Please introduce yourselves: Who are you, where do you come from and since when does A Tergo Lupi exist ?
SoM: Do you have strict rules, which elements from which genre are allowed in your music ?We have no real rules but it would be difficult to renounce some elements, such as the sounds of the tagelharpa and the drum, from which we started and which continue to be protagonists in our music. We are open to everything that we could discover and feel akin to our being and our ideas.
Mainly yes, most of the acoustic instruments and even some percussion are made by Camilla but we also use instruments purchased differently or, in the case of percussion, even objects sought directly in nature.
SoM: What are your TOP 3 favorite instruments or effects (incl. virtual instruments)? and why ?
In the sphere of those we use, our favorites are: the tagelharpa, the frame drum and, even if it includes several instruments, we could not do without Reason.Camilla: the tagelharpa was a real love at first sight for me from the first time I had the opportunity to hear it. It has now become a fundamental part of each of our songs and, whatever turn the project may take in the future, I personally know that I could not do without it anymore.Fabio: I would like to say two words in particular about the drum I use because I am literally in love with it. This is the first 55cm model made by Camilla, the reason why I love it, is its incredible versatility; most of the drum sounds, even apparently of war drums or timpani, are played by only one. Depending on the skin tightness, the beater used or the recording method, I can get the sounds I want.SoM: What is your songwriting and production process like ?Specifically, it depends on who of the two gives the initial input, in all cases we always start from the music and then the lyrics and the vocals arrive … if they arrive. Luckily, we found ourselves totally complementary, the riff, idea or input of one is subsequently integrated, elaborated and completed by the other, then when something starts to take shape we work together on the structure, on the arrangement and the details up to its final shape.
SoM: Which bands influence your music the most ?Obviously we have to put the projects of Einar Selvik first, Wardruna in the first place but also Skuggsjá, they have literally given life to a new neofolk horizon with nordic influences and we too have been deeply marked by them. As well as other great protagonists of the scene, such as Danheim, Heilung, but also Garmarna, Valravn, Sólstafir, and many beautiful emerging projects. For our background, however, we also owe a lot to bands and artists from completely different fields but who have accompanied us for many years, such as Nine Inch Nails or Rammstein, whom we also wanted to pay homage with our Spieluhr cover.
Then everything we listen to every day inevitably always leaves us something, even if it belongs to genres that are very far from what we do.SoM: Which of your own songs means the most to you personally and why ?Among the songs we have already released, certainly Red Sun is the one that, for now, we feel the most important for both, since it represents the change of pace, the stylistic evolution and the maturation after the first album much more heterogeneous and that has been more an experimentation, a search for a personal expression that we struggled to elaborate and which began to manifest itself with the most recent songs (such as March of the stones).Camilla: My personal choice would go towards a song that is still unreleased, it will probably be out this summer, but I think it is the most intimate and fragile song we have composed so far.Fabio: If there is a piece that I particularly love and hate at the same time it is March of the Stones, I love it because it involves me as if it were not our song, I hate it because to be able to close it in time I made hasty choices during the mix and it doesn’t sound as good as I wanted.
SoM: Now it’s time for some more personal “either.. or” questions – what do you prefer ?
SoM: Ocean or mountains ?
Fabio: For me the spring… there are cute flowers!
SoM: Pizza or pasta ?
Fabio: Camilla was born and grown in Emilia, an area of Italy that has made pasta a cult so I understand that she will never admit it but … pizza is better!
If there is something we would like to say to anyone who would like to give life to a project, whatever it may be, or start a path and feel debated or insecure, it is not to hesitate, not to postpone and start immediately; the time spent studying, creating, working, learning always leads to something good.
One of the quotes we like best to remember each other, is that a journey of a thousand miles really always starts from the ground beneath our feet.