METALLIAN - Louderyell

Members

Vocals

Still Not Fixed, Stoned Humbak, Edran>>LINDA BINASCHI>>Stoned Humbak, Edran

Guitar

Starlight, Sunburn>>NICOLA MAFESSANTI>>Starlight, Sunburn

Bass

Purple Shadows>>LUCA MAFESSANTI>>Purple Shadows

Drum

ANDREA GOLTI

History & Biography

Produced at Sonic Bang Studio in Isorella, Brescia, Italy by co-songwriter, Oscar Burato of Street Symphonies, Louderyell released its debut single, Toxic Love, through Street Symphonies Records and Burning Minds in late 2023. The single hinted at a hard rock version of the debut from Dream Evil, Hammerfall's Stone Cold and Dokken. The band shot a video for it. The hard rock band, which featured two brothers on guitar and bass, was working on a full-length for 2024. The band was recording again in the autumn of 2024.

Reviews

Interviews

Young hard rock band Louderyell has issued its inaugural single, entitled Toxic Love, through Street Symphonies Records and Burning Minds Music Group in October. Suitably impressed with the vocals, crunchy guitar, distorted bass, smashing drums and great production, Ali “The Metallian” invited singer Linda Binaschi to Metallian Towers for a conversation. Over a meal, drinks and Linda’s humble apologies for her ironically fine English, the singer talked about the band, its plans and wanting to, “try to add something new in a really, really crowded music industry.” - 01.11.2023

METALLIAN: Thanks for coming, Linda. Nice to meet you.
LINDA: I am excited to chat with you.

METALLIAN: We only have one song to go by, but well done with the single.
LINDA: Thanks a lot.

METALLIAN: Not only the music is well done, but the singing and the production have come out well. So, I want to learn more because it's all new and there is no information out there.
LINDA: Yeah, it's no problem at all. Thank-you.

METALLIAN: New band! Where did you guys come from and how did you meet?
LINDA: Well, we all knew Oscar (Burato), the producer. We all come from near Cremona, which is a city near Milan. It's a little city near Milan. We all come from there. I have now moved away from Cremona, but still I am from there. We all knew each other a little bit because we have very few musicians in Cremona. I knew the guitarist from his previous band and saw him live. I remember I got really, really, really stunned by his performance because he was really good at playing the guitar.
I have been studying singing for like 12 years.
We all knew Oscar. He had this project in mind and I talked to him a lot about it because I wanted to make a move forward. I would love to be a singer. I would love to do it as a job. So I jumped right in when he told me he had this idea in mind. We all agreed about searching for valid musicians for this record. We are actually working on the record. It's a bit of a slow process because we're kind of getting to know each other a little bit better. It's the first time we play together as a band. So it's a bit of a challenge, but I really love it because the guys are so good and they're so humble, which I appreciate so much. And it has all gone kind of naturally, you know, we met each other with the guys from the band and it has been a natural process. We started playing something along with Oscar and Toxic Love was born. At first I was really nervous because it’s like a new adventure for me. I was used to playing in heavier metal bands like growling and screaming and stuff. So to me it was a real good challenge for my voice. I've been studying so hard and I can see now that, with all the appreciation I got from social networks and stuff, that we did a really good job. We are working on a record. We still don't know the date. I am sorry for that because I cannot tell you (a date). I think that the record is going to be like the single. I don't know how long it's going to take. We'll see.

METALLIAN: Did you move far away or are you still able to function as a band?
LINDA: Well, I actually moved closer to Oscar. Oscar is near Brescia and I moved near the province of Mantova. I really got close to the guitar player who, I believe, also moved to Mantova 10 minutes from me. Oscar also is like a ten-minute drive from here. I just moved 20 minutes away from Cremona. So it's fine.

METALLIAN: We're going to get to the process of the record in a moment. I want to rewind and make sure I understand. You knew the producer who is in charge of the label.
LINDA: Exactly.

