Dear Greg, what does industrial music mean to you?
Hello! Industrial music stands for creative freedom and lack of musical borders. It allows me to express myself freely, to decide what is right and what is wrong for me from A to Z, be it musicwise, productionwise etc..
Everything seems to go away but industrial music seems to be standing for decades, how come?
Good question. I guess what you mean is that other genres of music usually have their five minutes of popularity and then they go back to their garages, their underground etc. Look what happened to punk rock for instance. But industrial music has always been here in the underground and has never become really popular, which is good of course. It’s the kind of art that is, so to say, immune to
I always tend to say that industrial music is perfect for my imagination as I can create everything with it what I want….
I guess that depends on one’s own imagination, but I do agree basically. I’d say that classical music/film scores and dark ambient stimulate imagination a lot. Like I said before, it’s the music that deconstructs all borders, schemata and ‘being used to’ aspects. Long live industrial music.
How did you get involved with that sort of music?
In the mid-90s I discovered Cold Meat Industry through some metal magazine. Then a bit later I also watched a Merzbow video and that’s when I got hooked.
The industrial scene has masses of releases, there used to be a time when there was an overflood from tapereleases but now with the new techniques everybody seems to make stuff. How do you follow all this?
I don’t follow at all. I keep myself busy trying to listen to all the great bands I already know. I rarely find good music from new artists and instead of wasting my time I try to focus on some well-known bands/projects.
This might be less funny to say but if everyone is making music, it also means lots of crap comes above.
Isn’t that extra hard for serious bands to deal with it?
The crap is no problem at all for serious bands. Well established artists will always find it easy to release their music and get through. In my opinion it is more annoying for label owners. Imagine how time consuming listening to all this must be.
Does it interest you in which form (vinyl, cd, mp3, tape) music is presented?
Of course. A release is not only the sound, or at least it shouldn’t be. Artwork, packaging, the way you promote the release – all these factors count as well for the overall impression that you get. I love vinyls and I feel nostalgic about tapes, they were my youth. Mp3 is fine as an introduction to the actual release on CD/vinyl/tape, but I feel it’s not a complete release if without any tangible object.
You are the man behind Horologium, I guess that’s not the only band you are/were involved with….
Horologium is the only project that really matters to me at the moment. I have lately started working with Marcin of [haven] on a more idm/breakcore oriented band and I hope you’ll soon be able to listen to our music.
Poland seems to have a quite vivid scene with lots of bands, but I guess it’s better to keep my foot on the ground : I guess it’s rather very underground as well?
It is indeed. But is that bad? What makes me more anxious is that without few exceptions people in Poland tend to play the same stuff over and over again. Dark ambient that we all heard dozen of times or plastic sound of synthetic orchestra – that’s usually the case. However, I was quite impressed recently by Polish project named K.
Honestly said I tend to follow the scene (from pop to Indus) in East Europe for quite a while, but it’s only since recently (some exceptions not counted) that there are so many good bands around.
I don’t follow pop scene, but there have been many industrial artists that appeared in recent 10 years after the inception of Beast of Prey Records in 2000. This was a great impulse for young artists to start their own projects.
When I heard Horologium’s latest offering, I got silent inside as it was rather morbid and creepy.
Do you feel as such too?
I assume you mean “A Handful of Dust & Ashes”? This is actually a reissue of my music from 2005 with some additional live tracks. Everyone perceives music in one’s own way, so it’s kinda hard for me to relate to your feelings. As a matter of fact, listening to “A Handful of Dust & Ashes” makes me nostalgic and serious.
What’s the most important thing for you : the story behind the music or the music itself or are the two not to be seperate?
I can listen to, say, End.user without thinking about the story behing the music, and that’s just great, but for some artists, including Horologium, these two fields are not to be separated. So if you mean my own music, I’d say both are very important.
Apart from being musician, you also do run Ur Muzik-label. How would you describe this label?
I run Ur Muzik with my wife Olga. We release music that we enjoy. We hope people will enjoy our releases too. Let the music speak for our label. It speaks best.
How does it work. Are you in search of musicians/releases or come they knocking to your door?
It’s 50/50 actually.
Is anything possible on the label or is there stuff you absolutely do refuse?
On the one hand, I would say that anything is possible. Anything that I find interesting. On the other, it’s less probable I would publish some christian pop crap instead of some interesting neofolk release.
Who has a record company in times where the musicindustry is in crisis?
If it’s not about making money, what’s the problem? People like me still enjoy listening to CDs and some other people enjoy releasing them. Who cares about the rest? Again, it’s about fun and passion, not business. Financial crisis doesn’t have much to do with it, at least in my case. Some other labels might find it difficult, though.
Is there anything special in mind you would like to release?
There definitely are some bands and albums that I would love to release, but let’s not talk in vain. I think that dreams are supposed to come true and I hope I will one day release what I intend.
What’s your fave record of all time and please state why…..
Sorry, but there are so many of them it’s really hard to pick up only one. It would be unfair.
We leave the last words to you…..
Thank you very much for the interview, which I enjoyed a lot!
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