Interview с Dark Lunacy : DARKSIDE.ru

You played in Russia already two concerts. Which of them do you consider to be the best?

We dreamt to play in Russia for a very long long time, actually since we began to write the first song. (laughs). So for us this was a dream which came true. And the audience – it looks like they love us. And we love them. Our album “The Diarist” is about Russia is about Leningrad and the concert in Moscow was our first aim to reach. So finally we got it. It’s fantastic.

How did you come up with the idea to create Dark Lunacy? And when?

Ten years ago I met Mike. We started to play some songs, Mike had some ideas. I played guitar and piano. So he needed someone to help him with his ideas. So we just started to pla

y – me and Mike – and no ideas for the future. Then we made our first EP in 1998 and we had just a concert. But we discussed it and decided that we need many many other songs to make up a great CD. So we just put together our passion – my passion for music and his passion for poetry. I think that we found a good sound for us. And we are lucky that many people like our songs.

You combine death metal elements and some classical elements. Was it your decision or it just so happened?

We live in Parma where in every street you can breathe classical atmosphere, because since we were children at school we heard many songs of Verdi. Giuseppe Verdi was born in Parma. So it was very simple for us to mix classical music and death metal, cause w

e listened to metal since we were young, and classical music too. In Parma this classical music is in the air, it’s everywhere.

Are there any bands that influenced you?

I think that major metal bands of the 80-s like Metallica, Iron Maiden, Rage from Germany. We love Rage. I think that when you listen to heavy metal since you were child, your best album you’ll see some influences in it. But when we write songs, we think that we are Dark Lunacy. And the fan must like Dark Lunacy not because “it sounds like…”, but because it’s Dark Lunacy, because this is our way of creating music, because the band has its face so to speak.

You mentioned Rage – and have you heard their latest album by the way?

For me Rage died at the beginning of this century. Because I like “The Missing Link”, “Trapped!”. I like their former guitarist Manni Schmidt – now he plays with Grave Digger. When I started to play, I played many many songs by Rage to learn how Manni Schmidt plays some riffs. I like Rage from the beginning to the album “XIII”. When they changed the line-up, now there plays a guitarist from Russia Victor Smolsky… Well, he is a great musician, but he influences Rage too much, I think.

Is it possible that one day the style of Dark Lunacy will transform into something else, as nowadays there is a tendency among death metal bands to change their sound and style into something more modern? Do you think it’s possible to stick to your own style and

at the same time not to lag behind?

We made two CDs so far, and now I think we have to make some very important choice for the future. I think our music is out of time. So we won’t change our sound in a drastic way. Maybe we’ll change some elements of our music, maybe we’ll change something else, but we won’t make dramatic changes. The matter is that Dark Lunacy don’t play for business. We play for ourselves, we love our music.

Do you have some plans about the new album? Maybe even vague plans…

It’s difficult, because we dedicated “The Diarist” to Russia. We would like to stop our Russian influence with “The Diarist”, because in the future we want to take “The Diarist” and say, “this is Russia for us” and not “som

e other Russian CD”. Russia for us is “The Diarist“. So now we start to write some new songs. I think we have to change influence, not so many Russian influences anymore. Maybe we’ll just come back to mix poetry and music. One more thing – Mike loves concept, he writes many poems, so I think that the next album will be a kind of a long poetry with music.

You said you want to finish up with Russian influences. But does it mean that you’ll also leave the elements of the Russian music which you extensively use in your music?

I think yes. We’ll try to restrict the Russian influence to “The Diarist”. We love Russia, and we were happy to devote it two years of working at this album. In the future we don’t want to take some Russian music an

d put it together with ours. We give much importance to Russia.

When did you get interested in the soviet period of the Russian history? And why this period?

My grandfather was taken as a prisoner in Russia. And when he came back he took very very many vinyls of the Red Army songs. I was very young then, and he sang very many Russian songs like – “Moscow’s Nihts”, “Poljushko-Pole”. I think that Russian songs are heavy metal without guitars. So I just put the guitars on your music! (laughs) It’s very natural.

