Interview by HERR MORBID

 

Well, we can start with the unavoidable question: tell us about the band, from the demo times to the new release, “Quietus”... In particular can you talk about the beginning of EVOKEN? Your sound always been so Doom-oriented?
Originally, the band was under the moniker of Funereus then to Asmodeus. This consisted of Nick Orlando, our old bass player Rob and guitar player Phil. They went through a fair share of drummers until one day Nick had approached me about helping them out since my death metal band, Body of Christ, was basicaly going nowhere. So I joined, Rob and Phil left with only Nick and myself to carry on the band. We put out several ads for band members in a newspaper of sorts called The Aquarian. We went through a few guitarists' some great, some horrible but finally, in 1994, we picked up our current Vocalist/Guitarist John Paradiso, soon after our old Bass player Bill Manley joined Evoken. After the first MCD,'Shades of Night Descending', Bill recruited our current keyboardist; Dario Derna. Bill Manley left and along came our current Bass player Steve Moran. The rest is boring history but, this line-up has been together for many years now and I really can't see Evoken being Evoken without these members. They are my friends/brothers/band members. All of which I cannot see losing. Doom for us has always been a natural choice. Our heart and souls are into this thing, I can't imagine playing any other style. It's funny to see some reviews of our albums saying had we been around 10 years ago, we would have been some force to deal with. Well, we were around but, we just weren't prepaired enough to release an album. If you go back to when this all started you would see that Evoken was a functioning band in 1991. What befuddels me are some reviewers hinting at the fact that we are inspired and sound similar to Disembowelment and Winter. They say this like it's a bad thing. I guess if you aren't a band that changes your style and mimicks Cradle of Filth, then you shall receive no slack huh? Laugh Out Load Pitiful...

The artwork of “Quietus” is a bit strange, do you consider the artwork as something fundamental for EVOKEN? Are you satisfied with the “Quietus” artwork?
The artwork you see throughout the layout of 'Quietus' was a concept created by Stephen O'Malley. I'm sure some of your readers will recognize the name. All the images you see where actually photos taken by Dario when he was visiting family in Italy. We (the band) took a drive over to Brooklyn where Stephen lives, gave him the photos and an idea of what we were looking for. A few weeks later boom, we had the beginnings of what would be the finished product. Granted it took a few alterations in which we compensated Stephen for his hard work. I would say we are VERY satisfied with the artwork. If you sit down and really concentrate on the layout, you will find different things you never noticed previously. It also portrays something of an older atmosphere. Something we really wanted to bring forth on this release. An old, haunting, ominous, and dark album.

Your music is really untrendy, deeply obscure and totally far from every melodic contamination. What do you think about all those bands that use to call themselves “Doom-Gothic” as an excuse to fill their sound with tedious female-voices, romantic melodies and all those things for childish listeners? For me “Doom” is something totally different...
Dammit!!! I hate bands that use that description to try and form another genre. There are no "Doom" elements in those bands whatsoever. In fact, for a period of 4-5 years, the general metal audience started to believe that doom metal consisted of weak,whining, fucking hanky in the pocket, weenie tucking so called doom bands. It disgusted me to hear and see such things. Female vocals can have it's place in doom if done correctly. I remember hearing the albums 'Lost Paradise' and 'Gothic' from Paradise Lost. Out of nowhere came the female vocals which absolutely floored me. YES!!!! I thought, that is the way female vocals should be incorporated into such bleak songs. Now, every band under the sun seems to throw in female vocals which to me sounds like someone is stringing up a cat. Since when does romance have it's place in doom?? In my opinion, doom should be heavy (of course), ominous, dark, somber and hopeless in it's approach. But finally it seems that doom, in it's true sense, is starting to sharpen it's claws once more, showing the metal world that the word "gothic" should be left for some ass wrangler in fishnets sleeping in matchbox coffins and drinking red kool-aid.

I noticed that in “Quietus” there’ s a wider use of keyboards and synths, which are played by Dario Derna, an italian guy. In which manner did you get in touch with Dario, did he move from Italy to USA long time ago? Do you know if he played in other bands before EVOKEN?
Keyboards have always been an important aspect of our compositons. On the first MCD, John did all the keyboards which were used rather sparingly. We put out a fair amount of ads in hope of finding a keyboard player but, we kept coming up short. Dario we met shortly after the release of "Shades of Night Descending". He relocated to New Jersey from Seattle and was in contact with a friend of mine. He brought Dario to a small party I was at and we just clicked. Dario has been all over the world and is a full blown Italiano but was born in Argentina. He has relatives in Italy that he visits almost yearly. He was in a brutal Death Metal band in Seattle called Infester. If anyone ever sees it, pick it up,it's fucking sick!!!!

You are the drummer in the band. Doom Metal is usually characterised by a really slow and semplicistic drumming. Don’ t you ever find boring to play this way? Don’ t you feel the need to face yourself with a more technical style of playing? Are you involved in some side-project?
Actually, I never get bored of playing this music. I become so enveloped in the music, I almost put myself in a trance not realizing it. Occasionally we do screw around and play fast stuff at practice but that's as far as it goes really. At this time between my girlfriend Stacey, my job and Evoken I don't have much time to play in any side projects.

