Does Devil Doll ever tour?
sfo...@monmouth.com
Hi,
I'm just wondering if anyone knows if Devil Doll ever tours, and if
anyone has ever seen them, what are they like live? I got
"Dies Irae" about 6 weeks ago and I'm still finding it difficult
to take it out of my CD player.
Thanks,
Sam
Calyx/Big Bang
> I asked the same question last summer, and the only response I got
> was one person (forget you) who said that they were pretty sure the
> band doesn't play live at all. A pity-- because I'd do virtually
> anything to see them live. (Although, I have to admit that there'd
> be something rather anti-climactic about the whole thing. I mean,
> how could Mr. Doctor possibly look freaky enough to live up to that
> voice!) :-)
There have *definitely* been a handful of live performances by Devil Doll
in the past. I did an extensive interview with the president of Devil
Doll's fan-club, who is apparently quite closely related to Mr. Doctor
(...), and she told me about how DD is on stage. No interaction between
Mr.Dr and the band or the public, and he has that madcap look in his
eyes... Must be quite a weird experience.
A.L.
Jerry Kranitz
On 16 May 1997 05:58:59 GMT, big...@alpes-net.fr (Calyx/Big Bang)
wrote:
> I did an extensive interview with the president of Devil
>Doll's fan-club, who is apparently quite closely related to Mr. Doctor
>(...), and she told me about how DD is on stage. No interaction between
>Mr.Dr and the band or the public, and he has that madcap look in his
>eyes... Must be quite a weird experience.
Any chance of seeing this interview?
Jerry Kranitz (jkra...@infinet.com)
http://www.infinet.com/~jkranitz/music/music.html
sfo...@monmouth.com
>There have *definitely* been a handful of live performances by Devil Doll
>in the past. I did an extensive interview with the president of Devil
>Doll's fan-club, who is apparently quite closely related to Mr. Doctor
>(...), and she told me about how DD is on stage. No interaction between
>Mr.Dr and the band or the public, and he has that madcap look in his
>eyes... Must be quite a weird experience.
Thanks to all who replied to my message. I thought it would be very
unlikely that they would tour, and if they did, it would certainly
only be in Europe on a small scale. It must have been interesting!
Now a new question. Does anyone know if they're still together? I
never really looked at the back of "Dies Irae" very closely before,
but after looking at it last night I noticed that it says: "the curse
is over". I don't mean for this to sound like a "Paul is dead" thing,
but I was wondering if it could have been a hint to the end of the
band (I certainly hope not!).
Sam
Walter Semerenko
> I asked the same question last summer, and the only response I got
>was one person (forget you) who said that they were pretty sure the
>band doesn't play live at all. A pity-- because I'd do virtually
>anything to see them live. (Although, I have to admit that there'd
>be something rather anti-climactic about the whole thing. I mean,
>how could Mr. Doctor possibly look freaky enough to live up to that
>voice!) :-)
It certainly wouldn't work well in an outdoor concert. A nice dim
theater with lots of stage props would, but then I don't think this
obscure band has the funds from the CD sales to put up a concert on
that scale.
Walter.
Calyx/Big Bang
In article (Dans l'article) <337ce5a7...@news.infinet.com>,
jkra...@infinet.com (Jerry Kranitz) wrote (écrivait) :
> On 16 May 1997 05:58:59 GMT, big...@alpes-net.fr (Calyx/Big Bang)
> wrote:
>
> > I did an extensive interview with the president of Devil
> >Doll's fan-club, who is apparently quite closely related to Mr. Doctor
> >(...), and she told me about how DD is on stage. No interaction between
> >Mr.Dr and the band or the public, and he has that madcap look in his
> >eyes... Must be quite a weird experience.
>
> Any chance of seeing this interview?
Well, I'd posted that to the guys who did the DD website, but I was
replied (after insisting) that they were looking for someone else to
maintain the site in the future.
The interview is from mid-1996.
So here's the whole thing for those who are interested (cut & paste, of
course) :
1) WHY "MR. DOCTOR" ?
"I have asked in the years to all the members of Devil Doll WHY He is
called Mr. Doctor and I got three answers :
- Mr (Hyde) Doctor (Jekyll) = He is the 2 sides of a split personality
(this is what I personally think is the true reason)
- Mr. Dr. is contraction of the word MURDER (without the vowels) (this
looks to me a bit complicated, but it is just my opinion)
- When Devil Doll started making music THE MAN was called nearly
immediately THE DOCTOR because of His studies (I know He is Doctor in
CRIMINOLOGY and PHILOSOPHY) (I think there is something of truth in this
one, but looks probably simplistic)
- I heard members of Devil Doll calling Him DOCTOR, never in a different
way, and never MR. DOCTOR".
2) IS HE A HUMOROUS PERSON ?
