!!!!!This is only English version of interview, which was printed in CREMATION zine issue 13!!!!!
Why did you decide to start your
group? I have a feeling that your inspiration is not from this world (smile). Where do you find ideas for your music?
Yony: This
question is easy and difficult to answer at the same time. We create music because
we have some kind of inner need to do so. Some people speak through writing
poems, novels, some paint… other create classical music… it all depends on your
individual abilities, the way you use your inner tools given by fate. Basically
a lot of things inspire us, but it’s hard to list them. It’s not like that you
see a sunset or dead birds and afterwards you decide to write a song. Sometimes
it just appears in your head and then you transfer it to you instrument,
sometimes you just play – and then you can bleed out 10 seconds of a riff, or
26 minutes of a song. You never know. I don’t know where it comes from. It just
happens.
So making music mean to you...
Y: Emotional katharsis,
selfrealization, masturbation – pick what you like. Or maybe put in one bag and
just mix them all!
What are the musical roots of
band members?
I
can answer for myself so… Tony Iomii, 60’s, but my main inspiration are years
when I grew up, the 80’s. So let’s name it – Iron Maiden, Saxon… Also I’ve got
interesting story with Judas Priest. I always thought of myself as a very big
fan of Maiden, but suddenly, one day, it occurred that I’ve got whole Judas
discography, and not much after Seventh Son. Guess that CD was end of some kind
of era. The one that suited me most. Right now I basically listen to all “post”
stuff (mostly hated nowadays, hah). That means Isis, Cult Of Luna, Minsk. ‘New’
black metal like Blut Aus Nord, Mord‘A’Stigmata or Thaw. On the other hand I
dig stuff like Chelsea Wolfe, Bjork… Olo loves ‘never too old’ stuff like Pink
Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Pantera or Machine Head. Blady and Wielebna are sworn trve
black metal fans and our drummer, Werbel, like some electronic stuff and…
Amenra. So as you can see we listen to it all ;)
Music
market is pretty hard and
it's little wonder that I just met with your
production. I saw you live once and you have impressed
me. How do you feel about the fact, that you are relatively
young group, and the media
and fans have
taken very positively your debut "Anaesthetic
Inhalation Ritual"?
On one hand
it’s very encouraging when you see that your doing meets such a great response,
but it has some flaws obviously. The biggest one are high expectations and big
pressure connected with them. You release first CD and hear ‘WOW’. You release
the 2nd one and hear “WOOOOOW!”. Making the third can be a bit
tricky at this point, because you start to think “fuck, what if it will be
worse?”. But we try not to think in this way. Always created music that we’d
like to hear and up to this point it was rewarding. That’s why we keep on going
with the same attitude.
Your start was very fast.
The proof of this is fact, that you won the “New Blood Award” in 2012, an
award for newcomer-bands hosted by the famous German festival "Summer
Breeze Open Air". Help you with something this victory?
I believe that’s the biggest reason we have such great
fans in Germany! But it’s didn’t end up with deal with Nuclear Blast if you ask
:D
Your concerts are full of indescribable
atmosphere. How do you feel contact with fans at live
shows? What do you prefer, open air
fests or club gigs?
I wouldn’t
call it ‘a contact’ during live shows, rather some kind of subconscious
interaction. Sure we try to make some contact after the shows – then we’re
ordinary people, like everyday. But during the shows we’re different, emotions
we share with the audience are special and reserved only for our ritual time,
when we perform. It’s a aforementioned katharsis. We are one as a band. One
with the music. And as one we ‘speak’ to the audience, try to show them
something different and unique. Pure emotions, without words and thinking. We
let them absorb our message and fell it. About the show preferences – those are
two very different tales. Open air gigs are nice, but we really prefer to perform
them after the sunset – so that the message is more clear and precise. We love
to play clubs gigs – interaction with the audience is more personal, you can
always control the visual aspects of the shows (like light) and those are not
big festivals, so often we’ve got more time to share music.
Your
second album "Void Mother" moved band to
the next level. It was 2 years ago... How would you describe this album in
your own words? Are you satisfied with it and meet all of your
expectations?
It was
definitely more polished than AIR. First cd was mostly recorded at home, second
is a proper recoridng studio, without breaks for family dinners, shopping and “today I’ve got no time, gotta spend some
time with my GF”-things. In a musical perspective it was also different as
we had new musician on board, that why we still learned each other, there were
different emotions, different energy – just because Olo is quite different
person that Bartek, our former guitarist.
I
know it will be difficult, but try
for a moment to let the audience into the world of OBSCURE SPHINX.
What are your lyrics about?
This question is for
the audience itself. I think that everybody feels it in an individual way and
me explaining it to you wouldn’t make big sense.
If i´m right, yours first
albums you released in your own. Do you think you are going right way when
self-release your albums? Where is a problem that you are not under major
label? I think more people would have found their way to your music.
In Poland none of our
„biggest” players wasn’t interested. But we don’t regret it, in fact were quite
happy with how things turned out. At least we didn’t end up like my friend, who
went to a ‘new cd release’ tour without this cd because this label pressed 2000
copies and then didn’t give a fuck about it. If we run out of cds we just order
additional ones. We also earn quite different money after selling them – that
helps us to go on tour without need to pay for gas or beds from our pockets.
The only drawback is distribution – if we do it DIY we haven’t got such big
amount of contacts as labels do. So let’s put it this way: we wait. We hope
that someday we’ll meet some one, who will be a good partner to work on some
great ideas to share our music. If not – we’ll survive and still walk our path.
Neurosis is able to do that, right? :D
What about your line up? You
don´t have during your existence personal problems?
No, apart from the love for
our mutual creations, we’re friends and simply like each other, and like
spending time with ourselves. Of course, we’re just people so there will always
be some kind of problems, but we find propers solutions all the time they’re
needed.
You have just
finished writing the material for your third record. Can you please uncover
some more details?
Right now, when I’m writing these words we’re in the studio and record
new sounds. We plan to release it some time in March / April 2016.
Musically...? Well... There’s some kind of evolution, but at the same time
there Obscure Sphinx spirit present. People will tell ;)
How you can solve the promotion? Under the label or self release?
We do it by ourselves,
because as you mentioned before, we don’t have a proper label. What will future
bring? Who knows... We’re in the middle of some negotiations and dialogues, but
we’re not sure how will it end. We shall see.
Is
there a possibility, that sometime in the future we will hear the male
vocals in your music?
Olo recorded some stuff
on Void Mother, this time he’ll do it again, maybe even more than before.
How music affects you in
everyday life?
My life was always more less
connected with music. That’s why I cannot imagine living without it. It’s very
important for me as it was present in many difficult situations. Sometimes it
helped, sometimes it provoked, but it was always a part of me. I’m glad that
right now I can express myself in Obscure Sphinx’s rituals. It makes me who I
am.
DEMON
