Interview with Daniel S. Crane of Strings of Distorted Doom by Dave Wolff
Dave - Tell the readers why you decided to revive Strings Of Distorted Doom after your 10 year hiatus? How long did it take you to gather material for your EP and full length releases of “Doom Trials”?
DRSC - Not long, February to the end of June I finished vocals for the album. I did more for that album than I ever did in 6 months time than those 10 years alone.
Dave - Up until recently you were hosting an short lived internet podcast & online radio program.
DRSC- It was called Dan’s Takeover on Podbean and my DJ segment Dans Block which aired on 3 extreme metal radio stations online.
Dave - Describe this segment, and syndication.
DRSC - It was all featured on Metal Radio GR, Canada’s Extreme Metal Radio & Metal Devastation Radio.
Dave - How exactly did you hook up with them all for airing and explain why you retired now as a DJ?
DRSC - By online contacts.
I almost ended up at another station too.
Doing 3 stations was enough already.
It was a fun spare time segment to do in my free time at first like everyone else did that DJ just like me.
I made it into my job kinda for that period of time.
I also played many favorites of mine.
Amongst many promos, from bands from the stations and my own personal picks.
Up and comers I scouted. The latest that people dug, upon request…rarities, obscure stuff.
Even little pieces I thought about.
I made it all work.
Besides myself and my music.
So…a good question would be…
Why did I stand out from the rest?
From the huge crowd of DJs all online doing more than I ever did for many many years that I only did in 6 months?
Uh, well…I do not know.
Thanks everyone for tuning in! 🤘👌
I put all I had into it in all those episodes.
My own format, everything meshed well together.
All interconnected.
I promoted many other DJs across all 3 stations over mine during that time too & I even filled in when people couldn’t air.
They all know who they are.
I always DID my JOB, and more.
Sacrifice.
First one to walk in, last one to walk out.
All extreme, all in your face.
I knew it wouldn’t go on much longer after I saw the red lights before everyone else did.
I do not know.
What I do know is, I had to put it to rest.
For now.
I’m glad I wore everything and everyone down with my lack of compromise because they all showed me none so I got out because unfortunately I’m too savage to be on online radio right now.
If it wasn’t true then why did everyone treat me the way they did?
Honestly, I wanted to stay voiceless.
Which I hope I never do ever again now because for some reason everyone likes my own voice more than I do.
I’m glad you all enjoyed it while it lasted.
Then something dawned on me in the last few episodes.
So I hope what I plan to do now that is in the works…becomes something that becomes something some rare individuals like myself, can follow.
Until then, it is what it is.
The rest is history.
Dave - What other projects, if any, were you doing during the ten years S.O.D.D. was inactive? Or were you taking a break altogether? DRSC - I was still doing Mors Omnibus, Dave. The whole time, in case anyone even noticed…or working on misc things here & there.
My last release before Doom Trials was the album Circus Verses by Mors Omnibus.
Another solo project of mine & it is horror soundtrack music.
It’s different. Very different.
It is not really a “band” or act where I put out albums for the sake of putting albums out.
MO is collectively a personal effort to reach out to people in the entertainment business that see potential in this musical style for the mediums they put out.
Maybe in L.A.? Who knows.
Wherever it may be.
I have not got that “HEY” yet, though.
I have been doing MO since 2012.
The new Mors Omnibus album Schizophrenic Prosthetics is underway…
The EP before that album release is up on Bandcamp.
It’s called Walrider.
It has a theme around it like Circus Verses and Nocturnal Carnival does too. The carny themes.
Except for Schizophrenic Prosthetics, it’s about my own personal mental health or others' own and it is more personal than the last two full length albums.
Lots of phenomena on it, as well.
t is also mostly focused around Rollins Hills Asylum in NY and off the same game, the video game that the EP is based off of.
Plus things I read lightly in medical books online.
And, much more.
So yeah, I didn’t sit around and do nothing for 10 years…but anyway thanks for asking.
Dave - Is there any way “Doom Trials’ differs from the material you wrote in S.O.D.D.’s earlier years? What emotions or attitudes were you looking to capture with it?
DRSC - I don’t have to really answer this question how you phrased it but what I can say is yeah…it does differ, in many ways Dave.
My older material is just me you know?
Remember? Raw and unfiltered.
Doom Trials is an album I declare as only for me now.
It is WHY I still make it available.
If people want it they will get it.
The old stuff was cassette recordings, though.
I miss recording on cassette tapes.
I need an acoustic guitar and I would just record myself like I did in the old days.
Dave - Last December you released a new EP called “Dead Lights” containing three versions of the single of the same name.