You wrote almost all the lyrics for the new album. Is there a particular mood in which you must be to write a lyric? All the lyrics are really depressive and desolated... Do you consider yourself as a depressed or cynic person? May the events of everyday life influence your way of writing?
I really don't need to be in a particular mood to write lyrics. They come about usually out of nowhere, just sitting there thinking of different things. I do go through some rough times in my personal life but, I wouldn't consider myself a depressed person. My lyrics mainly deal with fantasy rather than reality. With the stress of everyday life, who needs to listen to music and think of real life problems. I always listen to music to escape from stress which is why I write Evoken's lyrics the way I do.

Reading some of your lyrics, and generally most of the depressive bands’ lyrics, it’ s unavoidable to think at suicide-related feelings. What do you think about suicide? And are you a self-destructive person?
No, not at all. In fact I think it's the exact opposite. I guess it can be construde as suicide music. I never heard or read of anyone killing themselves to a doom metal band. It's usually a song that's more upbeat...hahahah. Self-Destructive??? Nah, I'm a pretty stable fellow.

“Embrace the emptiness” is the title of one new song and of your previous album. But what is for you the real “emptiness”? Personally I think to “emptiness” as a symbol of total end of earthly life, or as a way to express an inner void, a sort of apathy and escape from human stupidity, towards oblivion...
It's really whatever the listener wants it to be. I try not to let my personal views on any of our songs interfere with what a person may interpret a song or song title to be. I'll just leave it at that.

“Curse the sunrise” was the title of a fantastic song present in your previous album. For me the lyrics of that song were really interesting... “I cannot fathom their pathetic, meaningless lives”... Have you ever dreamt of exterminating all the weak human kind? Living in a world like this, in which way do you find the strenght to wake up every morning? People distress themselves everyday for shallow and useless material things, they’ re all going towards their own soul-apocalypse but they can’ t realize this...
Those lyrics were written by Nick sometime ago and you would really need to ask him anything on that song. For myself, I think about just wiping the earth clean of humans everyday. They have raped the earth of any dignity whatsoever. It's amazing how many idiots there are in the world today. An individual will spend hundreds of dollars on their hair alone but, when it comes to doing things productive, they fail miserably. I fucking hate people!!! They are wretched scum who will smile in your face one moment then stab you in the back the next. Somtime I wish I was just toilet paper, your life is basically the same concept. People will wipe their ass with you then toss you away and leave you to disintegrate.

Do you believe in an afterlife? Do you fear Death? Recently I’ ve been victim of a tremendous car crash, a real near-death experience. Do you believe that after a similar experience a person could have a different approach to everyday life? Have you ever been involved in something similar?
Wow, did you see a tunnel of light?? Or perhaps a brown haired hippy guy?? Sorry to hear that, I hope things are going well for you. The afterlife for me is nothing but a fade out of what's left of yourself. I believe in the theory of humans are made up of electricity, it's what makes us move by sending electrical signals from the brain to the spine. Once we die, I believe that what's left of our electricity disperses, to the things around us, then that's it. Why should we believe in the afterlife or any religion? People claim to see a tunnel of light when they die, or float over their body. I think I heard that studies were done that showed a chemical in our brain that is released when we are close to death. Keyword here is close. It's some sort of chemical that when released gives off a feeling of pleasure. These people are seeing lights because they are still alive. The only tunnel of light they should see is a Brooklyn bound train that's ready to scatter their brian like ground round meat. What assholes!!!

The monicker “EVOKEN” expresses a lot of meanings. But for you what is the effective meaning? What are the feelings you want to “evoke” with your music?
Well, like I said I try to keep Evoken to myself as to what it means. I don't want to interfere with what a fan might feel or express when they see or hear EVOKEN. Besides, who wants to hear what my boring ideas are...hahahaha . I just look at our music as an outlet for me, an escape.

 

Who are the EVOKEN guys in everyday life? Are you solitary people or do you like a classic “metal-lifestyle” (beer, women, parties) ? I know some people that are really contradictory, because they want to appear obscure and “misanthropic”, but it’ s only a pose...
EVOKEN members have basically the same lives as everyone else except for a few subtle differences. We all work to support ourselves. We would love to make a living just doing EVOKEN but, this day and age it would never keep a roof over our heads. I would say we enjoy going out and getting shit faced while keeping to ourselves at the same time. We all have girlfriends and wives so for me to comment on the second of the big three would surely cause some eruption..hahaha. I can tell you we enjoy porn like a fat slut likes to wear mini-skirts. Now that we are older going out isn't as much an activity as it used to be. Don't get me wrong, we can still keep up with the best of em but, we tend to get drunk a little quieter now.

