VANISHING POINT
- interview (June 30, 2002)
with Guitar player Chris Porcianko and singer Silvio Massaro

Made by: Henri Halminem

* G'day man?

Hey man, how are you doing.

> I am doing just fine thank you!

* First want to share for all readers the fact that your keyboard player Danny Olding has left the band few weeks ago. So what was basicly the reasons, any problems, hope not?

Well, the reasons for Dan leaving the band were personal and he felt that after our short
tour with Edguy here in Australia that it would be the best time for himself to leave the
band, of course we were a little shocked yet we wish him all the best and we all have the
same respect for Dan as if he still were in the band and we have all the time in the world
for Dan. Dan pretty much wants to concentrate on doing his own thing and write music for
future publishing, so we respect his decision and we are always grateful for his
contribution to Vanishing Point as a musician and as a person, he will be missed yet we are
looking forward to the next chapter.

> Yeah... all the best for him, maybe we hear later of him? ;)

* I read that you are looking for a new player immediately, so have you found any possible player that could fit your line-up and your band's general needs? Hope you find soon.

Thanks for you wishes man. We are currently still looking for a keyboard player, so far we
have had many people contact us, so it's just a situation of trying to find what makes them
tick and to see if they have the drive and commitment it takes to be in a band, we are a
hard working band, so they would have to fit the definate picture.

* Do you have any news considering your future to come third album?

I don't really know where to start concerning the next album (heh heh) we have so many ideas and songs that we want to get through first and foremost, so of course us being Vanishing Point, we are very particular about everything we do when it comes to writing songs, we let the music speak for itself and come naturally instead of being contrived and methodical with our music.

Its been very hard in the last 6 months to sit down and write new songs when we have toured and we have found it somewhat difficult to focus on new songs when we have had to do so many other things and play shows, it would be easy if we did this fulltime and did not have our daytime jobs, in fact it would be very easy (heh heh) but that's the way it goes for the timebeing. The way the new songs are coming out at the moment, I can say that the direction of the new album will be more uptempo and a little heavier in direction, yet we are still going to have all the melodic characteristics that we have in our sound, we are not going to change our sound or compromise. We are very happy with our sound and we will always be and naturally have our songs melodic, why should we change something if its not broken (heh heh). We will go back to the studio where we recorded and mixed Tangled In Dream and we will definately record with Endel Rivers who co-produced our last album, so it will be really cool to work with him and it will be really cool and comfortable to work in surroundings that we are used to, we will be booking recording sessions with Endel after we have all our songs ready and after we have a keyboard player with us.

That is pretty much the main thing for us at the moment, to find a keyboard player and to
finish and get many songs that we have in our systems out into the world. As far as when the
next album will be released, we hope that it will be early next year, but with Dan leaving
and us searching for a keyboard player, it has put us back a little bit, so for now it would
be unfair for me to say when the next album will be released, we are hoping to get it out
there early next year, we'll just have to see what happens. We so far have nine new songs
and many more new songs to complete, it has been a case of trying to re-energise some of the older new songs that we completed before going to tour Europe last year, so we will get
those finished first. When Silvio and myself did a acoustic set a couple of months ago, we
threw one of our new songs in at the last moment and we received a great response, so I'm
sure that people will like it, that is without me sounding like a salesman or putting the
typical "the next album is going to be our best" lines. We are very much looking forward to
having the new album out there and we are confidant that if people liked Tangled In Dream,
then they will love the next album.

> Thank you a lot for that overview! I keep listening your news...

* And you did pretty successful tour last year, with Gamma Ray and Sonata Arctica.
What were your possible highlights/lowlights, after now since you've rested for a while?

