11 questions for Lucynine
"The Music I Compose Is Always Visual in My Head"
After recently publishing my review of Lucynine's "Melena", I now had the chance to dive even deeper into the world behind this powerful record. Lucynine, also known as Sergio Bertani, created an album that feels deeply personal and strikingly universal—a raw confrontation with grief, isolation, and resilience. From the very first listen, it became clear that "Melena" is not just a collection of songs but a sonic diary, each track reflecting states of mind with honesty and intensity.
All the more fascinating, then, to hear Sergio's perspective directly. In our conversation, he told me about the making of "Melena", the balance between intimacy and heaviness, and how his visual sensibilities as a photographer shape his music. What emerged is a portrait of an artist for whom music is more than sound—it is necessity, catharsis, and a refusal to conform to the polished artificiality that dominates much of today's music world.
Anne: Your new album "Melena" feels incredibly personal and immersive. What inspired this project, and how did it start?
Sergio: "Melena" is a sort of "logical" follow-up to my previous album "Amor Venenat", although it was developed in a completely different way. It was composed, recorded, mixed, and mastered in just over three months during a very difficult period I went through in 2022. I think it's a faithful portrait of that moment of deep distress.
Anne: You handled every aspect of the music yourself—from composition to mixing. How did working completely solo shape the sound and emotional impact of the album?
Sergio: It's a very natural way of working for me because my approach to music—even if this record expresses a very intimate dimension—is that of a composer, not a typical band jamming in a rehearsal room, throwing around ideas and then arranging them. Almost always, before I start working on a new track, I already have in mind the idea of the final result I want to achieve. So all that's left is to pick up the guitar or sketch out the harmonic sequence, and then build it brick by brick.
Anne: In your track "Opera al nero", you describe yourself as "Sovereign of a cadaverous kingdom". In my preview, I noted how this song feels like the emotional heart of "Melena". What did you want to convey with this imagery, and how did it shape the rest of the album?
Sergio: The album deals with depression, loneliness, and the feeling of abandonment. I had just moved back to the city after more than ten years living in the countryside. I was still suffering the loss of my partner, the man of my life, who died in my arms in 2018, just a few hours after we got married. Likewise, I agree with you that it can be considered the core of the record—in fact, everything revolves around the state I was living in, which I tried to describe and, in a way, exorcise through music. It's not a concept album, but this theme definitely runs through all the tracks.
Anne: Many of the songs on "Melena" feel like they exist on the edge between despair and release. How do you balance heaviness and musicality without leaning into comfort or predictability?
"Composing those songs felt very natural"
Sergio: To be honest, nothing was really calculated—the process is very natural and instinctive. Sometimes listeners pick up on elements that the composer has so deeply internalised in their way of working that they are no longer consciously aware of them.
Anne: In your song, "Oltre la soglia", the lyrics go "Temi l'uomo che non ha più nulla da perdere" which means "Fear the man who has nothing left to lose" if I translated that right. I already highlighted that phrase in my preview. I'd like to know how this idea resonates with the themes of loss, resilience, or transformation in your work.
Sergio: Your translation is correct. The meaning refers to what a man left alone with himself, with no vision of hope for the future, is capable of doing. If you think about it, it's terrifying—he can do anything, and it's rarely something good. When I wrote it, I was also consumed by a huge amount of anger towards myself for not being able to control the reality around me—or rather, not knowing how to handle whatever came from outside, the way a clear-headed, balanced person might.
Anne: The album artwork features a striking image of a dead magpie. How important are visuals to your music, and how did you decide on this particular motif?
"Imagery is as important as music"
Sergio: Imagery is as important to me as sound itself. I'm a photographer for a living, and the music I compose is always visual in my head, always tied to an image. In this case, though, the cover came about by chance. I was looking for something that could visually express the mood of the album, and one day, while leaving home, I saw a dead magpie on the ground. I took it to the studio, set up a little shoot, and photographed it—and that became the thread running through all the digipak artwork.
Anne: Your work often touches on personal pain but also hints at broader societal or environmental concerns. How do you see your music speaking beyond your own experiences?
Sergio: The pain described in the lyrics is truly my own—raw, personal, intimate. There are no direct external references. However, I'm a very reflective person, and I've noticed how much society affects my sense of balance. I'm pretty solitary and reserved, but not a hermit; I'm definitely not indifferent when it comes to politics, the environment, or society. Those themes clearly have a big influence on my everyday life. As does religion—actually, especially religion… which I'm very outspoken against (I know, predictable for someone playing black metal, ahah), but having grown up in a family of fairly fanatical Catholics, I see the enemy up close.
Anne: In today's music world, with AI and curated "perfect" sounds everywhere, what do you think is the role of raw, uncompromising, and handmade work like "Melena"?
Sergio: As a photographer, I fight against the flattening effect of AI every single day. And it's a tough battle, one I fear we creatives are losing—but it's worth fighting. I admit the future scares me, but even the present feels tougher every day. That's why everything I do, both as a musician and as a photographer, I feel a visceral need for it to retain a strong personality—something uniquely mine. Even that sound, which may seem raw and rough, is actually worked out down to the smallest detail because I want to be satisfied with every aspect—I'm a perfectionist. But not the kind of perfection we associate with record labels, quantisation, autotune, extreme editing, and so on. That's exactly what I avoid. I can't stand it when a band I love gets picked up by a major label and is forced to sound flat and depersonalised, like everything else in the charts. I always think of how brilliant Korn's early records were, when David Silveria—without a metronome and without grid quantisation—could push and pull the groove at will. There was soul in that music: it sounded real, powerful, dynamic. But I believe in the cyclical nature of trends. Sooner or later, this saturation will drive us back to seeking humanity in creativity. And it's already happening in some underground corners.
Anne: Looking back at the making of this album, were there any moments of doubt or surprise that changed the direction of the music?
Sergio: As I mentioned, the relatively short time in which "Melena" was conceived and completed forced the workflow into a certain linearity—so, no fundamental changes of direction. There wasn't time! The only anecdote worth telling concerns the title track, which was created in a completely different way from all the others. It was written and finished in just a few hours, with each instrument improvised independently of the others, following a guideline I built using a sort of algorithm loosely connected to the series used in twelve-tone music, but with a modal approach. Something I'd never done before.
Anne: What do you hope listeners take away from "Melena", both emotionally and intellectually?
"In the end it's all about music"
Sergio: In the end, for as much as it is an introspective journey into my personal darkness, for as intimate and meaningful as the lyrics are… at the end of the day, it's music. So what I hope is that listeners enjoy it, that in some way they even have fun with it, and that—if they happen to recognise themselves in what they hear—they can find in "Melena" their own outlet, a kind of catharsis. A bit—with all due humility—like almost 30 years ago, when I could get rid of all my teenage anger and frustration by blasting Iron Maiden's "Powerslave" in my headphones at full volume. I believe that certain kinds of music, the ones made from need, out of necessity, serve exactly this purpose – for both the artist and the listener. For the very same reasons.
Anne: Thanks very much for taking the time for this interview! Wishing you all the best for your album! Is there anything you would like to share with my readers that I haven't asked you about?
Sergio: Thank you—this has been a wonderful interview, with questions that really made me stop and think. So I'm the one who should thank you for the space you've given me. Anyone who wants to listen to Melena and follow what I'm doing can find me on social media and on Talheim Records' channels. All the best!
