Information
Author: Mourning
Line Up
Wookie - Vocals
Jerzy - Guitars
Janek - Guitars
Jasio - Bass
Pawel - Drums
Usually when we talk about polish metal we talk about its extreme side and on our website is one of the nations that we most talked about, today here with us there is a band which take advantage of its ambience and its emotionality for its songs: Thesis. Hi guys, welcome on Aristocrazia Webzine.
Hi, we are pleased to be here.
As usual, let's begin giving some infos on your band.
THESIS was founded in the beginning of 2007 as a result of a meeting between former members of April Ethereal and me, ex-singer of Licorea and Homicide. We had similar vision of music we wanted to play, so then came our first rehearsals. Few months later we hit the stage together for the first time and started rehearsing the material for our debut album. We recorded songs in Green Studio in Cracow in June and September 2007. The album "Channel 1" was out on 09.09.09 and is available as a completely free download from our website - www.thesisband.com. Now we are being a little fed up with the old stuff. We have a lot of new material for the new album, which is more complex, more depressive and more psychedelic than before. We also want to experiment with our live performances, which will be enhanced with visual effects, films etc.
I really got impressed by "Channel 1", I have to tell you that in some parts you reminded me to some young Tool, anyway can you tell us how does your sound take life? Which are your main listenings besides the ones that we can find listening to the album?
Thank you for this complements, but we don't want to remind other bands, even the brilliant ones. Personally I listen to varied kind of music: good, old, energetic hardcore like Machine Head or Biohazard, spicy and nutty american rap like Wu Tang Klan or Cypress Hill, music that was born in Iceland like Sigur Ros or Bjork, british trip-hop and industrial like Massive Attack or The Prodigy and of course a lot of progressive, not-easy-to-swallow, very emotional rock/metal bands.
One of the things which make an album great is the quality of the compositions and the ability of involving the listener, I found both of them in your work, which are the main themes that you want to talk about?
First of all we want to emote the listener as well as make him want to think and understand what’s going on in the song. The main theme is to shoot the emotions that push us to create our music into the listener. For the lyrics, everyone should interpret them their own way, without our clues.
About the composition, who writes the songs? Are there any specific roles for each member?
We compose during rehearsals. Usually first comes melody, then the rhythm. One of guitarists, Janek or Jurek, starts to play a pattern, then me, our bass player and the drummer joins. It starts to evolve and after one, two or three meetings we have frames of a new song. It is the best part of band existence. The second one are gigs and playing it live.
In the digipak version you put five acoustic tracks. How did you choose them and why?
We wanted to give some extras for those who will buy the digipack version of the record. All acoustic songs were recorded during one special gig in Warsaw at Proxima Club. At that time we were in hiatus between two drummers and we found the opportunity to play such gig as a good reminder that the band is still active and going really well. It was our first unplugged show ever so we wanted to have a trace of it on tape. For the digipack edition we have chosen the songs that would fit the best with those recorded in studio.
I want to congratulate Wookie, his performance is really elegant and pleasant, besides Maynard which seems to be more than just a simple influence, are there any singer which you are inspired by?
Thanks, but, without false modesty, I'm not satisfied with my work during "Channel 1" recording. Now it would be much better. Comparison to Maynard is my curse. It is not willful, I just feel music in similar way. I like also Jon from Sigur Ros and very good pop stars like Phil Collins or George Michael. I'm also a big fan of Corey from Slipknot and Greg from The Dillinger Escape Plan. As you can see, I prefer emotive male singers.
"Channel 1" can’t be appreciated by many kinds of listeners, what do the media and the fans think about it?
Reception of our work is really enthusiastic. Especially during our live performances. Polish press treats us as forerunners of new, original trend in music market. “Channel 1” didn’t get any bad reviews yet and everyone is looking forward to hear our new album, so we might say that the feedback is really good.
After the 90s and the boom of Nu Metal, this kind of sound took off, which is the main reason of this in your opinion?
NM bands ran out of ideas and they became dull. But they left a lot of inventions, like for example easy way of mixing genres or deep guitar's sound.
What do you think about the today music scene? Which are its up and downs?
We live in Poland where the music scene is very narrow and confined. It is very hard to cut through. TV and radio are very commercialized, so you can hear there only not ambitious polish and american/british pop. For polish metal bands it is easier to become well-known in western countries. Good examples are Vader and Behemoth. So we must work harder, cause we don't have back-up of any great label. But being in underground also means freedom in composing. And if we make a success it will be for long years.
You, Millenium and the album of Lukasz Gall gave me many awesome emotions different from the extreme metal world which in your nations is really big. Is there and alternative scene? Are there any bands which you would recommend us?
There are few bands: Dianoya, Votum, Indukti, the well-known Riverside... But they treat too often their music in the way "let's play like ...". But each year the situation is better, so maybe soon will come the golden years for polish prog-rock scene.
How is the promotion of the album going? Are you making gigs?
The promotion of our first LP is going very well. We've played a dozen of gigs in Poland and there are few left. Now we are prepared to hit the road and play in a lot of Polish cities. The tour will be a farewell to the promotion of “Channel 1” so it’ll be the last chance to see us live for the moment. After those shows we will focus on our new album. On spring we plan to begin the promotion of the new album on some gigs. As I said before, “Channel 1’ has a great feedback from medias, we had the chance to play in few TV shows so for a band with no label back up I think is quite good.
Are there any confirmed dates? Maybe one in Italy?
We would like to play several gigs in Europe in spring and maybe we will have the chance to play few festivals. Who knows, maybe we’ll arrive to Italy but for know we don’t have any confirmed dates. As I said: we don't have outer support so everything is in our hands and in hands of our fans.
Do you have some gigs which you would be glad to repeat? And which is the band that you'd like to be the opener for?
We usually play in clubs, so it was great to play on Warsaw Students Festival "Juwenalia" in 2008. It would be great to play for a much larger audience. I think that with our acoustic set we could play before Sigur Ros. Hard version of Thesis would be a great opener for Tool, Katatonia, maybe Muse. We should shoot for the stars.
Thanks for the time spent with us, the last message to our readers is up to you.
First of all thanks a lot for the interview. We invite you to visit our website - www.thesisband.com and check out our debut album. We are looking forward to see you in Italy of course. Invitations are welcomed.
