Overshade (The Story)

OVERSHADE -THE STORY-

The “Overshade” project is born in February “2005 when drummer Paolo Pedana gathers the rest of the prog-power group members around himself, i.e. the “Etherlord”, composed of Tommaso Maria Guerri on bass guitar, Michele Palafreni on keyboards and piano, Alessandro Bravi on the guitar. Within a short time, while searchng for a singer, Paolo and Trommaso meet Cesare Capaccioni who initially only accepts to be a “studio-singer” and subsequently, struck by seiousness and the beauty of the project, decides to become a real part of the group. The idea was to unite different musical genres, the to link various styles and shades the each component could express. So within a short period the songs were ready, all all of them having come out Paolo’s mind and rearranged singularly by each musicians. The research of encircling atmospheres, the aim of conveying changing sensations, the choice of a slightly less extreme sound -all this without repudiating the progressive origins, is the basis with wich “Seven Visions of a Broken Life”- the band’s first demo was achieved. Self produced, SVOBL was born to be a liasion between purists of metal music and lovers of commercial genres, a means of transport to draw the ones closer to the others…

Paolo Pedana

Paolo Pedana is the founder, drummer,producer, arranger and author of most of the music and lyrics of the Symphonic Metal band Overshade and the Rock band Anthropos. Shade was born on 25th March 1987 in a small Umbrian town in Italy: Umbertide. He has an older sister and brother. His father was a drummer and disc jockey, in fact, Paolos interest in music was stimulated at young age thanks to his father and his enormous collection of records that went from the 70s hard rock to contemporary music. Music was very appreciaded in his family, specially by his mother. He therefore starts to take interest as a small boy and ever since hes loved anything thats music. At only 7 he starts to take piano lessons from Vittorio Angeletti. After a few years, apart from hard rock and the mythical Deep Purple, Paolo starts listening to progressive metal groups like Dream Theater, SymphonyX, Adagio, Transatlantic etc. At 14 he quits his piano studies to dedicate his time to musical theory of composition and his favourite instruments: the drums. At 14 he starts taking drumming lessons from Stefano Coletti from whom he will learn part of the tecniques. After a short time he starts to play with local bands: Upkeep and Etherlords. On 4th June 2003 Paolo was run-over by a bus and was almost dying. This accident, that Paolo describes as a real nightmare, will strongly influence his life in the following years. Admitted in hospital, Paolo ordered his first electronic drum set, a Yamaha DTXPRESS II and continued to practice with headphones in his hospital bed. After various months hes discharged and starts to write his first cd of Symphony From The Deep soundtracks composed of 11 songs created with various synthetizers and other instruments of orchestral reproduction. In 2004 the cd s presented to the great composer Giampiero Reverberi, who had gone to Umbertide for a live performance and had been very impressed by young Paolos musical ideas. In 2005 Paolo decides to carry out the Overshade project. Initially the proposal was accepted by Tommaso Maria Guerri, Giorgio Gustinelli and then, after some hesitation, by Michele Palafreni and Alessandro Bravi. In June 2005 Paolo starts to write his first demo, the first officia one of the band: Seven Visions of a Broken Life In the meantime he is contacted by some of heavy metal cover band called Hellraiser. The band starts to perform in central Italy proposing Iron Maiden, Judas Priest and Helloween songs. While Paolo was involved withthe cover band he proposes Cesare Capaccioni to join in the band. Initially Cesare accepts only for studio recordings but subsequently decides to stay definitely in the formation . On 2008 Paolo wrotes and composed 36 songs for both Overshade and Anthropos, then he started to go on tour around the world with the rock band. In the 2010 Paolo met the director Terry Gilliam by chance and decided, since his great passion for the director's works, to dedicate a song to him called "Strangers of The Nowhere". After some months since that meeting, Paolo and Terry met again in a cinematographics festival where Paolo and the band delivered the dedicated song to Terry who was really glad and surprised for that.
Paolo's musical heritage was greatly influenced by Ian Paice initially and then by Mike Portnoy. Other drummers mentioned are Jason Rullo, Vinnie Paul, Simon Philips, Dave Lombardo and Dennis Chambers. Deep Purple, Guns'n Roses, Led Zeppelin, Dream Theater, Pantera, Rush, Symphony X, Rhapsody, Nightwish and Iron Maiden are amongst Paolos favourite bands.

