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Topic: Interview with Osada Vida, Nov. 2009Posted By: avestin
Subject: Interview with Osada Vida, Nov. 2009
Date Posted: November 13 2009 at 21:21
Polish progressive rock/metal band ../artist.asp?id=3062 - OSADA VIDA have been around since 1997 and have been making their name more familiar in recent years with their two last concept albums, Three Seats Behind A Triangle (2006) and The Body Parts Party (2008).
November 2009 (December in the USA) sees the band’s new album, Uninvited Dreams, being released through Metal Mind Productions. In light of this, bassist Lukasz Lisiak and drummer Adam Podzimski have answered some questions regarding the band, its past albums and the new release.
1) For those unfamiliar with Osada Vida, can you give us a
brief background of the band? How did it come to be? Your musical
influences?
AP: Osada Vida was set up in 1997. Lukasz and I
created the band in 1997 as a trio. The members of our band had changed
several times and the same was with our music. In the year 2000 we
recorded our first demo album “Moment krytyczny” (The Critical Moment).
Since then we have recorded two more albums: “W drodze na ksi??yc” in
2002 and “Osada Vida” in 2004. Our music was changing, developing you
can hear it on our previous albums. But the year 2005 was very crucial
to our band. We invited the new guitarist – Bartek Bereska – and
released an album “Three Seats Behind a Triangle”(2006). We try to find
an inspiration in every good piece of music. No matter if it’s pop,
jazz, metal or even classical music.
LL: Together with Adam, we wished to play our
favourites’ music: Rush, King Crimson, Camel, early Porcupine Tree,
Talk Talk and a stuff from 4 AD. We never chose any style or never
called it a give name. We simply wished to play the music, which we
felt, we loved, enjoyed and we wanted to listen to.
2) In case you didn’t cover it in the previous question: Is music your main or only profession? What’s your musical background?
AP: Let say that music is our main occupation. We
dedicate a lot of our free time to it but we must do something
completely different for living.
Lukasz is working as the main manager in the logistics corporation,
Bartek studies chemistry, Rafa? is an aplication programmer and I am
working in orphanage as an educator (and of course I try to teach kids
listening to good music). We don’t have any special musical education
but each of us was taking some private musical lessons.
3) What is the meaning of your name? How did you choose it?
AP: Let me tell you a short story: In the area of
today’s Benin, there’s a small village. Its inhabitants live far from
all civilisation but in perfect harmony. Their newborn babies are given
to phytons that look after them and protect them. This village is
called Osada Vida.
We chose that name because that Osada Vida was a place where people
lived in their own way, with their own rules. They didn’t care about
the world which was outside their village. I think that members of the
band are like that people from Osada Vida. We create our own music, an
unusual mixture of sounds which could be inconceivable to some people
but it’s just our music.
LL: And why did we choose the name? Well, our first gig was approaching and we had to decide at last.
4) At Prog Archives, you are listed as prog-metal. But then
again, you might not be that heavy o r that edgy as to not appeal to
people who dislike metal. How do you see yourselves?
LL: We don’t follow one style only, you can’t close
us in a one drawer labelled “prog rock” or “prog metal”. We don’t
calculate or combine with music artificially – all we create is coming
out of ourselves. We don’t want our listeners to think during OV’s
concerts: “Will he make a mistake or not?” or “Will he miss the tune or
not?”J I’m talking about those “shreding maniacs” J Progressive metal?
Sure, we are old-school headbangers! I mean me and Adam (Podzimski, the
drummer) have been inspired by Anthrax or Testament, so it’s clear we
perform some kind of metal, isn’t it? J All I say is: we’re releasing
the third official album, we’ve had a few gigs, a lot of reviews in
different languages have appeared in many places. In my opinion, the
listener who’s interested in our CD, surely knows or at least is aware
of what he can expect to find there. We believe that our listeners are
fully conscious, seeking freshness in music. We do our best to provide
them with what they look for.
5) How did the public and the press receive your last album in your home country and abroad?
