The answers comes from Filip who plays
drums and sings in Nic Smiesznego. One of
Polands best bands right now. In the end of the
year 2021
Please tell me a little bit history of
the group?
-The band was formed on Pasiak’s (the
guitar) initiative in 2003 in the village
Brzeznica in the south-east Poland. At first the
band consisted of Pasiak (the guitar), Gieru
(the bass), Rysiek (the drums) i Gumiś (vocals).
The lineup changed, in the meantime Gieru left,
whereas Ariel (the bass) joined, Ariel left ,
and Kefir (the bass) joined, Rysiek left and
Filip (the drums) joined, etc. We recorded two
demo albums, we played quite a few concerts and,
unfortunately, life forced us to cancel the
bands activity for an indefinite time. In 2018,
after a meeting, we started playing again in the
line-up of Pasiak (git), Gumić (voc), Ariel
(bass), Filip (per). Initially, it was supposed
to be a comeback for only one concert, but as it
turned out later, we got along well so we
decided that we would take the matters further.
We started playing concerts and doing completely
new material simultaneously. In 2020, we
released our first full album "NIHIL RIDICULUM"
on our own and with four publishers (HC Tatoo
Rec., Beskid Punkowy, Pasażer and Stradoom). It
was received quite nicely. This would probably
be it if it comes to history.
Please tell me a little about every member in
the group right now, age, family, work,
interests and something bad about everyone?
Earlier bands? Other bands on the side?
-The variety of the jobs we do is wide,
from head of the company, through the chimney
sweep, factory worker, to the caretaker of the
disabled. Each of us has different interests,
model building, motorcycles, etc. But we have
one common interest which is music and its
creation. The earlier, or actually a parallel
playing band we were involved in was Ortodox,
and now Ariel still has his project called Anver
Void.
I can hear much different influences but mostly
punk and some hardcore, old polish bands like
Dezerter? Favorites from the past?
-Actually, everyone will sense something
different in our music. In general, we somehow
fit into the broadly understood term hc / punk,
but it was not intended. We don't want to label
our music. Each of us listens to a bit different
music, from jazz, through punk, hc, industrial,
to psychorap and electronic pieces, and it is
this mix of musical preferences that makes us
play the way we do. It's hard to name your
favorite bands from the past because each of us
would have to write a long list and there isn’t
enough space in the interview for it, hahaha.
Nic Smiesznego are you satisfied with the name?
How did it came up? What does it mean? You
weren’t afraid that some other band would be
named like this? Which is the best bandname you
know?
-There was once a Polish film with the
same title. It portrayed Polish society, all its
flaws, concerns and general crap. This is where
the name came from. We believe that despite the
appearance of happiness, there is really nothing
to laugh at when looking at the world around us
and the direction in which it is heading. Is
anyone else called that? Probably not in Poland,
and abroad we don't know because we don't know
languages, hahaha. Best band name I know? I
don't know, I can't answer ... hahaha
What´s the best thing with playing live? Have
you done any since the covid came?
-The best thing about playing live is
the energy and feedback you get from people in
front of the stage, it doesn't matter if it's
100, 200, 300 people or 1 person. Playing live
is different from studio playing in that sense
that there is space for spontaneity, a lot of
things during live shows come out naturally
without planning, and that's the coolest thing
about it.
Covid complicated a lot of things,
including the possibility of touring. We’ve had
3 lockdowns in Poland so far and we don't know
how many more there will be, but between them we
played and are playing quite a lot of concerts,
in total there will be around 20 so it's not as
bad as you might expect.
And where is best to play? And the worst place?
-Hard to say. Wherever someone puts
their energy, their free time and often their
money to organize a gig, people come, sometimes
more, sometimes fewer, but they come, there is a
good place to play. And it does not matter
whether you play professional equipment with
sound engineers, or you only play with the
backline.
And
the worst place? Each one
where
politicians, the church, the army, the police,
etc. are involve.
How is to play this sort of music in Poland
right now? Which types of bands do you have
concerts together with?
-For sure the times we live in and what
is happening now in Poland and in the world
gives us reasons to shout out everything we
disagree with and what makes us angry. We play
as we feel and we treat our playing as something
normal, so I can briefly answer that playing
such music in Poland is now normal, just like
any other :)
As for the bands we play with, the
easiest way to say is that they are independent
, without right-wing / national / Nazi fascist
influences, regardless of the type of music they
play.