"Nice question : I thought about it and I think He has a great sense of
humour and at the same time He is extremely serious. I mean : I was
talking to the musicians about His behaviour and I got practically the
same answers - He seems to be obsessed by the fact that "every one (of the
musicians) must put all his drops of blood into it", "we must be just one
heart beating at unison" (rehearsing with Francesco Carta in the
piano/vocal parts), "you must go beyond the limit of the limit of your
limits !". But when I asked the same question : does He joke ? I got the
answer : strong sense of SHARP humour and quite often, and not rarely on
Himself. Definitely : He IS a troubled mind. Absolutely guaranteed".
3) HOW DOES HE EARN HIS LIVING ?
"Apparently THE MAN does not have a proper job nor economic problems, even
if we know that after the Tivoli fire, when He had decided to stop with
music, he kept a course in conjunction between the faculty of Philosophy
of Art of the University of Ljubljana and the National Cinemateque of
Slovenja, called RETROVIZOR. The course lasted two years, with MR. DOCTOR
taking it : the posters of the happenings (speech by Mr. Doctor + movie
projection) are glossy 60 x 90 cm and on the upper part write the 4
organizations responsible for it : MR. DOCTOR OF THE DEVIL DOLL (sic),
UNIVERSITY OF LJUBLJANA, SLOVENIAN CINEMATEQUE, EKRAN (monthly magazine of
cinema in Slovenja). Apparently some articles of Mr. Doctor are in some
issues of the magazine EKRAN. We contacted EKRAN and the Cinemateque and
they told us they talked in enthusiastic way of the man : to one of my
questions they said The Man always refused to be paid. You can contact
yourself the Slovenian Cinemateque as they seem to know by far more than
us !".
4) DOES HE KEEP CONTACT WITH THE DEVIL DOLL FANCLUB ? AND WHAT ARE HIS
RELATIONSHIPS WITH MEMBERS OF THE BAND ?
"There are unfortunately NO relationships between the fan club and Mr.
Doctor. Regarding relationships with members I know that the piano players
have always more contact than anybody else with Mr. Doctor as they need a
symbiotic relationship with Him. Francesco Carta is undoubtedly the most
important band member after the Doctor. Jurij Toni, sound engineer and
co-producer gave us details that reveal the fact that they have talked
quite a lot. Michel Fantini Jesurum said to me that he was for 5 years
"one of the victims" of the jokes of Mr. Doctor in high school (they were
in the same school), but apart from that they never meet apart from the
studio work (Fantini Jesurum never played live with the group as there is
no chance of having a pipe organ onstage !). Sasha Olenjuk, the "virtuoso"
ukrainian leader of the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra, is the only
other member that sees Mr. Doctor more often to discuss a project from the
very beginning".
5) IS THERE REALLY, AS IS SUGGESTED IN THE CD BOOKLETS ("THE SECT OF DEVIL
DOLL"), A "GURU"/"DEVOTEES" RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MR. DOCTOR AND THE OTHER
MUSICIANS ?
"The guru/devotees relationship you mention is something I am sure Mr.
Doctor would HATE. Facts are much more simple : I think the mystery is
built by the outsiders, because for what we are concerned, we accept the
FACT that Mr. Doctor is not interested in public exposure, business,
glory, etc etc. And there is nothing mysterious in it : He prefers to
express himself through his pieces of Art, instead of filling pages of
interviews... From our side we just try to understand what He means with
some lyrics, which references, quotations, influences can be traced, from
which sources the images of the booklets are taken, and so on...".
6) CLASSICAL MUSIC IS OBVIOUSLY A MAJOR INFLUENCE ON DEVIL DOLL'S MUSIC.
WHAT PARTICULAR COMPOSERS HAVE INSPIRED MR. DOCTOR ?
"Definitely, classical music IS a very big influence of Devil Doll. In a
short interview with Francesco Carta, he told us of his and Mr. Doctor's
fondness of the Eastern European school (I think that Shostakovitch's
String Quartet no. 8 or Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra are VERY
Devildollian and both of them are amongst the BIG influences on the Doctor
!). Francesco Carta told me some months ago that quite obviously Bernard
Herrmann is one of Mr. Doctor's favourites, and that he saw the doctor
studying the sheet music of with Bernard Stevens' Symphony of Liberation,
Bohislav Martinu's Symphony no. 3, Aram Khachaturian's Symphony no. 1 and
Charles Ives' Symphony no. 4.
7) HOW CAN DEVIL DOLL AFFORD TO WORK WITH A SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA ?
