INTERVIEW WITH DPERD

Dperd are a darkwaveband from Italy who just have released their fine album on My Kingdom.
If you wanna know how Kirlian Camera versus The Cure (or something like that), I guess Dperd can be an answer...or perhaps they can be as the essence is what the band tries to capture in this interview : it's about music, emotions...not about machines.

LET’S START WITH A CLICHE : WHAT DOES THE WORD DPERD ACTUALLY MEANS?

Actually, it means nothing. I remember designing our website and not having a name yet. It came out by chance, playing with the initials of the surname Valeria and I have as a married couple. Something came out with an incomprehensible meaning. I liked at once this triumph of consonants.

TWO DECADES AGO YOU WERE IN A BAND CALLED FEAR OF THE STORM, WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE WITH THEM AND DPERD?

Well, there are substantial differences. The process of creation of the tracks changes completely when you can’t listen to all instruments at once, as you compose. In Dperd I play several instruments and I never have the faintest idea on what the final shape of the track’s going to be. Every track gets a life of its own as I record and overdub all the instruments.

BACK THEN YOU HAD YOUR RELEASES OUT ON ENERGEIA.
I HAPPEN TO KNOW THAT LABEL QUITE WELL BUT IT WAS QUITE SAD TO SEE THAT MOST OF THE BANDS NEVER REALLY MADE IT DESPITE A GREAT SOUND…

I just don’t know. You know, Energeia didn’t like quite much Fear of the Storm’s musical evolution as of 1994. There was a lot of misunderstanding during the recording of the mini cd “1995”, and because of these problems they didn’t renew our contract for the full-length cd, which had to be released in 1996 and has remained unreleased ever since.

THE ITALIAN SCENE HAS TONS OF GREAT DARKWAVE/GOTHBANDS, BUT SOMEWHERE THE CHANGE TO BREAK OUTSDIDE ITALY ONLY SEEMS TO BE FOR KIRLIAN CAMERA AND ATARAXIA, HOW COME?

Because in Italy non-mainstream music (and any other cultural event) is in itself a more marginal fact than in other countries. Sad to say, but the acknowledgement, success and attention an Italian dark wave (or generically underground) band can get can’t possibly be compared to the rest of Europe. As for the very few exceptions, those are bands that have been around for many years, they have resisted and kept it up despite all difficulties, and have finally got to make a name for themselves on the international scene, too.

THE FACT THAT YOU CONTINUED RELEASING YOUR MUSIC THROUGH OWN RELEASES REVEALS THAT YOU DO IT FOR THE LOVE OF MUSIC…

That’s for sure! Gotta admit I got the chance to do it and my job leaves me the spare time necessary to devote myself to this great passion of mine that has been part of me for a lot of years now

I WANNA ASK YOU SOMETHING ABOUT LOVE…
IT’S NOT BAD MEANT, BUT DO YOU MAKE MUSIC FOR YOURSELF IN THE FIRST PLACE OR IS IT SO THAT ONCE IT’S RECORDED YOU NEVER LISTEN TO IT YOURSELVES?

We make music for ourselves, no doubt about that, and we listen to it after it’s released, too. Of course, transmitting emotions to our listeners is highly rewarding for us. But on the other hand you listen to the tracks numberless times during the mix and, after a record is released, a couple of months pass by before we can listen to and enjoy it again

I MEAN THIS WITH THE GREATEST RESPECT FOR MY KINGDOM, BUT SEEING THAT YOUR RECORD HAS BEEN RELEASED ON A METALLABEL IS FOR ME A SIGN THAT THE SCENE ISN’T ANYMORE WHAT IT USED TO BE….

With Francesco from My Kingdom we’re on a basis of mutual friendship and respect that goes beyond musical styles. Being released on a specifically metal label means you can expect a lot of reviews on metal mags and zines, and reading them is real fun!
Nowadays music, not only our scene I mean, but music in general, has to face some problems. I guess it’s a matter of fact that recorded and released music is undergoing a decrease in sales, because of how easy it is to get tracks on the Internet. Just take a look at the rise of prices for big live events, which makes the loss the industry suffers from the decrease in sales less hard. The situation being the way it is, I just wonder how independent labels can still be working. Anyway, perhaps our musical offering would be a risk for any label of any style.


ISN’T IT A DISTURBING FACTOR FOR YOU THAT YOU’RE ACTUALLY ON A METALLABEL…I MEAN I KNOW METALFANS LOVE GOTH/DARKWAVE BUT STILL A DIFFERENT AUDIENCE THOUGH….

The problem might be that some wavers maybe don’t follow and know about My Kingdom releases, it being a label dealing with completely different cups of tea. But I think this is no problem for really open-minded, unprejudiced people. People able to make their own decisions and not conditioned by prejudices.


WITH DPERD YOU WENT BACK IN TIME MUSICALLY AS WELL, I MEAN THERE IS CERTAIN A COLDWAVE-FEEL IN YOUR MUSIC, NOT?

I guess you might call our music like that, although it is important not to overrate labels. We have an old-school approach to music in general, both as regards the instruments used and the recording process. If you listen to Dperd, there’s no doubt it’s a real instrument playing on that moment, not a bloody machine, a sequencer, a loop, or a fucking computer

PERHAPS IT’S ITALIAN I DUNNO, I FEEL THE SAME WITH KIRLIAN CAMERA WHO ARE ONE OF MY FAVES…
THERE IS A BIG CONTRAST IN THE WARM APPROACH FROM YOUR MUSIC AND THE FACT THAT VALERIA SINGS EVERYTHING IN A BIT MORE ICECOLD WAY….

I just don’t know what to say. Valeria’s singing style, like everything else, is not the result of conscious planning and programming. Whereas we record the instrumental tracks in our home studio, and then mix them elsewhere, I wanted to record vocal tracks directly in another studio. To record Valeria’s voice, our sound engineer set up a mobile studio in our house, to make it all more comfortable. He had scheduled a couple of days to record her vocal lines, but unpredictable Valeria did her job in a couple of hours.
OF COURSE THERE’S THE FACT THAT IT IS YOUR LANGUAGE, BUT WHY SINGING IN ITALIAN?, I MEAN WITH THAT YOU BUILD YOURSELVES LIMITS EVEN IF I’M ALWAYS SAYING THAT MUSIC SPEAKS FOR ITSELF!!!!

Certainly using our own language can be a drawback on the International scene, but the fact is Valeria can just speak a bit of English, and on the few occasions she’s sung in that language, she’s cursed it and the whole world. So sorry for foreign listeners, I’m afraid they’ve got to be happy with the English translations on our websites

THANKS FOR THIS INTERVIEW, THE LAST WORDS ARE YOURS…..

Thank you, Didier, thank anybody so patient as to read as far as here and willing to listen to our music.

Check out www.myspace.com/dperd