A Dirty Dozen with LUCAS DiMASCIO from MALACODA – October 2021

According to a recent press release: “Originally a recording project of multi-instrumentalist and music producer Lucas Di Mascio, Malacoda has persevered and grown throughout the years. Now a trio, the band is ready to unleash the conclusion to their trilogy of EP’s that was written and recorded before the pandemic. Embark on the Year Walk…. The Year Walk is the third EP Malacoda will release in 2021. Four more songs which build upon the band’s symphonic sound first explored on 2016’s Ritualis Aeterna. Long time collaborator Michael Farina returns to play drums on select tracks, as well as Ryan Claxton (Tulip, Living Dead Girl) and Andrew Suarez (ex-The Slyde). The haunting album cover was made by the extremely talented Stefan Skjoedt.” We get Lucas to discuss new music, influences, and more…

1. Tell us a little about your latest release. What might a fan or listener not grab the first or second time they listen through? Are there any hidden nuggets you put in the material or that only diehard fans might find?

The Year Walk is the third EP we’ve released this year, and it’s probably our favourite of the three. It was mixed and mastered by Jeramie Kling and we have a few guest musicians sprinkled throughout the EP. I guess a cool fact from this is we had to re-amp the guitars in the mixing process- they were all recorded at different times during and before the pandemic, so to even things out a bit Jeramie re-amped them using Thomas Youngblood’s (Kamelot guitarist) kemper tone from their live shows!

2. What got you into music, and can you tell us about the moment you realized you wanted to be a musician?

I think I got into music at a young age, I was always surrounded by musicals and Disney stuff when I was a kid so I think it just always stuck with me as I got older. I was in high school when I joined my first band and around then I started making some connections in the music industry and I felt like this was something could be viable in some form.

3. Building on that, is there a specific song, album, performer, or live show that guided your musical taste?

There’s way too many and it depends on the point in my life. At one point I would have said Danny Elfman, another point Van Halen and another Trent Reznor. I think a consistent artist that I always go back to though is Katatonia. They’ve always resonated with me because of their songwriting and album production – nobody sounds like them and they’re always getting better with each release which makes me think more critically about what I’m listening to.

4. If you could call in any one collaborator to do a song with, who would it be, and why?

I’d love to work with Danny Elfman because his music was such a big part of my childhood – Nightmare Before Christmas was probably the first movie I ever saw as a kid and it stuck with me.

5. What is your favorite activity when out of the studio and/or not on tour? What do you like to do to unwind?

I feel like I’m never out of the studio since I own one and engineer all of our music! Honestly I like going for walks in trails or checking out historical locations, practice my photography. I’ll play video games now and then with my guitar tech – but I find if I’m playing way too many video games then I’m probably in a bad mood and should probably get to work haha.

6. How would you describe your music to someone who’d never listened to you before? What is the one comparison a reviewer or fan has made that made you cringe or you disagreed with?

I’d say this year we really buckled down on the symphonic power metal side of things. Other releases have sounded a bit different due to production and who has been involved with the band or my headspace on things, but we’ve always been consistently dark and thematic without being cheesy I think. I think a fan had compared us to In Flames which was the farthest from the truth – we’ve never done anything resembling melodic death metal!

7. When your band is hanging out together, who cooks, who gets the drinks in, and who is first to crack out the acoustic guitars for a singalong?

I don’t think any of us are good cooks, so it’d be more like “who’s the one ordering the pizza?” I used to bartend and I love making cocktails so that’s most likely me. I don’t think any of us are the acoustic guitar singalong type either, we’d probably watch some dumb b-horror movie or listen to some weird industrial music instead.

8. When was the last time you were starstruck and who was it?

I think the last time I was truly starstruck was when I met Aaron Stainthorpe from My Dying Bride at the 70k tons of metal cruise. Got to watch a few bands with him, had some beers and got to hang out for a few hours. Genuinely a nice guy.

9. What is the best part of being a musician? If you could no longer be a musician for whatever reason, what would be your dream job?

The best part of being a musician is the creating part in my opinion. If I could no longer do music for whatever reason, I’d probably want to work as a writer or on video game design.

10. What is one question you have always wanted an interviewer to ask – and what is the answer? Conversely, what question are you tired of answering?

I’ve always wanted interviewers to ask more technical questions about the recording process, but that’s just because I’m a studio nerd and I get off on that kind of stuff. I’m a little tired of answering the question “what does your band name mean?” I just think it’s lazy and not really interesting – especially if I’ve been answering it for over 5 years.

11. Looking back over your career, is there a single moment or situation you feel was a misstep or you would like to have a “do over,” even if it didn’t change your current situation?

Plenty of times to be honest but probably working with a certain manager was the biggest misstep. Just a lot of dishonesty that didn’t amount to anything, I could have spent my time doing other things and unfortunately we “worked” together long enough that it bled into our future afterwards.

12. If you could magically go back in time and be a part of the recording sessions for any one record in history, which would you choose – and what does that record mean to you?

I think I’d want to be there for Opeth’s Blackwater Park because that record is nuts. Like it’s so raw and their playing is so good, it was just captured perfectly. To me, I think that record helped shape my philosophies and opinions on production, music and performance in general. Everyone loves it but I don’t think enough people talk about how raw the production is – you can hear their finger scrapes on the guitar of most songs and those imperfections just make it that much more special of a record.

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Category: Interviews