Interviewed by Brian Rademacher
Date: April 2008

Brian Rademacher: Hello Guido and Welcome to RockEyez.com.

Guido Priori : It’s a pleasure talking to you, Brian.

Brian Rademacher: : First off let us congratulate you on a fantastic sophomore release No Man’s Land was just released.

Guido Priori : Many thanks for the compliments. I’m happy to hear you enjoy the album.

Brian Rademacher: Before MYLAND you released a JOURNEY tribute CD in 2000, which received great reviews. Did any of the members of JOURNEY contact you after or before the release?

Guido Priori : I’m still surprised by the big success of that album, although I never managed to have an official release so far. I met JOURNEY’s guitarist Neal Schon after a SOUL SIRKUS’s gig in Milan three or four years ago. I handed him a copy of my JOURNEY’s tribute as he was very surprised, but I haven’t received any feedback from him, neither by any other JOURNEY’s members.

Brian Rademacher: When I first heard about MYLAND back in 2005 and you sent over your debut CD The Time Is Over I knew the band was going to make an impact in music. When that came out did you always have it in your mind that there would be a follow up release?

Guido Priori : : “The Time is Over” album was originally titled “Paolo Morbini”, It was recorded in 1995 sung in Italian actually. Some years later I and Paolo Morbini decided to re-fresh it and change the lyrics into English, we re-wrote some new vocals and chorus, then we added an acoustic ballad called “Under the sky”. “The Time is Over” was completed. We did receive many excellent reviews, so we thought it would a good thing writing some new material, so we did. Following many requests by fans, we are seriously thinking of making “The Time is Over” an official release, hopefully. There’s nothing official yet, but we are moving into that direction. We will keep you update for sure.

Brian Rademacher: Fast forward to 2007, a new MYLAND release No Man’s Land is in the making for 2008. Why did it take so long to put the new CD out?

Guido Priori : Basically, our producer Niki from Valery Records was not satisfied by the first mixing of the album, so he decided to re-mix it and moved the whole recording to Massive Studio‘s in Milan .Then there was a delay due to other problems I don’t want to go into details with, but it was worth waiting for, looking at the final result.

Brian Rademacher: You ended up reaching out to Kee Marcello ex-EUROPE to help out with the new CD? How did that come about?

Guido Priori : We are all huge EUROPE fans and Kee’s Marcello fans. One of our guitarists Marzio Ker contacted him because Marzio is a friend of Kee’s. Kee managed the mastering in Sweden and played an awesome guitar solo on the song “Wind of late September”. He is a really nice person and a very talented artist; we’re hoping to work with him again in the future.

Brian Rademacher: You also released “No Man’s Land" on Valery records. Tell us what Valery Records brought to the table in releasing the new CD?

Guido Priori : Valery Records is an Italian indie label, very professional people. Niki is a big rock connoisseur, looking careful for the quality in the music. He is also a huge melodic rock fan just like all of us, so it was easy and enjoyable working with him. When he listened to our demo he was totally amazed. We had contact back and forth briefly then meeting, we signed the deal. That’s all.

Brian Rademacher: 2008 No Man’s Land is released and getting stunning reviews worldwide. Our site RockEyez.com gave it 4.5 stars when recording it was there anything you would have change at all?

Guido Priori : We all appreciated your great review and the rating; it’s unbelievable, especially for a debut band like ours. We are all satisfied by the recording and there’s nothing we would really change. Some people don’t like the reverb on vocals actually. I heard somebody say” less reverb on vocals means more talent”. I quite disagree. When you have no talent you sing Rap, although I do respect any genre of music. I love reverb on vocals and won’t really change my mind. AOR‘s sound needs some reverbs on vocals, in my own opinion.

Brian Rademacher: As you recorded the CD were there songs you knew just by hearing it being recorded that you would think stood out more then others?

Guido Priori : Honestly, I would say no. I feel each song on the album is on the same level. I love them all without exception.

Brian Rademacher: Were there songs that you recorded for the CD that were never used? And if so what happens to those?

