Present yourself to the readers
Hello. Whalesong was formed in 2009 in Tarnowskie Gory, Poland. The core of the band is a two-piece - me and drummer Grekh. Although we are duo we work more as experimental music collective - recording with various friends of ours - like Thor Harris from SWANS, Xiu Xiu, Wrekmeister Harmonies and Thor & Friends; Vogg from Decapitated and Machine Head, Pope from Sigihl. Our sound combines drone music, sludge/doom, industrial, no wave, jazz, post punk, ambient, black/death metal, noise, modern music and many many more. As you see it's very hard to describe it with just one genre. The most important thing is not to follow any trends and negate up-to-date fragmentary listening of music. That's why most of our songs are quiet long. During live shows we attack with heaviness, slow industrial rhythms, hypnotic arrangements and overwhelming, more than 10-minutes long compositions. We often decide to play brand new songs (we have just released second album, but we play live also songs from our still-unrecorded third album) and deform old songs. Constantly repeated riffs and rhythms mixed with huge loudness are the key to the sound. I myself love when the music during the show overwhelms me and takes somewhere else and I can't do anything else but let it consume me. That's why I love seeing live bands like Swans, Senyawa, Wolvennest and that's we also try to achieve. Also dynamics have really great value for us and our music. We use a huge variety of instruments: gongs, hammered dulcimer, tubular bells, theremin, vibraphone and even objects like sheet metal and springs.
What’s the story for RADIANCE OF A THOUSAND SUNS ?
In the beginning the album was supposed to be an EP entitled 'Consumer', yet very fast it started to grow by itself and became a full-length double CD album. As recording session started new ideas were visiting my mind and well here we are now with this colossus.
Who composes ?...How does it work in the duo ?
I compose the songs, prepare the riffs, sometimes I even have a vision of the whole song in my mind including the rhythms (like with title track from Radiance of a Thousand Suns). Other songs are improvised in studio and we just press record and play the song and see what happens. There is one song - 'Flesh' from the new album - it was a different one, as the first was the beat made by Grekh and then I orchestrated it with all the instruments.
Who writes the texts ?..What are they talking about ?..How does inspiration come ?
I write all lyrics. Main lyrical themes are: society, inner self, human nature, chaos, devastation, never-ending struggle. The inspiration comes from everywhere - books, music, movies, life. It just comes and goes away, I try to write down all ideas and gather them in one place. Then when the day comes I check everything together and make it. There are also situations when the words just come for the whole song and I don't have to change anything in the future.
Why the name WHALESONG ?
Many years ago I read some article that stated the whales never sing the same song twice - I loved this idea and as with this band I always wanted to evolve and seek new ways I thought this name is perfect. It's also very different to other bands and easy to remember.
What are your personal musical tastes and your influences ?
I listen to everything I think is good. It doesn't matter if it's jazz, power electronics, ambient, post-punk, metal or whatever. I love bands like Neurosis, Saint Vitus, Genocide Organ, Death in June, Trepaneringsritualen and many many more. Currently I listen to new Misthyrming album very often. With Whalesong I was always highly influenced by industrial and no wave music - Swans, Einsturzende Neubauten, Godflesh, Neurosis, God, Scorn. Yet you can hear definitely some Mayhem and Sabbath in my riffing as these were and still ofc are one of the most important bands in my life.
What's your best live memory ? And why ?
Our live show in Red&Black, Chorzow in the end of 2017 I think - we were playing there with our friends - Moanaa, Shine and darkdrone. A lot of people came to the show, we had great response from the crowd and the setlist was a mix of old and new. We were also headlining so we had enough time to give the songs enough space to form (one of them was even 30 minutes long). With set like 40 minutes we are not able to give people the whole Whalesong experience. But during this show we could and we did it - seeing people hypnotized by our music was really great experience. It was a really good one.
