D.B.P.I.T.




I guess you have been asked this question many times before, but can you present your project to our readers who have never heard of D.B.P.I.T. before?

Before venturing into this detuned, alien world of mine, let me first thank you for your interest in it!
It's quite hard for me to introduce my own work, which anyway stems from the depth of my uneasy and seemingly shattered soul.
My "music" has been labelled in many a different way but the best one is probably not to put any label on it at all, just let it permeate the unwary listener's brains and do as much damage as it can... ;-))

Technically speaking, my main instrument is of course the trumpet, which is often sided by a flugelhorn and some more home-made or customised instruments, all of them heavily filtered and processed by fx machines or pc; I beg not to use samples, synthesised or pc-generated sounds at all...

When and how did you learn to play the trumpet? And, why did you choose this instrument?

Destiny chose it for me... meaning, ClauDedi and a bunch of friends gave it to me as a birthday present some 11 years ago... I felt obliged not to let them down, so I took up classes...

D.B.P.I.T. stands for Der Bekannte Post-Industrielle Trompeter (The Famous Post-Industrial Trumpeter). Now, what makes you so famous?

Your webzine, maybe?
Joking apart, the name in itself is kind of a joke; I took it from the definition the leader of Mushroom's Patience gave of me in an interview for a German mag... at the time, not only was I not famous, the project didn't exist at all!

Before you launched your now famous solo-project you collaborated with a myriad of cult acts. Could you list these 'celebrity' appearances and say a few words about your musical contribution to each one of them?

First band I ever played with is called "The Sentinels"; it's a 20-year-old project that lived through different ages and explored all possible music genres, from techno-pop to experimental to rock'n'roll... Sadly, they never released anything but a track for a compilation... But it was with Mushroom's Patience that I approached "industrial" music, thus deciding to try and start my personal project; I also played live with and provided trumpet samples for Novy Svet and play in the live acts of power-noise band "Macelleria Mobile di Mezzanotte"; I've also collaborated with other Roman industrial projects, namely "No Light for Tomorrow", "900Staube" etc... Hey, makes me think there's shortage of industrial trumpet players, so whenever they need one... ahahah!
Apart from music, I have a past as a poet, when the movement known as "disgustismo" (disgust for art, art of disgust) was alive, and in off-beat theatre, but that's dead now

Would you care to say more about this "disgustismo" movement? What was its goal and how did it try to attain them?

Sure, it was a very active movement that united many artist involved in several activities: even though poetry was definitely the main way of expression, we also did art exhibitions and some theatrical performance…Disgustismo owed a lot to dadaism and futurism but had its own manifesto that we pursued, as I said, the art of disgust-the disgust for art... Sadly, of the twenty-odd poets that used to gather in smoky (at the time, now it is forbidden) pubs at the time, only a handful are still active to date even though in different fields… the movement doesn't exist any longer, besides, people have changed, clubs have changed, taste - and distaste - have changed. Nobody seems to be interested in something unusual, something different any more, now they pop into pubs just to show their new cell phone and god forbid a poet reciting some nonsensical rhyme...!!

Let's talk about your last album 'The Outstanding Story of Mr. Mallory'. Now, who is this guy? Is he a friend of yours?

Yes and no... I mean, Mr. Mallory is no doubt a semi-autobiographical character... A common man who is so sensitive he barely survives this appalling world and never seems to find the right way to cope with life, to express himself, to find his soulmate.

Is 'The outstanding story of Mr Mallory' a true story?

As a metaphor, yes! Like, this unfortunate guy is hit by nuke waste (as in the comics of our childhood) but instead of becoming, say, a new Spiderman, ironically he grows 5 more right arms, loses his left one... but he used to be left-handed so his new power proves useless, like he was doomed to be made fun of by life... besides, he becomes oversensitive and feels totally uneasy until he forges his death in order to escape... maybe some day I'll really do it, so it'll become a true story !

I've heard tales of an international Mr. Mallory fan club that has come into existence since you released the record. Do you know any more about this mysterious organisation? Are you its leader?

No... and I wonder why I never get the royalties... ;-)))

How did you compose such outworldly music? Did you use a lot of samples?

It took me a lot of time (over a year), a lot of help from Cristiano (of Lendormin) and, yes, many friends gave me samples to use in that work; now it's virtually impossible to recall all the steps we went through, but we recorded hours and hours of music before we reached the final mixdown; I'm quite happy with the result, anyway!

This album was done in collaboration with Lendormin. Can you say a few words about this mysterious formation?

They are a duo of improvisers from Roma; Marco plays the guitar and Cristiano electronic stuff... Now they are completing their first full-length album, in collaboration with D.B.P.I.T. and some more artists... it's also going to be a concept: the Romero's zombie trilogy! (well, now the fourth movie has been released, but we couldn't know at the time...)

Your next record, will be an unplugged industrial album. I've never heard of acoustic industrial music before, can you develop this concept?