"The collaboration with the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra (this is THE
national orchestra) is based especially on the fact that the leader of the
orchestra and first violin of the orchestra is Sasha Olenjuk, one of the
first musicians to have joined Devil Doll ! Expensive : Yes, very
expensive. Hurdy Gurdy Records spent 150.000 marks on DIES IRAE (900
minutes of music have been recorded, but only 45 released !)... But we
believe that we are part of something that has really a devastating value
in artistic terms, something that is at last something truly innovative
not only in conceptual terms, but above all in poetic sense and above all
transcending the terms "progressive", "symphonic rock", "heavy", "dark",
etc. And we are putting all of ourselves, time and money, into it : the
economic success really does not count if we are able to contribute to the
release of such masterpieces".
8) THE PARTS OF DEVIL DOLL'S MUSIC WHERE MR. DOCTOR SINGS ARE GENERALLY
VERY INTIMATE, AND ON MOST OF THE "BAND" SECTIONS HE IS RARELY TO BE
HEARD. ARE THESE PARTS RECORDED SEPARATELY ? FOR INSTANCE, DOES MR. DOCTOR
RECORD HIS VOCAL PARTS ON HIS OWN ? IS HE PRESENT AT REHEARSALS ?
"At the time of GIRL WHO WAS DEATH and ELIOGABALUS, all was played
together and more or less FIRST TAKE (only one week for recording and
mixing). Now the group has more budget so it follows the usual procedure
of separate playing between piano, electric instruments including drums,
and orchestra. VOICES are the last thing recorded. Mr. Doctor is present
at EVERY single second of the rehearsals, recording, mixing, editing,
mastering".
9) WHAT IS MR. DOCTOR'S ATTITUDE AS A LIVE PERFORMER ? IS THERE ANY CLOSE
INTERACTION BETWEEN HIM AND THE BAND, AND BETWEEN HIM AND THE AUDIENCE ?
"No : absolutely no interaction with other band members, nor the audience
on live performances. I think He does not see anybody, like His eyes would
be turned to the inside (really this is my impression). He really looks in
a state of trance".
10) DURING THE OCCASIONS WHEN YOU MET MR. DOCTOR, DID HE EVER SPEAK ABOUT
HIS OWN WORK ? FOR INSTANCE, WHEN YOU SIGNED DEVIL DOLL ON HURDY GURDY
RECORDS, DID HE TRY TO CONVINCE YOU THAT HIS MUSIC WAS GOOD, AND HOW ? IS
HE A FRIENDLY PERSON, OR RATHER THE NEVROTIC BEING THAT HIS MUSIC SUGGESTS
?
"There is NO written contract between Hurdy Gurdy and Mr. Doctor. We never
paid Him one single lira, but we paid all the musicians according to a
list probably made by Mr. Doctor. I heard Mr. Doctor speaking in
Retrovizor at the National Cinemateque and I understood that He is really
possessed by His Art. You should see to understand me. He never tried to
convince us that the music was good because we started Hurdy Gurdy as we
were already BIG FANS !!! But I remember that He described His music as
"unpleasant" and said in a Retrovizor speech that ART MUST HURT. Obviously
the sentence He put in the advert to start Devil Doll is a sort of
MANIFESTO for all of us (ILLUSION being the KEY WORD for everything we
do). Friendly is not the exact word, but nevrotic is not either. I have
seen Him always with those unique round dark glasses He always has on -
never seen them on anybody else, must be designed for Him or by Him - and
if He does not approach you do not really have the heart to bother Him".
11) MR. DOCTOR HAS A VERY UNUSUAL WAY OF "SINGING", WHICH BOTH ATTRACTS
AND REPULSES PEOPLE TO DEVIL DOLL'S MUSIC. IS IT DERIVED FROM PARTICULAR
INFLUENCES OF MR. DOCTOR ?
"Mr. Doctor uses the voice as an instrument, with all the different
possibilities that such an instrument has (glissandos, jumps of octaves,
dissonances, 4th tones etc) : on this basis He put further Schoenberg's
"sprachstimme" that you can perceive at times also in some 20th century
operas like "Lady MacBeth of Mtsensk" of Shostakovitch or in the German
cabaret of Eisler and Weill. It shocks me the fact that while in the
normal instruments the technique has progressed allowing any sort of
un-melodic sounds (take all the 20th century and above all Penderecki) in
order to suggest a state of mind, a feeling, an ambient, a musical COLOUR,
in the VOCALS on the contrary the use of it is still mainly ACADEMIC
(soprano, mezzosoprano, contralto, tenor, baritone, bass, with a style
that has not changed in 500 years or more : I find more "advanced" for
example... some parts of the Purcell of Dido and Aeneas than 99% of the
20th century vocal music !). Mr. Doctor transformed the SINGER at last
into a VOCALIST : in His music EVERY WORD HAS A DIFFERENT COLOUR because
IT HAS THE RIGHT to be modelled in its own way, same as a violin player
decides to treat a note with "balzato", "legato", "sul ponticello",
"tremolo", "glissando", etc.".
