Conducted by Piston Rod. All photos by Piston Rod and Al Kikuras. Special thanks to Pavement Music
Vader is one of the bright up and coming stars of Death Metal. Vader bring to the arena many original ideas and the band is full of excellent musicians. They have toured the US with such bands as Deicide, Cannibal Corpse, Broken Hope, and now with Morbid Angel. They have been around for a while, but only now are they really breaking into the US consciousness.
When I first heard the new album from Vader entitled Black To The Blind, I fucking lost my mind. This was really great fucking death metal, with hints of both thrash and classic heavy metal weaved into the music!!! I knew that when they came around I had to see them, but I never guessed in my wildest dreams that I would get to meet them and interview them. Well I did.
Me, Al, and our "roadie" Jay were let into 7 Willow Street very early and waited around for Vader to arrive, because they were late. Al was going to interview Morbid Angel, and I was going to interview Vader. Once Vader finally arrived, I was told that Peter (the only member that speaks English well enough to have an interview with) would like to do the interview after the show. I asked if it was possible we could do it before the show, because Al had to go to work early the next morning. Matt, the guy from Pavement, said that he would see. He came back told me to come with him and he took me to meet Peter. I asked Peter if I could ask him a few questions, and he said sure.
Peter lead me behind the stage and up three sets of very narrow stairs. Once we reached the top, we were in a tiny room above the stage. All I could think was that if Peter were a rapist or a murderer, I would have almost no chance of getting away. Of course he isn't and he turned out to be a very cool guy. From the pictures in the Vader CD, I expected Peter to be a fucking lunatic, but he was very calm and very intelligent.
Half way into the interview Mauser, the guitarist, came into the room and listened to the interview. Mauser doesn't speak any English, so I guess he was just enjoying the view. When the interview was over I thanked Peter and started to leave. As I was going past Mauser he said something to me in Polish, but I couldn't understand. I asked Peter to translate, and he said that Mauser wanted to know if I had a cigarette. I said I didn't smoke, and left. It was one of the coolest experiences of my life. - Piston Rod
How did Vader form?
We started in 1983-1984 as a five piece band. I am the only member that remains from that line-up. Doc, the drummer joined the band in 1988 just before we started to record our first demo tape. Shambo joined the band in 1990, just after we released Morbid Breakdown. Mauser is a brand new member in the band, he joined just after the recording session for Black To The Blind.
What are the major differences between your last album, De Profundis, and your new album, Black To The Blind?
It's still Vader, fast, brutal and heavy, but its main difference is that the songs are more simple, the construction of the songs are more simple, but they are faster. We tried to put a few new ideas into the songs, like in "Carnal", to make the album a little different. We are still Vader and we want to remain Vader in the future, but we will keep trying to make our next album a little different. Another difference is that I didn't write the lyrics to any of the songs on the last album. Two buddies of mine wrote most of the lyrics. One was Pawel Wasilewski, who cooperated with Vader since the beginning of its existence. He is very much into spiritual entities, you can call it magic. I agree with a lot of it, but he has much more time to study this magic. He is a much different writer than me. It doesn't mean that I stopped writing, I will definitely write for the next album. Pavel Frelik is my other buddy who also wrote some of songs on the album. We also have a new writer by the name of Tomasz Krajewski. He wrote one of the songs on Black To The Blind ("Distant Dream"), and one song for Kingdom. Kingdom is a new album just released for Polish territory, It's going to be out in Europe this month of next month. I don't know anything about the States for now, perhaps just as an import label.
I will be looking forward to it.
It's not a real album, it's an album containing bonus tracks from a Japanese edition for Black To The Blind, and another track which was supposed to be a bonus track for another addition, the title track "Kingdom," which is the slowest song ever written by Vader, and there is new track called "The Creation Of Light And Darkness", which was created just for this release, and a remake of a song from the old demo times and our first album. Besides the Vader tracks there are two remixes. One is made by our drummer Doc, and one is made by a friend of ours. It might not be the same kind of music, but it is very influenced by the Black To The Blind tracks.
What is your favorite song on Black To The Blind?
Don't ask me that because I cannot say that I prefer this or that. It's our creation, it's our emotions. I like all of them.
My personal favorite is "Carnal", I think the drumming on that is absolutely amazing.
