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Young, bratty and unapologetically loud, cyberpunks Dope Stars Inc stand out in a class of their own.



In a world now dependant on technology, DSI have painstakingly built there own digital platform to voice their message. From their powerful first EP, to their upcoming album, the Italian trio have thrown all they have into their music, and it certainly shows.



Victor Love, Darin Yevonde and La Nuit kindly gave up some of their time to let Rogue Tomato find out more about the inner workings of the machine, and it was only our pleasure to help them spread and infect the masses with 10'000 watts of artificial pleasure.





RT: I was introduced to your band when I was given a copy of your first Demo, 10,000 Watts of Artificial Pleasures way back in 2003. Can you describe your journey as a band over the last 6 years?



Victor Love (Vocals) :Yeah! It was actually me that personally sent that package out probably haha! I was working to get this band a deal at that time and sending packages everywhere! When we started, we wanted to make something different from other bands. A sound that could be in the middle of the electronic and rock world and it's actually what we have been working on, 6 years of style research!



Darin Yevonde (Bass): In those 6 years many things happened! We did a lot of shows, had loads of tour experiences, and met so many fans and people from every country. It has been a great evolution. It's really hard to figure out 6 years in few lines!



Victor: Since we are from a country that gives so few opportunities, we tried to do it in the most perfect way when it came to production and presentation. Once everything was ready we released the EP in 2003. After a short time, we started to receive great reviews, and had even been contacted by some labels. Then, after a few months of negotiations we got signed with Trisol. We released Neuromance, our debut album, in 2005 and started to do the first live shows sometime in the middle of 2006, we even joined most of the important summer festivals in Germany. After that, we did a tour in Germany with ASP and released a 2nd album, Gigahearts by the end of the year! Then we started to tour intensively and had our first experiences outside Germany touching other countries in Europe, it has been amazing! All of this has helped build up a more intense concept for this band that has brought us to the new album we are going to release this summer. All in all, it has been a journey full of great satisfaction, that is giving us more reasons to work better and harder to find our final dimension every day, and I think we finally found it now!



RT: Your sound is definitely distinctive, and it's never hard to pick out a Dope Stars Inc song when I hear one. What inspired you to take elements of industrial, electro and and rock and roll and mix them together?



Darin: Industrial, electronics and rock n roll are such big influences in our lives, that's its normal for us to want to mix these components, and thats made our sound. It's always hard and very risky to try to mix really different kinds of music but I think for us, it was natural and the result is not that bad!



Victor: Since the bands inception, we've wanted to create a mix that could represent the music we love and since we listen to so many different kinds of music the sound of Dope Stars Inc has been a natural result. In the very early days, I was very much into rock and metal but I also started to get a lot more into stuff like EBM and electronics. I was already a fan of 90's techno, dance and rave stuff, so I tried to make a mix of all these influences whilst still trying to keep both an industrial, electronic soul, a strong rock'n'roll/punk attitude and a concept inspired by Cyberpunk imagery. What we are doing now is definitively a more mature thing and it's created a kind of music we like to call Cyberpunk Rock.



La Nuit (Guitar): Oh Yes! “DSI typical style”, that's what I say to Victor every time we're working on a new song, We are always trying to do something new and the result is clearly Dope Stars Inc. You know, I think it involves the way we produce music, our personal tastes and our own unique style. The fact is, we really love bands such as Motley Crue, Kiss, NIN, Rob Zombie as well as techno stuff. So the original idea was to create something that could mix these different sounds all together, and here we are, Dope Stars Inc.



RT: The bands image and persona seems to focus strongly on the world of technology, machines and cyberspace. What is it about that imagery that draws you towards it?



Victor: I have always been into that kind of stuff since i was really young. I've been growing in the computer era and also, because of my father's work in that field, it deeply influenced my interests, both in my personal life, my education and then also the concepts embodied in Dope Stars Inc. One of our new songs says "We are the children of the 0 and 1", because we actually are the generation that has seen all this technology growing so fast in front of our eyes. I've seen the first commodore when I was like 7 years old and have seen every model of computer in history from that commodore, to the modern quad core systems. My passion for technology evolved with it during the years and also helped this band to come out to a point! In fact, I recorded our first EP with my personal computer in the rehearsal room we had at the time at no cost when the first home production tools started to get powerful enough to self-produce your music. In the end, I can say this is really a band that was born during the rise of technology and personally I think it has been a natural process.



RT: DSI has changed members a few times since you first came into the public eye. Is it hard to find people to join a band that already has such a devoted fan base and a unique style, and are how are things with the current line up?



