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Hi,
first of all I just want to congratulate you on your new album. To
new fans could you please fill us in on the history behind it all?
Mikolaj:
Hi. The history is quite simple - once upon a time, when we were
still young, we were sitting together in a biology class in our
primary school. Fascinated with Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin
tunes we came up with idea of forming a band - it was something:
"Why won't you play guitar, I'll play drums ...". In the
beginning we had no musical education whatsoever. Just bought some
instruments and started rehearsing. First we played some covers
and webrought in Maciek as our second guitarist. Shortly after we
were joined by Jan on bass.
Mateusz:
Everything changed during the summer of 2000 when we went to see
Dream Theater live. Soon after that Maciek switched to keyboards
and we started to think about our material - which was a lot more
progressive than the covers, we were used to do ...
How
has your new album been received by the media?
Mateusz: We
haven't noticed much activity connected with "Spiral"
yet, but we hope that it will change soon.
Mikolaj:
Here in
Poland
this kind of music isn't very popular, actually it's listened to
only by very few people. The sole consolation is that in last
years progressive metal is constantly gaining new audience,
especially in the West.
I
know artists are not happy to categorize their music, but how
would you describe your music to an outsider?
Mateusz: In our
case it's probably even harder to define our genre. We listen to
lots of different types of music and in our compositions we see
influences from most extremely distant styles.
Mikolaj:
There's a mutual
agreement that we play "very broadly understood progmetal",
but in reality it's blend of almost everything.
Where
does your inspiration come from, both musically and lyrically?
Mateusz: I can speak about
instrumental side as it's my field. Generally when I compose I try
not to be influenced by anything, but I realize that final product
may resemble a lot of stuff that has already been played. On the
contrary to what my band mates suggest, when I hear what I've came
up with sounds like something characteristic. I try to develop it
to make it sound even more familiar and closer to what it
resembles. In my opinion such actions should be read as some kind
of mini-tribute to the "big ones", who actually gave us
inspiration to start playing. Those accidentally familiar patterns
include style of Dream Theater, Tool, Black Sabbath, Symphony X,
Therion, Beyond Twilight, Attention Deficit, Arjen Luccasen,
Andromeda and
Orphaned
Land
. Probably much, much more - depends on who makes the judgment.
Mikolaj:
And now something about the lyrics. Inspirations for lyrical side
of our music flow from many different directions. Firstly it's
philosophy and psychology, secondly I can mention films, music,
maybe theatre and general life experiences and reflections. In
fact everything can be inspiring.
What
topics do you deal with in your lyrics and why?
Mikolaj: As I said, I'm mainly
interested in philosophy, especially existential (by that I mean
J.P. Sartre, Albert Camus and Franz Kafka) and because of that I
usually take up a topic of finity and the role of knowledge in our
life. Beside this I also write about our current position in
space-time, the problem of loneliness and destructive influences
of surroundings.
Who
has produced and mixed the album, and are you pleased with the end
result?
Mateusz: Mix was done by whole
band and our sound engineer, Jarek Toifl. Opinions on final result
are divided. We didn't expect this album to sound the way it does.
During rehearsals it was much more like concrete progmetal, but
after mixing it gained some delay and "flow". It became
much darker and moody than we thought it would. After listening to
it for some time we can say that this innovation into the concept
came out to be a rather positive one.
Who
has done the artwork? And how important do you feel it is to have
a great cover?
Mateusz:
Well, cover and artwork was done by Piotr "Pjepshysh"
Parzysz and it reflects emotions contained on this album. We were
really glad that Piotrek was able to establish such connection
with our music.
Mikolaj:
For us every part of the final product is important as it
builds the whole concept. Music, lyrics, artwork are combined into
one and together it should loudly speak to listener.
Do
you have any touring plans?
Mikolaj: Now we're focusing on
composing brand new material and because of that we aren't
planning any concerts. Maybe at sometime in the future, but not
now - at that time we're concentrating on our studies, we can't
really go on any large tour.
How
do you feel about the co-operation with your label, and are you
satisfied?
Mateusz: We are really happy,
that someone appreciated our music enough to entrust their time
and money in us. We hope it will be a positive co-operation, which
will enable us to release further albums.
The
internet is a very important source for many music fans - how do
you use the internet and how important is it for you and other
bands?
Mateusz: Internet is a great
source of communication, it's the way for us to know what's
happening in the world of music, because the stuff, which we
listen to isn't very available in more physical manner.
Mikolaj:
Over the last few years, the music market has produced a lot very
interesting and innovative music, but it also brought out some
crap, and that's a fact. The internet allow us all to check some
bands, listen to their music and decide if it's our musical field.
In my point of view this is the right purpose of internet: let
people preview the music and ensure people, that what they are
going to buy isn't crap.
How
do you see the progressive rock/progressive metal scene at the
moment?
Mateusz: It depends where.
In our previous answers we commonly use formulation "field of
music". If we treat music like a field then it flows very,
very turbulently. Massive divergences and 18O-degrees curls are
very common - it all goes to a total mingle and it's really hard
to keep up. The only way is to try to make your contribution by
following that manner - mixing everything "every how".
Above statement is true if we look at progressive scene very
broadly. As for sociological interpretation I'll let Mikołaj
speak.
Mikolaj:
In different countries there are different scenes. For instance in
Poland
you can't make your living from playing progressive music and
maybe it's the reason that progmetal isn't so popular as in
USA
or
Sweden. Usually in countries where there are money for promoting
and people, who have money for tickets, this kind of music is much
more popular. You should also remember, that in some countries
progmetal has been developing for years now and in the Eastern
Europe or in South America this genre is quite young and still in
progress, trying to reach world level.
To
finish things off - could you pls. make an all-time Top 5 or sort
of the 5 most important albums in your opinion?
Mateusz:
-
Dream
Theater - Scenes From Of A Memory
-
Rage
Against The Machine - The Battle of Los Angeles
-
Therion
- Secret Of The Runes
-
Black
Sabbath - Master of Reality
-
Liquid
Tension Experiment - I
Mikolaj:
-
Dream
Theater - Scenes From Of A Memory
-
Pain
of Salvation - One Hour By The Concrete Lake
-
Dredg
- El Cielo
-
Prodigy
- The Fat Of The Land
-
Tool
- Lateralus
Mateusz:
Thanks for interview and please feel free to visit: www.mindgate.prv.pl
to find more information about Mind Gate.
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