Locked into a solid 70’s groove with healthy doses of jazz,
80’s metal, blues and prog, Doctor Cyclops add just enough of their own
contemporary flavor to the vintage sound to build an unholy beast all their
own.  Deranged Sabbath worship, gnarly
distorted guitars croaking and belching above swirling muted synth and organ
sections, floating in the ether between the thundering of the bass and rattle
of the machine gun precision drums, Doctor Cyclops are capable of meating out
masterful doses of equal parts jazz, funk and metal all at the same time, tunes
turning on themselves like cannibalistic snakes devouring their own tales.  There’s a proud, majestic rabble to the music
all their own, a self-confidence and intelligence that can’t be learned or
taught, that has to be innate and intuitive. 
While there might be a lot going on in the music as far as influences
go, the band is a single-minded unit, operating in tandem through seamless
genre changes, breaks, tempo changes and seemingly effortless pitfall stops.  Joining forces with the world-famous World In
Sound Records Doctor Cyclops has released two full-length nuggets of amazing on
the world in the form of 2012’s Borgofondo and 2014’s Oscuropasso, the latter
being one of the coolest albums I’ve heard in a good while simultaneously
summoning equal parts Black Sabbath, Judas Priest and Dust.  With so many people obsessed with sounding
like they just fell out of 1969 it’s refreshing to hear a band that truly takes
whatever they want from the bountiful musical heritage that we’ve collectively
inherited and move on, make something interesting, unique and completely their
own.  Doctor Cyclops sounds free.  Free from classification, free from genres
and labels, free to do what they do best, make good music.  Time will tell where the band’s headed from
here but after the release of their latest album, the aforementioned
Occuropasso, singer, guitarist and founding member Christian Draghi took time
out after a bought of recent tours and frenzied promotion of the album to walk
us through what’s happened thus far and what he’d like to see happen for Doctor
Cyclops in future.  There’s not a lot
left to say other than, dig in and enjoy!

Listen
while you read: http://doctorcyclops.bandcamp.com/

What is Doctor
Cyclops’ lineup right now?  I know you
all have been around for a few years, is this the original lineup or have there
been any changes since Doctor Cyclops started?

It’s
currently me on vocal and guitar, Francesco Filippini on bass and Alessandro
Dallera on drums.  Francesco and I are
former members, and we never changed ourselves! 
Alessandro joined in 2010, before we had a couple of different drummers.

Are any of you in
any other bands at this point?  I love
playing musical connect the dots and trying to figure out what other bands
people are in; on the other hand, nothing beats a little cheating from time to
time ha-ha!  Have any of you released any
music with anyone else in the past and if so, can you tell us a little bit
about that?

I played
here and there, joined different projects, but nothing serious.  I played in a Beatle’s cover band and a Pearl
Jam tribute…  But that’s over now.  I’d like to put together a band and play just
the covers from the heavy rock bands I love like Cream, Dust, Firebird, Captain
Beyond and so on…  It’s just an idea, but
it would be cool to do it even just to relax and have fun.

Where are you
originally from?

My family
comes from Bosmenso, a little village in the middle of the Appennino Mountain
in northern Italy.  I currently live in
Voghera, a small town nearby, about 50 kilometers south of Milan.  Francesco is from Varzi, near Bosmenso, and
Alessandro’s from a town called Sannazzaro De’Burgondi.

© Luca Chinaglia

What was the local
music scene like there when you were growing up?  Did you see a lot of shows or do feel like
the local scene played an important part in shaping your musical tastes or the
way you play today?

Not
really.  I developed my tastes all alone
in my room, I’d say…  Nobody was really
playing the kind of music I’m playing now when I was a kid.  I remember there were lots of punk rock
Ramones-inspired, or heavy metal bands at times, but no seventies stuff.  And moreover, we come from a little town, so
there was no big scene there.

What about your
home?  Was it very musical when you were
younger?  Were either your parents or any
of your relatives extremely involved and or interested in music?

My
father’s a professional musician, and he was a rocker in the seventies…  My grandparents always loved traditional folk
music, so you could say my family transmitted this passion to me.  It’s been in my DNA since my birth.

