DEAD SIRENS is a new rock band hailing from Warsaw, Poland. Since they formed last year, but expect to hear much, much more from them in the months to come. We asked them some questions back in May 2012. Piotrek, the guitarist for the band and the manager of Polish mathcore legends MOJA ADRENALINA, was so kind to answer them for us. Scroll down, press play and take a read.
Hey guys. Please introduce yourself to our readers. What is DEAD SIRENS? When and how did you guys form? Who’s standing behind the project and what other musical ventures have you been complicit in?
It’s like all bands stories. Someone was playing with somebody and you know – people just get to know each other. I’ve met Bartek [guitarist and second vocal in DEAD SIRENS, ex-THE ROOSTERS] in Piotrek Adamczyk’s [RADIO ERROR, ex-THE ROOSTERS, ex-BOOGIE NIGHTS drummer] studio in 2010, after maybe 4-5 years, since our ex-bands had rehearsal room in Foton. We’ve been very excited after listening to tracks we’ve recorded there. It was just few demo songs that we hoped will help us to find musicians to make a band. We thought it would be cool to do something together. Bartek said that Dere [RADIO ERROR, ex-THE ROOSTERS, ex-BOOGIE NIGHTS bassist] is also interested in new project.
We met with Bartek and Dere to talk about a new band and we started jamming. And it just happened. We found that we love the same bands and we’ve got the same ideas about what we wanna play. So we started looking for vocalist and drummer. After creating first tracks BOOGIE NIGHTS has broken up. So we asked Łukasz [THE BLACK HEARTS, ex-BOOGIE NIGHTS singer] if he’d like to join us. He agreed. There was only drummer left. We’ve tried with few but it didn’t work. At last I thought about Jarek with whom I was playing in a high school band. And that’s it.
Cool. You sound like you were big fans of FOO FIGHTERS, HEAD AUTOMATICA, INCUBUS and a bit of AT THE DRIVE-IN maybe, but still trying to create your own unique blend of styles. What are you main musical inspirations? What or who influences you?
Yeah, these are the bands that we listen to, but comparing us to ATDI is very suprising – of course in a positive way. I can’t see their influences in our music instead we’re their big fans. The same with SPARTA and THE MARS VOLTA. That’s funny because Adam – TIDES FROM NEBULA guitarist – said the same.
We don’t want to close our music in any genre. We’ve got rock and punk music roots – that’s for sure! We listen everything from THE BEATLES (that’s the band of our childhood), RAMONES, METALLICA, through DEFTONES, GLASSJAW, MAYLENE AND THE SONS OF DISASTER, QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE, THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN, CONVERGE, THE HIVES, GALLOWS [THE BLACK HEARTS, second Stępień band will play as their support on Warsaw concert], BLINK-182 to jazz, funk, hip-hop, electronic, nu-beat etc. – whatever you want. Is there’s any sense to continue [laughs]?! We’ve got lot of influences but it all become very spontanious during creating a tracks. We are opened for experiments. For example „Hungry Vultures” was remixed by one of the most talented producer of nu-beat TEIELTE (UKnowMe Records) and new star of electronic music – Mead made his own version of „Simple Things”. For us there’s no barriers.
Nice [smiles]. So now the question is.. how do they influence you as a band? To answer that, it would be probably wise to start with another question. Do you guys have a special goal with the band? What are your dreams? I mean, are you planning to make DEAD SIRENS big, or is it completely different purpose? If yes, what concrete promotion steps will you undertake to create a hype around you?
Of course we’d like to have the same as all bands – to have fans, to be well known. But reality is very cruel. We know how does Polish music market looks like. It’s hard to breakthrough with your music. It’s better when you sing in Polish but – let’s be honest – it’s very hard to write good lyrics in our language. There’s only few people who can do this. On the other way we’d be totally fake trying to sing in Polish because we don’t feel it. For us rock music just suits / fit to English. But it’s a way far too long digression. What about promotion – we’ve got few ideas. First of all we wanna play as many gigs as it’s possible to make strong position. Nowadays rock’n’roll music – post grunge, garage, stoner, southern rock – guitar music is coming back. And we want to make good shows with powerful energy and have a good time. If that happened people will appreciate and then we hope that we gonna play on big summer festivals, we’ll be supporting huge bands that we admire – that’s what we want.
Ok, so let’s move forward to your debut outing. Is this the artwork for your debut EP? Who’s standing behind it?
