Interview with Date at Midnight
http://www.myspace.com/dateatmidnight
Nattsol: Greetings! Let’s don’t be much original for a start and begin our interview with short introductions of yourselves.
Pasquale: Hi Nattsol, I’m Pasquale, 29, born in the south of Italy and then moved to Rome; before being part of DaM I had some experiences in rock, wave and post-punk bands, since from years I’m into this kind of music as a listener and I’ve always felt the need to express also my self through a musical instrument…
Francesco: Ciao!
Daniele: Hello, I’m Daniele, the crazy singer in a band who’s lost the words!
Danilo: Nice to talk with you, I’m Danilo and I’m here to serve you.
Nattsol: The band’s line-up consists of very experienced and professional musicians, and most of the bands you played in before are worth for single interviews. So could you tell me stories of these bands, their releases and about your experiences in them?
Pasquale: Well I don’t know if we can be defined as” professional”, but for sure we are very very passionate! My most important experiences were Echoes of Silence, a post-punk band based in Rome which released a fuss-length for the current DaM’s label (In the night time Records) in 2006, and Opera Glasses (www.myspace.com/operaglasses), a roman new wave band which released an EP under the name “The Lost” a couple of years ago. They were good experiences, but I must say that in both cases I entered there finding a situation which was already consolidated from many points of view, so my contributions were more related to the “execution” moment than to the “creative” moment; that is completely different from what happens with DaM.
Francesco: About myself, I can only say that I play guitar since I was a teenager, often bringing my guitar with myself on the road in order to have confrontations with other musicians; I’ve been part of different bands, basically unknown. Psychedelic rock mixed to darker atmospheres deriving from my darkwave listenings is part of my mind and style, and that is what I express in playing with Date at Midnight.
Daniele: My former experience with Interior Deus (www.myspace.com/interiordeus, – the space still exists but it’ quite an “abandoned place”) has been focused on traditional goth rock; it was a trio with a drum machine called “Luna”; we recorded quickly a demo composed by 5 tracks and we split when we were about to release a second promo, that maybe some day will be spread in some “multimedia” way
Danilo: I approached drums and other instruments as well because I have to fight my lazy mood! If you want o check something from my former band you can go on www.myspace.com/dirtyfake. But then don’t forget to visit www.myspace.com/dateatmidnight!
Nattsol: Danilo, could you tell a bit more about your electro project. What is it? Is it active now?
Danilo: It’s a sort of divertissement, when I’m at home I enjoy spending time making pc music; in the past I also recorded some songs in a real studio, just to check their impact; but it’s just a street that y walk on in order to enjoy my free time in a creative way.
Nattsol: Pasquale, could you tell me about the Cureproject with which you occasionally play? What is it?
Pasquale: It’s a project run by the singer of Opera Glasses, with whom I share a great passion for the Cure; the spirit of this project is to rearrange in a more electronic-oriented style different Cure songs, and then propose them live with different guests playing instruments; here my role comes, ‘cause I enjoy very much to play Cure songs, so each time I have the chance to play them in front of an audience I’m pretty proud and happy: it’s something that I do with passion, and with a fair share of amusement too!!
Nattsol: So your previous bands are very different with range of gothic/death rock Interior Deus, indie/post rock Dirty Fake and Opera Glasses and more orthodox post-punky Echoes of Silence. Could you tell how it happened that you all play together? What are the things you share, and which individual things every musician brought to the music of Date at Midnight? What is that musical language you found to understand each other as musicians?
Danilo: Every morning I wake up I ask the same to myself… J
Daniele: One year after Interior Deus’ end I really felt sick because I could not express myself through the music, and furthermore I was willing to be in a project not strictly focused on particular style; my destiny was to meet in different contexts the right people at the right moment, and suddenly a creative alchemy born between us. There’s been a complete and free sharing of thoughts and ideas; it was just like we were so different but so equal at the same time.