How would you describe your music in three
words?
-90’ style hc/punk
What does punk mean to you, is it only a word or
is it a lifestyle?
-Definitely a lifestyle, living in
harmony with yourself, but also in harmony with
others. If you feel good as you are, and at the
same time you do not hurt others, you see their
needs, you react when someone wants to oppress
the weaker, destroy what is different from
themselves, divide, etc., it can be said that
this is punk and it does not matter whether you
dress in a suit, tracksuit, jeans or any other
way suitable
for you, no matter what
music you listen to, who you love, etc.
Which song/album or group was it who took you
into punk/hardcore?
-There was no particular song or band.
In the times when tapes were popular, we
exchanged music from metal, through punk, hc,
even rap to industrial, etc. The whole thing in
a way led us in this and not another direction
and you can hear it in our playing, many
different influences.
What shall a young guy do today to shock their
parents as the way we did when we were young?
They have already seen everything
?
-Shocking by force makes no sense at
all, unless they really want to mess with their
parents. Did we try to shock the parents by
force? Probably not, it is just that the
generation gap causes a change of interests and
what is the norm for us is a shock for the older
generation. Have the parents seen everything
possible? It seems to me that no, because the
21st century surprises us every day and for the
current young generation, "our shocking" is an
outdated standard, and the creativity of the
young generation is now enormous and it would be
better if they did not try to shock the parents
too much, because the consequences may be, to
put it mildly, unpleasant.
How is it to live in Poland right now?
Politically? Fascists?
-Life in Poland is strange at the
moment. On the one hand, it is theoretically
"normal", on the other hand, the country is
ruled by a conservative, right-wing party that
only has eyes for the church, so you can guess
in which direction this is going. In addition,
we have a tacit consent to the Nazi's running
rampant under the guise of patriotism and
hooliganism, which is also strongly concentrated
on the right. So this normality is, as I
mentioned, "theoretical".
It is not communism, but unfortunately
it is heading in this direction.
Is there any good bands from Poland right now?
Is the punkscene/metalscene/hardcorescene big?
How is it in your hometown?
-There are a lot of really great bands
from the broadly understood "scene". It's hard
to mention all of them, so I'll just mention a
few: Eye For An Eye,Skorup/a, Wara, 1125,
Schizma, The Corpse, Morus, Regres and many
others. Some are shutting down, others are
reactivating, others are being built from
scratch. I recommend delving into the Polish
scene because it is specific and really
interesting.
In our town, apart from us, there are 4
bands from the broadly understood hc / punk
scene: Mamusiu Ratuj, Ortodox, Prokurator, The
Dickens. Some of them perform and record, some
work on material.
What do you know about Sweden? Have you been
here sometime? What is typical Swedish?
-In Poland, there is a conviction that
it is one of the best countries to live in, but
it is very expensive and the language is
difficult to learn. What do we know about
Sweden? At school in geography, they taught us
what the capital city is, with whom it is
neighbors, where it is, what currency it has,
etc. so we have basic knowledge hahaha. We
haven't been to Sweden yet, but we hope that
someday we will have a chance to play something
in Sweden. And a typical Swede in our opinion? –
a VIKING :)
Have you heard any good bands from Sweden?
-Sure. The first three for me are 1.
Refused, 2. Misconduct, 3. The Hives
Your lyrics, who does them and what influences
you? Never in english? Please tell me a little
about the following songs
-Pseudo
-Anormalnosc
-Robotnik
The texts are all written by all of us.
One of us will write something, the other will
add something, the third and the fourth will
make corrections and that's how it goes. We are
inspired by life, everything that is happening
around us, we try to transfer our views and our
attitudes to life into texts, regardless of
whether they suit someone or not. We try to be
honest in what we do, which is why we never
think about whether we can offend someone with a
text or not. For the same reason we don't sing
in English, we live and make music in Poland, we
mainly sing about what pisses us off in this
country, so we don't see why we should do it in
English, it wouldn't be sincere.
