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By: Andrew Rawlinson
A couple of months ago Italian goth/doom metal band Witches Of Doom released their album Obey, that was recently reviewed by Andrew Rawlinson for Ech(((o)))es and Dust. Andrew liked the album a lot, describing it as “plenty of great songs inspired by 90’s alt and goth rock as it turns out (and this is no bad thing when done right) that rattles through at a good pace with verve, character and energy.” Andrew asked singer Danilo “Groova” Piludu some questions about the band, the album and the Italian heavy music scene.
(((o))): So, according to your biography you formed fairly recently in 2013, how did the band originally meet?
Danilo: Federico (guitar), Jacopo (bass) and Andrea (drums) started to play together in the autumn of 2012. After a few months, in January 2013, I answered to a web advert where the guys were looking for a singer in order to complete the line-up of a stoner/doom band. With this line-up we worked on the songs of our first record. During the recording of Obey, Graziano (keyboards) joined the band, playing on two songs of the album, and since then he’s been a full-time member of the band.
(((o))): Have any of you been in bands prior to this?
Danilo: I played for many years with a crossover/nu-metal band called Chaos Workshop, Federico played in a well-known Italian doom band Ossimoro. Jacopo has a black metal background with Chtonian Nemeton, Andrea (even though he’s quite young) plays the drums in various projects, from a hip hop outfit (The Overside) to progressive rock and Graziano mostly has an 80’s electro-wave background (he released two CDs under the name of Eric Stardust, check it out on Spotify).
(((o))): Witches Of Doom is a great band name by the way, what made you choose this name and were you surprised no other band had already claimed it?
Danilo: It happened accidentally. I was trying to find some good lyrics for the song that later became ‘Witches Of Doom’. I was singing ad lib trying different melodies in that song. During the rehearsals, Federico told me to start from a chorus saying something like: “Ok, we start from…you’re one of witches of doom”, singing the theme, without any specific sense. I loved it and it was so inspirational for the song, and we immediately thought that it was a good name for the band too!
(((o))): Is there a strong goth/doom scene in Rome/Italy?
Danilo: In Rome there’s a niche of goth-stoner-doom bands there are quite good actually. The first names that spring to mind are Funeral Mantra, Helligators, Doomraiser. Even though the most popular band abroad are The ForeShadowing – they signed with Candlelight Records. There’s definitely an underground scene that has blossomed in recent years and that it’s worth watching.
(((o))): Your sound has very strong influences of Paradise Lost and Type O Negative amongst others, what is it about this style that appeals to you so much?
Danilo: We started playing in 2013, but (except for the drummer) we aren’t kids anymore, we are all around 40 years old so we just don’t feel to play music straight “in your face”. We love that kind of approach, and we also love to play hard and fast, but we already did it in our previous bands, therefore now we want to add some more colours to the “kickin’ ass” approach. Now we are more interested in how music could fit the lyrics. We just realized that “more intense” doesn’t always mean “louder”. Regarding the vocals, personally I couldn’t sing in any other way, I’ve always sung with that baritone tone. I love Type O Negative, they have inspired me since I started to listen to them 20 years ago but honestly…I couldn’t sing anything of Paradise Lost because I barely know them.
(((o))): Is there an underlying theme or concept running through your debut album Obey?
Danilo: Well, yes. I am the main lyricist and the word “obey” or the concept of it comes out in almost all the songs. Drug abuse, disenchantment, wrong relationships etc. It looks like we always need to “obey” to some kind of wrong message. If you respect yourself and try to escape from that, you are a “neurodifferent” or a weirdo. For the cover concept we’ve chosen an old photo of Gloria Swanson, a Hollywood movie star from the 20’s. Why Gloria Swanson? There’s a funny story about disenchantment: She became the partner of John Kennedy’s dad, creating a production company. He forced her to have a relationship, he bought her cars, jewels and expensive stuff but, when he had enough of her, he asked her the money back. That impressed me, so I wrote the ‘Obey’ lyrics.
(((o))): You have been mainly using the track ‘Needless Needle’ to promote yourselves, is this track the one you are most proud of to have created as a band / and also most representative of what you do?
Danilo: Our songs are like little babies to us, so like fathers we love all the kids the same. By the way ‘Needless Needle’ is the catchiest of the lot. We couldn’t have the same positive feedback if we would have used a 13 minutes long track like ‘Obey’.
(((o))): Do you have any immediate touring planned and what can we expect from a Witches Of Doom live show?
Danilo: Now we are touring around Italy. In January we have planned some gigs in Latvia. We are so excited to play there. Every gig is different from the previous one, we don’t like to play the same setlist by the way, we enjoy surprising the audience with funny and random covers sometimes, and live we’re rawer than on record. If you guys have some tips on how to play in the UK….we’re all ears…we’d love to play there!
(((o))): You’re given the opportunity to create your own festival. What would be the first five bands on your list?
Danilo: Each member of the band has his personal bill for sure. For me, I’ve got no doubts: Faith No More, Volbeat, Danzig, The 69 Eyes and Down. Too many to mention. The other guys instead would surely love to invite Paradise Lost, Black Sabbath, Porcupine Tree and Slayer. Ok I stop, as it would be a really expensive festival hahahaha! If we talk about other local bands then: Funeral Mantra, Acid Muffin, Made in Luna, Hate Seconds and Bloom.
(((o))): Are they any places you have yet to play that you really want to?
Danilo: Unfortunately we can’t play everyday: it’s not our primary job so we have to schedule the gigs accurately so that fit with our commitments, such as work and the families. We would really love to play in the UK, Germany, Scandinavia and Eastern Europe (including Russia), where the fans are always super cool to us!
(((o))): What are your goals for the next year?
Danilo: Touring around Europe and outside Europe as well, even though it is really difficult to plan this. We are writing new songs for the next album and it seems that formula won’t change. It will be our first album with the keyboards present during the writing process, and we are so excited about that because it will add more ingredients to our formula.
(((o))): Do you have anything else to add?
Danilo: Yes we’d like to invite all your readers to check our Facebook page in order to get info about us.