AP: As we could see our album was warmly received
in Poland and abroad. But I’ve noticed that probably we have much more
fans abroad than in our motherland. A lot of flattering reviews are
sent to us from Poland, whole Europe, The USA and Brasil. In February
2007 our album “Three Seats Behind a Triangle” was chosen as the “album
of the month” in the Progressive Rock and Metal Webzine in Brasil.
LL: All our previous albums are – I think –
uncompromising. In case of all three, we always had some plans and
concepts. As for “TSBAT” we had the whole story described, I mean
well-selected lyrics. Next we had to compose the music, which would
express the content. Creating “TBPP” we wanted to have shorter,
simplier and more melodic songs. As a result, our fans divided into two
groups: of those who prefer “TSBAT” because it’s more complex and
plain. And those ones who prefer lighter and smoother music. Well, it’s
hard to please everyone’s taste… That explains why we had no limits
while making the new album. The only limit was the space on CD.
6) Tell us about the concept of your last album, The Body Parts Party? who came up with it and how?
AP: When we’d finished our “TSBAT tour” we started
to think about a new album. Lukasz was composing all the time. He was
bringing new musical ideas at our rehearsals so the music was composed
very quickly.
After as serious and difficult topic as “TSBAT” was, we wanted to do
something funnier and easier to understand to an ordinary man, so we
decided to make an album about people’s characters and attribute their
features of character to the interior organs of human body. We chose
several organs which, in our opinion, describe people’s characters in
the best way, in the meanwhile, I hit on an idea about the title of our
new album. Lukasz is the main composer of our music , but also Rafal
and Bartek did a really good job. Me and Ola wrote lyrics and you can
hear the result of our work.
7) Is there a new album in the works? If so, what’s it like;
is it a concept album as well? Is it stylistically similar to Body
Parts Party? What can you tell us about it?
LL: The brand new album is ready. It’s again a
concept album titled “Uninvited Dreams”. It will be released on 23
November in Europe and 1 December in the USA. As previously, our
drummer – Adam Podzimski – is the author of all new lyrics. We’ve
always avoided to be literal in our lyrics and nothing’s changed this
time. The title of album explains the whole content. Dreams have
fascinated people through years. Let’s look at all dreams
interpretations created in many culures and centuries, at all
fortune-tellers and astrologists, even scientists who tried to study
dreams. We focused only on on “unwanted” ones. Each of us must have
experienced bad dreams, that you hurriedly wished to forget as shortly
after waking up. Another time, although you wanted to dream about
pleasures, no pleasant things appeared – just the black hole. Taking
into consideration the fact, that we sleep through 1/3 of our life,
such situations are frequent. Why? Because stress, nerves, sadness and
everyday problems inevitably accompany our life. Sometimes, you plunge
into a bed with a small hope, that night will bring the desired
solution and the change into better. This is what the new CD is about –
probably the saddest one of Osada Vida (as for lyrics). It’s not a
secret that we rather try to express the content through sounds, not
through words. I don’t feel as a vocalist, knowing to express all
emotions, which we want to express with our music. Therefore our albums
are played intrumentally in 70%. This is also the case currently,
although we prepared a few vocal surprises. I deeply believe, that they
are really positive and make the whole album look fantastic. I will not
reveal more details – you have to wait for release J As for the music:
Working on this album was a fantastic experience for me. Mainly,
because we returned to an old way of composing. I mean the one before
“Three Seats Behind A Triangle”. So, there was no situation that we
worked on a given, completed song, that came to somebody’s mind, I mean
of us four – we simply met on sessions, playing and feeling which of
our common ideas would be most suitable for the next step. Such an
attitude resulted in totally non-comercial, uncompromising material,
where the shortest song lasts almost 9 minutes! (not mention Bartek’s
“spanish” surprise – which the Fans will listen soon J) . We treated
the new album with no rules, no borders and no limits. Therefore the
new songs sound more like if we played live. There is a place for
unlimited Bartek’s great guitar solos, and for Rafal’s keyboard crazy
rides, and for Adam’s drum craze – of course all in good balance and
taste J In my view, it’s an incredibly precious CD for a Listener who
searches not trivial, complex music, which you have to understand,
listen into deeply, discover and be part of. Consequently, it’s
definitelynot music, which makes you feel bored quickly. We
traditionally mixed all music styles, that we love ourselves: rock,
metal, jazz/fussion, prog, electronic and even funky. I strongly
believe, Osada Vida has such Listeners.