EXTRA:
Paolo spent most of his time to the United States, he has a cat called (unknown )and spends all his money in journeys, keyboards and parts for his drums. Paolo is very keen on native american and oriental philosophy. He loves Indian flutes and Okinawas martial arts. He also has a great interest in cinema. He actually owns all of Steven Seagal's videography. Paolo is a very reserved person and considers himself a researcher of all that is Pure. He doesn't like to call himself a drummer or an artist, but simply prefer to define himself a music's "artisan". Moreover since he's a multi-instrumentalist , he writes and composes the most of the orchestral songs that doesn't belongs to his bands.

INSTRUMENTS

Tama Starclassic, Sabian cymbals, Ufip, Remo skins, Pearl pedals, Tama Iron Cobra, Pro-Mark drumsticks, Latin Percussion drums.

Michele Palafreni

Michele Palafreni was born on 7th January 1982, in a town that is not far away from perugia, the chief town of umbria. Right from when he was a little boy he showed particular interest and sensitivity towards music. He learnt his technique first rudiments on a keyboard that his father had given to him. The “effective” studies, though, started at the age of 12 when he signed up in a private school for classical piano lessons. In the beginning he didn’t prove to be particularly interested in that type of study, he actually felt the need to express himself different though another more spontaneus musical language: “light” music.He therefore founded a band, along with some friends, amongst which Alessandro Bravi. The name of the band was Ibex, a name taken from an old band that Freddie Mercury had been a member of. The “new” Ibex effectively had a very stong passion and interest and a very heartfelt devotion for the Queen. During their live performances the band would play many covers of Queen, Nomadi, Battisti, and also their own songs. The Ibex also performed at “Teatro dei Riuniti” in Umbertide and also recorded two demos, one of wich featured Michele at the vocals. In the meantime michele achieves a diploma in sol-fa and music theory as an external student at the music academy of Perugia. Very soon the ibex broke up and for a long period Michele was out of a job. He continued to study classical piano. In 2002 he founded, always with Alessandr Bravi, a band called Miao Yin in which he performed as the vocalist and at the keyboards. 60’s and 70’s rock (Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, AC/DC, Who, The Doors…) represented the soul of this band that is still active. Miao Yin also took part in various contests and obtained some pizes too.They performed at the “Arena di Santa Giuliana” in Perugia (on the same stage that had hosted artists of “Umbria Jazz”) At the “San Remo al C’entro” contests Michele met those who would have become the future Overshade. He was positively impressed by the creative potential of Paolo Pedana and decided to join him, along with the others in carrying out the project, the demo and even mor in the evolution of the artistic context. The story has just begun.

EXTRAS

Michele still lives in Umbertide, he is very keen on literature and philosophy, a lover of spiritual inebriation, intended as sublimation of the soul. Michele is a man of thought and not a man of action

INSTRUMENTS

Korg Trinity, Korg 01Wpro, E-mu Proteus 2000

Alessandro Bravi

Alessandro Bravi was born in Umbertide on 13th June 1981, starts his musical education at about 13 when, almost as a joke, he starts to play his mother’s old guitar that hadn’t been used fot 20 years. So he started to take private lessons for the classical guitar in a private school in his hometown, initially run by maestro Fabrizio Marsili and then he goes to the acdemy of music under the teaching of maetro Leonardo De Angelis with whom he graduates, in October 2006, in classical guitar with excellents marks.However, his passion for music does not stop at the classics style. In fact, right from his first years of studies, specially as a self-taught man, and also thanks to maestro Marsili, he starts to study the electric guitar too. His favourite music is 70’s rock which takes him to play the Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, Doors, Deep Purple and Queen music and have strongly influenced his style and sound.His resume include many perfecting courses and an ensemble music contest won in1997.At the moment, apart from his job as a music teacher at the Cortona Municipal School, he is the guitarist of two bands that compose their own music: Miao Yin who play rockk imprint music, and the Overshade with a more Power Metal imprint.