Guido Priori : We have only one song called “Everywhere I go” we didn’t record for the album because it was too heavy in our opinion. It sounded like RAINBOW’s “Spotilight’s Kid” kind of stuff. Anyway it’s a great song and probably we will be using it as an opening track in the future. We’ll see.

Brian Rademacher: Let’s get into some of the tracks on "No Man’s land."

Guido Priori : It’s a pleasure. Go ahead.

Brian Rademacher: The opening track “Anytime” is my favorite track and could be a #1 song worldwide with some exposure. This will be a classic in years to come. What are your feelings about the song?

Guido Priori : I had that vocal melody that was still spinning on my mind, but I couldn’t find the music. One day I went to Paolo’s studio and I started singing him the chorus. Paolo said, “Hey this is awesome! Let’s do it”! So he sat down at the piano then a little guitar too. Into few minutes we had the song finished. You can hear a big SURVIVOR’s Jim Peterik influence on that song. Jim is the most talented songwriter in music industry and a really nice person. He is my favorite artist.

Brian Rademacher: So how many tracks were actually written for No Man’s Land?

Guido Priori : We have written eleven songs, but only ten were recorded on NML in the end.

Brian Rademacher: Next up is “The Wind of Late September” with a special solo by Kee Marcello, now did you let Kee decide on the solo or did you have the music written for the solo?

Guido Priori : Kee decided the solo actually. He wanted to listen to the song before hand, and then he performed one of the greatest guitar solo’s I’ve ever listened to in my life. He wanted to include some vocals too because he use to play the melody of the song into his guitar playing. It‘s his trademark. He’s one of the most talented guitarists in the world.

Brian Rademacher: How was it working with Kee?

Guido Priori : It was absolutely great. Simply awesome, he is very professional. He’s really a down to earth guy and nice person. We are all glad and proud having such a great artist on our album.

Brian Rademacher: MYLAND has a live band and a recording band. Can you explain this situation and other musicians that worked on No Man’s Land?

Guido Priori : The current line set up for our live show is myself at vocals, Paolo Morbini on drums, Hox Martino guitars, Max Passerini guitars, Will Medini keys and Clod Corazza on bass, although all the recording players are still involved into MYLAND’s future project so far. There is also guitarist Marco Andreasi and keyboardist’s Steve Andreasi. MYLAND is a melodic rock project and we feel like we’re living in crazy rock family. Ha, ha, ha!

Brian Rademacher: Another one of my favorite is “How Much Love”. Are the songs that were written for the CD from experience, or how does the writing process for MYLAND work?

Guido Priori : Once again thanks for the compliments. To be honest I don’t like ballads very much, but I do appreciate your opinion, Brian. I love the writing part; it’s like painting a picture in some ways. On our song we use to write about everyday life experience. We are positive people and this reflects in our music. I and Paolo use to write all the songs then the other members would add their own ideas. The marriage of those things becomes our songs. Paolo is an unbelievable songwriter. The song “Voices “is interesting. It talks about innocent war’s victims, as children sometimes are.

Brian Rademacher: When we reach track six “Age of My Dreams” there is a slight direction change. The song has a great chorus but it seems the song is a little heavier then the others, was there a reason for that?

Guido Priori : We all grew up listening to the greatest hard/heavy metal band. They are LED ZEPPELIN , DEEP PURPLE , BLACK SABBATH, VAN HALEN, AC/DC, KISS THIN LIZZY, to name a few. We wanted to rock and so we did, but still we’re melodic too. Let me say it’s a sort of heavy metal pop tune. Ha, ha, ha!!

Brian Rademacher: Do you think you will get some criticism with the song “One Step Closer” sounding like “Don’t Stop Believin’” by JOURNEY?

Guido Priori : That’s interesting. I don’t hear much similarity with JOURNEY’s “Don’t stop believin’” to be honest, except on the chorus a little bit. Anyway I don’t see any criticism at all. Being compared with JOURNEY is quiet a big compliment to me. JOURNEY is my favorite band and Steve Perry is “The Voice”.