America seems to be the wrong place to play a music like yours. Usually all the depressive and obscure bands come from Northern Europe, from the coldest and most desolated places. Through the chaotic and frantic lifestyle of USA, in which manner do you find the inspiration and the silence to create a music so dark and contemplative?
In our very own minds. We live in such a congested sesspool that you have to travel almost three hours to find solace. We have gone to these places to find some inspiration but, most of the times we write our music by accident. We will just sit around practice drinking absinthe and all of a sudden, we have ourselves either a full song or the beginnings of one. Also, you are 100% right about this genre of music not exactly topping the charts in the USA. The U.S does have a legion of dedicated fans of doom that seem to be the strongest in their belief. If you attack any doom fan on their interests in the doom genre, they become like wild dogs attacking back with such vengence. It's fucking great!!!

I know you took part in a Black Sabbath tribute album for Dwell Records, so I was wondering if you feel influenced by all those old hystorical Doom bands such as Saint Vitus, Pentagram, Obsessed... And what do you think about classic Death Metal?
Ah yes!!! We do find inspiration by most elder doom bands and death metal bands for that matter. How can one deny the influences of a band like Black Sabbath in music today. It's the foundation for such dark music. When we were asked by Dwell Records to contribute to the second tribute to Sabbath, it was an easy decision for us. How many people can walk into a Black Sabbath concert, or any concert for that matter, and say to somone that their band was included on a Black Sabbath tribute album. Fucking classic!!! What I find very cool is now that we are starting to expand the name EVOKEN beyond just a small following, we are getting the chance to meet our inspirations, either by correspondance via e-mail or in person. Just the other day(May 20th 2001) we played a gig with Spirit Caravan and the legendary Wino. He was cool as fuck and found EVOKEN to be quite interesting. From what I hear, he's a hard fellow to impress too. We also love classic Death Metal. We find it way more interesting then the newer Death metal that is coming out. It seems that bands are more concerned with how fast they play rather than how brutal. That's what was so special about the older Death Metal bands. They schooled in brutality.

I also know you took part in an Iron Maiden tribute... In my opinion they are so far from your style... Do you consider Iron Maiden as an important background? Tell also your musical likes... Are you exclusively into Metal or do you like other kinds of music?
Oh, we love Iron Maiden. They are one of my personal favorites. To hear an album like "Powerslave" or "Somewhere in Time" is special to me. They are just as important to the metal scene as any other clasic metal band. We all enjoy a wide range of music. If we only took to one genre of music, we would be as boring as a nun in a frat party. Some favorties of mine would be Portishead,Dead Can Dance,Lycia,Lustmord,U2 etc... Those bands I know the others like as well. We can listen to a Carnivore album,then to Carcass then onto Black Tape for a Blue Girl and wind up with Bjork in one sitting. We, to use the trendy term, don't like to limit ourselves. Shit, I hate using that term.

In which way did you get in touch with Avantgarde Music? On three albums you changed three labels, is there a particular reason for this? Are you satisfied with the way Avantgarde is working for EVOKEN?
We used to joke around years ago that we are a cursed band. That whenever we sign with a label they go under or fall back drastically. I guess the saying "What ever we touch turns the shit" would be the right way to put it. Us signing to three different labels is a case of bad karma. Adipocere, our first label, was everywhere before we signed with them. Ads everywhere and the underground scene was teeming with reviews of their bands. We signed with them, it was like they hit a brick wall. Ads became far and very few between, they moved offices three times etc etc... We would call them numerous times and receive no response. They took their time in sending us the amount of money we agreed on in our contract to license the release(we had actually released the MCd oursleves before hand). We would also say they owed us royalties which at the time we had no real experience in the music business and thought we had some coming to us. I will admit, we were wrong in that aspect but, everything else that was handled by Adipocere was handled unprofessionally. Elegy we had no problems with. They gave us the chance to release an album at a time when label after label would reject us. He advanced us such a large amount of money to record with when they were just a small label and we were still wet behind the ears musically. It's just we had to do what was best for EVOKEN. We realized that if we wanted things to start happening with EVOKEN we would need larger promotion, it's as simple as that. Avantgarde has treated us very well and we couldn't be happier. They support us 100% and we still have another album to record for them. Hopefully, we can renew another contract and keep this thing going.

Are there possibilities of an EVOKEN tour? Will we see EVOKEN here in Italy?
We actually have discussed this and were slated to come over in June but, that fell through. It’s looking more and more likely a U.S tour will be happening first in the fall. Our dream is to come and play Europe in fact, we would prefer doing that then any USA tour. We will work on coming over soon and when we do, you better tie the shoelaces on boot shaped Italy....hehehehe

Ok, this is the end, thanx for your kindness, but a last question remains: before the unavoidable departure from earthly life, what is your biggest desire?
To have sex with 5 women at once while they play hail to the chief. Oh these women can't nor shouldn't speak a lick of english. Thanks for the interview, this one was fun and allowed me to blow off some steam. Look out for EVOKEN to be stinking up your area soon and go buy the damn album already. Stop reading just the reviews.