Francesco Marras will probably be best known to many as the current guitarist in NWOBHM legends Tygers of Pan Tang or in his own band Screaming Shadows. However, he also has a career as a solo artist, taking on the role of lead vocalist as well as guitarist. His latest solo album, “Out of the Fire”, was released on 21st February and it features guest vocalists on four tracks alongside the six tracks Francesco sings on. I spoke to Francesco on Zoom on 25th February and we talked about the new album, Screaming Shadows, Tygers of Pan Tang, his other projects and future plans. You can hear that interview on the Friday NI Rocks Show for 28th February. - https://www.rockradioni.co.uk/hosts/ni-rocks-friday-rock-show
The interview has been uploaded to our MixCloud page - https://www.mixcloud.com/NIRocks/francesco-marras-interview-on-the-friday-ni-rocks-show-28th-feb-2025/ and will be available to read here shortly.
Website - https://www.francescomarras.com/
Playlist for the Show –
SINOCENCE – Incarcerated
HEARTLAND - Don’t Say Goodbye
RITCHIE BLACKMORE’S RAINBOW - Wolf to the Moon
BAD COMPANY - Company of Strangers
FRANCESCO MARRAS - Lost Souls (ft David Readman)
Interview with FRANCESCO MARRAS Part 1 (12 min)
FRANCESCO MARRAS – Soldiers of the Light (ft Daniele Ledda)
Interview with FRANCESCO MARRAS Part 2 (6 min)
SCREAMING SHADOWS – Shake Your Blood
Interview with FRANCESCO MARRAS Part 3 (4 min)
TYGERS OF PAN TANG – Fire on the Horizon
Interview with FRANCESCO MARRAS Part 4 (4 min)
FRANCESCO MARRAS – Carnival of Darkness (ft Gianni Pontillo)
KINGDOM COME - Hope is On Fire
BAD MOON RISING – Moonchild
TYKETTO - Let It Go
AVANTASIA - The Witch (ft Tommy Karevik)
Promo with TOBIAS SAMMET for new AVANTASIA album “Here Be Dragons”
AVANTASIA - Against the Wind (ft Kenny Leckremo)
KROKUS - Lion Heart
AC/DC - Hard as a Rock
DOKKEN - Too High to Fly
ERIC BASS - Azalia
Promo for new ERIC BASS album “I Had A Name”
ERIC BASS - Mind Control
WHITEABBEY - Just Hold Me
NI ROCKS - Hi Francesco, thanks for taking some time to talk to Rock Radio NI. You’ve just released a new solo album called “Out of the Fire” and we’ve just played a track called “Lost Souls”. First of all what can you tell us about that track?
FRANCESCO – “Lost Souls” is a bluesy song. You can hear the mood of a bluesy song; inspired by Whitesnake or something from Yngwie Malmsteen. A lot of artists use this kind of tempo. It was a song perfect for the voice of David Readman. We are friends because we met during a Go music tour in Germany. It's a tour that was arranged by a friend of mine, a bass player; his name is MartiEngeliens. We are friends and he called me every year to play a mini tour in Germany. A couple of years ago I played with David (Readman) and I loved his voice because he's a great singer; inspired by David Coverdale and those kind of singers from the rock scene from the 80s. And I thought he was perfect for my song, so I asked him if he would like to join me? And he said yes - and that's all. (Laughs) That's how the song was born.
NI ROCKS - David is one of four guest vocalists on the album. Who are the others and how did you decide which singers you wanted on the album?
FRANCESCO - The other guest singers include Daniele Ledda, who's a long time friend of mine and he was the singer in my Italian band Screaming Shadows. He sang on the “New Era of Shadows” album that was released in 2009. So, we are very close friends and I love to play with him. So, it was easy for me to ask him to join me for one song. And then the other one is Iacopa Meille, because he's a bandmate in Tygers. We are both Italian, so you can understand that the link between us is stronger than the one with Robb or Craig or Huw; the other guys in the band because we can speak the same language and it's easier and it's faster. You know Iacopa is not a heavy metal singer. It's not a secret that he is not a heavy metal singer; he's a hard rock singer, inspired by Robert Plant from Led Zeppelin and singers from the 70s and early 80s. A couple of years ago I wrote this song that became “Cyber Lust”, and the mood of the song was very inspired by Led Zeppelin. So, I thought he was perfect for that song and we are always speaking about a whole album recorded by me and him. So, I don't know, maybe that's the seed for a new project in the future.
