Da Captain Trips

The band was formed in 2009 as a jam band by three friends who shared the same passion for the
instrumental space music and improvisation on infinite jam sessions mostly influenced by all the
psychedelic rock of all the ages.
All three guys were active part of the Italian underground scene since the late 90s and they are
Based in the north of Italy, between Piacenza and Lecco.
Riccardo Cavicchia on guitar, Federico Chiappa on bass and Fabio Besani on drums.
The name of the band is a tribute to the amazing super psychedelic saga “The Dark Tower” of the
master Stephen King.
After some shows, they self-produced under Desert Fox Records, their first Ep “Aljamed” (Cd-r) in
2010. Four tracks recorded live, mixed and mastered in one day in studio where you can listen to
the Californian’s infectious grooves, as they wander into ethereal space-rock and heavy-psych jams,
while maintaining the smooth style and mellow warmness of the desert. The Ep and the explosive
live shows started to create a lot of interest around the band.
At the end of 2011 they felt they needed to push and experiment more so decided to add more
space. Their friend Ema was the right person to join the band on synthesizers. He gave the magical
feeling they never had...a pure instrumental psychedelic trip that gives its best on stage, open to all
influences of the music of the 60/70's but above all open at the atmosphere around at the moment of
the execution of the show.
In June 2013 “Phonosphera Records” and “Vincebus Eruptum Recordings” released the first full
length of the band “Anechoic Chamber Outcomes I” on Limited editions cd and Lp.
This record was recorded live in one session by the three original members instead the keyboards
were added later independently from Ema.
In November 2013 they were invited to play for the first time in two big festivals, the “Psychedelic

Network Festival” in Wurzburg (with Papir, Monkey 3, My Sleeping Karma, Space Invaders &
Nick Turner) where they played a two hours set partially improvised, and at the “Stoned Karma
Festival” in Monchengladbach with Vibravoid .
They began a solid friendship both with Vibravoid (that will lead them to share the stage with them
on many occasions in Italy and abroad) and with Horst Porkert who is the promoter of the
Psychedelic Network Festival and owner of Sunhair Records.
In December 2013 the magazine “Classic Rock” (Italian issue) dedicated two pages to the band!
In November 2014 Vincebus Eruptum Recordings released, for the first time on vinyl, the first
magic Ep “Aljamed” remastered + three bonus tracks, this was previously released only on self
produced cd-r.
In the summer 2014 Ema left the band to focus on where he came from, his drone project
“Bahasmanuti” and brother Bachis took his place behind synthesizers.
In April 2015 VE Recordings released the first volume of the “Psychedelic Battles”.
It consist in a very limited yellow 12” split with the Welsh band “Sendelica” on side A and Da
Captain Trips on side B with three brand new songs recorded live on tape.
This is the first recordings with this new line up where you can feel a change and more awareness in
their music. They always jam but with a place to go.
In May the band played a couple of shows in Germany with Sendelica, Vibravoid and Gnod.
At the end of July 2015 Da Captain Trips went for the first time in UK! They have been invited to
headline the sunday night of the festival “Kozfest” together with “Sendelica”, “the Cult of Dom
Keller” and “System 7”. They play a couple of shows in Wales too.
In July 2016 Sunhair Records released “Live at Immerhin”, which is the first live record of the
band, recorded in May 2015 in Wurzburg. A very cool recordings where you can feel the pure
atmosphere created from the band in their favourite situation.... jamming on stage!
After the summer unfortunately the drummer Sappah left the band and Tommy from “Electro
Spoon” came into the trips family.
With the new line up the band went to studio to record their second full length “Adventures in the
Upside Down” always released by Vincebus Eruptum Recordings (LP) and Phonosphera Records
(Cd) in April 2017. This is the first concept album of the band.
They work on the concept of rebirth, imagining our captain facing a storm that leads to his
shipwreck. Shipwrecked he enters a psychedelic trip carried by the currents that will lead him to
rebirth in the Trepasses bay. The cover was drawn by the legendary science fiction comic book artist
“Roberto Bonadimani” who worked to put the concept on a fantastic artwork who complete the
album.
The band played a lot of shows in Europe and UK supporting the album that received a lot of very
good reviews from magazines and web-zines.
They album reached more than 180000 views very quickly on you tube and went sold out very fast.
In 2019 they self released “Improvisations Vol.I”, more than 50 minutes of pure improvisations who
was recorded just after the recording session of “Adventures in the upside down”.
Another change in the line up see Bachis left the place to Paolo “Apollo “Negri (Wicked Minds,
Link Quartert) on keyboards. With Paolo on board, the band can explore new territories,
abandoning in some cases the song form.
The band started to work on the new album in the beginning of 2020 but the world was forced to
stop, hitted by corona virus and they were able to record the new album only in June 2021.

Vincebus Eruptum and BloodRock Records released the fourth album “Maths of the Elements” in
May 2022. A concept album dedicated to our holy Nature.
The friend “Hi-Fi Panorama” added field recordings between songs and the friend Kabuto gave his
interpretation with the artwork where The central figure represents the shaman/scientist who tries to
interpret and analyse the surrounding nature. But, being part of nature itself, it cries because
understanding is both touching and disturbing.
In all these years they had the opportunity to share the stage with a lot of cool bands like : Samsara
Blues Experiment, Yawning Man, White Hills, Vibravoid, Fatso Jetson, the Cosmic Dead, Golden
Void, Sendelica, Nick Turner(Hawkwind), Gnod, The Machine, Carlton Melton, Minami Deutsch,
Lay Llamas and many more.
The band's sound and research never stops, the structures and arrangements become more and more
refined, always leaving room for improvisation both in the creative phase and in recording.
In 2023 they started to work on new songs that brings more dialogue between guitar and keyboards
working on the concept of the life/death/in between/rebirth inspired mainly but not only by the
Tibetan Book of the Dead.
After Vincebus Eruptum Recordings closed, the new home for the music of the band is the roman
Subsound Records.