2012 is an exciting year for extreme experimentalists Ephel Duath, who are set to release an EP this coming Spring. ZT caught up with frontman/guitarist Davide to find out more:
You recently relocated to the US – howcome, and how is this working out for you?
I moved to California almost three years ago. I lived at first in Oakland, then Berkeley and now I’m in San Francisco, a city I’m deeply in love with. I came to the US after I met Karyn Crisis. We were working on her solo album in Tuscany together with Italian producer Eraldo Bernocchi. The project got to a standstill because of artistic differences between those two. In the meantime ED just released Through My Dog’s Eyes but lost the singer Luciano Lorusso. At the time I wasn’t in a very stable moment in my life, living between France and Italy, constantly on the move with the luggage packed in my car. When Karyn offered me to return to California with her to finish her solo album I immediately accepted, left and never returned back with great concern of family and few friends. We got married after two weeks and restarted making music together. I found a good job, a nice apartment and now after two years I feel extremely lucky to be able to have a decent living and still have all the necessary time and to dedicate to my music.
You also have a new lineup – how did you go about building this, and how do you think this will affect the music?
It took me almost two years to accept the fact that the last ED live line -up didn’t work out. This time the problems, especially with singer Luciano Lorusso, were not personal or about music like in the past, just an economical matter. Once I moved to the States I looked around for musicians to keep ED alive, but noticing (once again!) the common lack of serious commitment to a band that’s affecting the scene these days, and it made me quickly change my mind, preferring to keep ED on hiatus to focus on other projects. Last May I experienced a tragic loss and I felt in a horrible depression. To get out from that trap I slowly started to consider to return to compose for ED. In the meantime Agonia Records approached me offering all the support necessary to have the band back and I accepted. In few days I was back on a full ED routine and I never stopped since then. After few weeks I contacted Marco Minnemann who successfully collaborated with ED recording the drums on 2009 Through My Dog’s Eyes album. He enthusiastically wrote back after a few days and, thrilled to have one of the best drummer in the world on board, I started thinking about a bass player. I’m a huge Death fan and I thought that Steve di Giorgio Plus Marco Minnemann would be a killer rhythmic section. I wrote to Steve, met with him a couple of times and developed a wonderful human and music connection. Me and Steve were close to collaborate to a music project in 2003, at that time nothing happened, but this time we made it work. For the vocals my first and only choice was Karyn Crisis and she accepted on the spot: being married made things logistically easier. ED’s line up in 2012 is the highest pick ever reached by the band and, judging by the songs I have so far, I’m extremely confident we’ll record the best material the band has ever released.
What are your future plans?
The upcoming Ephel Duath’s EP we are recording these days will be mixed by Erik Rutan in February/March for an April 2012 release. I’m already working on a new Ephel Duath album, both the band and label agreed to release it as close as possible to the EP, I would say beginning of 2013 as a tentative date. After the album will be out, if the media, the public reactions and the sales would be encouraging, I would like to bring Ephel Duath on stage again. Just few selective shows both in Europe and the US but this will be possible just if the conditions offered will be good enough. I’m not interested in having Ephel Duath back being a full time starving live band again, at the same time I’m perfectly aware that this music deserves to performed on a stage, in front of a crowd.
