Interviewed by Brian Rademacher
Date: July 2010

Luca Turilli: Hi Brian. This is Luca from Italy

Brian Rademacher: How are you doing?

Luca Turilli: Everything is fine here in Italy. We are sweating a lot, it’s very hot.

Brian Rademacher: Let’s start of by asking you what were you like as a kid?

Luca Turilli: Oh my God, I don’t remember anymore it was a long time ago. I got in touch with music at a very young age maybe twelve or thirteen. I was just very interested in music all the time. I started guitar when I was about fifteen; it was kinda late compared to many children now. Most kids start playing now about age seven or eight. Young kids become talented very young and learn the technical parts of guitar playing. During my school years I have to thank my mother because I had the perfect education because of her. I always respect the people around me and in return they respected me. My grades were always good except for math. I was never good in math.

Brian Rademacher: What was the first concert you attended?

Luca Turilli: To be honest I only saw maybe a dozen concerts in my whole life. I really never liked going to the concerts and I never went to the disco when I was young. I never liked being in a crowd. Also people were allowed to smoke and I hate smoking so I didn’t go.

Brian Rademacher: Do you remember what the first music you ever bought was?

Luca Turilli: Yes, I remember well. I was about fifteen. It was about 1987-88 and it was HELLOWEEN. At that time they were selling over a million copies of their album and they were very popular here in Europe. HELLOWEEN was also the band that turned me onto metal. The first album I bought was "Keeper of the Seven Keys - Part II". That was a fantastic album.

Brian Rademacher: Are there any future plans to work with Olaf Hayer again? (singer from Luca's solo albums)

Luca Turilli: It’s a miracle that we had a chance to release something with RHAPSODY after so many years. My total concentration is on RHAPSODY and we are already working on new music so I’m not sure if I will work with Olaf right now, hopefully in the future.

Brian Rademacher: Is there any chance in releasing another science fiction-based album like "Prophet of the Last Eclipse"?

Luca Turilli: You can never say never but for the next two years my devotion is to RHAPSODY.

Brian Rademacher: How would you describe your solo career from working with RHAPSODY OF FIRE?

Luca Turilli: I try to keep both projects separate and from day to day things change. For example I released "Dreamquest" which had nothing to do with RHAPSODY. See you can do different projects if you’re a creative person. You stay in front of your computer and I wrote songs all the time. It’s all kind of different possibilities to express yourself with music. Now if I had to concentrate on music for RHAPSODY and only RHAPSODY after two years I would leave the band. I need an outlet to express myself in different ways.

Brian Rademacher: Why the secrecy on the identity of your vocalist from 'Luca Turilli‘s Dreamquest'? What's the point? And will there be another album?

Luca Turilli: We wanted to have a particular atmosphere around this album. It was a choice I had in mind and in the very beginning I really didn’t know who was going to be the singer of the band. First I had one singer I wanted than it changed so I wanted to make it kind of a mystery and it solved the problem who was going to sing by not mentioning who it was.

Brian Rademacher: Tell me a little about the new album?

Luca Turilli: It’s a great album that is released on a great label like Nuclear Blast. We have been getting great reviews on "The Frozen Tears Of Angels" and it’s fresh. It’s a wide variety of different tunes that many seem to like.

Brian Rademacher: Where do you see RHAPSODY OF FIRE in the next 5 years? Where do you see yourself?

Luca Turilli: Ha-ha. First, one of our last tours was in Canada and USA and we will be back with this new release. The new album is a rebirth and a new start and as I mentioned we are already working on a new album and huge worldwide tour and part of this tour we will be coming to your wonderful country the USA. So touring and making albums is in the future.

Brian Rademacher: The new album "The Frozen Tears Of Angels" has debuted at #52 on the Billboard Heatseekers chart, #60 on the Top Hard Music Albums chart, and #132 on the Top Independent Albums chart. Plus in Greece #11; Italy #31; Germany #33; Finland #35; Switzerland #39; Japan #41; France #51; Austria #58; South Korea #69; Spain #81 and Belgium #96.

Luca Turilli: This is amazing and fantastic. We never reached that status on the charts. After four years of silence and a possibility of never releasing a RHAPSODY album again and with the economy the way it is, it’s so great and we were happy people still remembered RHAPSODY. It gave us the possibility to organize the worldwide tour. This was very important to us.

Brian Rademacher: Can you believe the album is #69 in South Korea. I didn’t even know they listened to metal in that country.

Luca Turilli: This was a big surprise for us. We played in South Korea before when we did our Japanese tour. In Japan Heavy metal is popular but we never knew it was so popular inSouth Korea. I had some doubts playing South Korea which was eight years ago and our shows were full of people and to enter the charts there was just fantastic.

Brian Rademacher: "Reign Of Terror" "Raging Starfire" and "Danza di Fuoco e Ghiaccio" are mentioned in many review as the best tracks on the release do you feel that is true?

Luca Turilli: I think they are the most popular songs we ever composed. We had a different approach with the mix. Alex and I were the only producers. We wanted the lead guitar very loud; we wanted the rhythm guitar very loud. Lyrically this album needed that. We also start the album with a saga which is the most important part of RHAPSODY.

Brian Rademacher: Have you added any new guitars to your collection?

Luca Turilli: I have a new guitar from France, a French guitar maker made it for me. He has three of them and I want to become the definitive neo classical player.

Brian Rademacher: Well Luca congratulations on the new album and can’t wait to see you in the United States. Would you like to say anything in ending?

Luca Turilli: I want to invite all the fans to our show. After such as long silence we want to spread our energy to all the fans and give them a great show. I also want to thank the fans for sticking with us after so long of a time not releasing an album. First we will play some festivals than we will come to the US. We will play in New York; my girlfriend is in love with New York so we will definitely play there. Thanks so much for the interview. bye bye.