Mario Percudani is a very good guitar player, songwriter but also a very talented singer! He is well known as a guitarist of the melodic hard rock act Hungryheart. Recently has recorded and released his first solo album which is titled "New Day". By listening to “New Day” we can absorb a music which is a bridge between the best American traditional Songwriters with a Blues influence, crossed with the West Coast feeling and the European melodies, transformed through sweet and catchy timeless songs.
So below you can read the interview that Mario gave to HeavyParadise about HungryHeart, his solo album and other interesting things.
HeavyParadise: First of all I want to thank you for your accepting my invitation for this interview! It's a great honor for heavyparadise to interview a great guitar player like you!
Mario Percudani: Thank you for the nice words! It's a great pleasure for me to talk about my music in your fantastic webzine!
HeavyParadise: As you have already noticed in many webzines, sites, blogs e.t.c. the new Hungry Heart album received some great reviews. Tell me a few things about the new Hungry Heart album.
Mario Percudani: After the release of our 1st album, which received very good feedbacks from the all countries, we wanted to be able to not disappoint any expectations. And it's great to notice that we even increased our fans!
"One Ticket To Paradise" represents the maturity of Hungryheart, we are very happy and proud about it because we tried hard to get along with our music style and also to show our various influences and musical background. We are receiving amazing reviews from all over the world and it's a beautiful satisfaction for us: it's great to see that there are still many lovers of this kind of music.
Moreover, in this new album there are many friends/guest musicians, such as Alessandro Del Vecchio (who also mixed the album), Niccolò Fragile (Gotthard), Marco Tansini, Graziano DeMurtas (Wine Spirit)and many others.
HeavyParadise: Are there any songs from 'Ticket To Paradise' which you like most?
Mario Percudani: It's hard to answer because each tracks has its own story and personality. But I can tell you 3 songs: the title track "One Ticket To Paradise" because it's the perfect bridge between our first release and the new one, "A Million Miles Away" because it's the most introspictive song of the album and "Let's Keep On Tryin'" because it's easy to catch our bluesy/country influences when you listen to it.
HeavyParadise: Are you satisfied with the promotion of your record label?
Mario Percudani: Sure! We all are doing our best to spread our word! It's not so easy to reach melodic hard lovers to all over the world, but everybody is doing a great job in trying to make our music known. By the way, I would like to take opportunity to thank you all the magazines, webzines (like you from heavyparadise!) and all the radio stations who are helping us in promoting our music.
HeavyParadise: How do you see that many 'old' bands, such as Unruly Child/Hardline/Y&T...to name a few, are back after years with a new album? What do you think about today's melodic hard rock scene? Is it gettin' better?
Mario Percudani: I like to think positive and I really hope that the comeback of these great bands may mean a very good sign! Anyway, I think that there are still a good melodic hard rock scene, even if it's hard for the bands beacuse of the low sales of "legal" albums....
HeavyParadise: Can you tell me some of your influences?
Mario Percudani: As I told you before, in "One Ticket to Paradise" we tried to mix our various musical backround of each Hungryheart's member. As to me, in addiction to the great Hard Rock and AOR bands from 70s to 90s, I'm a huge fan of blues, country and west coast music. If you listen to my solo album "New Day", you can notice it very well.
HeavyParadise: Let's talk about some words about your solo album. I have to admit that from the samples that I've heard it sounds great. But I also have to say that "New Day" seems 'softer' than in your Hungry Heart's albums. Was it your intension to record a more softer album?
Mario Percudani: I grew up and I learnt to play guitar listening to the american songwriters and bands like Eagles, James Taylor, Jackson Browne, CSNY and many others. All these artists taught me to write melodic songs. I think that the most exciting thing for a musician should be to show all the different faces of his own style.
HeavyParadise: Who would you like to share a stage with?
Mario Percudani: Just about one month ago, I've had the honour to share the stage and play with some of my heroes, Steve Lukather, Bobby Kimball, Roger Glover and Vinny Appice. It has been a great experience for me and I surely made a dream of mine come true. Another dream could be to share a stage with Dann Huff....
HeavyParadise: If you were about to be in a desert island, which albums would you take with you?
Mario Percudani: It's hard to answer! I should choose between many and many albums! Can I swap for a guitar???
HeavyParadise: Tell me about your future plans....
Mario Percudani: I already started to work on my second solo album and, with the guys of Hungryheart, to the third album. Moreover, another band of mine called Blueville will release the first album in a couple of months.
Besides these plans, we are working with our booking agency Mam Agency in the planning of a european tour.
HeavyParadise: Do you want to send a message to your fans?
Mario Percudani: I would like to thank all our fans for giving us the strength to carry on, everyday. And I hope that other new melodic hard rock and AOR lovers will know our music!
Moreover I would like to say goodbye to a great man and musician who passed away in these days: Steve Lee. I've had the honour to know him and spend some time together and I'm sure that we'll all miss him. Thank you, Steve.
HeavyParadise: Thanx a lot Mario for this interview!
Mario Percudani: Thanks to you, Vassilis and heavyparadise! It's been great to talk with you. We look forward to play live to Greece!
See you soon!
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