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 Chrisis in Italy. Chrisis had been through several bands before he and The Shadow decided to form a group.
While Chrisis and Shadow are the primary members of Edgar Allan Poets, they have also collaborated with other amazing musicians. With Chrisis 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, is evident, inspiring the direction and sounds of their work.
In this interview spotlight, I chat with Chris of Edgar Allan Poets to discuss the latest project, motivations, challenges and more.
Full Q&A along with links and music below.
Where are you from and what style of music do you create? (In your own words, not necessarily in marketing terms or by popular genre classifications.)
We play what we like to call Noir Rock because for our music we find inspiration from Poe and Hitchcock. Our sound is deep and intense a mix of strongly distorted guitars and classical strings, keys and low tune voice.
What led you down this path of music and what motivates you to keep going?
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.
How is this new release different than previous ones? Were you trying to accomplish anything specific?
We want always to challenge ourselves by releasing something meaningful.
Nowadays everybody can become a Guru. You just need to put your face in front of a camera, scream some nonsense and little by little you will start to create your audience.
Most of the time people are more interested in how to share their ideas instead of the concepts they try to spread. We should maintain a more critical attitude so to understand who has the knowledge and who has not.
More content and less BLAH,BLAH,BLAH.
Name one or two challenges you face as an indie musician in this oversaturated, digital music age? How has technology helped you (since we know it does help)?
Technology is very important because nowadays you don’t need anyone to produce and promote your music. It’s all on your shoulder, if you are willing to work hard you can always find people interested in speaking about your music.
There is more competition so it is not easy to get visibility, you need to work hard and try to open as many doors as possible.
The music business has changed a lot and the artists can’t anymore only compose music and drink whiskey, today you need to have more skills in order to promote your music.
Where is the best place to connect with you online and discover more music?
You can find Edgar Allan Poets on all the social media:
Anything else before we sign off?
Really thanks Joshua for your service, blogs like MTM are helping many indie artists to gain more visibility and people to discover new music.
This is what I like the most about doing music nowadays, there are fewer gatekeepers or at least I feel that there are more ears listening and so you can always find someone who can fall in love with your music.Thank you for supporting new Bands and Rock on!
Chris, Edgar Allan Poets
