by Dan Dellechiaie | October 26, 2026
Photo Credit: Blue Crew Productions
[Editor’s Note: The following interview was found in a series of letters, diary entries, and, of all things, telegrams discovered following the disappearance of our correspondent Mr. Dellechiaie-Harker. How these questions have been placed in sequence will be made manifest in reading them. All needless matters have been eliminated, so that an interview almost at variance with the possibilities of latter-day belief may stand forth as simple fact. There is throughout no statement of past events wherein memory may err, for all the records chosen are exactly contemporary, given from the standpoints and within the range of knowledge of those who made them.]
On your albums, you ghouls have the widest range of genres: punk, surf rock, novelty songs, cabaret, vapor wave, witchhouse, dub, no wave, techno,noise, dark ambient, garage, folk, shoegaze, death metal, sludge metal, dubstep, hyper pop, stoner rock—I’m definitely forgetting some. Can you talk about the musical rainbow you've got going on?
VVell, vve simply put no limitations on ourselves. The only limits seem to be if vve can accomplish our own artistic ambitions. Plus, vve have been alive for centuries. In the 1700s, I saw Johann Bach perform in a chamber arrangement before the invention of the pianoforte. Our love for music goes vvay back, centuries before the invention of rock ’n’ roll and all those influences come out in full display. Secondly, the Draculas is a large band full of every type of ghoul, ghost, and demon you can fathom. They all have vvery different experiences to express, and I think that shows in the music.
How did Dracula and His Band The Draculas start?
VVe vvere hanging in Transylvania, and I vvas obsessed vvith “The Monster Mash” by the great Bobby “Boris” Pickett. I mean, vvhat a record! I never heard an entire album of monster songs. Maybe a monster song here and there, but an entire LP vvas mind-blowing.
After spinning that endlessly for a decade or three, I had an idea. VVe vvere gonna set the scene in a trance. As kind of a lark, vve partied and made our first record in about a vveek in Ithaca, NY. It vvas a silly and spooky time. But vvhen vve finished I realized vve had something. It’s hard to define, but there is something about those first two Drac records [Halloween Jamboree and Children of the Night] that burrowed into my brain and convinced me that there is a magic about this band of Draculas. That maybe, one day, vve can take over the vvorld!
Drac, you perform mostly naked and speak in a Transylvanian accent. Can you talk about your on-stage persona?
This is alvvays a thing. VVe just got back from a show in Ithaca, and everyone there vvas like, “Oh so your gonna get naked tonight, huh? Oh your gonna break out the speedo, huh, spooky boy?” I guess I’m glad vve are getting a reputation, but it’s sorta surreal.
I’m just myself on stage, I’m not much for theatrics. I just react to the music, and the music makes me vvanna kill. The naked thing, I just get very hot doing all that. It’s comforting to vvear the bare minimum. I’m Dracula, this is vvho I am, that is how I talk. It’s hard to lose the accent of my homeland after an eternity there.
Photo Credit: Amy Harris
What direction does your new studio album The Violent Years take us?
Violent!
Last year’s record, Bleeding Hearts, vvas a very emotional record, lots of beauty. It felt natural to go more intense and insane this year. The title comes from a teenploitation film vvritten by the great Ed VVood. Dracula and I saw it at the drive-in over the summer. It felt like a good direction to shoot for, violence, youth, aggression.
As someone who’s seen you ghouls perform, I understand why you just released your first live album, Ghouls Night Out. But can you tell the ghouls reading this what your live performance brings to the your sound?
Sometimes live Drac and studio Drac feel like two different bands. A Jekyll and Hyde, if you vvill.
Live vve are unfathomably loud, never loud enough. There is just a very raw, intense immediacy to the vvhole affair. I vvant us to be genuinely scary to see perform, and I think vve are getting there. Seeing a punk band shouldn’t be pleasant. It should be a very intense, harrowing experience.
How do you feel about being called horror post-punk? What genre would you consider yourself?
Bleh! VVho calls us that? I mean, it’s fitting. I told someone recently that vve sound like Pere Ubu.
I just say vve are a spooky rock ’n’ roll. Many mortals call us punk. The old Russian man at my job calls us vampire rock, vvhich seems correct.
Photo Credit: @faye_tab
I have to ask you about the theremin solos you ghouls do on-stage.
The theremin, vvhat a lovely sound. I'm unsure vvhat else to say.
Those are some of my favorite moments every live set, vvhen I get to succumb to the music and the theremin becomes a noise machine over the chaos of the band. The theremin can be a very precise instrument, adding a lot of clarity to our sound, or become a machine of pure destruction and noise. VVe push that baby to the limit.
With so many New York bands looking like skaters who just stepped inside from smoking cigarettes outside Starbucks, what does your spooky aesthetic bring to the New York music scene?
VVhen you live as long as vve have, you develop your own sense of style and outgrovv the need for anyone else’s approval. One of the best things about New York City is the meshing of many beautiful cultures, and vve are merely representing our beautiful Transylvania.
Every year on Halloween, you release an hour+ long album and have for the last seven years. How do you generate so much music?
The annual Halloween record is probably the one thing that sends a chill down this Dracula’s spine. It’s alvvays taunting me as it approaches. But I don’t really vvorry if I'll have the songs. The songs alvvays come. VVe collectively all love vvriting songs, and it’s a joy to share them between each other and vvatch the album form. Hell, there are a bunch of songs that almost make the albums but never get recorded. Like sad to say, “I’m A Monkey” may not make the cut this year. Maybe next year.
Photo Credit: @_brulesrules_
Following the new albums, what's next for Dracula and His Band The Draculas? A gospel album?
I don’t think I'd make a particularly good gospel record. Though, I do vvant to record a Satanic Mass one day and put it on the record.
VVe got no clue. Trying to survive the horror of The Violent Years first.
Anything you’d like to add that we haven’t covered already?
Yes, I’ve been trying to get into contact vvith Frankenstein, vvho borrovved my hearse three vveeks ago, and has not vvtitten me an update since then. If anyone has seen him, let me know.
Photo Credit: Amy Harris
Who are the bands you love playing with, your comrades, your day ones?
VVe have only been playing in the American city of New York for a short time and have already made far too many comrades to mention.
VVe love playing vvith Prewar Yardsale vvho played vvith us at our first show and have been inspirations and friends ever since.
Shoutout to Cellophane Kiss. I’ve completely lost track of how many times vve have played vvith them.
Before the band formed, vve played an acoustic show in a furniture store. So thank you to Jaco, Frank Burzinski, Prairie Princess, all vvonderful talented people vve met that night.
Trash Sound Conglomerate from Seattle are old friends, and vve love them so dear.
PLEASURE DEATH feel like day ones. Such kind people.
Waffle House of 1000 Corpses, Mars Ray & The Raptures, Indeyvid, Dingus the Clown, Skratch, VVikka, I mean the list is truly endless.
Anyone you'd like to thank?
I vvant to thank Marylin for the amazing album artvvork. She is such a talent.
I vvant to thank every mortal vvho has danced to our music.
I vvant to thank Vater Boris for taking me to my first punk shows.
Thanks VVally for letting me record in your basement this year.
I vvant to thank you for having us.
And I vvant to thank the Draculas. They vvork so hard. There have been so many Draculas over the centuries and the band vvouldn’t be the same vvithout their touch.
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