these days on last details and I’m very satisfied with what we did with this record.
Later in autumn, I’ll release also a new project with Simone on drums and my pal Francesco Bucci on trombone. It’s called Ottone Pesante (“Heavy Brass” in English). This band is very innovative and powerful: we play heavy metal with trumpet, trombone and drums, no others instruments…you’ll read about it very soon!
We have idea with David to release some duo stuffs. We’ll define it better during [the] next months and I’ll keep also working on new stuffs with Junkfood for next album and other releases.
Then we’ll see what future will bring us.
Links
Check out TMMP’s review of KoMaRa (which drops June 30) here, along with interviews with Ko (David Kollar) and Ma (Pat Mastelotto).
Paolo Raineri official website.
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