What was your
first real exposure to music?

I guess
when I was a child, listening to the signature songs of cartoons…

If you had to pick
a single defining moment of music in your life, a moment that changed
everything and opened your eyes to the infinite possibilities of music, what
would it be?

I’d say it
happened in Travo, a little town near Piacenza, in 2005.  There was a summer open air festival, and I
saw Firebird, Bell Steer’s blues driven project (RIP) there.  It was like seeing the light.  We were thinking about starting the band at
that time, and seeing those three guys, the lineup was Bill Steer on guitars
and vocals, Al Steer on bass and Ludwig Witt on drum set that point, convinced
us to play as a trio.  I just said, “I
want to be like that guy”, because they were playing great music but they also
made it look like it was pretty simple, natural.  I didn’t even know that Bill was a death
metal hero at the time.

When and why did
you decide that you wanted to start writing and performing your own music?

Personally,
I started writing songs with a school mate at the age of sixteen or seventeen,
but it was completely different music, more like pop rock or something like
that.  With Doctor Cyclops, actually it
was just me and Francesco taping stuff in a home made studio.  That was around 2002, I guess.  But even in that case, it was really
different music.  Melodic stuff in the
beginning and then some grunge-influenced rock, especially in the Screaming
Trees style, you know, Mark Lanegan’s first band.  We wrote the earliest Doctor Cyclops stuff in
2006, I guess.  We became a trio in 2007.

What was your
first instrument?  When and how did you
get that?

Four years
old, maybe five…  My dad bought me a
little drum kit because I liked to beat things hard with sticks or knifes, or
forks.  It worked for a while, until my
tastes changed.  When I was twelve I
started singing just for fun and at 15 I started playing guitar.

When and how did
you all originally meet?

Francesco
and I have known each other since we were children.  We grew up in the same village, Bosmenso,
where our parents were from, so it’s been a long time.  With Alessandro we met in 2010.  Francesco brought him into the band.  We were looking for a steady drummer after
the first one left, and we looked in the local music school, just asking for
references of guys who were taking lessons. 
I remember that the first time we met was at a rock pub in my hometown.  I was jamming with other guys and Ale came in
with Francesco.  I remember that Fra
said, “He’s Alessandro, he plays drums”. 
And I said, “Ah, ok.  Hello”.  And I went back on stage jamming, ignoring
him, I guess!  Just a few months ago he
confessed me that I really pissed him off that night, as he found me really
unpleasant.  I said, “It’s ok mate, you
know, I thought you were a jerk!”  Now
we’re like brothers!

What led to the
formation of Doctor Cyclops and when was that?

As I told
you before, Francesco and I started writing music together more than ten years
ago, just for fun, without any serious goal. 
We changed our tastes quite frequently in the beginning, the good thing
is that we were completing each other, and even the first song we wrote was
interesting; at least for us!  We had fun
writing songs and recording them at my house, just the two of us in my father’s
home-recording studio.  The Doctor
Cyclops project took shape around 2005 or 2006 I guess, even if in the
beginning it was a completely different thing and more grunge rock orientated;
until Cathedral and Firebird!

I love the name it
has a real old school psychedelic feeling to it but for the life of me I can’t
really place it, it feels like I’m missing an inside joke or something.  What does the name Doctor Cyclops mean or
refer to?  Who came up with it and how
did you go about choosing it?

The band
name came about through a phone conversation between me and Francesco.  We were discussing some possible names and
agreed that Cyclops was perfect.  It had
a good rolling sound, and an evocative meaning, as the mythological figure of a
Cyclops brings to mind loneliness, majesty and freakishness.  At the time Francesco was getting his degree,
so we simply thought that the Cyclops could be a doctor.  It came like a joke.  Then we Googled it and found out about the 40’s movie, which was a freaky one, to say the least!  A perfect coincidence…  More like a sign, I guess!

Is there any
shared creed, code, ideal or mantra that the band shares or lives by?

As far as
I know there’s not, except for playing good music and doing it well!