METALLIAN: You knew the producer and he introduced you to the three other musicians.
LINDA: We both searched for the musicians. Names came up, some from me; some from him. It was a sort of research for the right musicians. We wanted musicians who would collaborate and write and stuff because we don't want to be like the puppets for the producer. So we needed guys who have an artistic part inside because we wanted to not be totally produced. We wanted to write songs altogether and then work with the producer. Oscar was really great about that. He really helped in the search for the drum player because here in Cremona there are not many drum players who want to play this kind of rock. They all come up with indie stuff or pop stuff. We needed somebody who crushed the drums. I already knew Mafe, the guitar player. He is called Nicola, if I remember correctly. Along with Nicola came his brother on the bass. I didn't know him, but my mind blew totally totally the first time I saw him play.

METALLIAN: I was going to ask you about that because the surnames are the same. What were the names of the bands you were all in?
LINDA: I play in Edran right now, which is a metal opera. We're going to come out with a new record pretty soon. I don't know if I'm going to be there as a guest or as a permanent singer because actually we are three singers. I also play in Arcana Visione. It's a new project (for me) because they needed to change the singer because they couldn't work well with the previous one. So we're going to work right now. I am learning the songs. It's a prog metal thing so it's a bit challenging for me. I previously played in a stoner doom band called Stoned Humbak. Unfortunately, we couldn't move forward because the guitar player decided to leave the band. We searched for another one, but that guitar player was the perfect one. So we decided to leave the group and it ended like that. We were all sad about that because it was a great project. I could experiment a lot with my voice because I really like singing, but I also really like extreme singing. I am really into that. I really like death metal. So with that project we needed the guitar to be good to stimulate everybody, but we couldn't find one because in Cremona it is really difficult to find musicians, fine musicians. So we decided to part ways and go with other projects. We were all frustrated when the guitarist left because he had another band. We're really happy for him, but it was also sad because we would love to play with him. Along with me and the drum player he was writing a lot. It's like missing an arm. I had smaller bands before, but nothing really known.Maybe I did a couple of concerts when I was 15, you know, and, but most of the stuff I'm doing right now is with Arcana Visione and Edran. And also Louderyell. I like to put many, many hands in many bands because I would love to do it as a job one day.

METALLIAN: Give me another name, even though it was a band with one or two concerts when you were like 15.
LINDA: Still Not Fixed.

METALLIAN: I knew about two of the bands you mentioned. I was watching the video for your stoner band and the guitarist was drinking on stage. I was laughing. But you are right. It was heavy, very distorted. And, you know, I was smiling because of, you know, he was, he kept drinking on stage.
LINDA: He never drinks when he plays death metal, but with stoner he was fine about it.

METALLIAN: What is the name of his death metal band?
LINDA: Egocide.

METALLIAN: Do you know the names of the bands that the other Louderyell guys are in?
LINDA: Well, I know that Nicola, the guitar player, is playing in Starlight. It's a pop rock band. The drum player, to be honest, I didn't ask if he played in other bands, but many of us play in cover bands. I have a duo project with a genius, Sambasile from Embryo. It's an acoustic project where we play covers and stuff just to get some money and be known by many people. So we can share our music with them. The guitar player plays in many, many, many, I don't know how to say matrimony…
.
METALLIAN: He's got many wedding bands.
LINDA: We're trying to work our way into music whenever we possibly can and however we can.

METALLIAN: I found him in Sunburn.
LINDA: Yup, that's the band I saw him in. They did some grunge, real, real good grunge. Some old school, but with some new vibes.

METALLIAN: And his brother in Purple Shadows…
LINDA: Oh, yeah, that's right. He told me, sorry, but nowadays, my mind is (waves her hand in the air to indicate distraction)… thinking a lot, because of the new hours and stuff. So I might forget some. We all want to be true musicians and, for that, we need a lot of training, a lot of singing and playing. The good part with this band, I find myself getting along really well with the guys because they have the same mindset. They want to do it as a job. We can do something and luckily we can do something we like with Louderyell. So we manage to work pretty well together even though we are still getting to know each other a little bit not as people, but as composing musicians. We have the same mindset with the same objective. We want to try to add something new in a really, really crowded music industry. (We want to) bring some elite Italian stuff as we say. Hopefully it's going to, I hope, I hope fully hope is going to be liked by everyone.