Pasquale: Well it would seem very strange to you, but really we don’t have an answer for this question! Until we found ourselves for the first time in a rehearsal room with our instruments, we didn’t even know each other! Then we discover that our individual inspiration and ideas (not necessarily matured during our previous musical experiences) were simply perfect when mixed together, since each of us gives a creative contribution every single song: that’s how Date at Midnight’s music born and lives…
Francesco: I believe that maybe our difference are the most important thing for our style, ‘cause maybe each of us can see new way of express himself, with a sort of “different” musical language, that is con immediately referable to a particular kind of music. And so far we can say that apart from this we feel very close to each other as individuals.
Nattsol: Well, so you mean, you met each other for the first time in a rehearsal room? Could you tell more about the circumstances and complete the story?
Pasquale: Just consider that Daniele was an old friend of Danilo, and of course he knew he was a good drummer; then he met Francesco at work, and they started to talk about music and the “good old times”, until they decided that yeah, it would have been nice to be in a band together, since Francesco seemed to be a very inspired guitar player! At that point Daniele met me through common friends; he knew I was a bass player, and I was so willing to play in a band, and when he told me that he was already in touch with some other guys and they miss only a bass player, everything was done: we just set up everything to make a first “test”, when finally we met each other, and then everything started…definitely one of the strangest and luckiest things that could happen to us!!!
Nattsol: What things are the most important for you for being in a band?
Daniele: Passion, commitment, will to improve and to develop our own way
Francesco: Research, will to have confrontation with others, and maybe also strong discussion…of course with our instruments in our hands!
Danilo: The will to do something special.
Pasquale: Passion, sacrifice, enthusiasm, and of course the will to have fun!
Nattsol: How can you call the style Date at Midnight plays?
Pasquale: Again, we made this question to ourselves many times but we’ve never found an answer: the most we can say is we are always looking for something that could sound at the same time “dark”, “powerful”, and “intense”: there’s no a single word to describe it!
Francesco: Just….the way we like to do it! No, seriously: we’ve developed and we’re still developing a personal way, I don’t know how to define it; our music is just like an autonomous being, which lives behind the four of us, and which sounds psychotic-visionary-powerful-dark…
Daniele: We’ve never look for a definition, and when we tried, even just for fun, we were not able to find it.
Nattsol: But I hope you wouldn’t deny that your music is a quite “deathrocky” one, would you? If you wouldn’t, well, that might seem a bit strange or even weird that a deathrocky band doesn’t copy Cinema Strange and much of Christian Death can hardly be found as well. What do you think about these tendencies? Do you see any generic “relatives”?
Pasquale: Well of course we feel part of a “gothic” movement, and maybe some deathrock atmospheres can be found in our music, but the point is that they’re not the only ones, neither the most predominant ones…just think about our EP: if you listen to “Crucifying my lies” you can get them, but “Lost in Kreuzberg” is much more post-punk oriented, while at the same time “Date at midnight” has more to deal with Bauhaus and this kind of things, and “Walking afterlife”… who knows??? An unreleased song that we composed in the early times, called “Inside 29” has a sort of obscure “garage” taste, while another, called “Vanità” has Italian lyrics and a mood completely different from the ones I mentioned so far…and for us it’s always like this, in every song!
If we had to tell about some distant “relatives” maybe we’d talk about Christian Death, and Bauhaus, and Nick Cave, and Madre del Vizio, and the Neph as well…but it’s just an exercise, since each time we create something we try to do everything is possible to avoid any kind of established “track”, and we just follow our inspiration, made of our contaminated musical, human, emotional and personal background, as individuals and as a band.
Nattsol: Do you think you play a modern music? And do you think that in XXI century, in which we have nothing more to “destroy”, something like moral or so, the music still has some resources to be explored?
Daniele: Clearly we play music that has its roots in the 80s…but we play it with nowadays consciousness; that means that we play it with a different inspirations and a different background, even if the attitude is the same. I believe that also in XXI century there is much to destroy…especially here in Italy…and while our sound arises also from dreams (or nightmares), these dreams (and nightmares) arise from a sort of disease concerning the reality that surrounds us, that is scarcely emotional, too much neurotic and linked to a sort of great mass-production machine. We are living times of democracy-masked dictatorships, and well, Date at Midnight are also our intimate answer to this; a kind of hideaway where we do and say whatever we want! Look, Nattsol, maybe today there are even more things to destroy compared to 20 or 30 years ago, but there’s no union because the fake and deceptive economic wealth has brainwashed the most of people. I like to dream that music will save us and a new revolution will come!
