Progressive Metal artist Tiago Masseti of Masseti released his debut album Odds And Ends this past June. Today the he catches up with our readers to break down the album, from concepts and themes, to songcraft. Read on and stream at the link below.
Serpents and Whores
I wrote this song to be the album’s opener. That is something I don’t usually do, but this time I wanted a song that represented the direction my songwriting was going. A lot of people last heard my music with Daydream XI’s ‘The Circus of the Tattered and Torn’ and that album got a lot of praise, so I knew the first impression after all this time was more important that it usually is. I’ve been leaning towards more extreme sub-genres of Metal and I wanted to blend that with my usual epic/prog stuff. To go with the more somber tone, I decided to explore a very dark theme. Serpents and Whores is about a young boy who placed his trust in someone who was supposed to be there to protect him and instead he found shame and abuse. It borrows from real life accounts of people in my family and close friends that experienced sexual assault in the Church. Writing from the point of view of the boy was a way to make an unheard cry for help, somewhat heard.
Against Our Fire
This was the first song I wrote with ‘Masseti’ in mind. I abandoned all aspirations of originality and novelty—I just wanted to write a kick-ass song with some of the elements I love about Symphonic and Prog Metal. During the pandemic I spent a lot of time crafting a career as a semi-pro Fantasy/Sci-Fi writer so I wanted to bring some of that into the music. Against our Fire tells the story of a fallen hero, a fire-wielding conjurer, that is returning from exile to avenge his people. It is a personal tale of resilience and redemption, through the lenses of Epic Fantasy. The challenge is always writing about war, swords, and magic without being corny and old-fashioned.
The Pool of Liquid Dreams
During the Daydream XI days, I wanted to release a second album along with the ‘Circus’. My idea was to have songs analogous to one another, one album being darker and the other one more hopeful. This song was to be the counterpart of ‘Painted Smile’ but that plan never came to fruition—for budgeting reasons. I kept revisiting it through all these years and I always felt it deserved to see the light of day. I love the energetic, sarcastic tone it carries. As for the lyrics, it is about a near-future where synthetic drugs, powered by AI and Virtual Reality, are so powerful that people struggle to stay away from the immersive experiences, sometimes surrendering entirely to the pleasures of the escapism.
Gone
This was the last song I wrote for the album. I picked up my acoustic guitar on day and the chord progression came out of my fingers without thought. I came up with a melody on the spot and from then on the lyrics just wrote themselves. I think this song was written in about twenty minutes. It was like it wanted to be, like it was fighting for its place in the album. I based the arrangement on some of my favorite ballads and it was the perfect opportunity to have a guitar duet as the song’s climax. The lyrics are deeply personal as they illustrate the way I felt when Daydream XI had to be left behind and my career as a performer hand to be put on hold.
The Singer in the Arms of Winter
Back in 2019 I was invited to join an international Power Metal group featuring members of Savage Circus, Nocturnal Rites and Symphony X. There were promises of labels, festivals, and tours and in the end none of that happened and I was left with a bunch of unused lyrics. I wrote this song for that album but the other members thought it was too different from what they were writing so I kept it for myself. It is my personal homage to Ronnie James Dio and my nod to a whole segment of Rock and Metal that I adore. My singing and guitar playing are very influenced by bands such as Black Sabbath, Rainbow, Deep Purple, Bad Company, and Led Zeppelin. I just love a straight forward riff that allows the singer to shine and develop the melodies over the groove.
Never Be Like You
From 2017 and on, I witnessed an insane increase in science-denying and overall suspicion of objective truth, both in America as in Brazil. Close friends and family members became conspiracy theorists, and I saw people who I admired losing the entirety of their critical thinking. This song is a manifesto to curiosity, knowledge, research, and progress. It’s about acknowledging the limits of your understanding and respecting the scientific method, peer revision, and overall intelligence. It was my way to deal with the incredible disappointment I was feeling in some people in my life at the time. Musically, it is one of the most complex songs in the album, where I used odd signatures for the majority of the song, and I allowed myself to go a little deeper into instrumental sections.
Hindrance
This is the only song I wrote about the COVID pandemic. That was a dark time when I had just moved to New York City and I saw the world shut down, being in a place where I knew only a handful of people. I remember watching every day unfold like a chapter in a book—a dystopian one. The feeling of arriving at the ‘city that never sleeps’, the ‘concrete jungle where dreams are made of’, two weeks before it stopped was an incredibly powerful—and dark—one. This ballad has a more accessible, pop flare to it but it made sense, thematically, to have it in a Metal album.
Heir of the Survivor
Like the opener, I wrote this song specifically to be the closer. I know few people ever make it to the end of an album in the streaming era and I wanted to give them a reward in case they did. I wrote this in the attempt to catch a feeling that few songs gave me in my life. I allowed every melody to soar, every solo to be as long as it wanted, every instrumental section to breathe as much as it needed to. It was a way of saying “if you made it this far, it will be worth it!”. I needed source material to go with the epic journey the music was developing into so I decided to write about ‘The Well of Ascension’ by Brandon Sanderson. I was reading the Mistborn trilogy at the time and I loved the setting in those books. A red sun in a world where ash falls from the sky, conjurers control metal, and fly over gothic cathedrals is incredibly Metal. That trilogy has a general aesthetic that fit Heavy Metal like a glove. Besides, I really liked the conflict of rebels that succeeded in overthrowing a government and are struggling to run it after. Much is told about revolutions, not much is told about what to do once you win.
MASSETI is:
Tiago Masseti – all instruments and vocals (with the exception of guest appearances)
Odds and Ends album credits and lineup:
Produced by Tiago Masseti and Renato Osorio
Music and lyrics written by Tiago Masseti
Arranged and performed by Tiago Masseti and Guests
Bass guitars arranged by Benhur Lima, performed by Benhur Lima
Keyboards and pianos arranged and performed by Tiago Masseti
Choirs arranged by Tiago Masseti and Renato Osorio
Guitars, vocals, keyboards, and choirs recorded at Masseti Studios, Brooklyn – NY
Engineered by Tiago Masseti
Drums and Bass guitars recorded at Black Stork Studios, Caxias do Sul – Brazil
Engineered by Benhur Lima and Thiago Caurio
“Against our Fire” and “The Singer in the Arms of Winter” Drums recorded at RDV Studios, Los Angeles – CA
Performed and engineered by Eduardo Baldo
“Gone” Guitar solo by Bruno Pinheiro Machado
“Gone” Guitar duet by Tiago Masseti and Renato Osorio
“The Singer in the Arms of Winter” Guitar solo by Renato Osorio
“Never Be Like You” Guitar solo by Marcelo Pereira
“Against our Fire” Orchestrations by Cezar Tortorelli
“Hindrance” Orchestrations and Pianos by Fabio Caldeira
Mixed by Benhur Lima at Angry Pick Studios, Caxias do Sul – Brazil
Mastered by Tony Lindgren at Fascination Street Studios, Örebro – Sweden
Links:
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MassetiOfficial
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/massetiofficial
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MassetiOfficial/
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/6XrUJQFXgzHikcNoRYjfRD?si=pHveMmHORpetYotT4noGmg