DRSC - It is cool…I like to think…but it is my final offering to that song since to me it is the one & only song that stood out the
most… out of all the songs since the whole album Doom Trials started.
I paid my tribute to the theme that is Dead Lights and in my mind it’s the only song there that is a single. Or a cult classic.
It is WHY I decided to put it out.
Then KILL it.
Once and for all.
That was when I also decided I had to finalize this album.
It was either this OR I keep it buried.
In blood.
Dave - How soon do you expect to finish your project album with Mors Omnibus to release Schizophrenic Prosthetics? Will you be releasing this recording independently, perhaps on your indie label Distorted Doom Records? DRSC - No matter what happens…in America it will be released solely by me on CD & if I can fit it on LP.
For the most part.
I expect it to be completed by the end of this month, this long awaited 3rd full length album.
Maybe sooner.
Making albums for me is a moment to moment experience basis.
As it should be.
Not a set date or standard I have to follow, like a routine job.
Which has happened to me many times in the past for graphic designing & music things.
Say music with others own sole founded creations in music.
May it take long or not at all.
Dave - What other musical projects have you been involved in through the years besides Strings and Mors Omnibus?
DRSC - Many artists from all over the world through online communications. Those projects will be re-released soon. On cd & LP.
I also made communications with many prominent artists in the past.
That let me interview them, talk to them or I was allowed to cover a song.
Some very short lived projects…one involved the Lord Of Logos.
I still have the logo and some misc tracks I made. The one he made for us. Christophe.
It is amazing to me still that that guy did a logo for me though upon request…it’s too bad the person involved with me decided to seek fame by other means…in the public eye.
Rather than letting their music speak for themselves.
I wish that person the best of luck but that person has severe issues, from drinking far too much. Which is pretty, sad.
Dave - Speaking of Distorted Doom Records, how long have you been running that label? When you started, did you intend to exclusively release your projects or were you also considering other bands?
DRSC - Not long, 2 weeks so far. Everything is being uploaded on my site where all the physical merch is hosted for sale where it’s directly shipped from the company.
DDR is a huge distributor / distro / personal label of sorts.
By an artist, for the artists!
May it be my music or archives or special stuff I have there in the distro I make.
And more.
It is for all of you in the underground and all proceeds outside my name left over after merch purchase go directly to that artists from Bandcamp.
To help support them and also they can get reviews for a DDR distro item based on their works related to them too. Passed around.
May it be provided to me by them or what I make to distro to host for them for sale.
It’s very neat. Something I like doing too. It helps not just me but everyone.
I have much to put up and to do through the company in Brooklyn that makes all the merchandise before it is all on the Bandcamp page.
I’m building my distro with a little bit of everything plus all my stuff and other artists I am close with.
For free.
On CD & LP.
I don’t want to be responsible for anyone’s music licensing but my own if it moves or not through DDR.
That’s for other labels to deal with.
As long as you provide all art & mp3s. If you like the DDR records stamp? I can do that too with your album artwork or what’s given to me then you can officially say you are part of my label.
People are severely lost these days to the arts they use to strongly embrace. In a world like this where one is not paid to create unless they are, this is what I offer to you.
Especially since covid happened.
Whole world is upside down.
For the ones who always stayed on track unlike me?
I SALUTE YOU.
You all have been through a lot more than myself and are super passionate people.
You confided in me & since I have a huge assortment of poems and have considered publishing them in an ebook of sorts. I like to put their names in the credits.
I like to make plans to have multiple volumes of all these writings I have that span back 20 years ago into a book in many formats and all of them are a piece of my journey as a kid growing up experiencing life as I did.
Around many different times and phases in my own life.
I wrote a whole song in Latin once.
Many years ago. An idea I came up with after watching Event Horizon for the 1st time.
As for when all that will be published and typed up or done?
No clue.
I only typed up a hand numbered amount so far. Not dozens yet. It is a-lot to type up and go over.
Dave - How did your need for writing start? I am a writer more so than a musician. In many ways.
I make fantasy out of my writings or things that happen in reality but in ways that only happen in what I write.
Or what I experience.
It’s very weird. I got sappy ones, brutal ones, mental ones, mythical ones, odd ones, and even a very few sexually charged ones. Occult ones.
It really depends. Most were towards my views in life, too. Or I wrote down lyrics from other artists I really liked in my own way.
Like a cover song? A modified one.
Dave - How did your writing all the sudden happen?
Mostly in my high school days I wrote from 7-12th grade. So when I first inducted myself into black metal for good at 14 when all the other forms of extreme metal were cool to me but for some reason I felt under appreciated as a person and I am a very misunderstood MISFIT other than people who did take the time out…to know me more so that when I heard black metal music it sung to me in a way that no other form of music could.
