Led by Chris and The Shadow, Edgar Allan Poets are the progenitors of noir rock. Inspired by the master’s works of tragedy and romance, they present an intriguing mix of grunge, metal, rock and synth-pop. We reached out to Chris, who handles vocals and guitars, in hopes to open up the dark cloud which shrouds the band in mystery and learn more about their horribly interesting project. Chris obliged, and here is everything you need to know about the Edgar Allan Poets — from the masters themselves!

Hello! Tell the world about yourselves. How did you grow up to become the musicians you are today?

Hello I’m Chris leader, vox, and guitar of Edgar Allan Poetsл I will introduce to you my band.
Thank you for this interview, we love Drooble, It’s a great platform where to promote your music and to connect with other musicians.

Edgar Allan Poets call their genre “Noir Rock” because their music is inspired by Edgar Allan Poe’s tales and Hitchcock’s movies. Their sound is deep and intense, a mix between grunge guitars and classical strings.

The band:
Chris Is: (Vox/Guitar)
The Shadow: (Drums)

The Edgar Allan Poets are an alternative band that promotes a dark and intense sound that’s being called noir rock. Their music is a mix of grunge guitars, classical strings, and lyrics that evoke tales shrouded in shadow and mystery. The Poets are two rock noir artists inspired by the works of Edgar Allan Poe.

Chris Mariotti from Italy. His family traveled and part of his major locations included Algeria, South Africa and, eventually, Los Angeles, California. It was during his life in Italy that the artist began taking his music seriously, playing guitar and composing.

The Poets’ other major member is The Shadow from the Northern Lands, the drummer coincidentally lived in Italy before landing in Los Angeles. He was studying music, getting a degree in percussions. He’d actually met Chris in Italy.

Chris had been through several bands before he and The Shadow decided to form a group. While Chris and Shadow are the primary members of Edgar Allan Poets, they have also collaborated with other amazing musicians. With Chris on the vox and guitar, and Shadow handling drums and keys, their deep admiration of Poe’s gothic work, as well as their mutual love of Alfred Hitchcock films are evident, inspiring the direction and sounds of their work.

You have been playing music for a long while! How do you find the drive and inspiration to keep going all this time?

For me, making music is a necessity, so it’s not so difficult to compose new songs. It’s part of my life, like eating and drinking.

Do you have any other musical projects besides Edgar Allan Poets? Introduce them!

Musically, my energy is focused only on E.A.Poets, but I love making videos for the band and also for other artists. By living in L.A I developed this passion for filmmaking, thanks also to the Youtube Space that taught me many things. I was able to work on incredible sets with top gear like Red cameras etc, it is and has been a fantastic experience. I think that an indie artist nowadays can’t focus only on doing songs. You need to be curious and develop many skills, the more you know the better. I play, record the music and most of the time I do the covers and the videos of my releases… I feel that my vision is complete.

What draws you to Edgar Allan Poe’s poetry?

I first read about him at school and it was love at first sight. I love the atmospheres, the ideas, and creativity of this Master. The first work I read was “A Descent into the Maelström”…amazing. What I like the most about Poe is that even if the story is so tragic and terrifying, there is always hope, there is always a romantic side to it. I’m not a big fan of horror splatter movies, I prefer thrillers or Noir movies because of that, even if you are telling me a tragic story, I want you to guide me through it gently as Poe and Hitchcock did in their works.

Introduce the genre of noir rock by describing your music in literature form.

The Noir Rock is a mix of distorted/grunge guitars and classical strings, piano, deep lyrics sung in a low voice. This music is inspired by Poetry and Cinema, mainly the poetry of Poe and also of Authors like Milton, Donne, Coleridge, Browning — they inspired me to write many songs. Movies by Hitchcock or early 1900 silent movies like “The man who laughs”, “The Golem” etc. The distorted guitars represent the horror/thriller and the strings and piano the romantic side of our sound. In my mind Noir Rock is something in between good and evil, we live in between the sunset and the dawn of the day, we enjoy the light, but we are also fascinated by the dark. What I’m trying to achieve is to find the perfect balance in this melodic limbo.