Victor: It is not easy to find people to fit in the band and that's the reason why we decided to keep just the three of us at the moment for the official line up. We wanted Ash as an active member on keyboards, but he is really busy with his project, Erotic Juliet, at the moment so we could not find a way to work together this time. We have had very bad times in the past, just cause we wanted to complete the line up with members that demonstrated then to be useless, as they never had anything concrete to contribute to the music. They also slowed down the band in so many ways I can't even say! Not to mention all the ego bullshit we had to face! It is incredible to see people that have the nerve to open their mouth while they should just thank you for the opportunity they had! While they spent probably only 1% or less of their time and life working for this band, they created probably 99% of issues and problems that made us lose a lot of time and opportunities. Now we are three people that support and respect each other, and even if I still take care of most of the workload cause of practical reasons, we help each other in thousands of different ways.



La Nuit: Very Simple. Now we are just 4 friends, including also Mr. Ash, our live keyboard player. That's the main thing that has changed. It's also the most important goal for a professional band, I think. Cause thanks to this rare and cool atmosphere of friendship and brotherhood, and believe me, each member is taking care of the others, we can easily work on the usual 10,000 things a band has got to do. Everyone of us knows perfectly that he's loved by the others, you may have your troubles, but in the end, your friends will be there for you.



Darin: Playing in a band is not as easy as people imagine! Being in a band, it's like a marriage! Except you have to think it's a marriage made up from 3 people or more! Sometimes things goes wrong so easily!



Victor: Being in a band means a lot of work on a lot of different levels and most of the time in the past I was just left alone to take care of everything, with a lot of negative effects for my private life and spare time. Since the new line up has been consolidated, everything is working back at full speed again.



RT: Your new EP, 'Criminal intent/Morning star is released on April 24th and features remixes from some big names, Mortiis and KMFDM to name but two. How does it feel when you hear your work remixed by people you must have looked up to long before Dope Stars Inc even formed, and how did these remixes come to be?



Darin: It's such a big honor to work with bands you are a big fan of! For me, it was especially awesome to work with KMFDM. They are one of my favorite bands ever, and a constant source of inspiration for me! Its like a dream come true!



Victor: I really love remixes as it shows how the same song can sound with a totally different arrangement and approach. We've been always very happy to let other bands do remixes, but also offer remixes back as it is a great way to experiment. Working with so many great bands has been an honor for us. It makes us feel really proud of what we are doing. When we see other big bands want to work with us, it's a great feeling. We hope to work with more and more bands in the future and we already have a bunch of remixes to work out for other bands. Also, after finishing the album, we'll look for bands interested in doing remixes for a new release we are planning after the album! We'll get that out probably around 6 months after the album, it will have some extra stuff, b-sides and even some fresh new songs.



La Nuit: I see this fact as one of the biggest satisfactions of my life. Maybe you are a great fan of a band for a lot of years, then suddenly, it happens that this band is contacting you and working with you! Or maybe just the simple fact that you can have breakfast or dinner together! Jesus! It sounds so unbelievable for me! Then, on the other side, you begin to realize that behind those big names, you find simple people, just as you are! That's awesome, really.

RT: Coming from Italy, what was it that made you decided to write the lyrics in English, and do you find it harder to come up with lyrics in a foreign tongue?



La Nuit: That's an important question that really needs an important answer! First of all, you have to live, have to survive! I mean no one is taking care of this kind of music, alternative, industrial, gothic, etc, cause here, the only music that may have success is a certain kind of silly pop! Just to be very clear, I've got nothing against pop music, but Italian pop means just a singer with his lyrics about love or maybe sadness and so on, without giving any credit to musicians, guitars, bass or whatever,you know! That's some kind of insult for anyone who's playing an instrument. Here, it's not important how much talent an artist has, but just if this "artist" knows someone big and if he/she is good looking! That's sad. On the other hand, Italian alternative people don't support the national alternative scene, something that is completely different in the rest of Europe! If you want to be respected by Italians, you have to be well known abroad first, so forget about singing in Italian!



Darin: English is the best way for us to spread our music. The Italian language doesn't fit really well with our music and generally, the Italian sound is much better for easy listening, poppy songs.



Victor: Yeah! Italian language does not fit the kind of music we are doing. Besides, I always thought of DSI as an international project. Aside from this, if you want to send a message with your lyrics, English is definitively the best choice as it's the most common language in the international music scene. Also, there is a sort of embarrassing side to the Italian language, as most of the time, if you translate a song that sounded cool in English, even if its arranged in a better way, it will always sound ridiculous or cheesy in Italian!



