Review Fix Exclusive: Roberto Messina Interview

Review Fix chats with 6008 Days lead singer Roberto Messina to get the inside scoop on their new album and goals for the future.

Review Fix: How important is the American market to you guys?

Roberto Messina: The American market is for us the main target. Modern rock, there, is more appreciated than in any other country and also because of our love for the USA (especially John, our bass player lives in Miami). I’ve only had the pleasure once to come to Atlanta for ProgPower USA and it was such a great experience that I want to organize our first tour after album release in 2013, there, if the audience response is positive. After it we want to go wherever we can to promote and play live.

Review Fix: How did your time in Secret Sphere prepare you for this new journey?

Messina: Secret Sphere was my best and longest experience with music until now; it has been very important for many reasons: with them I have learnt to compose as a team, to work better and better on productions and also on public relations, but the best aspect has been to play live on big international tours, with King Diamond, Gamma Ray, for example, or big festivals with Megadeth, Judas Priest, and many other great bands. Playing with them was a learning process and I enjoyed it.

My aim with 6008 Days is to use this background to grow to a higher level.

Review Fix: Why is this new album special?

Messina: An album is always special for the composer; I really hope it will be the audience that will explain to me the reasons why it is special for them. What I personally find special in it is the energy we spread, that makes me feel like we are messengers for something great. We are dedicating ourselves to it as monks do with their own spirit.

Review Fix: Considering today’s music scene, with people downloading single tracks rather than whole albums, what song do you believe is indicative of the band’s talent?

Messina: We have chosen our song “The Bad Day” for the video clip as we considered it most representative of our sound in its special features: energy, melody. It is very effective and direct at the same time. Even if the album is rich of many different ideas, reminding sometimes bands like Muse, or Foo Fighters, Jeff Buckley, you can obviously not understand the band’s style in its totality listening to only one song. But it might catch your attention, and that’s the sparkle all artists need, it is the first thing needed before you can be loved.

Review Fix: What’s your long-term plan for this band?

Messina: When you say “long time plan,” you enter one of the main concepts beyond our band. 6008 Days is a countdown, more or less 16 years. In these 16 years we, as people and members of the band, will live, actually, putting every single hope in music, and so doing what we consider our “destiny.” The countdown will tell us if we will be right and will decide of our lives. Our first concrete steps now are the video clip and the full-length album publications and the tour to play it live; then we will do any kind of action to increase our notoriety in order to make 6008 Days, a well known-high level Italian rock band.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 14316 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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