INTERVIEW: Matteo Digioia – Destrage

Destrage have two albums behind them, but number three should open up their crazy world to all of us. Metal never sounded as original, crazy and chaotic as this! Mark talks to Matteo Digioia from Milan’s Destrage about creating music and broadening the mind…Take a chance on something really different and enjoy!

Mark: Hi, it’s Mark from The Rockpit in Australia. The new album, which is actually the first one we have heard down here, “Are You Kidding Me? No” is amazing, absolutely blew us away!! We’ve not heard anything quite like it before; do you take pride in the fact that you sound so different?

Matteo: We are so happy with this job; we did this album one year ago, and usually when some time passes by you think oh, I could have done that differently, or I would’ve changed that, but no, we are definitely happy with this work. We gave basically everything we had to give.

Mark: You are a band that’s been around a while, you’ve had 2 albums out before, but I guess this is the one that’s going to get you additional attention.

Matteo: Yeah, I really hope so!! But, yes, we think this album is more accessible, despite its content which is kind of, I admit it’s kind of complicated, but it’s easier to listen to than the previous. So, probably it will get more attention from the public.

Mark: With a style such as yours, which is pretty hard to define, how do you describe the music you make?

Matteo: It’s really hard!! I don’t really know, I’m not quite sure that we play metal, that’s for sure! Actually we are searching for some kind of definition or description. We just do whatever we want, and the way it pleases us. We are very in to the popular music content that a song must stay straight forward; we always keep that in mind when we write a song, it must be catchy and fun, no matter what. A person once told me, no matter what you do, you must put some sex in your music, and I think it’s a good definition, if you love what you’re doing and you feel that instinct growing on you, I don’t know!!

Mark: I know that I like the music, but I don’t know what it is, it’s something new and fresh. I just kept listening and listening, and waiting to not like it, and it didn’t happen!! It’s a strange name for an album where does that come from?

Matteo: We have always been playing weird music, so we’ve been asking that question a lot! Are you kidding me? We always say, no, we’re serious! Of course what you hear is weird, but it’s a serious matter for us!

Mark: You have a really great reputation as a live band, for people like us in Australia, who won’t get to see you for a while, can you tell us a little bit about your stage show?

Matteo: Live performances really matter to us. We rehearse for a long time, and we break down the pieces into very small pieces, and we play them together at half time, and then we rise slowly, slowly just to stick together. We don’t rehearse very often, we just have periods where we say ok, we’ll take some time to prepare the light show, and then you rehearse a lot, and that’s different from a recording period, they are all separated. When we focus on rehearsing, we really do that, and nothing else, also because we want all this difficult fucking music to enter in to your muscles, so that you don’t have to think about it when you play live and you can just enjoy what you are doing. Enjoy the show and have fun, and be entertaining for the people who are watching you.

Mark: Do you have a diverse set of influences as a band?

Matteo: That’s for sure. There are some members of the band that are more into niches. Gabriel, our bass player, is so much in to Hard Core New York, and the nineties, and Ralph, the other guitarist is very in to Prog music. The other three of us have such wide influences, going through all genres, really, as there’s something beautiful in all genres, and we also listen to a lot of electronic music too.

Mark: So, how does a band like yours write, do you all bring ideas to the studio together, do you jam together? You said earlier you had set periods of time for certain things, is that the case with writing too?

Matteo: Yeah, that’s right; we have a period for that. You cannot really command your ideas, so as you live your regular life, you are coming up with ideas, so we generally record them and write them, whatever. So, then when we say let’s get together and write some stuff, we bring whatever we have come up with, and we start from that. So we get ideas, reconstruct them, we try to be together on that, but we find it interesting to work separately, sometimes not being together all the time, brings different ideas. We don’t really jam in the rehearsal room, because that’s too noisy, and for us too distracting, it’s more like a mind storm than a jam!

Mark: Do you set out with any particular themes before you get together?