It's a little bit of a different song, like I talked about. We tried to use new ideas, so there is a very fast part, a blast part, mixed with a vocal part with no drumming at all.
I noticed that in your newer music, especially on this album, you add a lot of power metal and speed metal chords.
I think we are still very influenced by all the heavy metal bands that were around since the beginning. I don't mean that we want to play in the old way, because this is the past, we need to be the future for the next generation. We don't want to forget about the early days of metal. We still try to keep the spirit, to keep the best that exists in metal in our music.
It's absolutely amazing, I loved it. I heard that you had problems with your old label Earache, could you explain a little bit about that?
I don't like to talk about problems, because that was in the past. In the beginning they helped us a lot, because we needed help in the beginning just to show the Vader name and the songs for the rest of the world. Earache used to be a legendary label, in the beginning of the 90's. Having bands like Morbid Angel, Napalm Death, Carcass, and lots more names like this, so just to be among all of them was great. They had too many bands and they weren't caring about us so much. We needed a regular promotion for us, nothing special, just regular promotion, and there was a lack of that. After a few years we had too many problems even trying to contact them, so we decided just to quit.
How is your relationship now with Pavement?
I think we need more time to talk about that, because we just started to cooperate with them. It's a much bigger label over here than the label that did the promotion for De Profundis. I hope the future will be much better for Vader and for this music, being under the wings of Pavement. We will see, I will hope.
Pavement has some great bands on their label. Being with them, you are definitely in some good company.
That's what we need. We need the promotion, we need to just get out and play more shows over here. I'm glad that people like us and we have gotten a pretty good response. This is our third trip to America, and it's amazing. It's very much surprising me. So many people that have been waiting for us. It's nice.
Your last tour in the States was with Broken Hope. How was that tour?
That was a great tour. We used to tour with Broken Hope as a headliner, and Monstrosity as a co-supporting band, so it was a great time. Especially since we knew guys from Monstrosity and from Broken Hope, so it was like a friendly package. It's good to play with good bands and good friends. It's like this tour with Morbid Angel and Incantation.
Is this like the same kind of atmosphere?
It's a really good metal package, with really good music. It's just real metal, there are no fucking rock stars here. It's just good friends. Morbid Angel is still a pretty much big band with good musicians, excellent musicians. I am just so glad that we can join with bands that are so friendly and so open hearted. It's very important. Still good, but still friendly.
That's one of my questions. Trey, the guitarist from Morbid Angel, has a reputation of being someone who is hard to work with. Someone who is an egomaniac.
Yea, he's got an ego, but it's very important for a guy who's a leader in the band. An ego doesn't mean that he is a stupid person or the kind of man that is just looking for trouble, I mean make problems or something. Sometimes guy in the band try to work with the leaders but can't work with them, and then they quit and then they are talking shit, and that isn't good, I think. Everybody has a different kind of personality, and it's really hard to have members in the band all be one piece, everybody is somebody different. So for Trey, and I think for me, as a leader, the best thing is just to complete the lineup with the guys that knows what's up. It can just be caused by stress, you know, because it's a hard job. A lot of people think that to be in a metal band, "Ah, that's great man. It's an easy life", but it's a hard job man. It was a big choice in my life to put everything on one card. To be or not to be. I decided to quit my schooling, and now this is the only job I have, and I am happy. I can do what I do the best in my life, and I feel happy.
How did you learn to speak English?
My lessons were just learning words in the beginning. I started singing in Vader in English, so I needed to know words. Then I went for a few months to school. That was a very, very general thing. The biggest practice for me is touring with the guys speaking English. When we are touring with guys from Sweden, Germany everyone is speaking English. That is the only international language.
Is that how the other guys in the band are also learning English?
I think that Doc, our drummer is pretty good in English. Shambo, bass, is trying to improve his English also. Mauser joined the band a few months ago, so he needs more time to learn, but he will. He must, it's a must for him. Everybody should know this language. I think that it will be easy to communicate between bands and people. American English was much easier for me to learn, British English is a horror.
Let me ask you another question, a little off topic. Have you read this fanzine, The Grimoire? This isn't ours, this is somebody else.
I think so. Is it by a guy from New York by the name Bill Zebub?
I don't know. (Note: Yes, it is. -Al)
I think this guy just likes talking shit about bands and making stories up that he thinks is funny, but for us it's not funny.
