Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Evan Daniele. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Evan, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Do you think your parents have had a meaningful impact on you and your journey?
I was extremely fortunate to grow up with highly supportive parents. It’s thanks to my mom that I started playing guitar at an early age. I recall being about nine years old when my school’s music teacher handed out fliers advertising that her son would be offering one-on-one guitar lessons. When my mom saw the flier she asked me if I wanted to learn to play to which I replied, “sure”. I didn’t really have any other hobbies at the time, and I’m very grateful that I decided to try it out. By the time I was a few years into it, my dad’s musical taste really started to influence the direction of my playing, and that’s when I really started to become obsessed with music. Like most dads of his generation, he loved classic rock bands like Led Zeppelin, The Doors, AC/DC, Cream, etc. While I have become thoroughly immersed in the world of extreme metal, I still have a deep appreciation for bands of that era, and I believe the influence is apparent in my music. When I was around twelve years old my dad noticed how dedicated I had become to practicing and improving my guitar skills, and decided to buy me my first “real” electric guitar, a Gibson SG. At the time, my two favorite guitar idols were Angus Young and Tony Iommi, who both played an SG, so I was pretty elated. I’ve amassed a modest guitar collection over the years, but the SG remains my favorite.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
My involvement with bands and other creative projects goes back to my experience as a kid attending a local School of Rock. I was around twelve or thirteen when I first started there, and I had only just started developing a sense of musical identity. At the time my only instrument was the guitar, but I quickly developed a fascination with the drums and bass and began to pick up the basics of these instruments as well. I took guitar lessons for quite awhile, but just about all of my drumming and bass-playing skills are self-learned. It was also around this time that I was starting to get into heavier music, and having the influence of other like-minded musicians who were around my age was critical in expanding my musical perspective. I formed some of my first bands with these individuals, and ultimately ended up having my first real studio experience as a result.
Currently, I am actively involved in three different bands, each one playing a different strain of death metal. I play drums for Sentient Horror, guitar for Vulnificus, and everything for my solo project and proudest musical achievement, Dead and Dripping. I started Dead and Dripping in 2016 out of what I felt was necessity. I was in college at the time, and spent much of my free time playing music alone. At a moment in which I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to do with my life and often felt I couldn’t relate to many of my peers, developing my musical style afforded me a sense of accomplishment and excitement that I felt was lacking in other aspects of life. Having nobody around me who quite fit the style I was going for (and lots of social apprehension), I decided to just do it myself. This project has granted me the opportunity to express my ideas in an unfiltered and uncompromising manner, and I believe these qualities make it stand out from other bands in the death metal niche. Doing as much as possible by myself has also caused me to learn a lot about production; Scot Moriarty has engineered the drum recording session for each release, but I record everything else on my own. Over the years, we have built a sound that I think isn’t quite like anything else, and I plan to continue this trajectory with each new release.
Prior to Dead and Dripping, I had worked on a few other projects which were typically met with a lack of listeners. I recall being so nervous to release my ideas, only to realize that nobody cared. By the time I was ready to release the first Dead and Dripping demo in 2016, I anticipated the same results. At that point, I didn’t really care whether or not anybody would notice, and wanted to take the project to fruition purely for my own satisfaction. I pressed a very small run of 25 CDs and didn’t even put them up for sale until a couple months after receiving them; I was shocked when they sold out in a few days. It wasn’t exactly a monetary victory considering I pressed them with my own money and learned the hard way how expensive international shipping was, but it gave me all the encouragement I needed to begin working on the next release. I would go on to self-release two full-length albums, which didn’t receive much notoriety but were critical stepping stones in a creative sense. My most recent album, “Blackened Cerebral Rifts”, was released by Transcending Obscurity Records in 2023. This marked a significant uptake in listenership, and was also the first time I’ve had my work pressed on vinyl. It’s available pretty much everywhere that folks listen to music. The next album is currently in production and will hopefully be out some time in 2025. I am also in the process of solidifying a live lineup so I can take these songs to the stage.
Like many musicians in my position, I have put a ton of my own money into sustaining and improving my projects. I have recently been trying to find creative ways to make money, and have opened myself up for drum session work. Ultimately, my goal is to be able to spend more time creating and less time working a regular job. Playing such a niche style of music, I don’t really have hopes of becoming rich and famous, but I would be more than satisfied to be able to sustain myself doing what I love.
Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?
When I was working on my first album, I was coming off of a couple year hiatus from music due to some extenuating circumstances. I recall mentioning to a friend that I felt I really needed to get back to practicing so I could get the record done. Their response was simply, “why?” This way of thinking seems to be very common amongst people who don’t undertake personal endeavors and perhaps find satisfaction through their regular job. Most folks seem confused as to why someone might forgo getting a “real” job with good benefits and steady income to do something that isn’t currently monetarily rewarding. Why put so much time and effort into something that isn’t paying the bills? For me it’s truly about personal satisfaction and I think a lot of people have the view that doing something difficult that requires you to really push yourself physically or mentally isn’t worth the effort unless you’re getting paid a large sum of money. I’ve heard people express this in regards to creative pursuits as well as in regards to niche sports in which there isn’t a ton of money to go around. A lot of people seem to think of money as being the only form of currency in life, but to me, exercising a passion is a form of currency in itself. I’m not a very spiritual person, but I find that creative expression feels nourishing to the “soul”. My inner cynic feels a little nauseated having typed that out, but it’s true. Obviously I want as many people as possible to listen to my music, but ultimately the satisfaction comes from knowing that I saw a project through from inception to completion.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
I find that the most rewarding aspect of being an artist is seeing ideas come to fruition. All artists are basically facilitating the transformation of an abstract thing into something real and tangible. Bringing a thought to life feels like the closest thing in the world to magic. It’s insane to me to think that something that was once only a blip of a thought in my brain now exists in the world and is being digested by other people in various formats. Music is a really strange form of communication in that it’s not always about conveying a black and white message. It can be totally nebulous and more so meant to communicate a certain “vibe”, and still really click and resonate with a complete stranger who just happens to be on that wavelength. With each of my albums so far, there have been a handful of listeners who really effortlessly “got” it, as if I was just saying hello to them. I believe that if you think your work is awesome and it’s really authentic and really speaks to you, there’s at least a few other people out there who will feel the same way. As awful as the internet can be, I think one of its best aspects is that you can just freely put your ideas out there and someone halfway across the world might think it’s one of the best things they’ve ever heard.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.deadanddripping.com/store
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dead_and_dripping/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/deadanddripping
- Other: Dead and Dripping Bandcamp Page: https://deadanddripping.bandcamp.com/
Transcending Obscurity Bandcamp Page: https://deadanddrippingus.bandcamp.com/album/blackened-cerebral-rifts
