Today we are proud to introduce Empty Playground, a band from Poland, which impressed many a man with their debut EP and live performances. I met the guys at the ProRock Festival, and asked for the interview. Thom, the band's guitarist kindly agreed to answer some questions.

How long did it take Empty Playground to release the first demo?

Three or four years. But we didn’t actually even plan it until people started asking for it.

Really? Could you tell about it in more detail?

Well, we played a lot of gigs, people started coming in greater numbers (considering no one knew who we were and where we were from) and they loved the shows, so they expected an album. That’s what inspired us to do it, and that’s what still motivates us to do it - the people who like our music.

I see. So then you released your EP. Why did you decide to self-release it, rather then cooperate with some label?

Because we never had any material published before, no label was interested, and those who were, offered a lower standard than we were able to deliver ourselves. We saved some money, and decided to print the booklet, buy CD-boxes and assemble them ourselves. My woman helped us with the graphic design, I recorded the material and what came out was 10 times better then if some small label would release it.

Yes, the release is great. But why did you decide not to include songs lyrics into the disc booklet?

There were many reasons. One of them being the CD publishing took place in a great haste. We didn’t have much time, had very little funds, and we had to do everything ourselves (record, mix, master, design graphics, put everything together and prepare the printout) since we didn’t publish it through any label. I think the lyrics were simply omitted because we had too much on our heads. There will be lyrics in our new album booklet for sure.

OK. I think now would be the high time to speak a bit about how the band started.

I started the band with Swampthing. I did all the tracks, and he wrote the lyrics and vocals, and provided huge amounts of, let’s say philosophical content to it. After some time we decided it would be great to have a band to play with us, so we asked our friends, who used to play in the death metal project called Braindead (Dave - drums, Hailig - bas) if they wanted to do it. They liked the material, Braindead wasn’t active anymore so we gave it a try, and luckily it worked. We’ve had many problems because of the samples and drum loops we use. We had to sync them with the band. We tried to have an additional member to play the samps and synths but it didn’t work out. After a year or so Jary replaced our first guitarist - Vandal - we ditched the samples guy and have played like that since.

And what is the current situation in the band? Have you had any new material? When are we to expect the next release?

Well, we’re lucky to announce that our first LP should appear early 2010, by courtesy of Witching Hour (PL). We are very happy to be joining that crew, they have a lot of history, which should strike with full force next year. They also have a great concept on how a metal label should work. I wouldn’t want to go into further detail for now.

As you like. Have you experimented with your sound a lot? Will the next release be very different from the first EP?

We haven’t experimented a lot, but this time the mixing and mastering process will be handled by Hertz studio, the best metal recording studio in Poland! They worked with Vader, Decapitated, Stillborn, Vesania and many many other bands, including some of Ukrainian ones (i.e. Fleshgore I believe) so you can expect a hell of an improvement in the sound!

You mentioned the philosophical content. The ideology of your band could be described as Militant Atheism. Even your MySpace address reads "niemaboga" (which is there is no god). What are the reasons of such hatred towards religion and gods?

That’s true to some extent. People often try to label us which shouldn’t be the point in music. Our 'hatred' as you described it is not against 'gods' as in such none of us believes. We are against different forms of religion and any church-like institutions. We come from a very catholic country, and that’s what is the closest to us. It doesn’t matter though if it’s catholic, muslim, protestant or any other. There are no gods, and if you’re a free and self-conscious person, you shouldn’t let other people tell you who or what to bow before, speaking in general.

In general, there are many satanic bands in Poland. How could you explain their popularity?

Empty Playground is not a satanic band, though, the LaVey concept for life and his philosophy is probably closer to us then that of the catholic church. But to answer your question, there are so many 'anti-christian' bands in Poland BEACAUSE we are a catholic country. The Polish catholic church stands mostly on believers who don’t practice their faith (i.e. people who say they believe, but don’t go to church or confess their sins). The majority of the 'active' catholics are blindfolded cattle of 50+ small town, simple people, whose ability to take control of their own minds has been destroyed in the cradle. There are so many of them that they threaten the free will of those who don’t believe. So it’s them or us.

I see. Just one more question on the ideology, if you don’t mind. Namely about the bands name. It seems not to have anything to do with your ideology.

Swampthing came up with it when we were getting drunk over at my place. I have this playground for kids outside the block of flats I live in. He figured that if there is a god then the world he created is just a playground for him, with people as toys, and that he left his toys a long time a go and hasn’t cared about them. So he left the playground empty to rust and die slowly. We liked the metaphor.

It’s very interesting indeed. But let’s to come back to the music. Your recorded material sounds very different from your live performance (at least from the one in Kiev). What are the reasons for this?

Well, first of all we were devastated our drummer couldn’t arrive with us to play at ProRock. And the second thing is sound engineers don’t actually know how to mix a band like ours, because the samples we use aren’t just simple intro/outro sort of thing. They’re like a separate instrument, with its own place in the sound spectrum. I’m afraid until we have our own sound engineer we will never sound like the recording. But we loved the show, we loved the crowd and how we were welcomed, Thanks again Ukraine, and everyone else who supported us!

You are welcome! But what happened to the drummer?

He had a very difficult personal situation, and four days before the show it turned out he couldn’t go. We didn’t want to cancel at last minute, so I prepared the drums you’ve heard in two evenings. We had only one rehearsal and we didn’t know if this would work even when we were on the stage. But luckily it went great.

Actually, it did. Could you tell how you did manage to become a performing band at ProRock fest? I know there were few hundred bands, who wanted to perform.

We tried our best and hoped our music will convince people to want to listen to us. We’re very happy it did. We have managed to qualify for some shows in Poland either, but we were really shocked as this has been the biggest show for us so far.

From your words I could say you play quite often. Am I right?

When we’re not recording we try to play as often as possible. We’ll be playing as long as there will be people coming to the shows. We love playing live, it’s the best feeling on earth, and this is what we do this for! When I’m on stage and I see the people in front of me screaming and waving their devilhorns up, moshing and bangin’ their heads – it’s indescribable! As long as people will want to bang their heads to our music we’ll play as often as possible!

Well, I wish you a great deal of fans, and hope to see your performance again! All the best!

Thanks to Hell Street and all the readers! Stay empty!

Thom

Quercus