The Obelisk Questionnaire: Davide Tiso of Red Rot (ex-Ephel Duath)
The Obelisk Questionnaire is a series of open questions intended to give the answerer an opportunity to explore these ideas and stories from their life as deeply as they choose. Answers can be short or long, and that reveals something in itself, but the most important factor is honesty.
Based on the Proust Questionnaire, the goal over time is to show a diverse range of perspectives as those who take part bring their own points of view to answering the same questions. To see all The Obelisk Questionnaire posts, click here.
Thank you for reading and thanks to all who participate.
The Obelisk Questionnaire: Davide Tiso of Red Rot
—
How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?
I play guitar in the progressive Death Metal band Red Rot, a band I formed in 2020 together with singer Luciano Lorusso George, with whom I played in Ephel Duath for quite a few years.
Ephel Duath was a shape shifting experimental metal band that released albums influenced by jazz metal, math rock, prog and electronic music. When we started Red Rot, Lucio and I aimed to create something much more visceral and anchored to extreme metal, blending together the death metal of Morbid Angel with the angular progressiveness of Voivod and some sporadic heavy doom of early Paradise Lost and Katatonia.
Joining us are extreme metal drummer Ron Bertrand and bass virtuoso Ian Baker. In terms of how we got here, I’d say two are the main reasons: returning to make music with Lucio after ten years, and being generally dissatisfied with what is happening in the most mainstream side of extreme music.
Most metal productions seems quite safe, clean and overly quantized to us, pushing high and mid frequencies with almost a non existing bass: we wanted Red Rot to sound different. We were looking for something defined but with the right amount of filth and abrasiveness. Jamie King’s mix definitely brought us where we wanted to be sonically. There is a live component in our sound, a certain kind of urgency. If a mix can possibly sound honest, well, I think ours can be in that list.
Describe your first musical memory.
I guess my first real connection with music was when, in retrospect, I grasped my love for minor scale notes. I remember that Giorgio Moroder’s soundtrack for Midnight Express (1978) by Alan Parker melted my young head and probably put a seed in my brain about making music: I didn’t truly understand it at the time, music was still an abstract and unreachable concept for me at that age, but I distinctly remember that I was compulsively rewinding my Midnight Express VHS tape every time the most heartbreaking theme of the movie was up. It was making me sad and excited at the same time: for the first time I was excited to be sad. I thought it was a truly unique feeling, a new territory in my sensitivity.
Describe your best musical memory to date.
Getting back making music with Lucio in Red Rot marked one my happiest and most prolific musical phase. The entire process has been such a cathartic and effortless experience. We are working hard at this, every day, since we started. I think aging did us some good: we are down to earth and expect pretty much nothing. Every accomplishment is a small victory and keep us going. Egos are in check and it’s so much fun to being back at this together.
When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?
For most of my life I fundamentally believed in a general sense of camaraderie among liberal thinking people. I thought that the underlying truth that “we are all on the same boat” made the majority of leftist somehow supportive with each other, or at least aiming to some kind of common ground. Cancel Culture changed that thought for me. This sort of self inflicted censorship that points the finger towards anything that is against the accepted stream of thoughts is truly a cancer to freedom of expression to me.
Where do you feel artistic progression leads?
Artistic progression leads to more doors to open: that is why I play progressive/experimental music and that is why I’m addicted to it. There is a certain amount of creative restlessness in me since I started writing music and I embrace that feeling, it keeps me hungry for something new, no matter how small of a nuance it might this be. A new guitar pick can make a world of difference for example. Forcing myself to reinvent my playing has been such a humbling experience. For example, I have never done much chugging riffs. Never really cared for down picking because I was more into phrasing. Red Rot has elements I have never played before and because of that, I feel the same excitement today that I felt when I started playing guitar.
How do you define success?
My goal is to make sure that a musical intuition, an idea, a sound, gets perfectly translated and captured by my band and offered to the public in its most primal purity, without any sort of compromises, second thoughts or self doubt. Success is probably realizing that a vast majority of listeners and music media gets our point across and are able to pinpoint what my band, and what we are after, is about.
In more practical senses, success to me is regularly releasing albums that are a genuine representation of where the band is at, and having the chance to headline shows anywhere I like to stretch my band towards, for a decent number of people per night. A band like The Melvins to me represents the best example of a successful band.
What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?
Ephel Duath was playing at The Forum in London supporting Dillinger Escape Plan and Poison the Well on the same night that Dimebag Darrell got killed on stage. I remember the face of our manager when he shared the news. I think heavy music lost one of its brightest talent that night. Chuck Schuldiner and Dimebag Darrel are the two metal guitarists that had more impact on me. I look up to them, their drive, talent and ambition are still unmatched.
Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.
I never had the chance to create a double album. Having the necessary budget, I’m positive we could make the project shine. I fantasize having complete freedom in terms of formats and running time with a paired introspective noir video/movie that could accompany the release.
What do you believe is the most essential function of art?
I believe that the most essential function of art is to elevate one’s spirit from the mundanity of life, giving the sparkle to travel with the mind to places where we are not used to push ourselves to. Art is a sanctuary where we can hide in and recharge our senses and dig deep in whatever emotion is generated by the piece we are dealing with.
Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?
Video editing. I think I might try to juggle in that field. Watching Leonardo Candidi working on Red Rot’s upcoming second video for “Dysmorphia” solidify this wish of mine.
https://facebook.com/red.rot.metal
https://www.instagram.com/red_rot_metal
https://redrotmetal.bandcamp.com/
http://www.redrotmetal.com/
https://www.facebook.com/svartrecords
https://www.instagram.com/svartrecords/
https://twitter.com/svartrecords
https://svartrecords.com/