NI ROCKS – That would be good.
FRANCESCO - And the other one is Gianni Pontillo. He's the singer of Victory, the German band. The leader of the band is Herman Frank - he was the guitar player in Accept on the album “Balls To The Wall”. This singer is amazing. I love his voice. And he's Italian too. I met him personally during the 70,000 Tonnes of Metal festival – on the cruise ship from Miami to the Republic of Dominica. I became a fan of him and of his band and saw all his shows during the cruise. Yeah. We became friends and it was a pleasure for me to invite him to join me in a song for the new album.
NI ROCKS - Who else is working on the album with you and where was it recorded?
FRANCESCO - The whole album was recorded by me and most of the songs are mixed and mastered by me. I have a small recording studio in my hometown and I produce music; I produce other bands and I compose music for other artists, so I'm always working on music. I'm a full time musician. The other guy who mixed a couple of songs on the album is Matthia Stancioiu. He was the drummer in two very important power metal bands in the 90s and 2000s. The bands are Labyrinth and Vision Divine. He was the drummer of those bands and I grew up listening to Labyrinth and Vision Divine because they are Italian and they are great. When I was young in Italy, there wasn't a lot of good bands in the hard rock and heavy metal scene. I remember only Death SS and maybe Vanadium. When Rhapsody and Labyrinth came out it was like, wow! - it was a revolution for us in Italy, believe me. It was great to listen to those great bands from Italy. That's why he's always working with me. Matthia is always involved in all of my recordings. For example, he did the mastering of “Legacy of Stone” and he did the mastering of “It's Me”. So, I'm always working with him.
NI ROCKS – You mentioned “It’s Me” (the previous solo album from 2022). You do lead vocals on six of the tracks on the new album and you did lead vocals on all the tracks on “It’s Me”. You’ve obviously become more comfortable with doing the lead vocals over the years as you didn’t usually?
FRANCESCO - Yeah, it became easier and easier during the years, even if it's not very easy for me because I'm a guitar player!. But I try!
NI ROCKS – You sound great.
FRANCESCO - Thank you very much. I'm always trying to improve my singing.
NI ROCKS – It works well. You have a great voice.
NI ROCKS - You’ve a few tour dates in Germany in March. Will you be doing lead vocals on that tour and who else will be in your live band?
FRANCESCO – Yes, I will be the lead singer for all six shows in Germany im March and that's why I'm a little bit scared. (Laughs) It's the very, very first time I sing a whole live set and I have to do that for six days, six nights, one after the other. So, I'm praying to be alive after the tour. But the musicians who will be with me on stage, they are great musicians, so I trust them. They are Martin Engelien on bass, Marco Cossu on keyboards - and Marco Cossu is also the keyboard player on a couple of songs on “Out of the Fire” and the keyboard player on “It’s Me”. And then the guitar player who will play rhythm guitars on the tour will be Daniele Bucco and the drummer will be Dirk Sengotta.
NI ROCKS - Are you hoping to dot some more tour dates after those Germany ones or will that be it for a while?
FRANCESCO - I hope so. I’m trying to arrange more live shows but it's not very easy. Because I am a new name. I'm the guitar player of Tygers and also the guitar player of Screaming Shadows, but as a solo musician I'm starting from zero or close to zero. It's not very easy to arrange shows and to find venues that are able to arrange shows for me. I cannot do that for only one show; I always need at least a run of three shows to cut the expenses.
NI ROCKS - We’ll play another track from the album now. Do you want to pick a track and tell us something about it?
FRANCESCO - Yeah, I'd. I'd like to play “Soldiers of the Light” because it's a great classic heavy metal track. The guest singer is Daniele Ledda who is a great friend of mine. So I'd like to show you his great voice.
