EPHEL DUATH Vocalist Karyn Crisis On Working With Davide Tiso - "His Music Really Moves Me, Not The Other Way Around"

July 12, 2012, 12 years ago

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EPHEL DUATH founder Davide Tiso and new vocalist Karyn Crisis (formerly of the band CRISIS, also Tiso's wife) are featured in a new interview with antiMusic’s Morley Seaver discussing their new EP, On Death And Cosmos. An excerpt is available below:

antiMusic: After working with Crisis for so long, was it strange working with other musicians in the studio?

Karyn: "It wasn't strange working with Davide but the in-between process when I was trying to get my solo project together…that was strange because the common friend that we had was just not gelling in the process. It wasn't meant to be, I guess. It definitely felt like, 'This is not gelling. This is not something that I can sing over. This is a very different language.' Whereas Davide's music feels very instinctual in me and the way I described it to him is, I feel this summoning of energy moving through me. Like I'm not someone who is really interested in singing and getting involved in all sorts of projects so that I can keep singing. I'm not interested in doing it if I don't feel that energy moving through me. But his music really moves me, not the other way around. And when I started to sing these songs, there was a bit of 'I haven't sung this way in a long time. I hope I can do these songs justice.' And again, there was that connection. I didn't even really have to plug into the socket. And I told him that I haven't felt anything like that since I was singing in Crisis."

antiMusic: You're no stranger to off-kilter songs. But there are so many weird song structures, and time changes on the EP, was it a challenge to fit the vocal lines around them? I would think that breathing is a problem in much of 'Black Prism'.

Karyn: "Yeah, that's a great observation (laughs). Again, he wrote the lyrics on his own but then when it came time to let me hear the vocals, he, in his own way, sang them in front of me, so I could hear placement. There were a few things that I tweaked but they were very minimal. And it definitely was a challenge singing them because he is a guitar player and he has a very distinctive way of writing vocals and guitar parts and there is some very different breath work involved. As you can hear, there is a lotof singing going on….or growling or whatever you would like to refer to it as. But yes, it was a challenge. I really had to get my cardio going to do that. It's very vigorous. And I love that kind of a challenge. But it was definitely different. It felt, rhythmically, very natural. It didn't seem like I had to work very hard to remember where things went…where they came in and out of. I told Davide the difference was what I loved about his vocal parts is that they tended to jump in on the down beat whereas if I was writing my own stuff, I tended to want to be the guitar and drums at times. So I would come in at very different places. For me, it was very enjoyable to sing the way he's written the songs because I'm coming in on different parts of the beat that I normally would. At the same, it feels very natural and instinctual."

Go to this location for the complete interview.

Ephel Duath released On Death And Cosmos on June 21st in Europe. It will be released on August 14th in North America, via Agonia Records. Below is the artwork, created by visionary French artist Dehn Sora:

On Death And Cosmos is a 20-minute mini-concept EP that develops through three songs: 'Black Prism', 'Raqia' and 'Stardust Rain', creating some of the most intense and mournful music the group has ever offered. The main lyrics line is about death and abandonment, loss and self- transforming will: a dive into the darkness, that can reveal a new birth in light.

A pair of videos filmed in the studio during the recording sessions for the EP can be seen below:


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