Italian symphonic metal band Moonlight Haze are set to release their fourth album Beyond on May 23rd. In this interview, we spoke with vocalist Chiara Tricarico about the upcoming release, the band’s musical journey over the years, her thoughts on representation in metal, and their exciting plans for touring in 2024.

Reuel

Hello Chiara! I’m happy to catch up with you. How are you doing?

Chiara Tricarico

Hello, my pleasure! I’m doing great thanks: I’ve been working hard behind the scenes for the release of “Beyond” and I’m currently touring throughout Europe with Avantasia, so it’s been a very busy start of the year and I couldn’t be happier about everything that’s going on!

Reuel

Woah that’s amazing! A new album is on the way! What can you tell us about your new album, Beyond? How do you feel about it?

Chiara Tricarico

I’m very excited and looking forward to showing everybody what we’ve been working on during the last couple of years. We worked with Sascha Paeth as our producer for the very first time and we’re extremely happy about the result. We really think that he managed to highlight some of our musical trademarks and encouraged us to dare to explore new musical grounds even more.

Reuel

You’ve already released “Tame the Storm” as a single from the album. Are you happy with the way the fans reacted to it?

Chiara Tricarico

Yes, we’re all very happy about the feedback from the audience so far! It looks like people are really appreciating the production and the songwriting and we’re pretty sure they’re gonna like the whole album: it includes many diverse songs and styles, some definitely have all our trademarks, while some others are a bit or much different (just like “Tame the Storm”) from our previous works.

Reuel

How would you describe working alongside a metal legend like Sascha Paeth for this album?

Chiara Tricarico

As I said, we are all very happy about the job he did on the album. Of course, we were all very thrilled to be working with such a legend: he basically produced most of the albums we grew up with and worked with almost all our favorite artists! He spent an entire week at the Bridge Produzioni Audio and Studio in Treviso, Italy, with us to work on the songs and it was absolutely fascinating to observe the way he works: he understands Music in such a quick and deep way, we were all in awe! His influence is definitely detectable on “Beyond”: thanks to him, we decided to go more “organic” with the recording process and I think I learnt so much from him during the vocal recordings in his studio in Wolfsburg, Germany.

Reuel

Exceptional! Which unreleased track from the album are you most excited for fans to hear, and why?

Chiara Tricarico

I’m very proud of all the songs on the album, but if I have to choose just a couple of them I’d say the title track, because of its atmosphere and because it is very different from the rest of the album and “Awakening”, because I really think it is one of the best songs we’ve ever written and for the message that it holds.

Reuel

I’m excited to listen to these songs! This is your fourth full-length album as Moonlight Haze in 6 years! When you compare Beyond to your debut album, how has your style evolved across these 6 years?

Chiara Tricarico

I think our teamwork has improved a lot over the years and this really shows in our music: listening back to our previous albums all the way to “Beyond” I can really see clearly the evolution of the band on a musical side and on a personal side: there’s just so much of ourselves in our songs!

Reuel

If you could collaborate with any artist, dead or alive, who would it be and why?

Chiara Tricarico

Ok, there are so many I’d like to collaborate with! If I have to only pick the first one that comes to my mind now, I’d say the band Amorphis: I really like their incredibly distinctive sound and I’m in love with Tomi Joutsen’s voice. And I think our voices would work very well together.

Reuel

How do you feel about the representation of women in heavy music today, and what do you think can be done to promote more inclusivity and support for female musicians?

Chiara Tricarico

When I think about myself I see a musician, not a “female” musician. I’m obviously a girl, but what difference does it really make? I believe that everybody should start thinking about other human beings just as such instead of categorizing everything.

Reuel

Thank you for your time, Chiara, and for this interview! Is there anything else you’d like to conclude this interview with?

Chiara Tricarico

Thank you! I’d like to thank all the people around the world who have been supporting us from day one and I want to remind everybody that we will join Gloryhammer on their “Dundax Ascendant Summer Tour” and we will also play some shows as special guests for Visions of Atlantis, so go check the dates on our social media and catch us on the road! We will perform songs taken from the new album “Beyond” live for the first time and we are very looking forward to doing that.