EXTRAS

Alessandro still lives in Umbertide and is very keen on classical guitar

INSTRUMENTS

Gibson Les Paul custom, Marshall amplifier

Cesare Capaccioni

Cesare Capaccioni is the newcomer, singer and co-producer of the CD.
Cesare Capaccioni was born in Umbertide, a small town in the north of Umbria, on 20th February, 1983. His father, Franco, a big music fan and expert on Italian singer-songwriters, instils his love for music and for the poetry it expresses into him since he was a child. Listening to Lucio Battisti, PFM, Ribelli, ….. the young Cesare starts playing the piano by himself, showing an extraordinary attitude and a very good ear for music. When he is older, Cesare starts his piano lessons with a professional musician, Silvano Petturiti. But school, personal problems and others force Cesare to stop his piano lessons and for three years he has no contacts with the world of music and with his piano. Then when he is 16, something changes. He is in Firenze, he discovers the Deep Purple and he realizes the potentialities of his voice, capable of very high notes. He feels confident of his vocal skills and he devotes himself to music again. In a short time, he forms a band, Lain, with some friends and they start playing in towns in central Italy covering a large Italian and foreign repertoire, going from Deep Purple to Ligabue, from Black Sabbath to Litfiba. Meanwhile, he decides to study singing and he finds in Gabriella Zanchi, a soprano, a leading figure who will help him to shape his future. He is 17. He starts studying basic opera singing and a couple of years later he finds in the baroque songs a great source of inspiration, so he learns to be a “sopranista d’agilità”. The Lain breaks up so Cesare performs occasionally with different local groups, thus gaining a wider knowledge of the musical panorama and coming into contact with “heavy metal” music. The University, and more exactly Firenze, puts him in contact with a completely different musical environment. In Tuscany he finds in the Sevengates his ideal band: very good musicians, a large audience and the opportunity to perform in important places and shows. He goes on studying opera singing and he performs live singing Power Metal all over Italy, receiving raves from the press, concert-goers, webzines. In 2004 he joins “Hellraiser”, a cover band from Città di Castello and he enjoys singing Iron Maiden’s, Judas Priest’s, Helloween’s covers. There he meets Paolo Pedana and Tommaso Maria Guerri who ask him to record in the studio some pieces for the “Overshade” project. Soon, what should have been him a temporary experience, becomes love and commitment to the creation of the demo “Seven Visions of a Broken Life”, thus joining officially the band.
Cesare has been influenced both by Italian singers and bands such as Battisti, New Trolls, PFM, Area and by international big names such as Pink Floyd, Deep Purple, Beatles, Queen…. “Metally speaking”, he loves Helloween, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Crimson Glory and he considers himself a lover of everything that can express a feeling, whether folk music or extreme music. Opera singing leads him to exalt musical geniuses like Mozart, Broschi and Haendel.
Among the singers he is inspired by Demetrio Stratos, Michael Kiske, Ian Gillan, Aris Christofellis and Midnight.

EXTRAS

Cesare studies Prehistoric Archaeology at Firenze University and he is a lover of sport, travel and good food.

INSTRUMENTS

Neumann KMS105, Shure SM58, Proel ear monitor, Earpower ep10 earphones, Focusrite Voicemaster pro. preamplifier.

OVERSHADE - SEVEN VISIONS OF A BROKEN LIFE (PROMO CD 2006)

Seven Visions of a Broken Life is the effect of suffering, the Synthesis of the most common well-disposed and malevolent emotions perceptible by human being. In their future creations the Overshade will tend to analyze suffering and the pain that generates it, stopping on the origins of the latter – the evil. However, the reason of this new context must not be misunderstood: it isn’t a matter of destructive research and expression, but an expression of the evil, innate in every human being, ignored (by the majority) for bilions of years and manifested, to great surprise of whoever assists to it, only in “moments of madness”.
An expression aimed at exorcism the rotten part of man, in search of something pure to start a new form. Talking about this, other thoughts can be introduced into the context, such as: the aversion to rules imposed by nature and by the gross instincts that govern it. However, the Overshade will not only concentrate on expressing what there is of apparently aberrant and perserve in human beings.
They will also concentrate on all the others faces of pain.Everything is born from pain, from”distructive” emotions, every stimulus of a nartist and of the human being. Life itself derives from feelings of deprivation and desire. The procreation triggeres by a feeling of loneliness/ambition that express a wish to fulfil, therefore a deprivation.The constitution of a family itself is the effect of the fulfilment of loneliness. Therefore family, that is the womb of live, is born from pain. Life itself, then, is born from pain.It must not be seen as a negative condition of the human heart.
On the contrary it is the sweetest and most intense condition that man can ever feel; the only one that includes all the strongest, deepest and most significant emotions at the disposal of man’s nature.It is impossible to free one’s energies if one has not known pain before.Pain sublimates the soul, the sensivity and makes man well-disposed towards introspection.It therefore contributes to the cognitive development of a person and, alongside, enhances the “deployment” of sensivity. The Overshade will be working on the evil because it’s the force that throws out the positive side of man from the darkness


By Michele Palafreni