Francesco: I don’t think about music I play in terms of “ancient” or “modern”: an electric guitar is an electric guitar, and it will be like this until the end of time; then what you do with it, time after time, can also be inspired, consciously or unconsciously, to past things, or can be something of completely original. Musically speaking, there’s nothing to destroy, never: neither punk music has really “destroyed” something: some seeds and musical tendencies always come up.
Finally, I think that the beauty of music lies in the fact that anyway there’s always something left to explore, just like a hidden path to be discovered in a dark wood, who knows…
Nattsol: Well, now about your self-titled EP. Could you introduce it to ones who haven’t listened to it yet?
Daniele: It’s a picture of our first steps; it’s very instinctive ant it touches the inner part of the heart, starting from today’s rage and disappointment, talking about real stories taken in their absurd non-reality, being at the same time influenced by the metropolitan dimension that we love so much…
Pasquale: The EP comprises our first year of life, it’s a picture made of 6 tracks that shows the direction of our music that has no direction…
Francesco: If you’re looking for something of sinister and sick, with surrounding sounds and nocturnal vision, well: that’s our EP…
Danilo: It’s something really satisfied us, it’s the mirror that reflects our first year of work and concerts and parties …
Nattsol: You have some new songs. How much they’re related to the EP stuff?
Francesco: Since we have such an “instinctive” approach, there’s a black line connecting new songs to older ones, but I’m sure that new songs are more complex, and they mirror the growth the musical growth of the band in the last 2 years.
Daniele: We have many new songs that hopefully in the next year will compose our full-length; there’s still an instinctive root, but for sure there’s also a more developed “rationale” component; but hopefully we’ll have time in the future to talk more about it.
Pasquale: I think that the root is similar, because all this stuff derives from our four sick minds, but I’m pretty sure that new material is much more “mature”, since we composed it having a little bit clearer in our minds which is our potential, our limits, the way we want our music to sound; and of course a stronger synergy between us as musicians.
Nattsol: Is Date at Midnight a “live” or a “studio” band?
Pasquale: Definitely a live band: more “urgent”, more “sweat & blood” – oriented; for each of us the recording and mixing sessions of the EP has been the first real studio experience, and it has been quite hard; anyway we can say that even if we still give the best of us when we are on stage, also being in a studio has been after all an amazing experience, that we already repeated another time with great satisfaction in order to realize a brand new promo CD.
Francesco: Even if we like studio atmosphere, and we learn many things while being there, we remain a live band because when we are on stage there’s a sort of inner magic.
Danilo: A live band which enjoys also being in a studio, until the point of no return
Daniele: A live band for sure; we give a great importance to the live act: we prefer to be on the road than in the “buttons’ room”…
Nattsol: In spite of the fact that the band is quite young, you played in different locations with legendary bands. How do you manage this? What are the impressions?
Danilo: It’s part of our way to intend music. And to enjoy music of course!
Daniele: The reason arises from what I said before: we were born in a dark rehearsal room with the aim to go outside and do our best, whatever it means; sharing the stage with bands we use to listen to has been so joyful and has been a moment of growth for us.
Francesco: This is simply one of the best and the most interesting things that could happen to us!
Pasquale: Since we are a young band we try to make our best in order to spread our name and our music, managing our internet presence, promoting our shows, and of course spreading as much as possible our debut EP, and so far the feedback has been even better than our expectations, allowing us to play intensively in Italy and abroad, meeting many people who appreciated our shows and contribute themselves to make possible new shows…and of course to share the stage with bands that we support first of all as listeners gives us the satisfaction and the adrenaline that leads us to keep our enthusiasm always over the top!
Nattsol: What can you tell about the Italian scene? Do you have some friends in music there?
Daniele: The scene is alive; you can put us in the so-called “roman scene”, made of people who meet in underground venues and who want to evolve beyond a dancefloor in order to express themselves: Bohemien, Avant-Garde, Christabel Dreams, are first of all friends of us, and then musicians.