Where is Doctor
Cyclops located these days? 

Hometowns…  Voghera, Bosmenso,
Sannazzaro.

Are you all very
involved in the local music scene where you’re at?  Do you book or attend a lot of local shows?

The local
scene’s pretty non-existent at the moment. 
There are lots of friends and local supporter who comes to our concerts,
but it’s not a real scene in the true sense of the word.  We come from a small town.  Most of the people who play do it in cover
bands and stuff like that.  I started One
Eyed Promotions, my own sort of booking agency, a few months ago, to try and
help other bands out.  I’d like to do as
many underground concerts as possible, but the audience’s response isn’t always
positive all the time…  I mean, lots of
bands play in our area, from Firebird to The Grand Astoria, Samavayo, Simeon
Soul Charger, Zippo, The Black Explosion’s playing in a few days, but it’s
always a gamble if people will come or not. 
The underground scene’s too weak here.

Do you help to
record and or release any local music? 
If so, can you talk briefly about that?

Record and
release?  No, that would be too big of an
effort right now to commit to such a thing.

Do you feel like
the local music scene where you’re at these days has played a large or
important role in the history and evolution of Doctor Cyclops or in the way
that you all sound?  Or do you think you
all could be doing what you’re doing and sound like you do regardless of your
location, setting and surroundings?

As I told
you, we have almost no connection with our local “scene”, if there is any.  I guess actually we’re the only heavy
seventies band in our area, so…  We come
from a little village where typically music is made with an accordion and
piffero, I don’t know what you call it – maybe a penny-whistle?  They’ve never seen a Gibson guitar there I
bet!  And also the city of Voghera and
the surrounding areas are kinda dead at the moment, even if there are lots of
guys playing.  My project with One Eyed
Promotions would be changing this attitude and helping out connections, but
it’s hard to deal with people’s mindset you know.  Maybe there are lots of bands, but on
Friday/Saturday night they prefer to go out with their girlfriends to the
trendy places, or are with friends who don’t wanna spend the night listening to
a concert, lord knows.  It’s a basic
cultural problem.

I feel like I’m
selling a band short when I’ve got a forum like this and don’t allow them a
chance to describe their sound in their own words.  How would you describe Doctor Cyclops’ sound
to our readers who might not have heard you before?

Rough and
rotten…  High volume, tubes screaming and
really heavy bass with a drum beating like hell.

While we’re
talking so music about the background and history of the band, who would you
cite as your major musical influences?  I
can hear a lot of different stuff kicking around in Doctor Cyclops’ music.  What about influences on the band as a whole
rather than just individually?

Black
Sabbath would be the most obvious thing to say, but seventies underground bands
such as Sir Lord Baltimore, Dust, Captain Beyond, Truth and Janey, and early
eighties ones like Pentagram and Witchfinder General, played a major role.  We also listen to lots of vintage orientated
modern bands.  We owe a lot to people
such as Cathedral, Witchcraft, early Spiritual Beggars, Firebird, and Blood
Ceremony…  Personally I’m a big Beatles
fan and the more blues-orientated guy in the band.  I like classics like Cream, BBA, Blue Oyster
Cult, Mountain, Johnny Winter’s style and less classic stuff like Graveyard,
Aardvark, Blue Cheer, Leaf Hound and tons of other bands I’m certainly
forgetting about right now.

Can you talk a
little bit about the songwriting process with Doctor Cyclops?  Is there someone who usually comes to the
band with a riff or even more finished idea for a song and works it out with
the rest of you, or is there a lot of jamming and free exchange of information
amongst you all when you get together to play that you distill into a song from
there?

Most of
the stuff comes from riffs or pieces of songs composed by me or Francesco.  Usually, when we have an idea we bring it to
the rehearsal room and develop it together. 
It’s rare that just one of us come up with an entire song by
himself.  We put the riffs together,
Alessandro drums on them heavily and we keep working on it until we’re
satisfied.  The lyrics come after the
instrumental part most of the time.  We
have different sources too.  I’m the one
with a melodic and bluesy seventies taste, Francesco’s more into the heavier
parts, doom, prog, metal style, and Alessandro plays the drum in a seventies
way but with a little of an 80’s taste… 
Put it together and that’s it!