The tour we did with Gamma Ray and Sonata Arctica was a complete highlight for the whole
band and we loved every minute of it, the whole tour was like a dream, we met so many great people we now have as friends and we played in many beautiful places that were a dream come true. For us to come all the way from Australia and be welcomed with open arms was very cool for us because in many places that we played, the people did not know who we were, yet they really enjoyed our music and we made many new fans when we were in Europe. To be honest with you, there were no lowlights of the tour apart from saying goodbye to our friends in Sonata Arctica and Gamma Ray and crew when the tour was over, that was all, apart from that it was a positive experience that we will never forget and we can't wait to get back to Europe and do it all over again.

* At least I got the feel that many people came to those gigs just because Sonata Arctica and also found your band for first time, they were surprised like people in Helsinki! (By the way, I am not saying that Gamma Ray is bad band nor music, still I like them too.)

I think that the whole tour package was fantastic because people had the chance to see three
bands that were doing similar music yet at the same time we all had our own style to
contribute to the tour, there was harldy an evening when there was a small crowd, every
place we played to was absolutely full and it was a great opportunity for us to play in
front of big audiences. I don't know where to start when it comes to describing our
experience in Helsinki, although the weather outside was freezing, we found that when we
played in front of the people in Helsinki it was the exact opposite in every positive way,
everyone seemed to have enjoyed our music and we recieved a great response which we are
eternally grateful for, to be honest with you, I can't wait to get back to Finland to play
again and relive some of the great memories. Overall we received great responses from the
whole tour and will have do it all over again when we have the next album completed and we
can't wait to meet up with everyone once again.

> You are always welcome to Finland! :)

* How about your record company Limb Publishing. Heard some things that they concentrate more with Rhapsody and those guys instead giving good enough chances for other bands too?

(Heh heh) Thats a funny one, we have never heard anything like that at all, so far we have
had great support from LMP and we look forward to building a future with them, they have
been there for us and we are lucky to be involved in a cool company and be part of a roster
that in my opinion has so many really cool bands.

I don't know about talk about Rhapsody being the main focus in LMP, of course I would be
stupid to think that Rhapsody are not a big band, because they are great at what they do and
their music speaks for itself, we can't think anything negative because realistically we are
a relative new band to the label, yet we are doing what we do and happy with the way things
are going. We are a bunch of guys that do whatever has to be done and we are very determined in every way to make sure that we achieve what we set out to do, if we did not believe in our music so much, we would never have toured Europe, so it's a case of as they grow, so will we.

* What are your next targets, you've toured around Europe and conquered most part of it? How is your music going in Japan/USA, in your home land 'down under' you are doing great! :)

Our next chapter will very much be the same as how things were with Tangled In Dream, we
will get the album released and we will tour again, this is what we have always wanted to do
and we are fortunate to be in a position to do it.

We hope to get to America in the near future and there has been talk about us going to
America in the future, so I think that it will be a possibility, plus we have many friends
and fans in America that we would like to meet and from what I know, they can't wait for us
to go there and play some shows, it's all positive. As far as Japan goes for the timebeing,
I'm not sure what is happening but I do know that there are many people in Japan who are
slowly beginning to know who Vanishing Point is, so I do see us having some sort of
promotion in the coming future, we'll just have to wait and see what happens. I definately
know that when we have the next album completed, then we will come to Europe and tour again, that is for sure and we are very much looking forward to playing in all the great countries we played in and more. We had such a great time in Europe, it was a dream come true.

Australia has always been great for us and we have a home crowd here who are very
supportive, so we would like to play more shows here that are far away from home in
Australia, we will see what happens, but judging from the emails and responses we are
receiving here, it would be very cool to go to a city that is 2000 kilometers away, it just
takes alot of time and petrol to drive all that way (heh heh).

> Yeah, it makes touring a bit harder.

* In my opinion, one funny thing what is interesting. Is the fact you, and all the other
guys of a band have roots from Europe. Where exactly and how come you all found each other?

We all have European backgrounds like many people in Australia do, Silvio and Joe are from Italian backgrounds, Tommy is from Croatian background, Jack's family is from Montenegro and my family is from Poland, so we all have diffrerent backgrounds yet we consider ourselves Australian because we were born here of course, we are proud of where our families come from and we are happy to live in a country that has many people from all backgrounds living together.