And now about the songs:
"Pseudo", a song about the fact that
everything modern politics is built on is
pseudo. It doesn't matter where, politics is
evil whether it is right, left or center. It is
a cancer that consumes society, leading to
differences, conflicts, wars, poverty and all
the evils of this world
“Anormalnosc” ("Abnormalities") - the
issue of the complexities in the recesses of the
human soul or more of the mind really. On the
outside, we are completely different than inside
ourselves, we have trained behaviors and
rituals, formulas that come out of our mouths.
All of this may seem just abnormal. It is about
the discrepancy between what is in the head and
what is real.
"Robotnik" - a number to the text of the
Polish poet - Edward Stachura. The first of the
two "old" pieces in the "new" version. A song
about 75% of the society, about the nonsense of
the work performed and about the "worker’s day",
about the mundane everyday life of "ordinary
Smith". At concerts, this song is dedicated to
all those who have to wake up every morning and
reluctantly stand at the assembly line for 8 or
more hours.
Is there any subject that you never will write
anything about? Or isn´t anything sacred?
-There is no question of writing any
texts praising any power or political system,
and in fact this is probably the only topic that
we will never touch on in the texts.
Politic and music, does it goes hand in
hand? Which is your most political song? Is it
important to get out your opinions in music? Or
is it OK to play music and not sing about
politics?
-There are bands that cut themselves off
from politics completely, as if everything that
happens around them would not apply to them. We
did not do that and we will never do that.
We are not going to say
that something is white when it is clearly
black, we are not going to turn our heads or
close our eyes if we disagree with something,
and politics is the best example of that. I
believe that the hc / punk scene is very closely
related to politics, and more specifically to
opposition to it, regardless of which side of
the political scene we look at. Is it OK to skip
politics in texts? Everyone sings about what
they think is appropriate, I do not want to
judge here, everyone does and sings as they
please. What matters is honesty, not being
catchy.
Best political band/artist?
-For me, definitely Rage Against The
Machine
Do you think that music(lyrics and so on) can
change anyones life, I mean people who listens
to music?
-What we sing about is an expression of
our thoughts, our approach to life and the
world, shouting out everything that worries us,
but we always want to reach people who listen to
us with the message. I think this applies to all
bands that pay attention to the lyrics and not
sing about crap as long as somebody gets hold of
it and can sing with them. So the answer is yes,
the lyrics can, and often should, change the
attitudes to life.
Your favorite recordcover alltime? Who
does your recordcovers? And do you have any good
recordstores in your hometown?
-The best cover ever made for me is the
cover of the King Crimson album "In the court of
the crimson king". Our cover was designed by a
friend from our friendly band, Burek Dobry Pies.
He wanted to undertake this project, he proposed
such a design, we agreed, a few corrections were
made and here it is :) In fact, there is only
one music store in our town. It is called Debut,
really great, run by a real enthusiast of music
and a walking encyclopedia. You can find gems
practically unavailable anymore. Another thing
is that in the age of the Internet, music stores
cease to exist. There are retail chains that
have, among other things, CDs in their
assortment, but they are one of many other
goods, so it's hard to treat such places as
music stores.
Is it important to get out physical
records of your stuff? Why or why not? Vinyl,
CD, cassette, what do you prefer if you could
choose whatever ?
-We are in the 21st century, so it is
known that 99% of recordings are available on
the Internet both legally and illegally and we
will not escape from it. Nevertheless, it is
always worth having a medium with your music
because not everyone likes to listen to music
from the Internet. As for the choice of a vinyl,
cd or cassette, the vinyl fashion is back and
the cassette is also slowly coming back, so if
you want to fit in with the fashion, you have to
say that one of these two, but I think that the
best medium at the moment is a CD. We treat
vinyl and cassettes as "collector's editions",
especially because vinyl is damn expensive to
release.
Please tell me a funny thing which have
happened during your career and under some gig?
-Actually, it's not about Nic
Śmiesznego, but we went to a concert with the
band I played in before, everything was great,
the time passed nicely, then the time came to
enter the stage, and we realized that the
guitars had been left in the rehearsal room -
some 150 km from the concert venue so there was
no chance to quickly drive and pick them up. We
had to borrow equipment from another band, and
our right-handed bass player was playing the
bass for left-handers, so he had the strings
upside down. We played somehow, but we still
remember this situation and have a lot of laugh
hahaha.