Francesco:  Well, it’s
rare that a song’s born in the rehearsal room. 
One of us usually brings an idea in, a riff, or a song structure.  Then we develop it together, as without the
alchemy of all our parts it would end up only musically speaking one way, and
be boring.

Alessandro:  We have
different tastes, but we found our balance. 
We’re like a pyramid, you know?

Do you all enjoy
recording?  As a musician myself I think
that most of us can appreciate the end result. 
Holding an album in your hands knowing it’s yours is an amazing thing
and really hard to beat.  Getting to that
point however, getting stuff recorded and sounding just the way you want,
especially as a band, can be like pulling teeth.  What’s it like recording for Doctor Cyclops?

I get what
you mean.  Personally, I enjoy recording
in a studio, where a guy’s in charge of the technical stuff and I just have to
play.  Getting to the final result is
always a long and winding road you know, and it’s difficult to reach the goal
you had in the beginning.  Sometimes, songs
seem to have their own life and they choose a direction by themselves, like
children in a way, and you have to follow them and take care of them till they
are ready to walk on their own feet…

Do you all utilize
studio space when you record or take a more DIY approach to it where you handle
things on your own time and turf with your own, or maybe borrowed/rented,
equipment?

We made
our first demo EP, The Doctor Cyclops, by ourselves.  Then we decided to go to a studio for
Borgofondo and Oscuropasso; less complications and a better result.  We’ll see in the future, it’ll depend on how
much money we have to invest.

Is there a lot of
preparation and time involved in preparation for a recording session for Doctor
Cyclops where you all work every little part out and get it sounding just the
way you want it?  Or do you all head into
the studio with an idea of a song and give it a little bit of room to breathe
and very during the recording process?

I’d like
to tell you that our recording process is natural, and that we just enter the
studio, play and that’s it.  But it’s
been exactly the opposite.  We spend a
long time preparing the songs, taking care with the details and stuff.  Then we got into the studio and recorded our
parts one by one, as that was the approach our studio guy wanted to take.  Our songs are a little bit complicated and we
wanted to have them in the best possible shape for the record.  It became tiresome in the end, as we were all
really focused on obtaining the best results. 
We were satisfied in the end, but in the future we’ll look into a more
natural and instinctive process for recordings, and probably a new studio.  We couldn’t do it like this again!

In 2010 you
self-released The Doctor Cyclops on CD. 
I looked around a little bit about couldn’t find too much information
about that release.  Can you share some
of your memories of recording that first album? 
Was that a fun, pleasurable experience for you all?  When and where was that material
recorded?  Who recorded it?  What kind of equipment was used?

With that first
EP we just put together almost all the stuff we had recorded at that time.  I guess it was mid 2010.  We recorded our first demo in 2008, and
“Night Flyer” and “Eileen O’Flaherty” were on it, along with a couple of covers
from Leaf Hound, “Freelance Fiend” and The Ramones “Born To Die In
Berlin”.  Later, we recorded early
versions of “My Revolution” and “Angel Saviour in the Cannibal House”.  The song “Silver Serpent” was recorded in
late 2009, as we had been asked to record a song for the soundtrack to the
Italian re-release of a shitty American B-movie movie called, Megiddo: TheOmega Code 2.  We had that tune talking
about apocalypse, so we took a chance and put it on a record.  It’s a rarity for Doctor Cyclops’
discography, as you can only find it on the The Doctor Cyclops EP or the CD
included with the Italian version of the movie which I think is now out of
print, even though it was a 20th Century Fox thing.  About recordings: all of the tracks have been
played by our first drummer, except for the live version of “Night Flyer” we
put on the end of the EP like a sort of bonus track.  We already had Alessandro then, so we decided
to put a little bit of him on the record too. 
We recorded the bass and drums in a couple of different studios, as we
didn’t have enough equipment to do that by ourselves and then I added vocals
and guitars at home.  All the songs
except for “Silver Serpent” were mixed by my own good self; it’s more a studio
work.

