Enzo Pepi’s Daydream Three returns with a track that refuses to tiptoe around one of humanity’s oldest companions—death. With their latest single, “Death Makes Fun of Us,” the Sicilian guitarist-turned-composer taps into that unsettling space where the routine collides with the irrational. On its surface, the song appears deceptively simple: a story born from the randomness of tragic deaths that punctuate the news cycle. But dig deeper, and you’ll find Pepi exploring the darker, absurdist corners of mortality.
What strikes most is Pepi’s refusal to offer solace. As he puts it, the inspiration behind the track comes from the stark realization that death often seems senseless, devoid of logic.
Whether on their way to work, shopping, or meeting a friend, people with dreams and plans are suddenly erased by an unpredictable force. He paints death as a cruel prankster, an entity that takes life purely for amusement, underscoring the point that mortality isn’t something we can outsmart or rationalize.
The accompanying music video, directed by Elaine Carmen Bonsangue, complements this eerie message with a surreal lens, casting death as both spectacle and performance.
In her words, death has always been staged, and in our daily lives, we are all wearing “death masks,” waiting for our moment to step into the unknown. The video doesn’t shy away from existential theatrics—Bonsangue juxtaposes the finality of death with the unpredictable nature of art, likening it to a form of transformation.
As she poetically puts it, “art pauses on the brink of completion, leaving us suspended between the desire for immortality and the awareness of our mortality.”
Recorded live over just two days at Arsonica in Syracuse, Stop Making Noise—the album set for release on November 8, 2024—reflects Pepi’s commitment to capturing the raw energy of his live performances.
With minimal post-production interference, the album leans heavily into a philosophy of honesty, both sonically and thematically. Much like “Death Makes Fun of Us,” the recording sessions aimed to be as close to the real thing as possible, almost as if death itself could walk through the studio doors at any moment, demanding an unpolished tribute.
Pepi’s decision to tackle such an ominous theme speaks to his artistic vision, one that refuses to sugarcoat life’s inevitable end. There’s no pretension here, no grandiose posturing about what lies beyond. Instead, Pepi and his collaborators—Vincenzo Arisco on drums and Alessandro Formica on bass—offer something much more unnerving: an unsentimental snapshot of life’s final joke, delivered with a knowing wink.
In a world that often shies away from the topic, Daydream Three steps into the spotlight with a dark, absurdist take. And as Bonsangue reminds us in her closing words about the video: “until we are mocked, like clowns, by a banana peel.” Indeed, death’s punchline has always been waiting, and Pepi isn’t afraid to laugh along.