METALLIAN: Before we go on, what's the name of your cover band?
LINDA: It doesn't have a name. We go out as Uge and Linda. We didn't want to come up with a name, a particular name, for an acoustic project. So we prefer to keep our names in it and everything went well. Uge is well-known in Carmona and in the province, because of Embryo, of course. How do I say that? He was one of my heroes when I was little, because he was in one of the most metal bands in Cremona. I saw him live many times with Embryo. And when he asked me to do this, this duo, I got like crazy, you know, ‘yes, yes for sure.’ I got to work with a real musician, you know?

METALLIAN: We were talking about an album and the way you are answering me makes it sound like it’s in progress. What can you tell me about the new music and where are you at right now at this moment?
LINDA: Well, right now we decided, at first we decided to focus on a single just to make sure the music was, you know, liked.
It was like we tried to make a transition with ‘80s stuff with some new stuff because everybody in the band loves the ‘80s. I grew up with Mötley Crüe. My dad taught me music like Mötley Crüe, Whitesnake, all the ‘80s vibes, the hard rock heavy metal. One of my favourite singers is Rob Halford from Judas Priest. The fun part is that the guitar player and the bass player are really, really into new stuff. So, they made me know many more bands. I am actually learning a lot from them. Even though I listen to many different genres, they are teaching me a lot because I tend to stay in the ‘80s a lot.
In fact, as you can hear in the chorus from Toxic Love, I, I drop many, many, many little choruses that are really ‘80s. And for now, the album, it's a little bit of a secret. We like to keep it as a secret, but we're at a good point. We need to just refine some things and finish a couple of songs. But that's all I can tell.

METALLIAN: I actually heard the phrasing from a song from Dream Evil’s debut on the single. Do you have some songs written? Can people who hear the single expect an album in 2024, for example?
LINDA: 2024, I guess it's going to be our year.

METALLIAN: And it's going to be on Street Symphonies.
LINDA: Of course, with Street Symphonies and Burning Mind Music Group. We met with the guys from Street Symphonies and we found each other very well. They're really good guys. They work hard. That's what we were searching for because I met many different people, we met many different producers and labels, which told us ‘yeah, yeah, let's work together. Let's work together’ and then they abandon you there, you know? I found myself really well with Oscar and Stefano from Street Symphonies and Burning Minds. So I thought, ‘Okay, that's the place. That's the place. I've got serious people.’ I guess it's going to be our year 2024.

METALLIAN: You're not giving me much information, but you are writing songs. You have songs. You are recording something for 2024. Is that correct?
LINDA: We still don't know whether it's going to be early or late 2024, but it's going to be our year.

METALLIAN: The solo that your guitarist plays just took me back to the best of times. It was like when George Lynch was soloing in Dokken. That style still lives.
LINDA: Yep. I guess we all grew up with it. I actually grew up with that kind of stuff, you know, Mötley Crüe, Dokken, Whitesnake, Poison, all the glam rock and hard rock or heavy metal. And then I got heavier and heavier and heavier right now. One of my favourite bands is Lorna Shore. So I like all that stuff, but still, my real home is the ‘80s. And I guess also the guys have a lot of influences like that.

METALLIAN: Which is kind of peculiar because of your ages.
LINDA: Well, we all come from the ‘90s So, it’s not gonna die. The ‘80s are not going to die.

METALLIAN: Let's backtrack quickly. Who came up with the name of the band? Was it the producers or was it you or…?
LINDA: We all talked together. We made… we made proposals. Everybody had an idea at first. We kind of mixed them together and… Louderyell! At the end, Oscar came up with a mix of many proposals and Louderyell was born. It's like group work. Everybody put something in there. I remember Oscar telling us, ‘I really like the idea of yelling. You know, there is also screaming, yelling and stuff.’ We wanted to find a name with an impact. So we kind of worked together on that. But Oscar did the final thing, you know, he put together all of our ideas and proposed to us. It's easy to remember also. I guess it's kind of representative for our music.