Does any of the
material from The Doctor Cyclops overlap with 2012’s Borgofondo on World In
Sound?  If so are those the same
recordings and or mixes that appeared on The Doctor Cyclops?  How was that album originally distributed?  Was that a limited release, if so how many
copies was it limited to?  Do you plan on
making that material available in any fashion again in the future or has it’s
time come and gone?

The
recordings on The Doctor Cyclops were rough, really primitive even though now,
with the retro rock-trend also in recordings, they sound a little more
interesting.  But when we decided to
record Borgofondo we wanted to put those tracks on it with a better suite.  “Night Flyer”, “Eileen O’Flaherty” and “My
Revolution” are all on the EP and on Borgofondo but they’re different
recordings and mixes with almost same arrangement, as we loved the tunes the
way they were, they just needed a smart dress. 
We released the EP by ourselves with no label.  We printed 500 CDs, and we still have
some…  The only way to get it is at our
concerts; we normally give it for free when you buy a record or a t-shirt.  Otherwise you can email us and we’ll send you
a copy for, three Euros?  I don’t know,
we consider it just a demo-EP.  It will
get more valuable if we ever get famous though!

As I mentioned
earlier, you followed up The Doctor Cyclops in 2012 with the World In Sound
release Borgofondo.  Was the recording of
the material for Borgofondo very different than the session(s) for The Doctor
Cyclops?  Where was the material for
Borgofondo recorded?  Who recorded
it?  When was that?  What kind of equipment was used?

As I said
before it was a completely different approach. 
The Doctor Cyclops was us pretending to be sound engineers.  Borgofondo’s a “real” record.  We did it at the Keep Hold Studio in San
Giuliano Vecchio, near the place we live. 
We worked with Andrea Fresu, who co-produced it with us and we mixed and
mastered it together.  It’s been a team
effort.  He’s a really professional guy,
with awesome and fucking expensive, equipment. 
As far as I know, I recorded my vocals on a Neumann mic from 1978, but
he also has lots of good pre-amps and vintage plug-ins.  I really like the groove we sorted out.

You’ve just
released your third album, and second for World In Sound, Oscuropasso this
month (2014).  Did you try anything
radically new or different when it came to the songwriting or recording of the
new album?  What can our readers expect
from the new album?  When and where was
Oscuropasso recorded?  Who recorded
it?  What kind of equipment was used?

Oscuropasso was recorded by the same team who worked on Borgofondo; same
guy, same studio, same approach.  We
choose a different sound, more like early heavy metal style, and the songs are
longer and more articulated than the ones on Borgofondo.  You could say that we pushed our songwriting
to the limit, but I’m proud that, even if the tunes are really long, like
“Rotten Trolls”, which is more like a little suite at sixteen minutes.  You don’t get tired of listening to them, as
we put a lot of variety in the structures; progressive school.  The main song’s like a container for the
other songs, you know?  So you have more
than the just five pieces you can read on the back cover!

World In Sound is
one of my favorite labels out there right now! 
Not only do they release a ton of awesome classic psych with bonus
tracks and junk but they’ve been putting out some killer contemporary
stuff.  How did you originally get hooked
up with them?  What’s your relationship
with World In Sound like?  They’ve
released two of your three albums so I assume you all have to get along pretty
well.  Do you plan to continue to release
music through World In Sound in the future?

We were
introduced to the label boss by a common friend who knew him and had listened
to us live, as he runs a club.  They
liked our music and agreed to release the album.  They appreciated the fact that we have some
originality in a way.  We’re not just a
common stoner band, or retro rock band. 
We have plenty of influences, which make us kinda unusual, even if we
are just a heavy rock power trio.  We had
a contract including the two releases. 
We’ll see what the future will bring now.  We already have material for a new album, but
we’ll see what happens when we have recordings in our hands!

Does Doctor
Cyclops have any music that we haven’t talked about yet, maybe a song on a comp
or a single that I missed?

