Do you love fresh and unique music covers of your favorite artists? Well, if you are a fan of Leprous, Pain Of Salvation or even Phil Collins or Sting, you found a jackpot. Italian duo called In The Loop formed by Valentina Schiavo (vocals) and Alessandro Galdieri (guitar, keyboard, vocals) are active only since 2015 but already managed to create quite big impact on the music scene. Especially among members and fans of bands as Leprous and Pain Of Salvation who were positively shocked by the quality and the speed of their covers. Luckily these successes pushed the band to progress even further and sky is the only limit for In The Loop.
For the start, please tell us how did you form In The Loop and why did you choose to do covers instead of your own songs?
We started for fun! In the very beginning we started uploading the first videos of our arrangements with absolutely no pretention and the initial feedback was unexpectedly positive! We then understood that our “experiment” had a great potential, and this has led us to make “In the Loop” our first priority, devoting our minds and souls into this project 24/7. Going forward, we have improved the overall quality of our work, waiting for the right time to release our own songs we are currently working on.
You have quite similar taste as I do, if me speak about modern metal, eighties icons or avant-garde pop. What is your music background from childhood and early teenage days?
Both of us have born and grown in a family environment with no preconception in terms of musical taste. The music catalogue spread out from classical (Rachmaninov, Debussy, etc.) to rock music (The Queen, The Beatles, Genesis, Bowie…and we can go on endlessly…:)) and this has had a great influence on us, since our musical DNA has been consolidated through the years.
We always choose cover songs from bands or artist that we admire and whose we are the first fans
Background
What is your music education?
We have started studying and playing music since we were children. Alessandro has started his musical journey studying classic guitar at the conservatory. Then he moved to Rome continuing his education at musical academy of Jazz, Pop and Rock, Percento Musica, where Valentina attended as a student as well. In this school we have improved our music skills and we have met a lot of highly qualified professionals who have strongly contributed to our growth.
What philosophy do you apply? Are you trying to be always different than original or rather developing certain In The Loop “brand sound”? With all positives, it took me a while to recognize David Bowie’s Dollar Days.
Our main strength is to being able to draw a new dress to the original song, but at the same time we have a great RESPECT and admiration for the singer/artist. We always choose cover songs from bands or artist that we admire and whose we are the first fans. Once we have selected the song, we do not pay much attention either to the sound or to the music genre to use. We strongly believe that our way to create our music and the consequent re-interpretation of the song is the right formula to get noticed from the audience and to put our original footprint that distinguish us from other people that do this kind of stuff!
How long it usually take to make a cover?
The peculiarity of our project and our approach when we start working on covering a new song, is undoubtedly the delivery in the shortest time (less than 48 hours) of the final product, including re-arrangement, recording, video shooting and editing. Such a challenge that leaves us exhausted in the end, but for which we have always been well rewarded and this makes us very proud for our efforts! For other songs such as Eleanor Rigby, Nature Boy, Easy Lover, etc we usually spend more time, so that we can create something a bit more sophisticated both musically and visually. This is the kind of approach we have recently adopted with respect to our latest release of Whole Lotta Love, from the greatest Led Zeppelin.
Breakthrough
Which cover was the breakthrough, do you think? The first time I came across your work was Pain Of Salvation – Meaningless cover, but I believe the breakthrough was Leprous – From The Flame cover.
Luckily, we have always got a great response from our audience for all of our creations! But the most successful one were as you say the covers from Pain of Salvation and Leprous. Big role played the fan metal base who shared our songs through the web and contributing to spread out the word on our project. The most grateful moment was when Daniel (from Pain of Salvation) shared our video. We were completely blown away when we woke up and found this “present”, since Pain of Salvation is one of our favorite band. After that, the appreciation from Leprous, who have shared our video, was a great reward for us!
This takes us back to a cover time space. What was the time schedule? Take us please hour by hour, as even Leprous were shocked how fast it was.
Ok we have to admit…we’ve got the Delorean! But, seriously, we think that this is mainly due because we have our own little recording studio, so basically we can record, shoot video independently and with no time constraints due to third parties. This allow us to literally dive into the project. Jumping back to Leprous…it was very funny to see their shocked reaction on how fast we’ve been able to take their “From the Flame” upside down…
How are you trying to take your band further? I am glad you are even approaching eighties hits as Phil Collins – Easy Lover and Sting – Englishman in New York.
Our musical DNA reserves a special place for the music from the 80’s! Artists like Phil Collins, Sting (including The Police), Tears For Fears, Peter Gabriel and so many others who belong to this mainstream, still have an influence on the new generation from all over the world and we are amongst those that have been influenced by them.
Our musical DNA reserves a special place for the music from the 80’s
Gear & Promo
Any unique items from the gear, you would like to mention, let say within microphones or effects? Please start with Alessandro’s acoustic guitar.
Actually, as we said before, every arrangement is different from each other. Of course there are patterns and combination of sounds that we have already used before and we often use the in order to speed up the process. Just to give you an example, we use our truly and loyal AKG414 microphone for vocals, the Ovation guitar for acoustic songs, or Gibson Les Paul for rock parts, the Roli Seabord and last in order of appearance (but not the least!) the Prophet 08 that has contributed to add that electronic footprint to our last creations! But we’re always looking for new sounds, sensations, moods and effects, and this gives us the right incentive and tests us to go a step further every time. That’s also why every arrangement is unique and always fresh and different from the previous one.
How do you promote your work? Are you active on Facebook fan groups of an artist you just covered?
Yes, we are, of course! We do our best to exploit the power of the web, so that we can reach as many people as possible, including the fans of the artists or bands we cover and eventually the latter as well! Assolutamente si!
Do you get more positive feedback from metal scene or from fans of mainstream artists as Alicia Keys, 30 Seconds To Mars and Kings Of Leon?
As we already said before, it’s easier to get noticed for a rock/metal cover songs. The rock/metal fans are usually more curious and fanatic about all the stuffs around their idols and the fan base is more compacted and less unbundled than ones that follow the mainstream artists, contributing to make the sharing process more consistent.
How do you split roles within additional roles? (Percussion in From The Flame let say…)
Our arrangements are influenced by the sensations of the moment! We do not follow a precise patterns or rules. Every instrument, sound, effect, do not need just to be there but have to contribute and add new colors to the song. In From The Flame the percussion is the main and fundamental element of our arrangement and recall the rhythm of the drums from the original song.
With whom do cooperate within video, graphics, recording, finalizations?
No one helps us! We do everything on our own and with what we have, we are always trying to achieve the most professional result as possible.
Future plans
Are you doing or planning live shows?
Actually we are on the road for about three years now with an acoustic set, using the LoopStation (that’s why we are called “In the Loop”). But we are at work in order to play live all our Rearranged songs and see as many places as possible!
What are your wildest dreams with In The Loop?
Winning a Grammy Award is enough wild as a dream for you? 🙂
More about In The Loop
