SFUMATO

1. How did you start the group?

Well, Sfumato was founded in march ’95 by Bernd ( Keys ) and Roger ( Bass ). I joined the band shortly afterwards. After almost two difficult years and more than 60 auditions with vocalists and guitarist, we finally found Joerg ( Guitars ) and Marcus ( Vocals / add. Keyboards / add. Guitars ). These two guys are the perfect choice for the band. They’re absolutely great guys and amazing musicians. We found the perfect line-up for the band and we’re damn happy with it !

2. What are your influences?

We’re influenced by a wide variety of bands and musical styles. There are the old school prog rock heroes like YES, GENESIS or KING CRIMSON, newer prog bands like ENCHANT, IONA or PORCUPINE TREE and we’re also very much inspired by artists like Nils-Petter Molvaer, Massive Attack, Sigur Rσs or other Post Rock, Trip Hop, Jazz and electronic artists although these influences are much more obvious in our newer compositions than on the songs of the demo.

3. You participate in the DURP compilation with an instrumental song ,why that?

A very simple reason: Time limitation. None of our compositions is shorter than 5:45 but we only had about 3:30 min for our appearance on the DURP sampler. We didn’t want to cut short any of our other songs so we chose the instrumental “take2”. As Markus Weis of DURP says in the booklet, the choice of an instrumental track has nothing to do with the quality of our vocals. Our vocalist always receives great reactions by the press and the fans. We’ re very thankful to Markus that he gave us the chance to appear on the sampler. It’s a great project and we really appreciate his incredible work !

4. What are your plans about the future?

At the moment we’re working on the songwriting of what will become the first real album of Sfumato which will hopefully be released at the end of this year. We’re still in discussions with several record companies but we haven’t signed a deal yet. But who knows what will happen in the coming months ?! There are also talks about a tour in late summer this year but that is also not finalized yet.

5. How helpful is the internet for new bands?

I think it makes life hell of a lot easier for bands like us. We sold most of our CD with the help of the internet. We receive mails from fans and supporters from all around the globe. We have fans in Colombia, Uzbekistan, Sri Lanka, USA, Croatia …..it’s so great to be able to get into contact with these people so easily via email and internet. It would be much more difficult to bring people into contact with SFUMATO without the help of the internet. May be this interview would have never taken place without it.

6. What are the difficulties for a new band today?

As for a band like us, which makes very uncommercial music life is always difficult, because the number of people who will give us a chance is very, very limited. But in general it is becoming more and more difficult for young bands. People only seem to go to gigs of bands they already know. The will of checking out unknown newcomers isn’t there so young bands often suffer under really bad attended gigs. I don’t know if this is a typical german problem or if this is the case in other countries too. But here it is almost impossible to motivate people to visit underground gigs. I think that is the biggest problem for upcoming new bands.