NICO CATTONI - RAPTORE

#interview

NICO CATTONI - RAPTORE

💿 Hi, it’s a pleasure for us to have on Hardrockheavymetal NICO CATTONI of RAPTORE… Welcome!

Thank you for having me! My pleasure!

💿 Can you introduce us the current line-up of the band?

Sure! It’s me on vocals and guitar, Jamie Killhead on guitar and backing vocals, Cristian Blade on bass and backing vocals and Ángel Smolski on drums.

💿 On Jul 29th, 2022 will be out your new full-length, the second, entitled BLACKFIRE, positive received on our pages. Can you tell us somethin'about its composition process and style?

Well, the writing process started right away after ‘Rage N’ Fever’ was out, back in 2016. I wanted to explore a darkest and fastest side of the project, but always trying to keep that ‘rocker’ vibe that is intrinsic to me.

The first song that I came up with was Blackfire, I even remember started to rehearse it back in Argentina a few times.

Then, the ideas for Prisoner Of The Night, Devil Ascends and Death started to took shape and by the time I moved to Spain, at least the concept of the album, the name, and half of it were already decided.

Once here in Barcelona, the rest of the album was completed from 2019 to 2021, with the release of the Prisoner of the Night single in 2019 in the middle.

After that, we did several pre-production sessions and a lot of rehearsals focused on the album recording specifically, and by mid 2021 it got completed.

The last song to made the cut was Dirge, which is an instrumental piece written by Jamie.

Regarding the style, as mentioned before, the album is mostly fast and obscure, but always keeping that catchy and rocker nature.

💿 What's the role of lyrics in your songs?

Basically, I want to transmit my personality and my mind in a natural and simple but stylish way.

Lyrics like Phoenix and Death are at least for now the clearest example of that.

Then, the rest of the songs are more ‘fantastic-oriented’ to put in some way, because those were the topics that were crossing my mind by the time I wrote them, but always trying to add my own vision of the themes I write about.

💿 In your early times which artists influenced you the most? Can you tell us somethin'about the birth of the band?

I’ve always had Kiss as my all-time favorite band. Kiss and AC/DC are like my parents I like to say.

I always find myself coming back to them when writing songs and even if it doesn’t show that much, there’s a lot of their influence findable in our songs. But when the Raptore project started back in 2012, I was very deep into thrash, so I wanted to route the band in that direction.

Old school American thrash like Anthrax, Testament, Megadeth and Exodus with a heavy rock side, like WASP or Armored Saint, those were the bands that I wanted to mix. Then the project was evolving until the point where we are now, but yeah, in the early days it was all about 80s American thrash.

💿 BLACKFIRE is out on DYING VICTIMS PRODUCTIONS. Can you tell us somethin’ about the relationship with them?

When we started the ‘spamming’ quest of searching for labels, we received several offers, but Florian from DVP was the one who showed the most interested and offered us the most suitable deal for our needs and requirements.

We discussed some details and we signed with him pretty quickly.

We keep a constant communication with him and that’s a good thing.

💿 Here at HARDROCKHEAVYMETAL we are strong defender of classic format. Love for vintage or isn't there a future outside digital?

I particularly like every kind of formats. For the day-to-day use, I go with digital because it’s of course practical you can ‘take it’ everywhere. Nowadays I get to know bands or new music through this format.

The first thing I do when trying to find stuff about new bands I’m discovering is going straight to YouTube or Apple Music to check their profiles.

Besides that, I have a huge CD collection, because it was the most common format to get when I was growing up, so I have a big appreciation for CDs.

And of course, I love vinyl. I consider vinyl as the ultimate accomplishment your music can get in terms of formats and as the best format for the artwork to shine, so I think of vinyls like a collectable item, and I use to get them if I love the record so much or if I would like to have it like some sort of piece of art.

💿 We love the cover of BLACKFIRE. Can you tell us somethin'about?

It was done by Colombian artist Lu Agudelo of Subhuman Illustrations. The idea was to feature these two elements, the demon and the tri dimensional triangle, and she managed to mix them in an excellent way. The concept of the artwork can be easily linked to the song Blackfire, since it represents the rise of this demon/fallen angel through sacrifice. We chose the purple color to add a little of surreal atmosphere and because that’s the color we planned as the leading theme for the whole Blackfire concept.

💿 Can you tell us somethin' about your next projects?

We have Trveheim and Pyrenean festivals confirmed for the second half of the year and some local concerts as well. The idea is to play everywhere possible at least for this and the next year and record our next album after that, which is already in the making.

💿 Thank you so much for your time! See you soon on Hardrockheavymetal!

Thank you! Anytime!

Raptore

Dying Victims Productions