How did you end up with your original grunge and goth-inspired style of dark rock?

I and the Shadow have a different music taste. I like Rock, Hard Rock, Bluegrass, and old songs, so my range varies among Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Rammstein, System Of a Down, Alice In Chains etc and he is more of a metal head. He likes Burzum, Emperor, and all the Norwegian Black Metal, but also something “smoother” like Metallica etc. We both love classical music though. We mixed up these different influences, we both loved low voices and distorted guitars, so we started from there. The first song ever written by E.A.Poets is Old Black Clown, and we wrote it in a cabin in the wood among the Dolomites mountains in Italy during a rainy day. We tried to write reggae songs but it’s not in our DNA.

How is your local music scene in your perspective? Do you feel like you belong there?

Well, my local scene for years has been L.A and as you know Los Angeles local bands are pretty famous. I went to a concert of SOAD and at the beginning, Serj Tankian said “It’s always cool to play at home for our fans”…here you have to compete with the best bands in the world. Anyway, there are a lot of cool indie bands and among all this competition, you need to find a way to stand out. The Italian mountains and whether where I grew up are always influencing me and my music, I feel the roots of nature and that’s what I think is making my music original.

Luckily, everybody loved and love our name, I was a bit scared to relate the band to such a genius, the fans can get upset when you do these kinds of things, but I haven’t had any problem so far. We want to honor Edgar Allan Poe and we want to recreate his atmospheres in music, I guess they understood our message. We know our audience and we share the music with our Noir Family.

What are your all-time favorite records and how did they change you as artists?

There are so many cool records that it’s difficult to pick one. From “The Dark Side of The Moon” to “Nevermind” — all have inspired me. But my approach to music was changed by Annie Lennox…not by her music (also if I like her songs) but by one interview. I heard her saying:

“There are many artists out there always complaining that nothing is happening, always telling that their music is better than the famous songs that you listen to the radio, that they have misunderstood geniuses and so they don’t play and promote their songs anymore, they just wait to be discovered. That’s not the right approach…if you love music, just play it, you don’t need to wait for anybody… stop complaining, play your music and do what you have to do. If I’m here and you are there is just because I loved to compose songs and I loved my music even when they did not pay me to do make it.”

I totally agree with Annie and this is my approach, I don’t wait for anybody I just keep going on and releasing new songs. I just released my new single BLAH! and it’s all about this concept. We need less Blah, Blah, Blah and more action. You can listen to the song here: http://bit.ly/EAPBlah and you can find the video on our Drooble Profile.

What are your favorite software and hardware tools for music production?

Logic, Focusrite, M-Audio, Eastwest plugins, Marshall and Diezel, these are the basic stuff. I know the sound that I want and I have the gear to get it. I’m not a big fan of tech and I don’t know all the things out there. For me, an instrument is just an instrument, it is what you are able to create by using it the real gold.
So if tomorrow I will find a better software or gear than Logic or ProTools, I will change. I don’t fall in love with guitars, amps, etc. I need them to express myself. Usually, a new guitar inspires me for many songs, but then when it’s over, it’s over.

Out of all the live shows you played, which one was the most memorable, and why?

The most memorable show I played was a showcase in a little town outside L.A. There were a lot of local bands and us, nobody knew us and we were the last scheduled band. We started to play and all the friends of the other bands left the room and we were just playing for one bartender. At first, I was angry and then I said to myself…”I don’t give a F@@k” let’s play the s@@it out of this, so I started to scream nonsense and jumping around and drinking… in my mind I was playing at Lollapalooza. Some of the guys outside heard me screaming and they put their noses back in to see the madman performing. After a while the room was full again and, completely drunk, I did the worst best concert of my life.

What is your biggest musical goal?

We want to spread the Noir Word out so we want to reach as many “Ravens” as possible. Only the sky is the limit…of course, it must be cloudy and crowded.

How has being on Drooble helped you as musicians?

Your service is fantastic, very easy to use and the Karma points are a great idea to promote indie artists. I think that a social platform like this was missing and I wish you guys all the best. Thank you for all you do and as always Rock On! Dovíždane to all the Bulgarian friends!