Photos: Thomas Slack
When I walk into Cecilia Della Peruti’s home, she apologizes for the mess. Empty antique frames and tattered boxes litter the floor. There are loose papers and mate-less shoes under the multi-colored ceiling, where white clouds have been strategically painted to cover patch jobs. The “Mona Lisa” hangs in her living room, courtesy of her artist landlord who specializes in replicas. She explains that she is redecorating, and after moments of awkward conversation, wonders aloud if she should have refrained from smoking a bowl a few minutes prior.
We head up to her rooftop to catch the last hour of sunlight. She haphazardly applies some foundation and mascara in a neighboring window’s reflection before starting our photo shoot. She is tall and thin, with the remnants of blonde dye clinging to the tips of her brown, banged locks. Pretty in her own right, she exudes a sort of confidence that makes it irrelevant. Yet, leaning against the edge of the roof witha wall of palm trees and the Hollywood sign behind her, she seems uncomfortable in front of the camera. Della Peruti is the brains and voice behind the three-recently-turned-four-piece band, Gothic Tropic, which began as a solo project in 2011 while she was singing in folk band, Rumspringa. “I wasn’t trying to start a band,” she says, “but I had fun playing my own stuff, so I did”. Since then she has released one EP, Awesome Problems, and seen relative success playing shows around her native Los Angeles. They are a mainstay at The Echo’s residency nights, located in Della Peruti’s Echo Park home, and played Calgary’s Sled Island Festival in 2012. She recently announced her new lineup, adding a second guitar for the first time, and has been contacted by several labels that want to produce her first full-length album.
Cecilia Della Peruti, Gothic Tropic’s frontwoman, at her home in LA. Right, the Mona Lisa painting as it hangs in Della Peruti’s home.
Her voice is low and rhythmic as she speaks to me about her success, and at times I wonder if she will doze off, be it from the weed, the heat, or a combination. Coming from two musical parents – “my mom is an opera diva and [my dad], he’s a jazz guy” – Della Peruti’s teenage rebellion manifested, as many do, by straying from the family business. Though she’d had bouts of piano and guitar playing, she kept her music relatively hidden, and at 17, dropped out of high school, quit her apprenticeship with artist Greg Mansi, and moved to New York. “It was a lot of sex and weed and cartoons,” she says of the year spent living with her boyfriend. Soon enough, though, New York lost its luster – “it was like a prison within our minds. Just cold awfulness” – and she returned to Lala Land with a guitar in hand. She had her first show at Crane’s, a Hollywood tavern which has since closed, under the moniker Spring Queen. The name seems like a parody spoken in her stoner’s lilt. “That’s like the gauntlet. Like the first thing I decided to do was be by myself with my guitar, and it was terrifying.”
Since then, Della Peruti has been constantly evolving. She plays with a revolving door of drummers, though she maintains a creatively symbiotic relationship with her bassist, Daniel Denton. “He’s really good to jam with because he can do something that’s countering my part that is his own.” Their sound maintains a garage-punk feel with hints of 70’s pop (Della Peruti names Yes’s “Fragile” as a major influence and has been compared to Can). Heavy percussion and distorted vocals, courtesy of a slap back, create the foundation for their last-minute lyrics. “I hate writing lyrics,” she says, explaining that she often waits until recording, which creates a spontaneous throwaway feel.
While she loves the LA music scene, she is continually frustrated by the constraints inherent in being an up-and-coming band. “[I have] 50 songs backed up in [my] brain and on [my] computer and it’s just like, well, until I learn how to use pro tools and buy an interface, I don’t know, dude, I’m just writing songs.” Though without a full-length record to speak of, and major transitions still on the way, Gothic Tropic has already created an impressive amount of buzz. Della Peruti, however, is in no rush towards stardom. “It basically feels like I’m like festering with songs, but I don’t mind waiting.” She wants to maintain the integrity of the album with funding that can do justice to their songs, which is why they have withheld releasing it themselves. And so we have no choice but to wait alongside them, eagerly anticipating what Della Peruti and her new band have in store.