interview: S91

S91 is a melodic progressive band from Italy. Their 2019 album, called Along the Sacred Path, tells nine stories about nine important figures in the history of Christianity in the West, such as Joan of Arc and Martin Luther. Why focus on the history of Western Christianity? How does the album fit with the band’s objectives? Let’s see what they say!

Congratulations on the album! It’s a quality melodic, progressive album with good performances. Who is answering this interview?

Hi, thank you, it's a great pleasure to read you, we are Francesco “Franz” Romeggini, guitar player / male vocalist and Giacomo “Jack” Manfredi, bass player

Where in Italy is your band based? Is this a studio project?

Franz - We live in Tuscany, central Italy, we are not in the same city, but we live in the same region. S91 is not a studio project, but unfortunately we rarely play live

There’s one song for each person that you write about. Is this a concept album?

Jack – “Along the Sacred Path" is a concept album that traces the history of Christianity, continuing what was told in "Behold the Mankind" (our 2016 concept album). As you said the story is told through the life of nine key figures that are not always considered positive by everyone. The main goal is to show how the Gospel message has spread in its original form, becoming the fabric of the modern Western society. The Sacred Path is the one that many walks along, unconsciously sometimes; talks about all those actions done by inspired men which have brought benefits to the history of humanity and to the Western society even if they look regrettable or morally unacceptable.

How difficult was it to pick only nine people? Who writes the lyrics?

Franz - Yes, it was difficult to choose the nine, we tried to select the ones who has more interesting stories (for example fighters like Godfrey or Joan of Arc, a revolutionary theologian like Martin Luther or Bonhoeffer, a pastor who tried to act against Nazism).

Jack - All the characters of our album were committed to doing something good in their lives. And they succeeded.

Franz - Giacomo Manfredi (bass player) has the main inspiration about the concept and the lyrics, he wrote it, I (Francesco) and Maria (singer) helped him.

The artwork looks like it is NOT a sacred, peaceful path, but rather a path of vultures.

Jack - That could be an impression at a first watch, but the meaning is a bit different, If you look at the center, you can see the Campanile di Curon (tower bell of Curon) which is today the only visible part of the ancient village of Curon Venosta (in the north of Italy), now completely covered by mud. The idea is that the Church resists despite the gossip, the disregard, and the scandals.

Franz - The vultures and the macabre landscape are the sinful word the church is putted inside, but church still survives and God's plan is never stopped.

How was this band formed? Was there a different singer before?

Franz - The most of us met at church, and we always wanted to be a Christian band, in the beginning we had three female vocalist, Maria, Sefora (Sefi) and Tania. In “Volontà Legata” (demo 2011) we had both three, then Sefora and Tania decided to leave the band, but we are still good friends with them (especially Giacomo Manfredi, he is Sefi's husband, special friendship is required here eheh ;) )

What do you think about all the in-fighting and wars in history between Christians?

Franz - We think in-fighting between Christians is a pure non-sense, this is not what Christ teaches us to do. All the differences between Christian churches are source of wealth. When a church believes to hold the truth it automatically fails. The churches must dialogue between them and discover the common points to grow up.

Is everyone in the band Christian?

Franz - We are all Christians except the drum player, he is not atheist, he is more like agnostic, but his way of thinking is very close to our one. We have been friends for a long time and we have been always discussing about Bible, faith, church, etc.. and music of course ;)

How much experience do you have in other bands?

Franz – Yes, we did, everyone of us played in some other music projects; right now Francesco and Maria plays in their church, worship service, Giacomo (drum player) plays in another rock-band and I play in an orchestra (my main activity, I'm a professional musician). Things in Italy are going ok, everyone of us works and most of us have family, even it's not the best place for musicians, but life is ok.

Do the Italian publications cover your music?

Franz - In Italy we had some good reviews, but few interviews. Sometimes our music is played by italian rock publications, but the most of our listeners are out of Italy.

For readers of this interview that believe in Jesus Christ, what would you like to tell them about your music and your band?

Jack - We really hope you enjoy both music and lyrics, we hope you feel connection between them and become curios about the nine characters (their stories have so much to teach us about faith).

What would you like to tell fans of progressive and melodic music who are not particularly religious? In your opinion, is your music only for Christian fans?

Franz - Our music is for everyone, we really love to share it with non religious people, we hope they could anyway be interested in stories we tell. If you are not a believer you could anyway discover the historical meaning of these characters and (why not) redefine your opinion about Christian church influence in Western society.

Many people have the misconception that Christianity is a Western religion. Yet, Christianity existed early in places like Ethiopia and Egypt, and today Christianity is a growing religion in Africa. It looks like you have studied the history of Christianity, what interesting things have you discovered about Christianity’s history outside of Europe?

Franz - Years ago I read a book called “Eternity in Their Heart” by theologian Don Richardson, talking about pre-Christian monotheism, You'll be surprised how many societies far from Europe had a Christian-similar religion, it's like the gospel reached all mankind before Christ in many different forms

Jack - There's one thing I discovered that shocked me. In India, there is a group of Christians who trace their origins to the evangelistic activity of Thomas the Apostle in the 1st century. We are talking about a tradition ancient like the Catholic one. They are not just a small group but they are millions!

Why do you choose to play a style of music that is so friendly to Satan and the values of Satan (many metal bands glorify murder, violence, blasphemy, alcohol, fornication, etc.)?

Franz - We love this music, when you write your own music you decide the message you want to bring, this is the secret of making art, you are not forced to do anything you don't want to do. Yes, many bands used metal music to speak about devil worship (especially in extreme metal) but I think this is something old right now. There's a lot of metal albums about good-evil fighting and fantasy themes, sometimes I read lyrics very similar to Christian albums; maybe the characters are not called “God” or “Jesus”, but their actions are very similar; so I wonder why Christian metal sounds strange to someone. We feel our mission is only to tell about the history (and the meaning) of our faith, nothing else, if this could help someone to find his spiritual path this is a gratification for us.

What is the current situation for touring? How can fans support your band directly?

Franz - The situation for touring is quite bad, we have no gigs planned, we would like to tour but it seems very difficult for us. About merchandise we have CDs on sale, two albums (“Behold The Mankind”, “Along The Sacred Path”) and a demo. The two albums are also available digitally on Spotify, iTunes and all the main digital stores.

facebook.com/S91band