Hello Alex it's nice to meet you. If I'm not mistaking this is your first visit in Bulgaria?

Yes it is.

So how do you feel?

It is hot! I am all in sweat, but it's really great!

Unfortunately we don't have much time so I will try to do this interview as short as possible. Your last album "From Chaos to Eternity" is said to be the ending of the fantasy era of Rhapsody?

Actually it will be the ending of the saga.

So what are you planning to do next? ... Are you going to surprise the fans?

I'm going to do something epic again, but it won't be a saga. I'm working on it, you know. And we are going to work on it in the next few months. As far as I can tell you it will be magic, powerful and passionate music as always.

Again a fantasy theme?

Well yes of course it must be magic and fantasy. It can also be connected to some outer reality, but always using nice and magic themes. This is always very important for us and me especially.

I see! So let's go few years back: RHAPSODY were forced to change the name to RHAPSODY OF FIRE, later Luca Turilli left and formed his LUCA TURILLI'S RHAPSODY. I think the fans are more or less confused ... Why all of these things happen?

Luca and I were part of this band from the beginning and so he is co-founder of the band. Considering the fact that I'm going on with RHAPSODY OF FIRE with Fabio and Alex as the original singer and drummer, we had a friendly agreement with Luca that he can also use the name "Rhapsody". He did as much for the band as I did band. So in the end it may look and sound weird but it was a necessary thing... Especially for him, not to call himself LUCA TURILLI, because it will be confused for solo album. After all he is part of RHAPSODY ... Now every one of us sees the band in different direction, so now he is doing his own Rhapsody and we are doing ours.

What do you thing for his project?

I haven't heard it yet, because I don't like to listen to it over the internet or on the road. I told him "When I got back home, you will give me a copy". I think it's the right thing to do. I will listen to the CD in my car or in the studio.

As I said before this is your first visit in Bulgaria ... so what do you expect from the fans? I can assure you that most of them have waited for you for long time.

Wow that's really cool, I'm really excited. I really don't know what to expect because I have never been here. But I have a feeling that the people are here to have fun and enjoy music and that's good. We will play, we will kick ass and we will have fun for sure.

So let's go back to the upcoming album... Did you started with the writing process?

We will start soon.

Can you revile more details for it?

Well ...No! (Laughs)

In the background we hear that KAMELOT are on stage and playing. Do you know if Fabio is going to join them on stage tonight like he did on their previous tour?

I don't really know. They had talked for something but I'm not sure.

Ok so for and end I would like to ask you to say few words for your fans in Bulgaria?

Ok. .. Hey, this is Alex Staropoli from RHAPSODY OF FIRE. this is our first time in Bulgaria and we are very excited to play for you and hopefully to come back again to this beautiful sun and beautiful place. I hope you will enjoy the show. See you soon.

Thank you very much for this interview.

Thank you!

Interview and pictures: Nikola Petras