Interview: Davide Lace (Ascending, Parole e Azioni, Detriti Records)

The records on the German label Detriti make you fall in love from the cover, with that undergound cassette aesthetic typical of the best eighties. The content is not far behind, and we can find incredible coldwave, post-punk, EBM or New Beat. The label is headed by Italian Davide Lace, who also is the composer of many of the records, whether as Ascending, Words and Actions, Parole e Azioni or Dusty Idols. He will be performing with two of his most interesting projects next Sunday at the Ombra Festival in Barcelona.

—Your first work was Words and Actions’s Life of Farewell from 2011. In that EP you followed a more coldwave style. How was the young Davide Lace that recorded this first self-released cassette? What were your dreams as a musician?

—I was deeply into French Coldwave—bands like Péché Mortel, Bunker Strasse, Clair Obscur, Trisomie 21, Norma Loy, and others. To me, it always felt like the true Darkwave. My earliest music experiments were heavily influenced by that style.

—The music of Words and Action became a bit more danceable with Out of sight, your first LP. Did you start getting more interested in dance music or just got different gear?

—When I moved to Berlin, I discovered the city’s intense club culture, which definitely had an impact on my music at the time.

—With Pensieri di nessuro you started  singing in Italian. Do you think that you express better or more faithfully to yourself in your mother language?

—Writing in my native language allows me to be more personal. With English, I often feel constrained by certain expressive limitations, and trying to push beyond them can result in lyrics that sound odd.

—One of your Italian influences is CCCP, a band that I have never managed to understand. Can you please tell us what do you find interesting in their music?  Maybe you don’t know but Danilo Fatur was going to play last year at Ombra with his project Zona Utopica Garantita although at the end the band came without him.

—I believe CCCP was the most significant post-punk band to come out of Italy. They were truly out-of-the-box from a musical perspective, with a strong identity and captivating stage presence. Their work was an all-encompassing artistic project, featuring interesting lyrics.

—That was the seventh release of Detriti. Why did you decide to start a label? Mainly to release your stuff?

—Yes, I had a hard drive full of finished music projects, and I decided to stop complaining and do everything on my own.

—You said that a lot of musical barriers had been built in the latest 30 years, and one of the examples that you have cited is new beat, not being appreciated by post-punkers. Why do you think this has happened? Do you think that after EBM dance music took a path a dark dance music another?

—Music genres often seem to have their golden years at the very beginning, after which they tend to lose their edge. Sadly, New Beat remained niche and geographicallyisolated. But in the pre-internet era, music had very different rules for circulation.

—The label is a perfect modern example of the DIY ethos. You said that you took it from the French coldwave and Opal Tapes. Do you think that internet has made easier to have a label or is as difficult as it’s possible to get buried under so many releasese?

—The internet made it easier to start but far more challenging to stand out and be noticed. 

—One of the charateristic of the label is the design also made by you. You have continued the DIY/cassette aesthetic even in the vinyls. Which were your inspirations for the look of Detriti?

—I find inspiration in the underground industrial and wave cassettes of the late ’70s and ’80s, with their distinctive xeroxed covers. But also in old architecture and art magazines, like Wendingen.

—What do you look for in a band/artist to release their music? You said that you spend a lot of hours looking for bands, right?

—Music should create an atmosphere, evoke a feeling. In the past, I spent a lot of time discovering new bands. Now, I do it much less. That’s the price you pay when a hobby becomes a job, and you’re bogged down by bureaucracy and communication instead of creativity and research.

—The first years of the label were marked for a lot of Russian (and east European) material. You were using the social network VK, right? How did you got interested in these bands? You said that Russian post punk was closer to the original spirit and the avant garde roots. Has the war make things different?

—After the ’80s, I found that Western European post-punk became often quite cheesy, while some Eastern European post-punk always retained a bit more sophistication.

—One of those bands was Molchat Doma, now really famous and playing in Barcelona the same week as Ombra. Although the relation went bad (Sacred Bones released a new version of their first album without asking you), how do you feel after discovering a band that would become so popular? When you first signed then they were quite unknown, right?

—I thought I was doing my label job well, but unfortunately human meanness proved otherwise. I was too idealistic and ended up being wronged by the band and their new label without any recourse for justice.