12) THE FIRST DEVIL DOLL ALBUM, "THE MARK OF THE BEAST", WAS ONLY PRINTED
IN ONE COPY. IS MR. DOCTOR THE ONLY PERSON IN POSSESSION OF THIS
RECORDING, UNDER ANY FORM ? DO FOR INSTANCE THE OTHER MUSICIANS HAVE A
TAPE COPY OF THIS ? IS IT POSSIBLE FOR ANYONE TO HEAR IT ? ARE THERE
COPIES IN CIRCULATION ?
"Yes, He made the only copy for Himself. I heard once a little piece of
DAT in Jurij Toni's home. Nobody else has a copy to my knowledge".
13) DEVIL DOLL HAS A DOUBLE HOMEBASE, IN ITALY AND SLOVENIA. HOW DID THIS
HAPPEN ? ARE THE TOWNS IN QUESTION FAR APART ? HOW OFTEN DOES THE FULL
BAND GET TOGETHER ?
"Venise and Ljubljana are only 2 hours apart by car. Ljubljana has always
had a strong reputation for its lively artistic scene and very receptive
on new expressions of Art as it is the door between West and East with its
mixture of Germanic, Latin, Slavic and Balkanian elements. In fact, in the
last Devil Doll album, musicians from 11 different countries are
featured".
14) WHY THE NAME DEVIL DOLL ? IS IT A PROVOCATION ?
"The name of the band comes from the titles of two movies : one from the
thirties, directed by Tod Browning, with Lionel Barrmore acting, about a
man unjustly condemned who escapes and takes revenge on the people who
accused him, disguised as an old seller of dolls (double personality again
!!!). The other, less polished but with a truly shocking finale, from the
early sixities, directed by Shonteff, about a dummy that is able to enter
and win the battle for mental supremacy with his ventriloquist (double
personality once more !!!). The name of the band is NOT a provocation, for
what I know. Definitely Mr. Doctor has BIG religious and spiritual
involvement as seems clear in the lyrics of the records".
15) WHAT WAS MR. DOCTOR'S INITIAL REACTION TO THE DAMAGE CAUSE BY FIRE TO
TIVOLI STUDIOS ? DID THIS EVER THREATEN THE FUTURE OF THE BAND ?
"He decided to leave music altogether and dedicated basically to
film-making. It has been a tragic event for Him (spiritually) and all of
us (spiritually and economically, as we nearly went bankrupt as the
recordings had been pre-paid)".
16) IS THERE A NEW DEVIL DOLL ALBUM IN THE WORKS RIGHT NOW ?
"As I told you, 900 minutes of music have been recorded in the DIES IRAE
sessions, but it is unlikely that it will see the light of day. We are
trying to get the right to release for Christmas a special Fanclub-only
edition of the soundtrack to Mr. Doctor's private movie THE DAY OF WRATH
that has been recorded along with DIES IRAE and lasts two hours,
incorporating parts of DIES IRAE. This will be the only chance to hear
part of the extra material. Rumours about the existence of another
complete "opera" ready to be recorded are not officially confirmed, even
if unofficially I read that a 50 minute epic provisionally called CARNIVAL
OF SOULS has been rehearsed. Another rumour - still unconfirmed from Devil
Doll circles - is that now Mr. Doctor is working on the soundtrack to an
old silent movie, THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER by Jean Epstein (1928)
that has been commissioned to Him by the Solvenian National Cinemateque
for the 1997 European year".
LASERCD
Conversations with Mr. Doctor and Rosanna led me to believe that Devil
Doll has performed live. Personally I don't know of anyone in Italy who
has ever seen them perform. The only answer I can think of is that all
their live performances are confined to the Eastern Europe countries.
-Ken Golden/The Laser's Edge
sfo...@monmouth.com
On Fri, 16 May 1997 05:52:21 GMT, wal...@orlinter.com (Walter
Semerenko) wrote:
Walter,
>It certainly wouldn't work well in an outdoor concert. A nice dim
>theater with lots of stage props would, but then I don't think this
>obscure band has the funds from the CD sales to put up a concert on
>that scale.
The ideal place for a Devil Doll concert would have been "The
Limelight' in NYC. It was an old gothic church which was turned
into a club (recently shut down).
Sam
sfo...@monmouth.com
On 17 May 1997 07:27:37 GMT, big...@alpes-net.fr (Calyx/Big Bang)
wrote:
>The interview is from mid-1996.
>So here's the whole thing for those who are interested (cut & paste, of
>course) :
Thank you very much for posting this interview.
Sam
chris topham
I had a chat with Rick Bosco who played Bass on _The Girl Who Was
...... Death_ and he insisted that they would never be a touring band.
That however was 3 years ago, before they became a little more
popular, so whether things might have changed ....
At the time Rick was running a terrific Vinyl and CD store in Padova,
with a great selection of used music for the Prog fan! Well worth a
visit if you are passing.
Chris in West Sussex, England