Why did you chose the theme of the blockade of Leningrad and not any other city or rather any other theme in general?

Because we found a diary from a woman, who wrote during all

those event in Leningrad. And it reflects all the dramatics of the war. We bought many books about Leningrad and we started to study all those events. And we found such devastations of souls, we found it very impressive and we needed to put the music into the piece of history of Leningrad.

Have you ever heard about the Russian poetess Olga Berngoltz? She wrote many poems about Leningrad and the lyrics of “The Diarist” seems to be influenced by her poems…

Maybe Mike knows, because he read very many book on the subject, but I don’t know her…

Who is the author of the Russian lyrics on the album?

The ex-girlfriend of Mike studies in St.-Petersburg, she studies Russian history and Russian

language. So she helped us to write the lyrics in Russian. And Mike studied with the Russian teacher in Italy how to explain in the write way the ideas.

But there are some mistakes in the text. Did you show the lyrics to the experts or maybe to people who know Russian perfectly well?

We just made this record for our song and that’s it. We don’t like to play for business. I know that for many people in Leningrad - young and old - father or grandfather died in Leningrad. It’s a way to feel the piece of Leningrad and a piece of our lives. It’s very emotional.

In one of your interviews you said that you devoted “The Diarist” to the Russian people, because they are so devoted to their country as no other na

tion is. What does patriotism mean to you?

Russia. We use the Russians as an example of love with the motherland. In Italy nobody loves Italy as Russians love Russia. We love this link between people and the country. We often put Russians as an example. I think Russia is very near with our feelings.

What is your attitude to the attempts to rewrite the history of the WW II? Now the young generation tends to rewrite the history and turn all facts upside down...

I think now we need to give much importance to history. Maybe everything may change upside down, the future may change, but the history is written. Many people died, because they risked their lives for the freedom, for the love to their country. Future chang

es, things may change, people may change, but the history is always there. Forever.

The only Dark Lunacy album which was released in Russia by license is “Devoid”. And ever since the Russian fans have seen nothing of Dark Lunacy. Why is that so?

We signed a deal for “The Diarist” with the Russian label. So it will be released in Russia. But the biggest problem in Europe and not only in Europe is that you can with only one click download whatever you want, and the label gets not enough money to print or to releae other CDs. It’s a link, a terrible link!

Vicious circle!

Yeah, vicious circle, exactly! (laughs)

You write about Russia, about our histo

ry. Do you receive e-mails from your Russian fans? Many people might have got interested in your lyrics…

Every guy who writes to us says, “Thanks! Thanks, because my father died in Leningrad”. Many people come and embrace us, because they are thankful to us for our music, because their fathers or grandfather died there. It’s a magic.

You write about Russia, but this is your first time in our country. Why didn’t you come to our country earlier, maybe as a tourist?

Mike came two times to Russia as a tourist. It’s a strange thing. In summer when we have holidays we are always in the studio recording the album. But here in Russia I find many people who told us, “When you come to Russia, you’ll be our family!” So maybe

in summer I’ll come to Russia as a tourist.

What are your hobbies beside music? I think everyone should take a short break in order not to overload oneself with one occupation.

I’m lucky, because I live in the country. So I have many many things to do – I ride the bicycle, I play with my dog – I have four dogs! I play football with my friends at my own field. When I write songs and cannot get any good idea, I just stop, do something else, and then return, take the guitar and then maybe the song goes better.

Why did you decide to name your band Dark Lunacy?

Lunacy – because “lunacy” is a kind of madness. And this is as a rule – a dark side of a human being – that’s why lunacy is dark. Some kind of madness. Everyone has a dark lunacy.

To round up this talk – could you say a few words to your Russian fans?

For Dark Lunacy being in Russia is a dream which came true. We wanna say a big big THANKS to our Russian fans. We want to come back to play many many concerts in Russia.

Interview by Ksenia "Wolfin" Khorina
15 авг 2008 the End


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