How does your audience look like? Which
people do you miss on your concerts? Which is
the biggest band you ever have played together
with?
-The audience is diverse, from old punk
rockers to teenagers and sometimes kids. We
always miss all those who, for some reason,
could not come, but wanted to. Well, it happens
sometimes and it is always a pity that they are
not there. Of course, all those who have passed
away, with whom we will never meet again at any
concert. We miss them a lot.
As for the "greatest" we've played with,
each of the bands we've ever played with is
great for us because they create something of
their own, something honest and try their best.
The most recognizable bands in Poland with whom
we had the pleasure to play are probably
Dezerter and Los Fastidios, but we will not
mention the rest, so as not to skip someone;)
Please rank your five favoriterecords,
five favoriteconcerts and five most important
things in life?
-As many as five ?! :) OKAY. 5 CDs:
Sepultura "Chaos A.D." , Pink Floyd "The Wall",
King Crimson "In the court of the crimson king",
1125 "Nieugięci", New Model Army "Thunder and
consolation". 5 concerts: New Model Army in
Brighton, Gogol Bordello in London, Skindred in
Redhill, D.O.A. in Bielsko Biała, GBH in
Canterbury. 5 most important things in life:
love, friendship, honesty, joy, happiness - it
may be cliche, but true :)
First, last and most expensive record
ever bought?
-The first album I bought was Sepultura
"Chaos A.D." and the last one was Kult "Live
Poland Rock Festival" (great album). The most
expensive was probably King Crimson "In the
court of the crimson king" limited on vinyl.
Is it boring with interviews? Is it much
interviews?
-Good question. No, they're not boring
as long as you don't have to answer the same
questions over and over again. We don't have
many of them, so we haven't got bored yet.
Do you care about reviews? Which is the
most peculiar you ever had, with this band or
any other band you have been to? Have you ever
changed anything after a bad review?
-Reviews are important because they,
apart from the concerts and the reactions of
people in front of the stage, show whether the
reception of what you have created is positive
or negative. We do not follow opinions and we do
not change anything after hearing the bad ones,
we always do as we feel, regardless of the
opinions of others. Not everyone has to like
what we do, everyone has different musical
tastes and this is the most beautiful thing
about this scene, that you can be a part of it,
and at the same time can be different. And the
strangest part of our review is that "you barely
start to pogo to the music, they change the
rhythm and pace and you can't" :)
Which bands do people compare you to, is
it boring that people compare you to other bands
or is it understandable?
-We are usually compared to bands such
as Apatia, Złodzieje Rowerów, Guernica Y Luno
(these three, unfortunately, no longer exist)
and to Dezerter. We are not annoyed by it, and
indeed it is an honor for us to be compared to
such great and significant bands. Everyone will
find something different in our music, everyone
will hear different influences, but it is all
outside of us and we have no control over it. We
consciously do not try to imitate anyone, and
the fact that we like these or other bands
somehow subconsciously influences our music.
If you could choose five bands from the
past and the history and nowadays and both dead
and living bands to have a concert together with
your band. Which five have you been chosen?
1. Pink Floyd, 2. Bad Brains, 3.
Ramones, 4. Body Count, 5. New Model Army
Is music a good way to get out frustration and
become a nicer person outside the music??
-Making music or playing concerts gives
us incredible energy and allows us to recharge
our batteries, forget about everyday life for a
moment, such a hard reset and thus it can be
said that thanks to music we become better in
everyday life for a moment.
Which is the most odd question you ever have got
in an interview?(Except this one)
-In an interview for a pally zine we
were asked: "Where and for how much can you buy
human bones by weight" :)
Which is the question you want to have
but you never get. Please ask it and answer it?
-I don't think there is such a question
:)
Futureplans for the band?
-If everything goes according to our
plan, next year we are entering the studio with
the second album, which we hope to release in
2022. and then maybe a promo tour
J
For yourself?
-We just want to live well and be happy.
Wisdomword?
-Live in harmony with yourself ...
Something to add?
-Thanks for the interview and your interest in us. We hope to see you sometime at a concert in Sweden, of course, if there is someone willing to invite us, which is what we are counting on, and feel invited to us hahaha.