Interview with Pablo Bruno by Eric "Core" Balbi |

Rising From Decay: “It’s beautiful how art has so many faces that complement each other”

Exclusive interview with Argentine composer and guitarist Pablo Bruno, founder of the musical project Rising From Decay. In the interview he answered questions such as the birth of the project and why the choice of the name. He also explained about his first release “Awakening to reality”, who participated and why he chose them. Also how was the production of his videolyric, his method of composing songs and if it will be a studio project or will be released with a live band. At the end he answered about the inspiration of his songs and if it will be a concept album or isolated singles. His were the final words.
For now, the only thing we know about the “Rising From Decay” project is the song we are talking about, “Awakening To Reality”, which is available, for the moment, on the main digital platforms. This track is a presentation of this project, which is immersed in Progressive Metal, with an excellent production and sound. The participation of Ivan Sencion (Ex Jeriko, Watchmen and Blackbeer, among others) adds the finishing touch to a song of excellent making to a great production, of high level. It is the tip of the iceberg, which hopefully soon, we will be able to know in depth. While we listened to this theme in the background at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4bNs8cBY1E, Pablo answered a few questions…

How was the project “Rising From Decay” born?

“Since I started playing guitar at the age of 14, I always had the tendency to compose my own songs and lyrics. It is something that accompanied me throughout my life as a musician, but for various reasons, I had never dared to publish something that was born in me. Although many years passed, in 2022 I decided to close that circle, overcome my fears and work to publish at least one song. In that year, I had the pleasure of meeting Santiago Pagura, who is a musician and producer, I showed him several songs that I had almost finished, and we started working on one of them, which finally became Awakening To Reality. With this first single Rising From Decay was born. I can say that Santiago’s guidance was key for me, bringing his experience and professionalism. We all need others, to push us and expand our vision.“

Why choose the name?

“Decadence is that inner state of anguish, unhappiness, dissatisfaction and darkness, or vestiges of that, which is externalized and fed back. It is self-destruction in its multiple forms, relationships that harm us, the impossibility or denial of overcoming pain or difficulties in life. It is a sad state from which it is necessary to emerge, to go towards what is good, towards what produces real delight, what motivates, what illuminates our lives.
Rising from decadence requires effort, courage and a change of attitude and mentality about ourselves and life in general. I firmly believe that there is a great component of divine help in the struggle against that gravitational force that drives us towards what diminishes us as human beings.“

What is your first release “Awakening to reality” about?

“The song tells the story of a person who decides to take refuge in a world of unreality created by himself. In this world, he lives all the lives he longs to live, surrounded by the people he has lost, who abandoned him or who are no longer there. Here he is important, his life has meaning, it is exciting and he feels happy.
However, in the end, in this world, there is only him and no one else. He is completely alone. He is the king of a distant world, which is nothing more than smoke, and all that happiness is simply an illusion.
It finally narrates the process in which our protagonist begins to awaken from that unreality to reality, where the real thing is found, and where it is really possible to find and live genuine love, delight. The difference is that he will probably have to fight for it. It is closely linked to the concept of the project’s name.
The cover of the single also seeks to represent these concepts, as a map of the unreality that is burning. In this, it is also worth mentioning that the map was drawn by Emiliano Occhiuzzi, a great friend and excellent artist.“

Who participated in the song and why was that choice?

“As I told previously, I met Santiago in 2022. It was because of his guitar lessons. I was surprised by his quality and I have a lot of admiration for him as a musician and guitarist, so I thought he was the right person to work on my songs and it was certainly a great choice. As we live in different cities, we did the pre-production together entirely at a distance, by video call.
Once the final demo was finished, when it was time to record the song, one of the most difficult choices was the singer. We needed a voice that had that hard rock strength and depth, in the best Coverdale or Jorn Lande style. That’s how, in a chat with Santiago, the great Ivan Sención, singer of Watchmen, Jeriko and currently of an incredible band called BlackBeer, came up. We immediately contacted him and sent him the demo. He loved the song and recorded the vocals, all the way from France. The result couldn’t have made me happier, it was exactly what the song needed. At the same time, there was excellent work by Ezequiel Ghilardi on drums, Leandro Pagura on bass, and a small but significant contribution on piano by Matias Galasso. All of them, together with Santiago, have a band called Every Year Quartet of jazz fusion and are extremely professional musicians, with great quality and virtuosity. For me, one of the best in Argentina. Finally I recorded the electric guitars and keyboards.“

How was the production of the videolyric of the single?

