all my faith lost, from Italy, started making music in 1998. After the almost inevitable line-up changes the band releases an ep on a small Italian label. In 2005 they released their first full length, as you're vanishing in silence on Sweden's Cold Meat Industry. The band is made up of Federico (guitars and vocals) and Viola (synths, vocals and flute). We spoke to Federico about their sound and the gear they use.

Patrick Ogle: Tell me about what sort of sound you are trying to get with your music and how you use gear to get that sound?

First I would like to explain that all my faith lost, in the early years, was more a studio project than a "real" band. We did not need much more than a couple of guitars (acoustic and classical,) and a synth; a Korg. But the guy who was playing it left the band, so I don't remember the model and a microphone (Shure SM58) for recording our stuff on a Roland BR-8. We used to mix the tracks on the BR using the built-in effects. For that years and a self-released demo was good enough!

Then, some years ago, me and Viola started to play the first shows and at that point we needed some gear to reproduce our sound in front of the audience. Our music is a sort of acoustic ethereal music, a mix of acoustic guitars, warm synths and very delicate female and male voices. Our songs are frail, intimate-- but at the same time they should embrace you and lull you--well, having this sound live. It's not simple.

Tell me a little about some of the gear you use and why?

At the moment our instrumentation is a Korg iX300, an Altus Azumino Japan A1107 traverse Flute, a Washburn acoustic guitar, a classic guitar and some effects pedals as a DigiTech RP50 Modeling Guitar Processor, a Line 6 DL4, a couple of Danelectro effects (reverb and delay). Also we use some other stuff like a wooden flute and a little Toy-Piano (Bridgecraft).

We know the Korg it is not exactly the synth we need but we bought it when our the keyboard player left the band, we just needed a keyboard for going on in making music and we chose something nothing very expensive without knowing much about keyboards and synths-- also the DigiTech RP50 Modeling Guitar Processor is not really appropriate for acoustic guitar, but it was the only cheap pedal that could give me delay and reverb at the same time.

You told me that you use older gear--nothing fancy--how do you use that gear to try to get the best out of it?

Well, exactly I've told you we have not too much gear and we try to find the best ways to use it, focusing on the best quality of any single instrument or effect! For example we've find out that the best sounds of our Korg are the "pads" and the "strings" sounds; so when I need to create a new sound i always start modeling a pad or a string sound.

Speaking about the DigiTech RP50 Modeling Guitar Processor, when modeling a program I usually focus on the delays and reverb. I don't care much of different kinds of amps and choruses. They are not necessary in our sound.

Do you think using older, less fancy, gear has advantages?

Yes, the advantage is that your wallet is not empty and you continue doing your music anyways. Apart from jokes, we think that probably a lot of new gear is good as it is older gear but we did not try so many stuff. So we can't have a precise opinion.

Is there one piece of gear you cannot live without? Tell me why?

I think one of the most important things we absolutely need for our music is reverb. Reverb for the voice, for the guitars and for the violin. For the vocals we usually count on the built-in reverb of the mixers we find in the venues (and sometimes this is not a very good thing). For the acoustic and classical guitar I'm still using the DigiTech RP50 Modeling Guitar Processor.

I've created some interesting custom sound programs. But I'm thinking to find a good reverb pedal and I'm trying to understand what is better between Line 6 Verbzilla, Electro-Harmonix Holy Grail or a Boss one. Any suggestions? (READERS--FEEL FREE TO POST YOUR SUGGESTIONS)

The band is about to release their new full length, the hours. It should be out by the end of the summer--once again on Cold Meat Industry. They then plan to tour Europe and possibly the U.S.