Pasquale: Maybe the scene in Italy is not the same of years ago, but still is a very good scene, with many parties, concerts, promoters, and a discrete audience; last summer the 1st edition of the “Moonlight Festival” had e great response, and we think this is very important. Especially in Rome we have many close friends playing in gothic and underground bands, and it is a pleasure for us to share ideas, impressions and so on with them.
Francesco: Yes we have many friends, and it’s also nice to share the stage with them!
Nattsol: So you released the EP, play gigs… well, what next?
Pasquale: Simple: Release a CD and keep on playin’ gigs! Ah, and maybe to make a video…why not?
Francesco: We’re working on new materials, so we hope that within the next year we’ll be able to release our first full-length.
Daniele: Another stage, and then another one…and in the meantime, we are composing new songs and making fine tuning on other ones…it’s a continuous work in progress.
Danilo: And then music, and drinks, and people, and strange places to sleep…
Nattsol: Pasquale, so you’d love to have a video. Even if it’s not a detailed plan, would you mind if I ask the full band to imagine how the first DaM video should look like? Even if it goes apart from the reality in the future, doesn’t matter.
Pasquale: Well I’m not that visionary, so I just Imagine a video in which there are scenes of the band playing, in a dark and sinister place, and maybe with some insertions taken from real concerts we had, mixed with nocturnal and surrealistic scenes and images; but who knows? Maybe in the end we’ll just make a video inspired to Road Runner’s toons…in drunken mood!
Nattsol: In your opinion, which role for the band plays visual image and band’s merch?
Danilo: I still haven’t got a Date at Midnight’s t-shirt!!!!!
Pasquale: Not as important as music’s role, but visual image has its own importance; I can’t tell whether it’s a good or a bad thing but I can tell that is quite a funny thing!
Daniele: It’s an important part of the game, but it must be consistent with the substance that lies behind, and it must be alive in function of it: Ethics and Aesthetic are inseparable.
Francesco: I’d be out of time if I said that nowadays image is not important, but for us this is not that basic, for instance: currently we are quite tanned, while we’d be supposed to be white and pale….
Nattsol: Let’s play a short game – call some adjectives which could describe you personally, and than some which in your opinion could describe the band.
Pasquale: Me: sleepless, emotional, and rationally instinctive; or instinctively rational if you prefere. The band…OH MY GOTH!!!!
Francesco: For the band the adjective are the ones I’ve mentioned before; for me, well, let’s see…psycho-visionary!!!!
Danilo: Me: lazy; the band: crazy…
Daniele: Me: passionate, emotional, troubled! The band: acidly obscure!
Nattsol: Can you say that music is the most important part of your life? And is it hard for you to combine an “ordinary” life and a life of musician?
Pasquale: when I talked about “sacrifice” about the most important things for a band I was also referring to this part of the speech; in particular in a confusing city like Rome if you want to combine everything with a serious commitment in a band you have to be ready to make huge efforts; and, at least in my case, to say goodbye to a “regular” sleep ….Anyway music is the most amazing and stimulating part of my life, no doubt about that!
Danilo: music has always been a fundamental part of my life; to combine it with my “ordinary! life it’s hard, and it will ever be harder. But anyway it’s worth.
Nattsol: If you could change only one thing in the world, what would you have changed?
Pasquale: All the things (whatever they are) that led to the infamous, never-ending “war” between Israel and Palestine. I can’t definitely bear all this waste of lives on both sides.
Daniele: I’d begin with Italian politics; the way both left and right sides operate, That would be a good start in order to begin a different walk also an a global basis.
Nattsol: So, thanks for the interview, can’t wait for something new from Date at Midnight! And your final words.
Danilo: Thanks for all, Stay Crucified!
Daniele: It has been great to arrive (also if only with words) to your land; a land of great culture…that we deeply love! Long live to Grave Jibes!
Francesco: Greetings to everyone, cheers!
Pasquale: Thanks for this very nice interview, and congratulations to all people involved in realising Grave Jibes…hope to meet you all and maybe have some Vodka together!
Questions:
Pall ‘Nattsol’ Zarytskiy
‘Grave Jibes Fanzine’