If you even came to Melbourne, I would show you the many different restaurants we have here from many countries, believe me, you would never go hungry (heh heh).

> I take this as an invite, right? ;)

-------
Questions especially for Silvio:

* What was in your head when you came on stage naked in Helsinki? Do you feel shame at all what did you do then? You were too drunk or something? (Of course I do remember you had wearing a sock, but still not much of anything anyway!)

Chris said in between: He stole my sports socks. (heh heh)

* And actually I haven't heard much of bad things about it, was only very shocking. And you know in Finland we use to go sauna, so we are naked anyways, so pretty normal, eh.

Well let's see... hmmm... the idea came to me when Tony from Sonata came on stage when I was singing... while brushing his teeth... and so I thought to myself how the hell am I going to
get him back! So I was thinking what ever it was that I was going to do, it had to be so
shocking that no one could beat it!!! So I thought to myself I'll stick with Tony's
barthroom theme (heh heh). I thought I'd come out on stage and shave, ...naked that's
all!!! You know what was really funny, while I was getting ready to go on stage there was
Timmo Kotipelto from Stratovarius, he was there with his lady talking to Jorg, our tour
manager at the time and I was introdouced to him with a towel around my waist and shaving
cream on my face...!!! (hah hah) I think it was very weird for him and my tour manager
just shock his head saying that he was glad this tour was over, jokingly of course.
Something else that was funny... my mother had seen some pictures of the show and thought
that I had changed career from rock singer to stripper. (heh heh) It took me a very long
time to convince her otherwise...!!! (heh heh) But I was never ashamed of what I did, I had
a lot of fun and I'm sure the crowd got their money worth, for not only an great show but a
bit of flesh as well... (heh heh)

> Thank you Silvio spreading these facts with me, so now all readers can read what was in your head that moment. I guess people have been thinking it way or another, or then forgot!

Chris said afterwards: He shocked us as well. (heh heh)

-------

* By the way, did you ever dream that you might tour as far as Finland is located?

I never thought in my wildest dreams that we would play in Finland because it for us is this
place that can be so cold in winter, yet some of the nicest people we have met are from
Finland and many bands that we like, come from Finland, so it was definately an honour to
play in your wonderful country.

> My pleasure, nice that your tour was booked up here.

* And if you could choose the next bands who you want travel with, who are they? ;)

Of course we would love to play with our close friends in Sonata Arctica and Gamma Ray once again because we had so much fun last time, but to be honest with you, we are a bunch of easy going guys and we don't have a problem playing with any bands, but I would be a liar if I didn't say that I didn't want to play with Queensryche, Dream Theater, Iron Maiden,
Stratovarious, Nightwish, Evergrey, Helloween, Symphony X, Savatage... ummm... the list
could go on and on. (heh heh)

> Yeah, list is always long and getting longer I bet. An dby the way, the band Stratovarious is not written that way, forget that O-letter there in between I and U letters, teasing you!

* Do you want say something special for the readers in the end?

I would just like to say a quick hello to all the people that we met on our last European
tour and that we look forward to seeing you again... and last but definately not least... I
would like to thank everyone for their warm words, help, kind wishes and most of all for
supporting us, you guys are the best and we will never let you down... I would also like to
say thanks to you Henri, you have been there for us for a long time now and we will
definately have a shot of Salmijakki when we come to Finland again (heh heh), cheers man.
Take care and stay safe.

> Cheers yeah... another correction, Salmiakki is right... there's no J-letter even if when pronouncing it might sound there's that letter included too. You guys liked Salmiakki, cool!

Silvio said in the end: Yeah what Chris said!!! Stay metal... oh I would also like to add
that Finish women are beautiful!!! I can't wait to get back there for many reasons!!! ;)

> Finish? Nah... last time I tease you, it's Finnish not fisnihed yet. But let that be his
own secret why he says Finnish women are beautiful. Me and 5 million others already knew! ;)

Interview by Henri Halminem