“The primary idea of the video was to go through the map of the cover, sometimes seeing it as a paper and other times in a more immersive way, like bringing it to life. Searching on social networks, I came across Sebastián from Ingtiva Visual Art Studio.
With Sebastián we immediately hit it off very well. He is a person who loves his work and does it excellently, and when I told him about the theme of the song, showed him the cover of the single, the ideas I had, etc. he got excited and we started working on the video. The truth is that the production with him was very easy, he knew how to pour all my ideas and propose other very creative ones. Something incredible is that Sebastian comes from the world of game development, so he is very good at handling the tools used in this type of work, so he managed to make a representation of the map in 3D, with the animals and characters that appear. Really the first time he showed it to me I was surprised, it was like a trip to that universe and we were joking about making the Rising From Decay game. It’s beautiful how art has so many faces that complement each other and when you find people who enjoy creating, everything flows simply.“

What is your method of working on your song compositions?

“Well, I don’t know if there is such a lineal process or a fixed method. A lot of the musical ideas are born playing the electric or acoustic guitar. Also, even though they are not recordings that are going to be released, unless I want to become a meme, a lot of times melodies come to my mind and I start singing them and recording them on my cell phone. For some reason there’s a very creative effect in this dynamic, like you’re not tied to the conditioning of an instrument, etc., it’s just trying to capture what comes to mind. Then all that has to be brought down to earth and shaped. At that point, in the humble studio I have at home, I make mock-ups in which I work on the ideas. Nowadays there are many programs that allow you to put together the drums, bass, etc., so it’s a matter of being a little bit crafty.
When I have the idea pretty much ready, I send the demo to Santiago and we start working together on the pre-production. I usually don’t have the lyrics finished, so I write and refine them while we work on the instrumental. Santiago is a kind of producer who respects a lot the composition and the essence of the musicians, etc. that is to say, he doesn’t impose his form or sound. This is very good for me, because it empowers you and helps you to sound better from who you are.“

Do you plan to present it live or is it only a studio project?

“That is an excellent question. I don’t think everything is written in stone yet and I try to take it one step at a time. Right now I’m focused on composing and creating the best music I can get my hands on, but I would love to do live performances, but I don’t think it’s something that’s going to happen anytime soon.“

… And when composing the concept of the songs, what are your inspirations?

“I think I mainly try to reflect my own experiences, struggles, thoughts and experiences, happy or not. When I started to develop the concept of Rising From Decay I wanted to be genuine and generate music and lyrics that represent me, that have my identity and are real, so I try to make place for that, between metaphors and figures. It is part of what all human beings feel, that desire that what is inside us materializes in some way, that it comes out. We paint or sing our emotions and experiences, we represent them in different ways. It is in our nature.“

To talk a little bit about the future, post-release, is there a concept album coming or just single song releases?

“The truth is that both. I want to release a second single soon, and at the same time I’m working on an album that I’ll be releasing next year. There’s not much I can say yet, but I’m in the process of composing and shaping everything, continuing with the path of this person that is presented in Awakening to Reality.“

The last words of the interview are yours, so leave it up to the readers…

“Perfect, thank you very much for this space! I hope you enjoy Awakening To Reality. The road has just begun for Rising From Decay, so I invite you to join me on social media and join me!“

We recommend you to listen to this first single from Rising From Decay, titled “Awakening To Reality” by clicking on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4bNs8cBY1E. Otherwise, we look forward to more material from this interesting project.

@risingfromdecay