We wrote to Maciek Misiewicz (ex-BLIND DATE) because we like his works. He made a few propositions, sketches but we misunderstood in some aspects so it failed. It’s hard to work with graphics on cover of your album [laughs]! Now we’re working final version that we all accepted.
Tell us more about formats that you choose for your debut outing. What do you think about today’s methods of distributing music (Bandcamp, Soundcloud, etc.), the current state of music industry and its change?
We’ll not going to say anything wise or new. Music industry is falling down because of Internet. Regular albums are not selling any more, bands earn money only on playing concerts or if they have true die fans who buys all of your album. We’ve got profile on Soundcloud and that’s cool. You know how many times your track was played, what people like more or less. Only problem is that people not respect somebodies work (specially art) anymore. And I’m not talking about downloading, “stealing” files from net. Bands, songs, albums… they are just one of millions files in our computers. They are not so important anymore. These are not cassetes, cd’s, vinyls to look after, to care about. You can erase and in another second download new one.
Are there any plans for the full length already?
We don’t know yet. Maybe we gonna release only EP’s. That’s cool. Nobody wants to listen 14 songs on one album anymore. That’s boring. We like short, hard punches. Now bands like GLASSJAW or DOWN are doing stuff like that. We’ll gonna see.
What is the indie rock scene like in Warsaw? Is there a band perfect to release a split with you?
We’re not observing indie rock scene (on the other way it’s hard to say which bands are in this genre). We’ve got few friendly bands, which we’re shearing our rehearsal room – where the guys from our band play – RADIO ERROR, THE BLACK HEARTS or even MOJA ADRENALINA, but stylistically they all are very far from what we’re playing. But, on the other way, we like contrasts and surprising results, so who knows what will happened. We didn’t speak about it so far.
What local /national bands inspire you the most? Any international artists you would like to recommend?
On our ground it will be SEARCHING FOR CALM, ELVIS DELUXE, THE STUBS.
Of course, as you mentioned in second question, we can recommend FOO FIGHTERS or INCUBUS, but who don’t know them?! [laughs]
Any plans to get a major deal? What record labels are you thinking of submitting to?
We still don’t know if we should go to big or small labels? [laughs]
Go small and DIY, I’d say [smiles].
After THE BLACK TAPES, SLIP, THE LOWEST, among a few others, it’s good to hear another Warsaw band sound reliably. Energetic, yet melodic and smooth style great for live appearances. Hope you’ll do well live on stage. Have you played some shows already? When can we expect some gigs?
Thanks for these words and comparing us to such a big bands! It’s nice to hear that!
First gig will be on 4.10 in Warsaw’s Jerozolima club as support of KOMETY. There’s gonna be fire on stage!
I’ll be there! But to feel it better you need to tell me one thing… what’s your favorite DEAD SIRENS lyric and why? [smiles]
We love all of our lyrics. Bartek and Łukasz got unique gift of writing not in their language. They are about what is most important in our life – about love [laughs]!
Ufff… that’s cool, I love love songs [smiles]. Tell us more about the writing and recording process. Who’s the band’s brain? What’s your usual songwriting process?
We don’t have a leader, but maybe it’s Bartek! There’s no rule about composing our tracks. First we’re jamming with one or two riffs, few beats, couple of words, melodies and then it’s like with puzzles or lego. You must connect some parts and build one, strong construction.
What are the best and the worst memories of the band so far?
The best ones was on Łukasz [DS vocal] summer parcel two years ago when we’ve been jamming all days long and composing first tracks. Worst? When we was thinking about the name of a band [laughs]!
What was one of the biggest music news this year so far? Any breakups, reunions, premieres that made you delighted or depressed? [smiles]
Reunions of REFUSED, BLINK-182, SOUNDGARDEN, SPARTA and AT THE DRIVE-IN – these are very good news. Sadly none of these bands have come to Poland.
Some of us is waiting for a new DEFTONES and SOUNDGARDEN albums.
We was surprised about unexpectable SOULBURNERS breakup. These guys played in THESE GO TO ELEVEN, a very good band, but already broken up, as well.
Thanks so much. Good luck with the band and your future plans and works! Feel free to add anything you want, make a shout out, whatever. Thanks!
We’d like to thanks all the people supporting us! Families, our girls and friends! And specially Piotrek Adamczyk for EVERYTHING and Jacek Szczepanek!