We have a
couple of songs we recorded in the early days of 2005/2006, I guess, just me
and Francesco in my little home studio. 
The first one, “By Your Side”, was included on a compilation of local
artists.  The second one, called
“Midnight Mountains”, is still unreleased. 
Maybe one day we’ll put it on Facebook or YouTube but it’s a different
music style, more influenced by the grunge rock era.

With the release
of Oscuropasso this month are there any other releases in the works or on the
horizon?

We’re
thinking about a new album, but at the moment we’re in the writing
process.  Then we’ll look for another
studio, or maybe we’ll do it like in the early days, almost homemade.  Lord knows. 
We want a different approach, more spontaneous, but we also have to make
a record that can compete, at least technically speaking, with the others.

Where’s the best
place for our readers to pick up copies of your stuff?  With the completely insane international
postage increases the last few years I try and give our readers as many
possible options as I can for picking up import releases?

I couldn’t
really tell you…  I know we’re on Amazon
and so on, but usually I think the best deal would be to buy directly on the
label’s site.  I think this is the direct link but if that doesn’t work just look for World In Sound! 

And where’s the
best place for people to keep up with the latest news like upcoming shows and
album releases from Doctor Cyclops at?

Our website, or our Facebook page which we update almost daily.

Are there any
major goals that Doctor Cyclops is looking to accomplish in 2014?

Festivals…  We want to be invited
to some.

Do you remember
what the first song that Doctor Cyclops played live was?  Where and when would that have been at?

Hmmm….  I wouldn’t bet on this,
but maybe it was “Meantime”, a Firebird’s cover.  It would have been 2008, in Varzi, the
hometown of our bass player Francesco, in a cinema-theatre.

Do you all spend a
lot of time out on the road touring? 
What’s life like out on the road for Doctor Cyclops?

We spend
all the time that work allows us to spend on the road.  There are no vacations for us, no traditional
holidays.  Life on tour’s something you
can’t really understand unless you do it… 
You sleep just a few hours per night, you drink much than you outta
drink, and you meet a lot of people and do almost whatever you feel like
doing.   In other words, you taste real
freedom.

Who are some of
your personal favorite bands that you’ve had a chance to share a bill with so
far?

Firebird
would have been the first, in 2009.  Then
we shared stage with Blood Ceremony in 2011, and again twice last month here in
Italy.  Did you know their lead singer
Alia recorded a flute part on our first record? 

 © Steffen Freiling

In your dreams,
who are you on tour with?

Francesco
would say Cathedral!  Personally, I’d
love to be on a three bands bill tour: us, plus Firebird, and Blood Ceremony.

Do you have any
funny or interesting stories from live shows or performances that you’d like to
share here with our readers?

Aaahh, too
many…  We’ve had a lot of crazy after
show parties I don’t exactly remember, but the fact that my memories of them
are pretty confused means that they’ve been really, really nice. 

Do you all give a
lot of thought to the visual aspects that represent the band like fliers,
posters, artwork and covers?  Is there
any artist that you turn to in your times of need when it comes to that kind of
thing?  If so, who is that and how did
you originally get hooked up with them originally?

Covers are
really important for us.  We love both
the seventies style, even though it’s pretty much common place now with this
retro-rock trend, and the medieval-miniature like style of Dave Patchett,
Cathedral’s illustrator.  He’s been an
important influence, especially for the Oscuropasso cover, even though Luca
Sambuco, the guy who painted it, has his own style.  As far as famous painters go, we can list the
name of Hieronymus Bosch for sure.

With all of the
various methods of release that are available to artists today I’m always
curious why they choose and prefer the various mediums that they do.  Do you have a preferred medium of release for
your music?  What about when you’re
listening to and or purchasing music?  If
you do have a preference, can you talk a little bit about why?

We like
vinyl, even though CDs are a little bit more… 
Practical.  Vinyl’s a “warm”
object, while you hold it in your hands you can feel the story behind the
product, which doesn’t just end up being an object…  It has its own soul.  Then there’s the question of sound.  I know there are lots of discussions about
this, but I take the side of the people who consider the sound of vinyl
superior to CDs.  It’s way warmer to my
ears.  I’m not looking for hi-fi music, I
prefer lo-fi definition, and I absolutely love to hear the noise of the stylus
scratching the LP.

