What’s up, wrockers? Today, we have a special post on the Wizrocklopedia! The Cruciatus Curse have a new album coming out June 10 on their Bandcamp page, their first new album in 10 years! We spoke to Denni from the band about their music and the new album, which is called TH1RTE3N! As a special bonus, if you scroll down to the bottom of the post, we also have a ‘Pedia-exclusive preview of a track from the album: “Alone!” Read on for more! 

Wizrocklopedia: This is your first new album in 10 years—how does it feel to be putting a new wizard rock album out again after so long?

Denni: The only way I can describe it is like when you go to the store and try to check out only to realize you forgot your wallet at home, you desperately pat your pockets down, and just when you’re about to give up and run back home but then you check your last jacket pocket and find $20 you had stashed away and slipped your mind. Now you’re asking what that has to do with the question… You don’t ever realize how much you need something until you find it again. That is Wizard Rock for me, it was a huge part of my life for so long and when I played my last live show in Bethlehem, PA, in 2011, I felt like I was starting a new chapter in my life. The years went by, I focused on being a father and a husband… until one day I received a message from a certain journalist from Wizrocklopedia asking me if I would consider doing a song for the 2020 Wizard Rock Sampler. (Go check it out; it’s awesome!)

So I decided to dust off the old “Dark Markrophone” and record a new song. I was so nervous the night of the release party because I was afraid no one would remember me, it had been 9 years since I was The Curse, what if they didn’t like me or my song and not only were they playing a new song but I was also going to be talking about it live during the show. Then the show started and I heard all of the new amazing Wizard Rock that was being put out and then when my song came on… the comments, the outpouring of support and love had me in tears. I had forgotten part of who I was, I was given such a gift and that gift was Wizard Rock and the community that makes Wrock what it is. No judgment, only support, no hatred, only love.

I decided right then and there that I wasn’t done, there were new stories to be told, life experiences that could touch, help or heal someone else. I wanted to bring joy again, put smiles back on people’s faces and I wanted to spread a message of unity. We are all one race, HUMAN, we are all in this world TOGETHER and we all need to start treating each other better. We need to make being nice & doing nice things for people commonplace again. We need to set the example for generations to come. And I know for a fact that we all can do it because I have seen it, since Day 1 of Wizard Rock, that is how we have been, loving, accepting, different and together.

Wizrocklopedia: You explore a lot of dark perspectives in your work—Death Eaters, Voldemort, etc. Why do you often focus on this subject matter, and what do you hope listeners consider when listening to your lyrics?

Denni: You cannot enjoy the light in your life without experiencing the darkness first. Now with that said, I’ve always felt a certain pull towards the darkness but also wanting to let that light shine through, so I kind of always based my life on the yin yang, full balance, never fully dark because there’s a little bit of light inside and never fully light because there’s a little bit of darkness inside.

So I write the songs in that sort of tone, that feel, what if you were a death eater and you did all these horrible actions and now you have to live with them. How would that feel? And on the flipside what if you were always good and then you did something a little bit bad? That little bit of emotion & adrenaline that goes into that. Also I really hope to show that no matter if you are a good person or not a good person that there are still redeeming qualities and that everybody deserves a chance and sometimes it’s good to just let loose and have a little bit of fun…like Draco and the Malfoys said, “party like you’re evil!”

Wizrocklopedia: To my ears, many of the songs on this new album (which I’ve already heard in full – mwahaha!) focus on love: obsessive love, true love, love gone wrong, lack of love. What do you think of this interpretation?

Denni: OK so picture this, you are a death eater, you meet up with your other death eater buddies, you guys are sort of like a motorcycle club except for you ride brooms, basically a Broom club, a BC. So one day you’re thinking, all up in your head, about love that has come, love that has gone. Are you gonna be able to talk to Voldemort about that? Not a chance, he doesn’t know love. So what about your friends? Probably not because you don’t wanna seem weak to them. So the lyrics to some of my songs are just to kind of get into the groove, to maybe know what’s going on inside the mind of a death eater. As you know, not all of them are good, but also not all of them are bad. Now that’s something to think about.

Wizrocklopedia: Finally, could you talk about this song we’ve picked to preview: “Alone.” What’s it about, and what would you like folks to know about it?

Denni: OK so this song is kind of a hybrid, I wrote it from the point of you of a death eater after the fall of Voldemort, everybody else is gone, everybody else is captured. So the alone feeling is what the death eater has. It’s also a little bit of how I had felt in May 2015. On May 22nd I fell off of a cliff, the news said it was 100 feet and the papers said 60ft. Well I should’ve been dead but I was able to walk away with a fractured hip, 2 fractured ribs and a torn open knee. after my fall I got a new sense for life, how precious it really is. Everything that a person experiences each day was so much crisper and I had so much more appreciation for everything that I had in my life and honestly in those first couple days it was such a unique experience for me, feeling all of those sensations, feeling the pain, feeling the regret, the anger and the sadness and basically I had started feeling sorry for myself.

So when I realized what I was doing I stopped because I wanted to do the complete opposite. I wanted to spread joy. I wanted to give people a smile every single day. I wanted to just be nice because you don’t know what somebody’s going through. Ever since that time that is what I have done. At my job I’m able to talk to people but I always make sure that I say a kind word and listen to them when they need to be listened to and it makes me feel happy and fills me with joy to see the smiles on other peoples faces. That is what life truly is about. 

I want to say thank you Sagan for reaching out to me last year and for helping me to resurrect The Cruciatus Curse, I can honestly never thank you enough.

Wizrocklopedia: Aw, thank you, Denni! I really appreciate your work and I’m glad you’re here!

And now, as promised, here is your exclusive preview of the Cruciatus Curse’s “Alone!” TH1RTE3N comes out next week at bc.crucio.co—enjoy the tune and wrock on!