METALLIAN: Let's deal a little with the music. It's hard and heavy, but the reason you and I are speaking is the quality both musically and production-wise.
LINDA: I mean, I usually tell myself I don't want to be in a band like all the others. You don't even remember the name of the band. We wanted to put more ‘pepper’ into it.

METALLIAN: Can you put out an album, a full-length album of this quality?
LINDA: We are hoping for an album where every song is as good as Toxic Love. We're working real hard to make all the songs have the same impact as Toxic Love, not as in being like the same song over and over again, but having that kind of impact. I really like to write, along with Oscar, about reality, my reality, our realities, experiences and stuff. In fact, Toxic Love is going to sound like an old story, but still, we're all dealing with our toxic loves nowadays. So to me, the impact, the most impact is from, of course, the guitars and the sound, but also from the writing. Having a story to tell, having a story that everybody can relate to. That is going to be the good point. And of course, guitar playing, bass playing and drum playing. We're working really hard to have this kind of impact. We're like busting our asses for that. We're hoping that the album is going to have the same impact as the single.

METALLIAN: So, here's a question, looking at the credits for the song, did the band write Toxic Love with Oscar or did the folks from Street Symphonies write the song?
LINDA: It was Oscar from Street Symphonies. So it was like a sort of chain. The idea was there. We talked about it. The composition is by Louderyell along with Oscar, the producer. The producers got into it a little because it was natural by that time. The musicians had like a pre-production where we started with something not complete. I didn't completely write the lyrics, but we managed to make it better and in a better English together because it was, at first, Oscar and Stefano’s idea. We all worked together to make it real and then make the album.

METALLIAN: You already told me that some of the lyrics are your reality, the band's reality. Is that correct? Is that something that you're going through and you personally identify with?
LINDA: Right now, maybe, but in my story right now I am living with my boyfriend. I find myself well, but every one of us has had a toxic relationship. So, we could all agree. We could all feel it. I guess that's the thing that makes us play really really well and have an impact. We all felt that it was our reality. I don't know. For me it was my reality for the past year. Last year I was in a toxic relationship and the year before. I made pretty good decisions in my life. And also the guys in the band, you know, imagining ourselves in the story.

METALLIAN: You shot a video, which is rare. It's a concept video. These days you get just performance videos or cheap and boring lyric videos, but this one was actually a concept video, which is more fun to watch. At the very end, after the man pushes the woman and she pushes back he's just smiling. Did you notice that?
LINDA: Of course, I noticed that. We worked with a movie production company for the video. When we came up with the concept, along with Oscar, he knew the production company. We were together for the concept. We are all with that because not often people understand how toxic they can be. I am not perfect, but I still want to learn from my mistakes. That's the focus of the video with the girl that resonates and reinforces her strength and tries to gain her strength back, along with a guy who didn't really understand the real problem. The actors were amazing and I really appreciated it because we need to, we want to also focus on reality.

METALLIAN: Linda, tell me what is next.
LINDA: Well, we're hoping that we can finish the album soon so we can also go live because we all want to play live. But right now, getting out with just one single, and the other songs not completely finished, not completely polished, as I like to say it's not good for now. So we are training and busting our asses to put out great songs. Someday… make a really good show. I don't know if we're going to make a concert real soon. I guess it is going to be a sort of a release party. I'm hoping. We're really trying to figure it out by then, because we wanted to have the record finished.

METALLIAN: Who do you want to be as big as?
LINDA: Well, my heroes…. Well, I'm not, I don't want to point too high because I am kind of humble so it's all challenging for me. I still get emotional when I get on stage. I would like to have the same impact in singing as Rob Halford because he's one of my heroes. I wish, I really wish, we could get as big as one of my favourite bands, which is Lacuna Coil, a fellow Italian band. It's going to be hard work, but with us with the right hard work and the right people around, I guess we can make it.

