Hail Eraldo! I’m glad that we have a chance to introduce Obake to our readers and what are main facts about the band that each of listeners must know?
We are an experimental metal band and we constantly research into new territories. It's very difficult to define what we do as we change every time we go on stage or in studio but I guess the above is probably the closest definition to our sound.
Obake is a quartet: Massimo Pupillo (bass), Eraldo Bernocchi (guitars) and Lorenzo Esposito Fornasari (voice / keyboards) are Italian as Balazs Pandi is from Hungary. Each of you have a great musical background as each member of Obake played in a damned huge number of bands and projects, but how did you meet together and decide to start cooperative work?
Me Massimo and Balasz get together at a festival two years ago and we really liked what was coming out so we decided to create a band. We played it another couple of festivals and then we went to Budapest to record the first album. while were recording we had this idea about adding vocals and Lorenzo which is a longtime collaborator of myself came into the picture and he sent us two tracks and those two tracks really opened and go to the new word that we really loved. He is an amazing singer and an opera singer which is very different from what you usually hear in metal. These explains why the vocals are so strange. Also the language he uses is a language he created. Massimo is no longer in the band, we replaced him with Jason Konhen aka Bong Ra. Jason is really perfect and his bass is massive plus he's a great producer so we have a fourth head helping out the band with everything.
So what are your songs about? Now I get why I couldn’t understand a word on the album, of course, it doesn’t hinder to feel some kind of esthetic pleasure listening your song but it’s just curiosity… So may you comment some of the songs?
This is question answered by Lorenzo: I love the peculiar ability of music to affect emotions without using a single word. Obake is basically a band made of bass, guitar, drums and voice mixed up together with the purpose to develop a specific and unique sound. Every nonsense word is just a tile as well as riffs, grooves and melodies. If you don't get a single word, if you don't really understand who's playing what...well, we're doing a good job then.
Eraldo, why did Massimo did leave Obake? He’s really strong bass player and his manner of playing is very cunning even for underground scene, so here’s another question – how does senior Bong Ra sound? And how soon will we hear him?
Massimo left because of personal choices and problems. This is a private matter I do not want to discuss. Jason/Bong Ra comes from a grind background and he has strong roots in doom and noise. Jason is the perfect bass player for Obake. We are currently working on the second album these days.
Obake is extravagant combination of genres and ideas, what was in the beginning? What kind of band’s shape and sound’s conception did you keep in mind doing your first steps together? Which musical style does prevail in your palette?
There's no planning in what we do, really. We didn't think about anything in particular, we just jammed together and choose the parts we liked most. We started as a improv power trio, that was the idea, things changed when Lorenzo came into the picture because he kind of structured things a little bit more. We still keep a good 30% of improvisation in everything we do. It's the real nature of Obake.And do you leave place for improvisations during live performances?Totally. All we do is coming from improvisation, we need to keep space for improvising.It makes live concerts much more interesting. I can't play the same thing every night, I need to invent and discover.
As I see Obake has only one self-titled album till now, it’s a complex and unusual work so I wonder how did you came to it’s realization? How much time and energy did you put into it?
3 days of recording sessions and a couple of months for editing and mixing. Not so much. It's a very instinctive album. I really think the best things are those that come out on the spot. Editing took a little bit more.What are your muses who did inspire you to compose that sophisticated and crude stuff?No muses, just what's live inside us. Obake music is very spontaneous.What kind of emotions do you put into your songs and what kind of emotions do you draw from playing it?It's a very difficult question as when we played and recorded them we just did it without thinking about anything. When I play them (I can only speak for me) it's really great as we change them every night. There's a good percentage of impro every time we play those songs so emotions are floating differently each time.
You released Obake self-titled album in 2011, and I see that you have some new songs to record and when do you plan to bring on your second full-length album?
We just finished recording the second album. This time with Jason on bass and we are really satisfied about the results. It's heavier than the first but at the very same time a lot more is happening there. We plan to release it in September 2013. We are currently working on it in the studio.
You did a deal with RareNoiseRecords to release first full-length, do you know and do you care how do CDs sells go? And do you plan to release second record via same label?
Yes, RareNoise is Obake label and the second album will come out for them. I still have to check figures regarding the sales but right now what is really important is that the band is fully supported by the label. Much more important than sales. If the label is supportive we can tour more and sell more. Simple.
Eraldo, you have a photo with a dog, it’s rottweiler – what is it name? And where did you get that guy? Was “Dog Star Ritual” dedicated to him?
That was Massimo's wife dog, Maria. The song is not dedicated to him but to Aleister Crowley. It simply happened that the dog was there when we did the photo sessions.
What did attract your attention to Crowley? It seems that he was a guy who was busy only with self-promotion as serious writers do not consider him as a proper occultist.
I'm not agreeing with the above. Crowley is one of my main references since 30 years, the self promotion side was just one side but the occult system he developed is one of the most powerful you can think. Its system and A.O. Spare one.
Thank you Eraldo for this interview, I guess there were told enough to raise an interest to Obake and it’s better to listen music then just keep talking about it. What are your final words for our readers today
As you said better listen to the music. Thanks a lot for your support!
Interview By Aleks
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