Since it was raw, like myself. Unfiltered and honest. Thrash too!
I was extroverted to a degree and still am in ways.
Then I became more introverted from this bullshit societal conditioning… everyone these days falls under it for some reason but it was because I have a lot to say where others don’t.
Never fall under people or their petty resignation when not warranted with one's lack of equalized compromise.
Whatever their reasons may be.
SPEAK UP. AND BE REAL. STAY TRUE TO THE DOOM!
Always. If you have a problem with that? Then confirm and accept it.
I can’t read everyone…like some kind of John Edwards or something but I’m forward when I need to be.
I only am “shy” when I feel like I am being myself then threatened or undermined in some way for it.
Or taken advantage of.
I’m not into just one genre musically or listening to Dave, too…
There is a strong eclectic layer to me.
You literally become that lifestyle.
It is all aIl I ever knew other than what I do outside the arts that embrace me as much as I embrace it.
It can be dangerous…
I have fellow musicians that support me though these past 13 years in the scene that I consider to be MY family.
Whoever that is left.
Dave - I listen to many genres, and support them through Asphyxium. I point out it was a natural progression, not forced. It’s good for an underground artist to broaden horizons without fear of being labeled a poser; on the other hand there are people who preach about being “open minded” and how versatile they are. Why not just listen to and draw from what you like?
DRSC - You summed up everything I said there. I play what feels right to me and listen to what feels right to me. As for anything else in my life. Which I believe is a very sound way to be. Never fall or be pushed into a box, by modern tricks may they be physical or psychological or cave to societal norms or what is deemed acceptable in the herd…rebel against all our kind readers of Asphyxium!
Dave - What sort of experiences do you write your poems about starting with your high school years? Would you expect readers to relate to them or are they of an extremely personal nature? Name some examples of your most personal writings?
DRSC - All kinds. May it be from people or things that were in my mind at the time or I wrote lyrics for all these previous short lived bands I was in before I decided to go solo of course.
They can relate. Some can be otherworldly or personal or based on books or quotes or any sort of medium I was at the moment with, say the Evil Dead movie franchise when I recorded the first self titled S.O.D.D. Ep on cassette. Or Night Of The Living Dead, Cyborg, and so on. Sampling in my songs.
Or just things I was witnessing at the time or experiencing I could not explain.
Examples…the lyrics I wrote on paper for Doom Trials were very personal.
One song I wrote has my blood on it.
Ones before that are personal too. Everything has its own meaning or own thought provoking process behind them. I reveal that because that is how music and art is naturally formed in my mind. Before I create it or it just happens.
Not to say, something along the lines of "oh I think MGLA lyrics are cool so let’s copy their style." Which to me is herd mentality. Or let’s record ourselves with just our phones solely because some band you like did that, which to me is just ridiculous.
And very uncool. Let’s do this to stand out in this crowd.
What!?
Let’s just riff raff and make what feels right.
It requires a real effort through many hours naturally making songs like that where it is all real and makes you go, oh…then dive in deeper.
I think people do it all in that modern stuff or form because it’s easier for them and it is noticed by a wider audience.
Without that anyone who makes art or music in the ways people do now unless they have something in it that is organic behind it in some sort of way…unlike Mors Omnibus which I only played guitar on one track for one song once for the whole discog so…it’s very program based but hits all the right spots for a inorganic outlet…it still FEELS like it is…a life of its own.
It can be a let down to me.
Dave - Which artists are you considering adding to your distro besides your own bands? What company or companies are you working with? Will there be a Bandcamp page featuring the bands on your label and distro, or possibly a compilation of sorts?
Many different artists on the distro side. The ones I mentioned earlier are for me alone. Plus many rarities you can not find published this way anywhere else. A real underground effort.
Dave - If you were to publish an eBook of your poems sometime soon, how much material would be included in it?
10 poems in each volume I like to think about, at some point. There are many, even only in digital form. It is one of the last things I want to do but it is always on my mind while I am busy doing music biz stuff. It is not in demand, yet. So I am letting it float up in the air till I have a handle on it.
Dave - Do you have other projects in mind in the weeks or months to come, band wise or zine wise? Would you consider another radio show if you could do one, or something like a podcast where you review bands?
DRSC - Well, I did some new songs for Mors Omnibus for a split album release I made in association with a Chilean otherworldly musical act only known deep within the dark corners of the psyche which will be released in time.
Something may come up soon, but I am not entirely sure yet on that. As far as a podcast, I like to keep things private here and I rather get to it when I find a setting where I feel ok with doing it. Until then, that is on the backburner while I quietly focus on things here that require my attention with everything else I already mentioned.
Thanks for the time Dave.
-Dave Wolff