METALLIAN: Look, good music and good singing like you delivered on the single are certainly important. But I've noticed something. One of the things that's very important in bands becoming bigger nowadays, unfortunately, in my opinion, is being notorious, being in the news, not for music or singing. Bands that become big kicked someone, they punched someone, they were arrested for drug dealing. They had a rap duet with a gangster. They had an affair with the prime minister. That's not music-related, but that seems to be the requirement these days for becoming big. It's not just your music. It's you who gets in the news for the wrong reasons.
LINDA: Well, I think music's about music. Many, many times, of course, I knew, I know bands which became known for the singer being like a princess and stuff and treating people like shit. I wouldn't really like to live that with Louderyell. I like to be known as a musician for my music and not for the gossip and stuff. We're usually humble guys, really, really, really calm guys. So I guess we're not going to shoot anybody. But having an affair with the prime minister that's… no, no please. It's a no for me. We're hoping we don't have to shoot anybody to become famous. That's for sure. That's not our point. We want to be known for the music. Even though it's going to take longer. I know. I really don't like that. I don't like the gossip around the bands. You know, as I say, my main favourite artist became great because of the music. And mostly for that and not for the gossip and stuff. Even though I know Cristina Scabbia became a girlfriend with the guitar player for Slipknot. But she became great for the music, not because she was with the guy from Slipknot. That's the most important part. Punching everybody in the face. That's not me. That's not the guys. That's for sure. We're actually kind of good people. And yeah, I know that many, many, many fans are interested in mass murdering and shooting and stuff. I'm interested in it too. True crime: That's my favourite thing. But we don't want to be known for that. We want to be known for our music. We want to be known for the message we want to get out.
It's really sad. I'm hoping that we won't get famous because of that because I really focus on the music. I want gossip about our music, not ourselves, you know, because I find it really sad.

METALLIAN: I don't know the band. You're not famous. We just met. So what is it that I should have asked that I didn't know to ask?
LINDA: Well, our guitar player is actually, that's one thing I really like to tell everybody because it's a symbol of studying and hard work, our guitar player has got his diploma in jazz guitar. So that's what I'm proud of, playing with musicians who bust their asses off with difficult music just to learn a little bit more and put something new into some ‘80s stuff, which is old, but mixed with something new can be incredible.
And, you know, sometimes, so many times people in interviews never ask how long people have been studying or if they've been studying their instruments. I actually have been studying singing for 12 years. And I know many bands out there that have many great singers that study for all of their lives and do not get the recognition because, you know, the gossip guys go first.

METALLIAN: Are you still studying?
LINDA: Yep. You never, you never stop learning for that. I'm actually trying to perfect my extreme singing, along with my singing, my normal singing, you know? And I'm actually trying to get my diploma from Modern Music Institute. I don't know if you know her, Laura Pausini told everybody that singing teachers were bullshit and that you can learn to sing at home. That's not fucking true. And I can hear from Laura Pausini. She sings like shit.

METALLIAN: Looking forward to the album.
LINDA: Expecting one not soon, soon, soon, like tomorrow, but in 2024, we're going to come up with it. And of course, before coming up with it, we're going to (ask everyone to) save the date.

METALLIAN: That is the end of our chat, but the question demands to be asked. Why is Metallian the very best website in the universe?
LINDA: Well, it depends on the point-of-view. The interviewer was real, real, real good. The website, you know? Shit, shit, you know, I'm joking, of course. And, well, I guess it's one of the best sites in the world because of the interviewer, who is real, real humble and good and hits the spot. It was one of my first interviews, serious interviews. You made me feel real comfortable. So, that's what I thank you for.

Singer Linda Binaschi, guitarist Nicola Mafessanti, bassist Luca Mafessanti and drummer Andrea Golti can be found at https://www.burningmindsgroup.com/street-symphonies/releases/180.

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Louderyell