NI ROCKS – You mentioned earlier the band Screaming Shadows. You’re the founding member of that band and released five albums between 2003 and 2021. The fourth album, “Night Keeper” in 2011 differed from the earlier albums as there were several vocalists including Daniele who is on the new album. What was the reason for the shift away from one lead singer?
FRANCESCO - Yeah. Let me explain. In my career during the Screaming Shadows, I was always trying to find the right singer for the band. And I really don't know why, but even if I found some great singers no one was able to stay in the band for a long time. So, I think that there not two albums by Screaming Shadows with the same singer. You cannot find the same singer in one album after the other. There is always a different singer and for “Night Keeper” I had the idea of asking different singers to sing all the songs instead of having only one singer for all the songs. And it was good because I had the chance to work with Alessandro Del Vecchio who sang one of the songs on the album. And also to work with Alessandro Marras who is the singer on “Legacy of Stone”, and also with Gianluigi Girardi, who's a great singer. That is the reason why - I was always trying to find the right singer for Screaming Shadows, but it never happened.
NI ROCKS - There was quite a long gap between the “Night Keeper” album in 2011 and the last album “Legacy of Stone”. What was the reason for that gap? Was it because you couldn’t get a singer? What was the reason for the long gap between albums?
FRANCESCO – No, the real reason was that I was a bit tired of trying and failing. Because of the singer for the most reason. Because every time after the recordings of the album the singer left the band so I had no chance to promote the album playing live. And for me, this is a fail.
And also because I started working on my solo career. Because in 2011, I released “Black Sheep” which was my first instrumental album. And from there I started working also as a session musician, recording in studio for other artists or for producers like Alessandro; because I recorded a couple of albums for him - recording the guitars. Those albums came out for Frontiers Music - like Lenna Kuurmaa (the “Moonland” album), or the recordings of the live performances during the Frontiers Rock Festival. At the first festival I played with Angelica Rylin and at the other festival I played with Toby Hitchcock and the performance was recorded and was released as a live album. So, that's the reason why. I took a little bit of time to work on new songs, new projects and started thinking it was now easier to write a new Screaming Shadows album.
Also taking into consideration that “Legacy of Stone” was produced in five years. So I spent five years to produce, to write, record, mix and master the album. Five years!
NI ROCKS - The latest album features Alessandro Marras on vocals. Are we likely to see another release from Screaming Shadows at some point?
FRANCESCO - Yes, of course. I will always write music for Screaming Shadows because they are a huge part of my musical influences. This kind of music, this kind of power metal. I cannot do that with Tygers because in Tygers I have to play the Tygers music, in the Tygers style. Those are two different things. I'm sure there will be a new Screaming Shadows album, but I really don't know when, maybe I will need another 10 years for that. (laughs)
NI ROCKS - I thought we’d play a track from “Legacy of Stone” now. Do you want to pick which track to play and tell us why?
FRANCESCO - Yes, of course. I’ll pick “Shake Your Blood” because it's one of my favourite songs on the album.
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NI ROCKS - You’ve been the guitarist in Tygers of Pan Tang now since 2020, working on a number of releases. How was the connection made with the Tygers?
FRANCESCO - I read on Facebook that they were looking for a new guitar player, because they wrote a post and all the guitar players on the net I think. had the chance to read the post. But, also, a friend of mine wrote me a personal message telling me, hey, Francesco, you have to check because Tygers of Pan Tang are looking for a new guitar player and I think you are perfect for them. And this friend of mine is Frank Pané, who is the Bonfire guitar player. At that moment, I was very busy because I was recording the James Robledo album, produced by Alessandro Del Vecchio. And I asked, Alessandro, I'm sorry I need a couple of days to record the videos. Because Tygers requested 2 songs; requested every guitar player to submit 2 videos playing two songs, 2 classic songs by Tygers. So I had a break from the recordings and I sent the videos. And I'm also sure that Alessandro said something to the band - said, hey you have to check out this guy; he's good, he's a friend of mine.(Laughs)
NI ROCKS - It's good a connection to have - Alessandro.
FRANCESCO - Yeah, yeah. Good connection.