Brian Rademacher: Do your vocals come naturally or did you have vocal lessons?

Guido Priori : My vocal teacher was my old stereo actually. When I was younger I used to play my records for 10 hours a day, trying to imitate my favorite singers, it helped me a lot to improve my vocal technique. My favourites are Steve Perry, Ronnie Dio, Brad Delp, Klaus Meine, Lou Gramm, Bobby Kimball, Dennis De Young, Freddy Mercury, Sting, Jimi Jamison, Mark Free, Richard Marx,Fergie Fredericksen, Tony Mills, to name a few. My neighbours, Mom and dad would kill me sometimes, because I used to play music louder than hell. Ha, ha, ha!! Anyway I never had a vocals lesson so far.

Brian Rademacher: Will there be a 3rd MYLAND CD?

Guido Priori : You can count on that, Brian.

Brian Rademacher: If you could recommend the MYLAND CD to other bands fans, what bands would that be?

Guido Priori : Let me say JOURNEY, TOTO, STYX, CHICAGO, MAGNUM, SURVIVOR, FOREIGNER, SIGNAL, FM, and a little bit of SAGA too because Paolo is a big fan of that band . Although, believe it or not, my all times favorite singer is Ronnie James Dio.

Brian Rademacher: Since I know you are a family man I would like to get your feelings on some subjects.

Guido Priori : Family is the most important thing in everybody’s life. I have a wonderful family, friends, a good job, thank God for good health at the moment and I enjoy playing music. I feel very lucky, but without a family all of those things might be worth nothing in the end.

Brian Rademacher: What are your feelings about the music business?

Guido Priori : The music industry has really changed during the years. Everything is made for making money, once there were very talented artists around and producers were musicians themselves, while the quality of the music was up a level. I never played music for making money, but only because playing is enjoyable and funny. I don’t really care about music business.

Brian Rademacher: What are your feelings about the world we live in?

Guido Priori : We need to make less of an effort of creating stars and more of an effort helping those around us. Too many people are driven by money and not by love. We need to pay some more respect to people, love for nature etc. We all breathe the same air, eat the same food and drink the same water. Sometimes we need to stop for awhile and think about it. Governments seem like they really don’t care without exception.

Brian Rademacher: Do you believe in God?

Guido Priori : I do. Each time I look into the eyes of my son or when he smiles at me I thank God for that.

Brian Rademacher: Tell us what a normal day is like being Guido Priori from when you wake up to bedtime?

Guido Priori : I’m a quiet person. I enjoy life. When I’m not busy with MYLAND I wake up at 7:30 am and go to work. When I’m come back home at 5:00 pm I spend the time with my son and wife. I often go out with my friends at concert, cinema or have a beer or two at pubs. I enjoy travelling, I’ve never been in your country, but I’ll be there for sure very soon. Being Italian you can easily imagine the love I have for good food. Ha, ha, ha!! I love the quiet sound of the mountains, watching lakes and rivers. We have a nice house over Dolomiti’s Mountains where we use to go during most of the weekend to refresh our body and soul. City life can kill you. I can’t stand it any longer and need a break sometimes.

Brian Rademacher: What does the future look like for MYLAND?

Guido Priori : We are receiving great feedback from people around the world, and that’s great .We will keep making records, CD’s or whatever they call them, as long as I have fun doing them and people enjoy our music.

Brian Rademacher: If you can make a large donation to any cause, what would that be?

Guido Priori : Children’s hospital, There’s no doubt about it.

Brian Rademacher: If you were going to do a duet with Steve Perry what song would you sing with him?

Guido Priori : Oh Gosh! I’ll climb a mountain for that! If he could only come back on the road again, I miss his music so much. Let me think… JOURNEY’s “Mother, Father” would be great to me.

Brian Rademacher: Can you give us what is your feeling towards each member of MYLAND?

Guido Priori : They are all great guys and very talented musicians. We are all good friends. Sometimes we pass though highs and lows, although I feel it’s a natural thing. We enjoy playing and having fun together.

Brian Rademacher: If you had one dream come true, what would that be?