I grew up around a
fairly big collection of psychedelic rock and just about all of the good old
blues that a boy could dream of, and I was encouraged to really enjoy it from
the time when I was a kid.  I would stick
something on, read the liner notes, stare at the cover artwork and let the
music transport me off to another place. 
Having something real and physical to hold in my hands always served for
a more complete listening experience and felt like they offered a brief, rare
glimpse into the minds of the artists that created it.  Do you have any such connection with physically
released music?

Well, we
made vinyl and CDs of both the albums. 
The vinyl’s also in limited coloured editions, so I’d say that we’re
definitely a physical release band!  We
don’t give a damn about Mp3s, even though the market nowadays requires even
that kind of distribution.

As amazing as
physical music is, digital has its advantages. 
While post people are stuck on the portability aspect of things, when
you team it with the internet you have something really amazing on your
hands.  Together they’ve not only exposed
people to so much music that they otherwise never heard, but it’s also allowed
unparalleled access and interaction between artists and their fans and seems to
be levelling the playing the field somewhat for independent musicians willing
to promote a healthy online presence. 
Nothing is ever black and white though, and while people may be being
exposed to all this new music it doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re paying
for it and illegal downloading is running rampant right now, not to mention
it’s harder and harder to get noticed in the chocked digital jungle out
there.  As an artist during the reign of
the digital era, what’s your opinion on digital music and distribution?

My
opinion?  Well, I think it’s not worth
thinking about too much, I guess.  The
internet era came as a fact, and now the digital market is the only possible
market for the mainstream.  People like
us can only count on selling merchandise when they play gigs and people want
physical stuff, like vinyl, CDs or t-shirts. 
I think the internet is a great resource, and that it’s also good, maybe
not for selling, but for spreading your music all over the world.  So, not for or against, it’s just a
fact.  We have to be clever and use the
resources we have to our advantage the best we can.

I try to keep up
with as much good music as I possibly can but with all the amazing stuff that’s
out there there’s just not enough time! 
Is there anyone from your local scene or area that I should be listening
to that I might not have heard of before?

I’d say
Midryasi, a great doom/prog/heavy psych band from the suburban area of Milan or
Randy Watson, look for them on Facebook, our close friends who play heavy rock
stuff with psych influences…  I won’t go
further though, as I don’t want to disappoint anybody I forget!  Good music will find its own way to your
ears!

What about
nationally and internationally?

Doomraiser
from Rome, Zippo and Shores of Null from Pescara, Electric Swan from Piacenza,
Torso from Austria, Last Barons from France, even if they split up, Grifter
from the UK.  I’m sure I’m forgetting
about a lot of other good ones, and I apologize for this!

Thanks so much for
doing this interview, it’s been a blast learning so much about Doctor
Cyclops!  I really loved the new album
and it’s been a pleasure to be able to catch up on all the backstory that I
missed out on.  Before we call it a day,
is there anything that I might have possibly missed or that you’d just like to
take this opportunity to talk to me or my readers about?

We need
bookers and promoters to get us as many shows as possible…  So guys, put us in touch!  This is our booking manager’s address:
oneyedagency@gmail.com

DISCOGRAPHY

(2010)  Doctor Cyclops
– The Doctor Cyclops EP – digital, CD – Self-Released (Limited to 500 copies)

(2012)  Various
Artists – L’Avvento del male A.K.A. Megiddo: The Omega Code 2 – CD – 20th
Century Fox Records

(2012)  Doctor Cyclops
– Borgofondo – digital, CD, 12” – World In Sounds Records (Green Transparent
vinyl limited to 100 copies)

(2014)  Doctor Cyclops
– Oscuropasso – digital, CD, 12” – World In Sound Records (White vinyl limited
to ? copies)

Interview made by Roman Rathert/2014

© Copyright http://psychedelicbaby.blogspot.com/2014