8 ) Do you plan to tour or support this new album with live shows?
LL: Definitely yes. We wish to play more concerts
now. We would like to follow 2 or 3 – week long tour, not only one day
concerts. Well, we feel a little bit like Alan Parsons
Seriously – it’s not an easy topic. It seems to me that people are
unwillingly leaving their homes to go to concerts. For us, live shows
means pleasure, but also costs that we must cover. It’s clear obvious.
Therefore we aren’t planning any concerts outside Poland. But of
course, who knows? Everything depends on promotors, so… go on!
9) How do you feel your previous releases compare with this
current new album? Are you still satisfied with them retrospectively?
AP: Our debut was made without any rush, we had
plenty of time and it caused (in my opinion) that TSBAT has many
thought-out compositions but the production is not good enough. I hope
that “TBPP” is a more mature album. We didn’t have a lot of time to
make it but in the recording studio we could count on our experienced
friend, Marcin Chlebowski, who helped us a lot. But “Uninvited Dreams”
I like the most. It’s difficult to compare these three albums ‘cause I
can’t be objective J
LL: We’re really pleased with our albums, mainly
when we talk about compositions. Of course, we would surely change a
lot of things on our previous albums such as mix, mastering, I’d
probably change my vocal parts
But we can’t regret any steps, decisions, because they were caused by
our level of knowledge and experience. We also had more financial
barriers at that time.. Anyway, we’re not ashamed of anything. Why
should we be ashamed of not being able to read at the age of 2?
10) What’s your attitude towards progressive rock? Do you
listen to it? Like it? Think it’s just pretentious? Do you feel
comfortable with being listed as a prog-rock/metal band in PA and other
prog rock/metal websites? Do you feel “at home” with other “more
conventional” prog rock acts?
AP: Every member of our band likes progressive rock
(more or less). Every one , I feel so, listens also another kinds of
music. But I think that we all like to listen good music and I hope you
can hear it in our songs.
LL: I’ve always found it hard to classify
ourselves. On our new album “Uninvited Dreams” happens a lot in various
climate, tunes, tempos and structures. It’s not important for me how it
will be called or classified. Really.
11) What other prog (or non-prog) bands from Poland do you
like and/or appreciate their music? Apart from the bigger names (the
likes Riverside, Indukti, Collage, Amarok, Gargantua, Laboratorium,
SBB, Quidam, Satellite, Believe, Skaldowie etc) what is the state of
prog-rock in Poland? Is it thriving or more of an underground movement
or depending on the genre played by the individual band?
What about non-Polish prog bands? Do you have any favorite
prog bands or musicians (doesn’t have to be an influence, just your
personal preference)?
AP: I think you’ve enumerated most of Polish bands
that we like and appreciate but there are still some worth to mention
like After…, Division By Zero or Animations. The condition of Polish
prog-rock improves and it makes us happy but it is still the beginning
of the long way to appreciate this kind of music in our country.
Favourite bands? Oh there are too many J. We love Rush, King Crimson,
Pink Floyd, Genesis, ELP, Yes and all classical prog-rock bands. I
think Porcupine Tree is the band that made, that OV was created. We all
extremely like this band.
LL: I love listening to Muse, Foo Fighters, Peter
Gabriel, but also Mastodon, Tool, Slayer, Europe. As for prog rock, I’m
keen on Flower Kings, Pain Of Salvations and of course the whole
classic prog stuff. But there’s the whole lot of bands which are just
more or less perfect copies of prog rock big names, like Pink Floyd or
Dream Theater – it doesn’t get to me. Besides, I love RUSH!