RT: You have set this summer for the release of the new album. Is there a name for the album yet? Also, what can we expect from it, what stage is it in, and how was the recording process?



Victor: Yes the album will come out this summer, probably in July as we wanted to work more on the mix and we had to delay it to take care of new EP release which took me out of the mixing process for a while.



Darin: Yeah the album will come out in July, I can't wait for you people to listen to our new weapons!



Victor: We have an album title in mind already but we are still undecided. We want to find something that can represent the whole concept of the album. It will probably be the name of one of the songs in the end, but in few days, the final album title and track list will be announced. The album is completely recorded and I am working on the mix as we speak. In the meantime we are also finishing the artwork with Rhett Podersoo of Machine Room. He is doing some amazing work, inspired by the album concepts. He is a really talented guy! We really can't wait to reveal everything as it will be a new step ahead in our career.



RT: The new album will be the third DSI album to date. What lessons have you learnt from previous releases, and which, if any, have you applied to the recording process of the new album?



Victor: The first album was more of an instinctive one, a lot of stuff going on all together, sometimes a bit messy but always very loud, dirty and synthesized. Gigahearts was more experimental as we wanted to do something different and we also wanted to complete, together with the songs from Neuromance, a set of tracks to give us a more varied set list for the live performances. The new album is an evolved child/creature of both of them. There is both a dirty and bratty approach, punk attitude, a lot of synthesizers and aggressive songs but it's also got melodic anthems, mid tempos and experimental passages. It is a very balanced album that expresses the overall style of DSI and we think it will please both fans of our first and second release and will also open doors for a wider international audience.



Darin: We learned many things from the last album and from the early days, many new, different ways to let out our musical vision, from the technical side to the composition of the music, but we still play with the equipment and music like children with electronic toys!



Victor: Also we have real drums recorded this time, mixed together with hard beats and distorted loops so it's gotten a lot more dynamic. The production is indeed the best one so far because I had more time to work on song writing, the arrangements and the production. It is more mature than other releases on the conceptual and visual side of things. We have learnt many things from past albums and live experiences that has actually made this new album, at least for us, the most important and strongest release ever.



RT: You guys clearly have a strong and devoted fan base. I think it's great how much you guys keep the fans involved, with the recently re-launched forum, and with updates on your Myspace. Why do you think the fans get so passionate about your music and how does it feel to know that there are people out their who do all they can to promote your sound, purely because they want to?



La Nuit: It's a great satisfaction. Thanks to all our fans, we can spread our music and our feelings all around the world. It's because of them that we're doing something so special, something that we never reached before with our previous projects. All of you, you're giving us the chance to make our dreams true! On the other hand, we don't feel like such great or unreachable rock stars, you know! I'm just a simple guy who really loves to play music and to have great parties. So we will always be available for you, our friends, and ready to have a good whiskey all together!



Victor: Yeah we finally could manage to set up everything back as it was in the past but we needed first to have a new release out. We had a sort of standby period and we focused more on live shows and making more experiences possible. It is great to see so many people supporting us in such a loyal way. Our fans are definitively the heart and force of our engine. We have always been a band really close to our fans through the internet, and also at the after parties of each live show. We don't want to be like unreachable rock stars that don't give a shit about their fans, we'd rather take time to keep them informed about everything we do and we are always ready to reply to any question personally. There is really no point in making people believe that we too cool to talk to our fans, which is something a lot of bands like to do in order to appear cool and mysterious. I think this is just bullshit that in 2009 has no reason to exist anymore. It just harms you and your project in the long run, as without our fans we'd be nothing. Many fans helped us through the years to get our music spread to every corner of the world and without their support, and the support of our street team we'd have never got where we are now. This is a great satisfaction and also gives us the force to continue to work our ass' off for all our loyal and great fans that follow us all over the world.



RT: After the release of the new album, I bet you'll be itching to get DSI be back out on the road, and playing the new material to crowds around Europe. Any plans yet for a tour, and will you be playing any more UK shows in the upcoming months?



Victor: Yeah! We really can't wait to hit back at the UK. We'll do that around October since album will be out in July and we are planning a full European tour at that time. We are basically planning at least 3-4 dates around UK. Last time we came it was a great success and experience and we really love all our loyal UK fans. In the UK people always welcomed us in a very warm way. We've played there just 3 times so far but we really can't wait to come back and play the new songs in more cities around your beautiful country.



La Nuit: Sure there'll be a new European tour in early October, I think. Nothing is confirmed yet, but I think for sure it'll include UK! You'll see a lot of surprises during the new tour, just stay tuned!