It's in fact a new challenge! Misty Circles wants to start a new "line" of unplugged industrial music, beginning with my cd...
The rules were quite simple but hard to abide, considering I'm an "industrial", not a neofolk, musician: no electronics, no effects, no sampling, nothing at all but editing and overlaying... it was hard to accomplish but great fun!

What 'unplugged' devices have you used to create the music?

Mainly trumpet and similar instruments, of course, then field recording, household items, paper, plastic, drums, scissors, virtually whatever I came across...

For this revolutionary concept album you invited a host of more or less famous musicians. How did you get all these people involved and how did you get them to work together in the studio?

In general I love contributions by other artist and I guess this particular record really could do with instruments I absolutely can't play, so I asked friends for parts of harp, guitar, drums etc... and above them all there are the out-of-this-world vocals of my friend Anna Consuelo, who really did a great job, also considering she was not used to singing on tracks totally lacking structure...
She and Fabio (who also sang and played mouth organ) are the only ones who actually came to the studio, the others just sent in their parts to edit... why they all agreed to participate I don't know, guess it's only for art's sake!

What does the acronym S.U.T.U.B. stand for?

As you'll read on its cover, S.U.T.U.B. is: Special Unplugged Transonic Urban Bondage
I made up the acronym from a "code-word", a slang that actually means a natural sound so I thought it was the right title for an unplugged album!
I fear the word "transonic" doesn't really exist in English but I think of it as a neologism that conveys the shape shifting of sounds one into another, transforming like molten lava, melting together like quicksilver...

You seem to have quite an obsession with Alien Cats and UFO's, have you ever been abducted by aliens?

Not yet, but I live in hope!!!
I'm pretty sure the aliens exist and have reached the earth in bygone times so why shouldn't they come back?
If they should ever abduct me I'd be glad to go... would be kind of them to let me take my cats, cd player and maybe a very little bunch of trustworthy humans... don't think they could use my body for research, though: it's rotting, already ;-)

What are your plans for the future?

Musically speaking, I have three more records ready to be released: one in the USA, one in Belgium, one in Germany... the masters have long since handed in, now it's up to the labels to do their part...
Then I'm currently working at another concept-album, with international collaborations but in totally different way: artists provided tracks or loops inspired by the theme I gave them, and I will add my trumpet and own touch... yet a new experiment!
My plans apart from music are to be abducted, it goes without saying! And thus send my music into outer space so that the whole universe will get the message... whatever it is!

Could you say a bit more about the three already recorded works? Who will be releasing them and on what formats?

Ok, apart from sutub, I'm expecting the German label "white rabbit", who have already released a split-7", to issue a split 12" (or maybe cd?) with the German band FTBDP (almost my same letters, names impossible to pronounce!); then the American noise label "chondritc sounds" is about (hopefully…) to release a 20 mins, 3" cd; the guy told me my stuff is not exactly in his line but he liked it so much he can't help releasing it… flattering if he keeps his word... then there is the Belgian "audiobot" who have the master of my aliendarkambient cd "it never rains..."... I do hope I'll live to see all these works released, if you see what I mean...

You mentioned a new concept-album in the making, can reveal more about its theme? If it is not too early, could you unveil the names of some of the participating artists?

With pleasure: it is going to be a collection of tracks that will all bear the same title, a sentence from the "Faust" from Goethe... I asked many artist over the world to produce a track, a song, a loop, whatever, according to their own style, that I could manipulate and add my sounds to, so as to create a sort of musical communion to celebrate the birth - and the death - of something important; this work is very promising and an Italian label is interested in releasing it. Among the many participants, there are Foresta di Ferro, ClauDEDI, C.O.Caspar, Novy Svet and Ô Paradis to name but a few...

From what I've been told, DBPIT is quite an experience on stage. What can the audience expect from your live performances?

Nothing: the less you expect, the most you appreciate... or the less disappointed you get!

Is the experience you gained doing improvised theatre helpful to you on stage and does it influence the way you plan your performances?

In a way, yes... like, being able to improvise often helps facing the unexpected!

Is there any chance of seeing D.B.P.I.T. in action outside of Italy one day?

I really hope so... I recently had a proposal from Germany but it's too early to make plans...

Judging by you release schedule, you seem to be as busy as a bee. Do you ever find the time to chill out? What are your interests besides music?

Let's say music - made and listened to - is what keeps me alive... I also love movies, unconventional movies, of course - Hollywood, give me a break please!
I like archaeology and mysteries, which often are very strongly linked to each other...
But, unfortunately, due to my job and to the fact I live alone - with my cats - I can count on very little free time to read and do things, including pursuing the quest for my soulmate, who of course can't exist...

Although this zine is only available in cyber space, do you have a last message for its readers? Whatever it may be...

Ah, this is going to be the most difficult question by far... I could say some deep words like "keep the independent spirit alive" or something very practical, like "don't forget to buy my records!" but I guess I'll go for a simple "thank you audience"... and thank YOU for letting my alien spirit talk!




Ian C.
Summer 2005

Alien website : www.derbekannte.com