The River

Like many other bands, "The River" springs from a shared passion for music. Davide Leone (voice/guitar/piano) and Andrea Cignarelli (electric guitar), both from Trani on the south-east coast of Italy, spent many an evening talking about their musical inspirations (mainly British groups) and aspirations and exchanging albums. As their friendship grew so did the idea of forming a rock group of their own. The long and arduous task of completing the line-up finally came to an end when two young musicians, Massimiliano Di Lauro (bass) and Tommaso Sgarangella (drums), both with plenty of experience both live and in the studio, joined the band. The initial enthusiasm led them to compose numerous tracks, eight of which were recorded in November 2007 in a three-day recording session in their hometown and became part of their first demo “The River”. On the strength of their local popularity, obtained thanks to the demo and to a series of concerts and radio interviews in the local area, The River started to gain recognition on a national level, coming third in the “Contaminazione 2007” contest in Bisceglie, reaching the semifinals (together with nine other groups from an original 800 groups from all over Italy) in the “RockContest” in Florence, obtaining a prize as ‘revelation band’ in the 2008 “Italian Wave” contest, and winning another prize for the best track in the Prove di Rock” in Salerno. A year has passed since the initial formation of the band and without doubt “The River” is flowing well: they have shared the stage with artists such as The Niro, Les Fauves, A Toys Orchestra, Project Komakino (UK) and Violet (UK) and have even attracted the attention of EMI with their single “Don’t Give Back”.