A New Name Was Needed – Interview With Silent Saga
By Rainer Kerber
Since you live so long near Hamburg and goes to many concert events. And yet you always get to know new bands from the northern German Hanseatic city. This is what happened in the logo in mid-December. Enemy Inside from Aschaffenburg celebrated the end of their 2019 Phoenix Tour and invited local bands as guests. Silent Saga opened the evening. I had never heard of this band before. The quartet was immediately able to convince me that evening. So I asked the two band founders Sabrina Todt and Renato Angelo some curious questions.
MHF: Hello, I’m Rainer and I’m writing for Metalheads Forever magazine. Thank you so much that I can do this interview with you. How are you?
Sabrina: Hello Rainer, we are doing very well! We look forward to the opportunity to be interviewed by you.
MHF: I think many readers feel like me that the band was previously unknown to them. Please introduce yourself briefly.
Sabrina: The band comes from Hamburg, Germany, where I (vocals and flute) and Renato (guitars) have been living since 2014 after we moved here from Brazil. We shared the stages with some of the biggest bands of the genre like Epica and Nightwish, still under the name “Amazon” and with a record deal with Hellion Records for our first album “Victoria Regia”. A new name was needed and at that point a new brand was born: Silent Saga.
Playing in the band: Carsten Meyer (bass), Daniel Sapcu (drums), Renato Angelo (guitars and keyboards) and me, Sabrina Todt (vocals and flute).
MHF: Five years ago, you moved from Brazil to Germany. Why did you swap the warm weather in South America with the dirty North German weather?
Sabrina: My family comes from different parts of Germany as refugees after the First and Second World War. After 50 years of Brazilian weather and illness, my grandparents decided to move back to Germany. They were then here alone. Me and Renato are afterwards come to make a bit of help. After they died, we didn’t want to go back and stayed here.
MHF: You have been making music for many years. The band was founded in Brazil shortly after the turn of the millennium under the name “Amazon”. Were there any changes in the musical style when you renamed and moved to Germany?
Sabrina: No, musically speaking, we stayed with the same style. Of course there is a (further) development of the songs with the time of making music, but the style is the same.
MHF: Last year Silent Saga’s debut album “Rise!” was released. The same album was also released under the band name Amazon in 2015. Are both albums identical or have you re-recorded the songs?
Sabrina: Both albums are identical. At that time we only released the album digitally due to economic difficulties in Brazil. At that time it also became clear to us that we could not continue to work with the name Amazon.
MHF: In 2017 you released three EPs as Silent Saga. You can already hear all ten songs from “Rise!” On this. What was the reason for this somewhat unusual step?
Sabrina: We have developed a marketing strategy to introduce Silent Saga in Europe. Even if “Rise!” was professional and well produced, the CD had not yet been distributed. The idea was to release “Rise!” in 3 EPs to see how fans would like Silent Saga. “Rise!” shouldn’t be re-released as an album, but a lot of people wanted a full album from Silent Saga. That’s why we released it again as a full album. We think this strategy is positive for two reasons: firstly, the band was able to reach countries where a CD might be too expensive. The digital EPs, on the other hand, are cheap and no mailing is required. Secondly, the financing of the CDs could be realized as a kind of pre-sale – so we could also release the songs early! So, win-win, for the band and the fans!
MHF: You are now working on new material. During your show in the logo you already presented two songs of the new EP. When will you publish it? And are you planning a completely new album?
Sabrina: Yes, an album is already planned. This time we will release 4 EPs and then the album with a bonus song. The first EP (FIRE) is scheduled for release in mid / late January.
MHF: Sabrina is currently working on a solo project. The first single “The Overton Window” was recently released. What are the musical differences between your project and Silent Saga?
Sabrina: Hmmm, good question … To be honest, I don’t know. I have very many songs written with Renato do not fit as closely to Silent Saga. I personally think they are good enough to be published, which is why I produced them as a “solo project”. Maybe Silent Saga will play them later on gigs anyway.
MHF: I have now listened to the song. I like him. Who are your musical colleagues here?
Sabrina: Renato and I do all the work here.
MHF: How will the solo project continue? Are you planning an EP or an album? Should the songs be presented live?
Sabrina: I will release other songs and maybe eventually produce an album. I don’t know if we present them live, it depends on whether the audience wants to see them live.
MHF: I thank you again for the interview. Do you want to say something to the fans at the end?
Sabrina: We thank you for the opportunity and support as well as your readers for their interest! Visit our website (https://silentsaga.com/) and our Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/silentsagamusic)! We hope to continue making music you like! See you on the road!
MHF Magazine/Rainer Kerber
