{"id":44624,"date":"2026-08-21T07:20:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-21T05:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/orkus1.com\/an-interview-with-epta7-1-1\/"},"modified":"2026-08-21T16:55:46","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T14:55:46","slug":"an-interview-with-epta7-1-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orkus1.com\/en\/an-interview-with-epta7-1-1\/","title":{"rendered":"An Interview with EPTA7 (1\/1)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Irish-Italian industrial metal project EPTA7 was founded in Dublin in 2012. We talk with the two founding members, Gianz and Miss Grey, about their new album, \u201cHere Come the Freaks.\u201d <\/p>\n\n

Orkus: How did EPTA7 come to be founded back then?<\/strong>Gianz:<\/strong> Before EPTA7, I played in an Italian band called Levania. When my job took me to Ireland, I had to leave the band behind and move to Dublin. Musically, that wasn\u2019t planned at all\u2014if I\u2019d stayed in Italy, I would have continued playing with them. Shortly after moving to Dublin, however, I met other musicians who had very similar musical ideas and, above all, the same desire to do something different. That was actually the beginning of EPTA7. So it wasn\u2019t something I\u2019d carefully planned before moving to Ireland. Rather, it was a consequence of that move: I left a chapter of my musical life behind in Italy, came to Dublin, met the right people, and unexpectedly started a new one. Miss Grey:<\/strong> My story is quite different from Gianz\u2019s, because I didn\u2019t have any comparable experiences in Italy. I sang occasionally at parties and in youth or cultural centers, but I\u2019d never been part of a band. At the same time, as a metalhead, I\u2019d always dreamed of having my own band. When I moved to Ireland, everything suddenly changed. Ireland gave me the opportunity I\u2019d been waiting for. As EPTA7 slowly took shape, it felt like one of those opportunities you just can\u2019t let slip by. <\/p>\n\n

O: What’s the story behind the name? What does EPTA7 mean? Gianz:<\/strong> The number seven has been with me for a long time, even before EPTA7 existed. I\u2019ve always been interested in the symbolism of numbers, including their significance in esoteric traditions and Kabbalah\u2014not so much from a religious perspective, but because of the ideas and imagery associated with them. And the number seven is simply everywhere: the seven deadly sins, the seven virtues, the idea of seven as a perfect or mystical number. Even Iron Maiden\u2019s \u201cSeventh Son of a Seventh Son\u201d fascinated me as a teenager. Before I started making music more seriously, I wrote a lot. At some point, I wrote a piece called \u201cSeven Times to Forget.\u201d It was all about the number seven: seven ways to forget, seven ways to remember. Somehow, that number stuck with me. When the opportunity arose to create a completely new band and its own concept, the number seven immediately came back. At the same time, my love for horror literature\u2014especially Lovecraft and the world of Cthulhu\u2014gave rise to the idea of a strange creature associated with the number seven, which was ultimately characterized by seven tentacles. Then Miss Grey introduced yet another element. She is primarily a visual artist and has always been strongly influenced by the poetic, melancholic side of Tim Burton\u2019s world: the \u201cfreak\u201d as someone who seems different, strange, and perhaps frightening at first glance, but who is also vulnerable. Take \u201cEdward Scissorhands,\u201d for example: To the outside world, he looks like a monster, but he isn\u2019t the real monster of the story. These ideas eventually merged into the little girl with tentacles who became the symbol of EPTA7. She is not a malevolent creature. She is a freak in the original sense of our world: different, fragile, and somehow caught between beauty and darkness. And finally, there\u2019s the name itself: EPTA is the Greek word for seven, while the number 7 is naturally read as \u201cseven\u201d in English. Greek connects us to Europe\u2019s ancient cultural roots, while English represents the language through which much of modern Europe communicates. This combination seemed particularly fitting for a project whose identity has always been deeply European. So the name EPTA7 is actually a bit redundant: essentially, it means \u201cseven-seven.\u201d But that\u2019s exactly the point. The number seven isn\u2019t just part of the name\u2014it has become part of EPTA7\u2019s mythology. <\/p>\n\n

O: You describe EPTA7 as a world rather than a band. How should someone feel when they enter this world for the first time? EPTA7:<\/strong> We want people to feel both fascinated and uneasy\u2014as if they\u2019ve stumbled into a place where everything seems familiar at first, but something isn\u2019t quite right. This is especially true for \u201cHere Come the Freaks.\u201d This world is certainly influenced by horror, but we\u2019re much more interested in psychological horror than in monsters, blood, or classic horror imagery. The album deals with fears, past traumas, inner conflicts, and things we sometimes prefer to keep buried deep inside. When you enter this world, you might initially believe that the threat lies somewhere outside of yourself. The city feels strange, the walls seem to breathe, the fog hides something, and familiar places gradually become eerie. But at some point, you begin to realize that the unease doesn\u2019t come exclusively from the outside. The world of EPTA7 seeks to reconnect you with your own inner demons: fears you thought you\u2019d long since overcome, memories you\u2019ve repressed, or even wounds you didn\u2019t even know were still there. That\u2019s exactly the feeling we want to evoke. The most terrifying monster isn\u2019t necessarily the one standing right in front of you\u2014sometimes it\u2019s the one that the outside world forces you to discover within yourself.\u201d <\/p>\n\n

O: So the freaks aren’t just monsters; they reflect human fears and inner demons. What kind of demon lurks inside you? Gianz:<\/strong> That\u2019s a tough question, because I probably have quite a few of them! If I had to pick one, I\u2019d probably say loneliness. And the crazy thing is, I have a contradictory relationship with it. I often seek out solitude; I need moments when I can withdraw from everything and be completely on my own. In a way, it\u2019s a place where I feel at ease. But that same solitude, which can be a refuge, can also become something painful. There\u2019s a very fine line between choosing to be alone and the moment when you suddenly realize that you feel lonely. Perhaps hidden within this feeling is also the fear of being forgotten, abandoned, or simply no longer noticed by the people around you. I think these feelings are much more closely connected than we sometimes realize. Miss Grey:<\/strong> I’m not sure if I can give my inner demon a single name, but when I look back, it probably has to do with the fear of being excluded or feeling like I don’t belong. <\/strong>This feeling has been with me since childhood. I was often seen as the one who was different\u2014the girl who dressed differently, listened to different music, and had interests that didn\u2019t necessarily match those of the people around me. I often felt like an outsider. That\u2019s why my early school years\u2014up until I was about 16\u2014were pretty difficult and, at times, even traumatic. When you spend a significant part of your childhood and adolescence feeling like you\u2019re somehow on the outside looking in, I believe that part of that experience lingers into adulthood. At the same time, this experience may also have helped shape me into the person I am today. Being different made life harder for me when I was younger. Later, however, I began to understand that this very difference is also part of my identity and my creativity. <\/p>\n\n

We will continue our conversation shortly.<\/p>\n\n

Claudia Zinn-Zinnenburg<\/p>\n\n

Lineup:<\/strong>Miss Grey \u2013 bass, backing vocalsGianz Vukodlak \u2013 drums, percussion, sampler, backing vocals<\/p>\n\n

Watch the official video for “Fallen Gabriel”:<\/p>\n\n

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