AN NCS INTERVIEW: LIGHTS OF VIMANA

(We present Comrade Aleks’ interview of Riccardo Conforti, which focuses on his band Lights of Vimana and their debut album Neopolis, released in June of this year on the Dusktone label.)

Lights of Vimana is a new project of musicians known by a lot of doom fans. It features Jeremy Lewis, current guitarist for Pantheist and Mesmur, and Riccardo Conforti, drummer and keyboardist for the epic Italian project Void of Silence. On vocals is Olmo Lipani, aka Déhà, who has performed with Clouds and… well, he’s got about twenty other active projects and bands, ranging from the ambient drone band Slow to the cutting-edge black metal band Cult of Erinyes.

In short, there are only three members, but they’re all experienced and well-rounded. It’s hard to say who’s in charge in Lights of Vimana, but the rich, cinematic keyboard arrangements evoke similarities between Neopolis and Void of Silence‘s albums, so it seems as if Riccardo deserves credit for the music. On the other hand, the divinely inspired guitar melodies and progressive compositional structures are clearly the work of Lewis. Déhà, as a vocalist, has complete freedom of expression, and the album’s five tracks provide ample space for both growls and clean vocals.

Needless to say, this is a project I couldn’t skip easily, so we got in touch with them in order to shed some light (of Vimana) on Neopolis.

 

 

Hail Lights of Vimana! How are you? Who’s online today?

Hi, Riccardo is here.

 

Nice to meet you Riccardo! What’s the story of this collaboration? All of you are busy gentlemen, and Déhà is involved in more bands and projects than I could remember. So what was so special about this project that you found time for it?

With Void of Silence we were on stand by for too many work commitments, but after the latest album The Sky Over, I had started composing other material, even if slowly. Three songs had been composed, but the guitarist was too busy and therefore everything was stopped.

I knew Jeremy via Facebook for some time and one day I contacted him to offer him a project. We therefore worked for a couple of years at the instrumental part of Neopolis, which included the songs I had already written, together with other material. The choice for the singer was complex; we had contacts with some women singers including Ann-Mari Edvardsen (ex-The 3rd and the Mortal), but we then decided for a male solution.

With Deha we are friends; he produced The Sky Over and sometimes I courted him to collaborate.

I made the proposal and albeit full of commitments, he accepted, fortunately for us.

 

Did Déhà limit from the start his participation in Lights of Vimana? I just wonder about his time-management, and how you managed to organize the entire process?

When I proposed to Déhà to participate in this project, he was clear that, because of his countless commitments, he would assure his presence in the studio, but it would have been impossible for him to follow a possible tour.

 

By the way, did you think to perform and record a song or the entire album online? Such way of streaming helped a lot during the covid-quarantine.

The entire process of composition of the album was performed online, exchanging files.

Unfortunately we are in three different nations, Jeremy even on another continent, and it would be impossible for us to be physically together.

 

Vimana can be interpreted both as an inner temple in Hindu tradition or as a mythical flying apparatus utilizing vril energy. What kind of meaning did you put in the band’s name?

Clearly, we speak of ancient mythology, and we like the idea where the Vimana are ancient aircraft, survivors of technological catastrophes or a collapse of civilization, in possession of elites that used them to maintain control and represent the invasive technology that dominates the dystopian landscape, patrolling the cities in ruins or transporting resources to the powerful, denying access to the rest of the population.

 

Your first album Neopolis was released in June, so how have things gone since then? 

We have had excellent reviews; it’s a very particular album, almost a soundtrack, and despite this, the signals are very very positive. I don’t have sales data yet, the label will inform us in a few months, but I’m enthusiastic.

 

The album’s title and the songs’ futuristic vibe make me think that you have a concept behind Neopolis. But the songs’ lyrics leave an impression that it’s personal. So what’s it about?

I can respond to the instrumental part, and I like to report a description that I gave a few months ago when speaking of the album. I said that it’s of great emotional impact, it describes the epic atmospheres and the dark sound landscapes of a dystopian concept and cyberpunk where they reign restlessness, oppression, and a sense of inevitable decline. It’s a work that describes a smoky, misty and dark world, full of artificial lights due to a world in decline where nature is only a distant memory.

 

Was this concept a result of experiencing the music or did you develop it at the same time as you were composing tracks?

I had this concept in mind even before starting the composition of the album.

I had been wanting to write music for years that recalled this kind of atmospheres that I strongly love.

 

 

It’s said that you drew inspiration from artists like Hans Zimmer, Porcupine Tree, and My Dying Bride, but how much of your other bands are in Lights of Vimana?

Personally, I love Hans Zimmer and his ability to create powerful and emotional music. I constantly listen to soundtracks and instrumental music, but also ambient, electronic music, progressive rock and metal, and you can listen to all these influences on the album. Jeremy is part of Funeral Doom Metal projects; his musical and compositional approach merges with mine and the result is something very complex, difficult to catalog.

 

Which of Hans Zimmer’s movie soundtracks do you like the most? Actually, it’s interesting, as I used to hear from Italian artists about Goblin’s influences.

