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Arts & Entertainment

Interview: Phantom Family Halo's Dominic Cipolla

Sometime Silver Lake resident and culture writer Cesar Padilla caught up with Cipolla while he was in town to talk KISS and the road to psychedelic soul. Cipolla and his band Phantom Family Halo play Friday at the Echo.

Cesar: Let's talk psychedelic rock. What really got you into this? 

Dominic: I love early 70s American and German bands like everything from Blue Cheer to Faust.

Cesar: What was your first record? 

Dominic: That i ever bought? i'm pretty sure it KISS The Elder.

Cesar: Now let's talk KISS and your obsession with Ace.

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Dominic: I think the way they looked the way they did and sounded.  Visually it was something I couldn't look away from and it was accompanied by distortion and raw rock n roll.

Cesar: You recorded your new album, your first on the Knitting Factory label, in a church in Louisville, Kentucky. Can you describe what that was like?

Dominic: It was a recording studio built on top of a funeral home. It was a large live room which at one point was a viewing area of the deceased. Basically it is an old large chapel room.

Cesar: You recorded two records at once there for the Knitting Factory label and are releasing them separately.

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Dominic: They were very much two different groups of songs that reflected two different sounds.

Cesar: Are you saying they wouldn't have worked as one even though they were recorded at once?

Dominic: Well, the first record When I Fall Out--which is out now--is dark and the second is a bright light record.

Cesar: Can we expect any of the new songs Friday night?

Dominic: No, we are saving those new tracks for the fall when we go on tour for the new record called Hard Apple Moon being released Sept. 11.

Cesar: I understand there is a collaboration with Acid Mother's Temple.

Dominic: I have done a recording with Kawabata Makoto but it has yet to see the light of day, and there is no release scheduled.

Cesar: How would you describe your heavy sound?

Dominic: Psychedelic soul.

Phantom Family Halo joins Acid Mothers Temple, Pond and Hepatitis for a show Friday, April 13 at the Echo.

Click through for details and ticket info.

Related articles:

Louisville's Dominic Cipolla Brings Phantom Family Halo Home

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