Matteo: Yes, there is a main concept, when we write it is totally organised chaos, that’s what we like! But also, it all has to be, when it comes to the point of deciding whether a song makes it on to the album, we stay together and try to judge it from an external point of view, and then we try to decide if that is total madness, or if it can be entertaining for someone. So getting off your head and thinking out of your mind can be challenging, but I think if you don’t do that, doing music like ours, it will sound like a massive masturbation, and we don’t like that! When we were talking about putting sex in to music, I would think sex is much more fun than masturbation!!

Mark: It’s a good metaphor, it’s sort of the band and the audience coming together, it’s great. As a guitarist who are your influences?

Matteo: I’m not really into guitar music, but I am actually quite interested in the guitar as an instrument, and I have my idols like, Ron Thal Bumblefoot, who made a guest appearance on the album, and we also met the guy and he is super fun. I like guitarists that are pioneers, I get really annoyed when a guitarist is just showing off his ego, I hate that, I want some humour; I want it to be fun! I really like acoustic guitarists; I don’t know if you know CandyRat Records, they are a Canadian label, and they only do finger style, superfine music for guitar, it’s really good.

Mark: I just wanted to talk about some of the songs on the album, some of the ones we picked off there, were “Purania”, and is that how you pronounce it??

Matteo: You can pronounce it however you like! Maybe it’s Esperanto; it was an experiment in trying to make up a language that is spoken worldwide!!

Mark: I think the song is better than the language. There’s a bit of a punk vibe going on in that song, for me, and there’s a crazy vocal, with Metalcore growls, but also it has a pop like refrain, and then you get hit with a sing along section at the end! It’s one of the most addictive songs on the album, and one that I can’t stop playing, can you tell us a little bit about it?

Matteo: I think, actually, this is our favourite song on the album; it is the one that is more mature. When we made that, we were just trying not to compose a series of riffs, and then doing a puzzle, we often do it like that, we were trying to compose a song that is based on harmony, a progression of chords. We could ‘ve just composed it on a piano or acoustic guitar, just done as a proper song, but on the chords we just came up with a riff thing, so that’s how that song came to life. What I find interesting is that it is really diverse in its progression, and for some reason it does manage to stick together. It’s not too distracting, I don’t know why! It’s alchemic, there’s a shitload of different fillings in there! But it flows, and we work on that a lot, and the result was much better than we expected.

Mark: Yeah, it’s a great song.

Matteo: Have you seen the video?

Mark: Yes, I have, it’s a good video! One of the others we picked out was “My Green Neighbour” and also “G.O.D.” which has a spiky, funky guitar sort of vibe. I particularly liked “Waterpark Bachelorette” where did that come from???

Matteo: That came about because three of my friends (female) had been to a bachelor party at a waterpark, and I was surprised, is that a new trend? So, the lyrics just talk about a girl that is getting married, and she wants a bachelor party, and for some strange reason she is taken to a waterpark, and is not having the fun she expected!!

Mark: “Obedience” as well, is probably the craziest song on the album, what were you thinking when you put that one together?!

Matteo: The song originated from Federico, the drummer. All the song is structured around the number 7, and he came up with all this crazy mathematical material, and together we made a song out of it. In the middle of this song there is an electronic breakdown, and that was the theme that was written for the first album, so we just put it in to this song too.

Mark: I just have two generic questions to close with, which we ask everyone. It’s been great to speak to you; it’s an interesting album, and a very good interview. I f you could have been a fly on the wall for the recording of any great album, at any point in time, what would it be for you and why?

Matteo: That is a very difficult question! I have no idea, so many! Do you think I could think about that and let you know!! Every time someone asks me, what is your favourite movie or song, I just panic!
Mark: I think for me it’s more the reason behind it that’s interesting; I think it tells you something about the musician, and what attracts them to particular music. So, yeah, take some time! The last question is really easy, what is the meaning of life?

Matteo: Whoa!! I don’t know what the meaning of life is, but I know what the purpose is, I definitely think its pleasure!

Mark: Thank you for taking the time to talk to us, it’s a great album, and one everyone should hear. Take care.

Matteo: Thank you, Mark, and I really hope we can meet in Australia one day.