—I guess that starting to release vinyls was also a big step and lots of DJs started spinning the music of your label. We come from a “only vinyl” enviroment so that’s part of our perception. How do you see it from your point of view as label owner? Did you focus in a more electronic sound with the vinyls?

—I think the success of an album hinges on its ability to evoke emotional resonance. From that perspective, the specific genre doesn’t matter all that much.

—The first Detriti cassette was Ascending’s First Kiss. You have described it as “One-of-a-kind mix of distopic lo-fi house music and industrial coldwave”. One of your influences, according to you, is house music. How do you think it has influenced  your music?

— That album is truly insane—definitely not for everyone. Back then, I found lo-fi house and dark experimental deep house incredibly intriguing. Berlin also exposed me to an underground side of house music I hadn’t known before, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

—And the last Ascending album, so far, was entitled Instintiva Belleza. I guess it was an important release as, according to you, “put all your influences, from Coldwave to Synthpop, through the prism of 80s New Wave sounds universe”. Do you think that this is the record that better define you? Was difficult to put all these styles together and give it some coherence?

—I don’t know whether that album is the one that best defines me as an artist, maybe it leans too heavily into synth-pop.However, it does capture a particular attitude I endorse – the ability to stare into the abyss with a sly smile. 

—Fais Confiance au Soldat Allemand, Parele e Azione first EP was released in 2018, although you confess to have recorded it a few years before  . According to you this project is more influenced by German artists DAF, Liaison Deangereuses and  Conny Plank. How has German music influenced you? You also live in Berlin and confess to be a fan of  the Neue Deutsche Welle.

—Early EBM music is unparalleled, and Conny Plank was almost always the wizard behind those productions. Those were the genre’s golden years.

—From all this influences we would like to talk about Gabi Delgado, the late singer of DAF. We are really big fans of his music (our son is called Gabi Delgado after him) and would like to ask you how he has influenced you and what does his music means to you. You wrote about his death: A living God is dead yesterday.

—I think he embodied the philosophical concept of vitalism. It’s hard to imagine a song more nietzschean than “Verschwende Deine Jugend”. Artistically, he truly personified the spirit of Dionysus.

—With the last Word and Actions album you have moved into a more old school darkwave /Goth rock. Why did you decide to go back to your roots? Was it difficult to go back to guitars and basses?

—I often create songs based on my current obsessions. And First and Last and Always is definitely one of my favourite obsessions.

—You said: “for me the 80s classics (Joy Division, The Sisters of Mercy, The Cure, …) still remain the artistic climax of our beloved post-punk movement”. Do you consider that a nostalgic statement or were you just realistic?

—Absolutely realistic.From an artistic standpoint, those golden years feel unreachable. The way we create music today makes it harder for musicians to achieve those heights

—Let´s finish the interview with some questions about the rest of your side projects. Dead Branches was your first attent at post-punk Goth rock with The Cure influences. These songs were recorded in 2012 and released three years later. Why did you use a different Aka? Was this a kind of forgotten band?

— I loved that project and hope to revive it someday. It’s a “forgotten band” because it was essentially an aborted project—I couldn’t find the right musicians to keep it alive.

—Dusty Idols started being another of your EBM projects, but the music has been evolving to New Beat, specially in Pars Destruens Et Oriens. What can you please tell us of this project?

—There are far too few contemporary New Beat projects, so I wanted to contribute to fixing that gap.

—And lastly you more experimental project is Sottosuolo, with it you have released three cassettes. What was your aim with those albums? You called it Italian Industrial at its finest. What other Italian industrial bands do you like?

—That project is definitely extreme. The Sottosuolo tracks on La Papessa (a split album with Corpoparassita) showcase the lo-fi, nihilistic side of early industrial music, influenced by artists like Maurizio Bianchi, Sigillum S, and Tomografia Assiale Computerizzata, among others. 

—What can we expect of the future of Detriti Records? And of your music output?

—In 2025, new albums from Ascending and Parole e Azioni will be released.Last year, I collaborated on a dark-folk album called Hecate by Gorgyra, which fans of Dead Can Dance and Arcana might really enjoy.