Interview with Trick Or Treat – Rabbits’ Hill pt.2 and The Upcoming Japan Tour

It could be a quite long interview cos I have too many feelings and thoughts to Trick Or Treat since I got an imported copy of their debut album “Evil Needs Candy Too” in 2006 via a CD store in Tokyo. However they have been one of my all-time favorites, they became an absolutely special band for me after the decade with the incredible album “Rabbits’ Hill pt.2”. I couldn't stop my passion to write down my review for the album quickly. Check it out here. So, I had an interview with Guido Benedetti from the band and asked a couple of my interests about them but I tried to focus on the latest and biggest masterpiece and the upcoming Japan tour to make it short.

To Japanese readers: 日本語版はこちらからご覧いただけます

We all Japanese fans are absolutely excited for your upcoming Japan Tour. Finally it comes true! How are you feeling about the fact you’re going to strike the land of the rising sun for the first time? Are you excited as well?
Guido: Yeah, we are really excited. Japan is a country we love and we are very happy finally to play there. And of course we hope you will like our show. We have some surprise for these gigs…so why not be there?

Why did it take such a long time to make the first Japan Tour comes true even you are signed with a major record label in Japan? Have you ever known you have a bunch of fans in Japan from your early era?
Guido: With our second album “Tin Soldiers” in 2009 we had the chance to be published by King Records in Japan, and results were very good. From that point we started a collaboration and we are very glad to visit this country for the first time! And we hope to meet all our fans of early era, a lot of things to talk!

Well, I’d love to shout this out loud over again that your latest record “Rabbits’ Hill pt.2” is such an amazing masterpiece! I’m very thankful to you for the super brilliant music! Actually I love both of the pt.1 & 2 but strongly feel pt.2 is much more advanced than pt.1 and it’s just perfect! In fact, you have been keeping on evolving so much from your first album. Every time you release a new album, it has more depth, various colors and professionalism than past ones but you never drop off your direction of what Trick Or Treat is. That’s really awesome! One of your original members Luca Cabri’s withdrawal affected for your musical progress this time?
Guido: Oh, thank you!!! We are very happy you liked it.
Luca was an important member of the band, and wrote a lot of songs in the past. We shared a lot of gigs, tours, recording sessions, and we are still friends, but you know sometimes things changes, especially for an “underground band” like us. In fact after his departure we simply write our ideas like in the past and we liked the results as well. I think we are changing a little our sound year after year cause we are growing up every year a little bit…it’s hard to say, but we are growing old…ahahah

Did that member-change actually make you force to take such a long time to release the pt.2?
Guido: Not really, we had to wait a long time for the release of “Rabbits’ Hill pt.2” due to label change. The album was recorded in the first part of 2015, but waiting was worth to have the right time to promote the album properly.

So, could you introduce us your latest new Tricker, Luca Venturelli?
Guido: Luca Venturelli is our friend from the early first steps of the band, so for us was the natural choice to ask him to join the band 2 years ago.
For me especially is a brother and I feel really “complete” when I play with him on stage.
It’s a pleasure to see him play, it’s a very talented guy and also a good composer.
What else? ….he pay me a lot of money to say that! …ahahahah

Peter Jackson, JJ Abrams and you guys Guido Benedetti and Alle Conti are my most venerable artists who have the super excellent expressive ability for legendary sagas. As a big fan of “Watership Down”, I could be very picky against releases related with the story but you just blew me away with the bunch of perfect songs! Why did you choose the famous adventurous story for the concept of your latest two albums?
Guido: Really thank you, I'm not worthy, I‘m really blushing! ahah
In 2005, during the recording of our first album “Evil Needs Candy Too”, we saw the movie(Watership Down) together and we wanted to make a concept album, cause in the past (when we were kids) everyone of us saw the movie and the story were really “intense and impressive” for us to remind our childhood emotions. So we tried to bring them into the songs.

Did you plan to divide the whole story in two from the start?
Guido: Yes , cause it was very difficult to describe all chapters, characters, and story in one album.

There are many wonderful guitar riffs and solos in the album. So, could you tell us which guitar part is the most favorite highlight for you?
Guido: Thank you again! For me “The Showdown” is one of my favorite of the album, but also the final part of “Last Breath” have a special “mood” for me.

Your technics for the lyrics are so amazing as well with the emphersized emotions and the magnified and expanded adventures. You used many tricks in those lyrics, for example the first track “Inlé”: the first half goes objective by written in the third person, and it becomes subjective through the eyes of the black rabbit itself in the second half. That’s a pretty good idea to increase its frightfulness. How did you manage those interesting lyrics? Do you basically compose music first?
Guido: Really good question, very careful.
I wanted to change person to describe better the scare of rabbits about Inlé, cause I found similarities when humans try to describe death, the fear of the unknown, and self belief that death (in this case the rabbit of death) is always evil. In fact in the end of “Last Breath”, Hazel discover that Inlé is a part of El-ahrairah myth. It depends, I usually write music first with vocal melody. Then I write lyrics and arrangements.

Actually I can’t drop every single song of the album from my favorite but I can say “The Showdown” is the greatest piece ever. Music and the lyrics are perfectly combined and it formed as an epic verse. It gives me huge goose-bumps always. Perfect! Why did you make the song as such a long length?
Guido: Cause I like long songs! But I wanted to show all the feels of the rabbits during the battle, sometimes scared, sometimes desperate, but also brave and resolute.

I also want to mention about “Last Breath”. It is the most beautiful and sensitive song I’ve ever listened to in my metal life. Umm, did you think about your children when you were making the lyrics? I feel so with the very touchy part: ”If they could learn from our life and take it all to save them from hell, to let live them free, they are still young.”
Guido: Touchè! Yes I was thinking about them, but also to future generations.
It was like they have to learn from the past mistake to make a better way to live together in peace and awareness. (yes it sounds a bit peaceful message, but I think is the only way to follow)

Could you leave some message to Japanese fans?
Guido: Hey, we are gonna coming to Japan, we can’t wait. Hope to see all of you in the front row. It’s time for having fun!!! OK?
Thank you Kumi for this amazing interview. See you there!!!
KONICHIWAAAAAA!!!

Thank you so much for your time for my interview. See you around!
May the trick be with you!

Rabbits’ Hill pt.2 Review on www.kumi666.com

Trick Or Treat Official Website

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