Art d’Ecco Is Facing His Demons

The glam-rock provocateur plays both the victim and the villain on his fifth album, Serene Demon.

by Izzy Kaz

Photos by Izzy Kaz

Published on February 10, 2025

Art d’Ecco is walking down Vancouver’s Granville Street in a white suit covered in blood. It’s 1 a.m. and he’s crossing the tide of people exiting concerts, turning their heads at the sight of him.

The otherwise debonair glam-rocker isn’t shy about turning heads, and this was the outcome that he and the nearby film crew had hoped for—they’re filming a scene for his new music video, and the crowded street is conveniently providing authentic background reactions. This is the first day of the shoot for “Serene Demon,” the title track to d’Ecco’s upcoming fifth album, set to be released on Paper Bag Records. It’s a mammoth of a song, clocking in at more than seven minutes long, and details d’Ecco’s existentialism and personal tug-of-war with his own Serene Demon, who we get to see come to life in the video.

The music video, directed by Theo Kim, begins with d’Ecco portraying a simple jazz musician on his way to a smokey, late night rehearsal with his studio band. “I want to be covered in blood,” d’Ecco tells me over the phone, “but I don’t want to reveal why until we’re into it.” He finds himself haunted by, and eventually coming to blows with, the Demon, who is played by d’Ecco as well. “I want to play the jazz pianist, and I also want to be the terrible thing that happened to him.” He is truly a jarring sight, painted white and dressed in black leather with a short black mohawk.

He and the film crew might have actually been a bit too successful in their storytelling. During a bloody flashback scene where Musician-Art gets jumped by Demon-Art, Vancouver PD pulled up to the shoot, hands on their guns, to “break up the fight” between d’Ecco and his body double (playing the Demon), following a 911 call. If you watch the video now, you will be impressed by the makeup on both actors, but you won’t see the exact clip—VPD shut down production right there and then, and the scene was reshot at a more private location. It’s the kind of jarring experience that makes for a great story now, after the fact.

“The idea of the Serene Demon is the seduction of evil from within,” d’Ecco explains. “It manifests itself in a physical state in this music video.” The Demon reappears in d’Ecco’s newest music video, “True Believer,” directed by Brandon Fletcher.

“Self doubt, imposter syndrome, anxiety, it’s the devil on your shoulder. We’ve all felt it. With this album I wanted to kick away that demon,” d’Ecco says. He started writing the album in the fall of 2022 during a trip to New York. “I was done promoting After the Headrush and I was ready to recharge. I would take long walks at night…it was cold and you could see the steam come up from the subway grates. I was listening to the soundtrack of this movie that I love called Le Samurai.” This inspiration seeped into the style of the album both sonically and visually, referenced in Serene Demon’s film noir cover photography as well.

The next evening, we’re filming at Hipposonic Studio in East Vancouver. Art had spent a couple weeks working on the album at the studio with Grammy Award-winning producer and engineer Joe Chiccarelli (The White Stripes, The Strokes, Beck, U2). “He heard about what I was working on and was interested in collaborating. In the end it wasn’t the right fit,” d’Ecco says. “Some concepts still made it onto the album.”

“Are you even living if you’re just killing time?”

d’Ecco is sitting at a grand piano, his suit bloodied from the aforementioned mugging. He is performing backed by a six-piece band in a smokey rehearsal space. “Are you even living if you’re just killing time?” he sings, staring down the barrel of the camera, which is being broadcast to a small tube television in the back of the shot. It’s a long couple of hours getting enough shots of each performer. Anyone would understand a dip in energy as the night goes on, but d’Ecco shows no signs of fading.

A guitar solo and a key change later, d’Ecco is on top of the piano, chanting and screaming like a mad preacher shouting the gospel. “Maybe where I go to next is from the perspective of the Demon,” d’Ecco tells me. Considering how well he played the villain, I think that would be fun for us all to see.

Art d’Ecco’s album, Serene Demon, is out Feb. 14 via Paperbag Records.