NI ROCKS - The band, Tygers, obviously have a long history and the late John Sykes was one of your predecessors. Do you have a few favourite tracks that you love to play live?
FRANCESCO - Yeah, absolutely. Really, I love to play the fast songs like “Hellbound”, “Gangland” or “Running Out of Time”. “Running Out of Time” especially because the guitar solo is amazing. For me, John Sykes, he was a pioneer. He pushed the technique of the guitar to the next level. So for me, it's an honour to be connected with him. I hope that I keep that tradition of good guitar players in the band.
NI ROCKS - Can you tell us if there are plans for a new studio album from the Tygers in the near future?
FRANCESCO - Yeah, of course there will be a new album for the Tygers of Pan Tang. But, we really don’t know when. I hope as soon as possible but, you know you have to interview Robb for more information.
NI ROCKS - He's the man who knows. I have to get hold of him. I did do an interview with Robb, actually I think it was an email interview rather than a video, quite a while ago. I must actually try to get another one.
NI ROCKS - I thought we’d play something from “Bloodlines” now. Again, do you want to pick a track and tell us something about it?
FRANCESCO - Yeah, of course. My favourite track off the album is “Fire on the Horizon”.(Laughs) Not only because I wrote the song, but also because it's a fast song. I wrote this kind of song trying to keep the tradition of the band in releasing fast and heavy songs. So that was my goal.
NI ROCKS – We’ve mentioned Alessandro Del Vecchio and Frontiers Music a couple of time and you’ve worked with them on quite a few projects over the past 15 years or so. What are the projects that particularly stand out for you?
FRANCESCO - Yeah, the important things that I did for Frontiers are the live performances. So, the chance to play live with famous artists like Toby Hitchcock or Terry Brock - because they also asked me to play guitar on the 20 Years Anniversary in a party in Naples. It was a great chance to grow up as a musician, as a guitar player and as a person. So, I'm particularly thankful to Frontiers Music SRL and also I'm thankful to Alessandro Del Vecchio who's a great friend of mine, and he helped me a lot during my career.
NI ROCKS - The Frontiers Festivals were cancelled for a few years with COVID, etc, but they're coming back this year. Will you be involved in that at all, do you know?
FRANCESCO - No, not this year, I'm not involved this year.
NI ROCKS - I presume you’d like to do more of those kind of Frontiers projects? Is there anything else that you’re working on at the moment?
FRANCESCO - Now I'm working only small collaborations, nothing more important. But I'm very busy. Promoting the new album, my newest solo album and also I'll release a couple of new video clips in the next few weeks to go on promoting the album.
NI ROCKS - We mentioned the tour in Germany in March. What else do you have planned for the rest of this year?
FRANCESCO - The plan is to release a couple of new videos with songs from my last solo album “Out of the Fire” and also I'm going to go back on tour with with the Tygers. We have a couple of very good festivals in the summer and we have a lot of shows scheduled for the next months.
NI ROCKS – None in Northern Ireland unfortunately. I keep trying to get the Tygers back to Ireland. They haven't played here in quite a few years unfortunately. I'll speak to Robb.
FRANCESCO – Yes, he’s the man. You have to speak with Robb.
NI ROCKS – I know you’ve just released this album, but when do you start working on a new solo album?
FRANCESCO - I don't know. I’m the kind of musician, that even now I’ve released this album; actually I'm thinking about new songs and I'm writing new songs. I'm always thinking about what will come next. I will release a couple of covers videos for YouTube maybe. I would prefer to release a new Screaming Shadows album in the near future instead of a new solo album, but who knows? I'll see what will happen.
NI ROCKS - That’s all the questions that I have, but we’ll finish by playing another track from your new album “Out of the Fire”. Which one would you like to play and tell us something about it?
FRANCESCO - I'd like to play “Carnival of Darkness”. The one with Gianni Pontillo. It is the first song on the album and it's a great track. An easy and melodic catchy song, so I'm sure you'll like it.
NI ROCKS - It’s a great track. They all are. It’s a great album. And again, thank you very much for taking the time to talk to me.
FRANCESCO - Thank you very much for inviting me. It was a pleasure.