12) Is there any band or musician that you’d like to collaborate with or have him/them play on your album?
AP: There are many artists that we would like to
collaborate with but as far we haven’t talked about it. Who knows,
maybe in the future?
LL: Geddy Lee, Peter Gabriel, Daniel Gildenlow, Jorn Lande and John Lennon
13) If you had a very generous funding, what kind of album would you do, or are you doing it already?
AP: If we had a very generous funding (dreams oh
dreams) we would invite the most illustirous musicians and release an
album which probably…..wouldn’t be our album J. But talking seriously,
if we had a very generous funding we could devote to music entirely. We
would have our own recording studio and the top-drower music equipment.
But I’m sure that we would still play “Osada’s” music. Fortunately
money doesn’t influence on men’s creativity. But up till now we don’t
have problems with a large amount of money.
14) With the spreading of the iPod culture and mentality,
do you still think there’s room for this kind of music, which demands
the listener attention and devotion? Would you consider compromising
your artistic intentions and aspirations to gain more financial
success? Do you still believe in the concept of making albums and not
single songs? Will you keep up making concept albums as you have done
before?
AP: I think that many people are fed up with
“mind-blowing music”. I believe that they want to listen the music that
can offer something more. There are not many things better than holding
a good released CD in your hand and listening to the history that the
artist wants to tell us. Music is not our job so we don’t count on
financial success so we don’t have to think about the compromise.
LL: For us, it’s very important to have an original
and attractive artwork to give for our Fans. Rafal Paluszek always
takes care of it. You won’t get it with iPod
15) How would you persuade an open minded person to listen
to your music? You can also give a short description of your musical
style. In other words, promote your band!
LL: Through our music we want to move your
imagination, give some moments of relaxation and provide you with
positive emotions. I hope it is the case. Be with us and show us that
what we do – especially for you , our Listeners- makes sense and gets
where it really should, to your hearts and minds. Best wishes and great
thanks to all Fans who are supporting us and listening to Osada Vida ‘s
music. All the best!
Links:
Official website - http://www.osadavida.art.pl/ - http://www.osadavida.art.pl
http://www.progarchives.com/ProgRockShopping.asp" rel="nofollow - PA Index of prog music vendors
Replies: Posted By: Mellotron Storm
Date Posted: November 13 2009 at 21:51
Assaf !!! Excellent interview with one of my favourite Polish bands.Their debut is still my favourite.Really looking forward to the new one. Was glad to see them mention the band AFTER... who hopefully will be on our site soon. I hope this interview will get some people to check OSADA VIDA out.
------------- "The wind is slowly tearing her apart"
"Sad Rain" ANEKDOTEN
Posted By: avestin
Date Posted: November 15 2009 at 08:20
Hi John, Looking forward to the new album as well. I deliberately didn't listen to that video I posted above cause I want to listen to album as a whole when I get it. Shouldn't be too long now. Hope more people give them a listen. It's not an easy band to get into but it's well worth it.
http://www.progarchives.com/ProgRockShopping.asp" rel="nofollow - PA Index of prog music vendors
Posted By: Synchestra
Date Posted: November 17 2009 at 02:54
great interview pity their albums are near impossible to get hold of in NZ, especially on a now-tighter budget. But I'll definately be keeping my eye out for some of their stuff
------------- 'Yeah, thats.. Whatever you're talking about for ya' - Zapp brannigan
Posted By: CAESAR
Date Posted: December 22 2009 at 07:01
Hello! Three of their albums you can buy here: www.rockserwis.pl (english version) To everything was clear, this is not my shop!
Probably the best Polish progressive rock shop. Best regards!
Posted By: sigod
Date Posted: December 23 2009 at 08:33
A brilliant interview by a band I knew nothing about until now. I must check them out (I see a little Christmas prezzie myself to coming up!).
Cheers for posting this Avestin.
------------- I must remind the right honourable gentleman that a monologue is not a decision.
- Clement Atlee, on Winston Churchill