Goblin are definitely prog, I really like them.

I had some of their soundtracks when I was a teenager and I also have a more recent live album by Claudio Simonetti with the Daemonia, but as a primary influence Zimmer is definitely my point of reference. Together with John Williams, I consider him the largest contemporary composer, able to produce incredible melodies and atmospheres. The soundtracks I prefer are The Da Vinci Code, Interstellar, and Inception. I love his dramatic versions to the most cheerful ones such as The Lion King or Pirates of the Caribbean. His live shows are incredible; he is able to make a mix of rock and symphonic music capable of entering the heart.

 

How did you find that this language would express your ideas in the most efficient way? Which qualities did you search for in one another to complete the picture of Neopolis?

Each coexistence leads to compromises, so also the collaboration between different musicians, with their different ideas, must submit to these rules.

Sometimes it’s not easy, we also had different points of view, but the result rewarded us.

 

Did all of your songs start with the riff? Or were there ones you started with some general idea of an atmosphere or vocal melody?

We worked in synergy, for the long suite parts of the keyboard have been used, other times  the riffs, such as on “Real”.  The instrumental “Neopolis” was born from a guitar arpeggio, then expanded by atmospheric ambient parts.

“Remember Me” has a particular story: my friend Travis Ryan of Cattle Decapitation asked me for a collaboration, and I would have to write an instrumental song that served as an intro for their album Death Atlas of 2019. I sent them three songs (including “Remember Me”) and they chose “Anthropogenic-End Transmission” with which they opened all the world tour shows.  So, “Remember Me” then remained incomplete, and with Jeremy we created a great song.

 

Hah… so it could appear in Cattle Decapitation’s album? Nice story indeed! How long have you known Travis Ryan?

Travis has always been a fan of Void of Silence; he has followed us from the first albums. He is a fantastic man, with a great charisma. We have also tried a collaboration in the past as a vocalist, but our styles are too different, hahaha.

 

How much feedback have you gotten since the album’s release? Do you expect any nowadays, as people tend rather to consume music than discuss it?

I received messages of great passion relating to this album. Some Void of Silence fans consider it a continuation of The Sky Over, even if there are many differences, but I am happy that there’s all this attention for a debut band, even if every one of us has decades of experience in the musical world.

As for the second part of your question, there would be a lot to say about it. I have an idea that we are going towards a decline made of laziness: once we were looking for a good album among the reviews of a magazine, of a Zine. There were forums where you discussed music, the shops where you could go to look for a rarity. Now we have access to an impressive amount of material without any effort, people who download an entire discography with a click, PCs with hard disks full of mp3s that they will never listen to much, so much is the amount of music that one has. And if a nice album comes out, after a month it will have already disappeared in the amount of download. Not to mention the streaming platforms, where you listen to the playlists without even knowing what you are feeling. It would be nice to be able to go back a few years, but now I see it as hard to do.

 

Yes, and it’s difficult to struggle with the constant flow of new music, so I personally rather re-listen to old stuff for pleasure’s sake. Although there is a lot of good new music around. Do you watch the modern scene? Do you have some favorite albums dated 2025?

I always listen to a lot of music, and I like to discover new projects, but also things from the past that I have rediscovered in recent times. For example, I spent the summer listening to atmospheric black metal (Caladan Brood, Elderwind, None, Lustre, etc.)

Lately the second album of IHLO has been released, which offers a very technical prog metal, but with very beautiful melodies. Another album that struck me is that of Rye, a one-man band from Russia and his latest РOЖЬ.

 

Yep, I know them. Nice choice indeed. What about other projects you are involved in? Any new releases on this side?   

I’m the Void of Silence founder, I have released five beautiful albums with them, but I’m afraid that life has taken away space and free time to compose continuously. But you never know.

 

Void of Silence is you and Ivan Zara, as you had new vocalists every time you recorded an album. Is Ivan totally occupied with his project Towards Atlantis Lights now?

Yes, the nucleus of Void of Silence have always been only us.

We have always composed the music and left the freedom of the lyrics to the singer who was chosen. It’s some time that I don’t meet Ivan, but I don’t think he’s doing musical activity right now.

 

What are your plans now for Lights of Vimana? Do you have any plans to record new material soon?

Completing an album is not just writing its music, it would be nice! But there are aspects that I don’t love and that I have recently found worsening: when we were looking for a label for the publication of the album, some of them required the social profile of the band to check the followers. Which we never thought about because we are not interested in that (I only have a Facebook profile that I use only for my hobbies or passions).

Instead, now it seems to have become fundamental… Fortunately, Dusktone is not part of these people, even if clearly it is a business for them, but at least they believed in us, to our debut. All this to tell you that now I must dispose of the accumulated stress, which is not a little, ahah. Then we will see.

 

Got you Riccardo! Thanks for the interview!

Thank you, take care and all the best!

https://dusktone.bandcamp.com/album/neopolis
https://www.facebook.com/lightsofvimana/