Yeah, have you read the review of your album in this?
No.
I wanna let you read it, and then get your reaction to what is said here. (I turned off the tape recorder so that Peter can read the article. The article basically says that Vader's album is decent, but they slag it because is was recorded by a group full of "stupid polaks." (sic) It goes on to say that not only are Vader "stupid polaks," but they are also "faggots.")
I remember, I have some friends in a band from the Chech Republic, and this interviewer asked them why are you such big fans of us, why they are such big fans of stupid gay Pollocks, like us. Maybe it's some kind of humor, but I don't think so. He likes to do a lot of shit like this, if he's got a real strong head, maybe someone will hit him in the future. Maybe not me, because I try to stay away from those kinds of incidents just because somebody doesn't like us.
It shows his ignorance. And why would you write a review and not talk about the content at all. Not talk about the album, not talk about the music, just talk about the ethnicity of the band.
I know when talking about an album, it's very hard to be objective, but even somebody who doesn't like this kind of music, if he makes a review, he should try to be objective and try to show the good sides of what he listened to. Not just to tell people what he doesn't like, it's stupid.
Calling people "stupid Pollocks" is ridiculous. What does the fact that you guy are Polish have anything to do with the quality of your music, except for the fact that that your Polish background is going to come through in the music?
That's what I mean, If you really want to make the world better in the future, and you want to save the nature, I don't care about the humans, but the nature, we shouldn't talk about the differences between the nations, because it's the first step to destroying it. Not only the humanity, but the nature also. It's not good. Why? What for? The future belongs to the more tolerant people who will not care about the nationalities, about the religions. It's hard to talk about it now, just look around at what's happening. So many stupid people exist who start wars, or start talking shit, or any bad things. We need tolerance. I'm telling you, especially I am from Poland and we have problems with non-tolerant people. So I think it is very important. What we are talking about in our lyrics, through our lyrics, and through our music is more tolerance in the world.
That's great. I think that's very important. Now, let's break away from that and get into something more humorous. Tell me about the sex on tour. Tell me about the groupies, are there a lot of girls that just want to have sex with the band? Does this take place a lot?
I think that there are girls that just like sex in general. And especially girls seem to like musicians. You can just go up and meet girls that are looking for sex after the show. I don't think this is something special, this is part of humanity. This is what we got in our brains, this is what we need. I love sex, I am very into that. It's stupid just to do it. To feel real sex I need more than just to put my dick into a warm place in a woman's body. I need something more than just an action. But this is just my opinion, this is just sex. It's like religion, everybody needs something different. It takes something different than from what we call sex. In general, I am a big fan of that. I think it's kinda like a sport for me, but I like women, I like the differences. I like to talk to them, not just to use them. I like their bodies, but I like also the spirits of the female.
What's the differences you find between the girls here in American and the girls in Poland, or anywhere else around the world?
Ahh, women are women. They just speak in different languages. I don't mean sex, sex is the same language, that is what I am talking about, that is a good way to unite the world, through sex.
Sounds good to me. Where do the ideas for your music come from, and what is the writing process for your songs?
Oh, the writing process, it's easy to explain. I cannot explain the details of that. There are just two ways that I work. I got the lyrics, then I just compose music having the lyrics before, or I make music, then I combine the lyrics with the music.
Where do your ideas come from for the music?
It's just my life, my emotions, my experiences, my life, just my life. The music that I am listening to , or the movies that I am watching. All that my eyes see, that my ears listen to. All that is happening around me.
We do a fanzine called Unchain The Underground, and not only do we cover heavy metal, but we also review porn and interview porn stars. What is your opinion of pornography?
I'm not against that, because I think that this is a choice. If you don't like it, don't talk shit about it, just keep out of it. If you like it, just come on, you get it. Of course I am not into showing that porn stuff to kids, because this is not a natural way. If a person reaches a point in his or her life like a turning point and he needs something, he feels something happening in the body or in the mind, a feeling just growing inside then he will be looking for that, and that's very natural.
Do you watch pornography yourself?
Sometimes, yes.
Do you know any stars or any movies that you like?
I'm not like a big fountain with all their names, no. I know a few names, but it is so hard to remember. I don't remember, it's hard to keep in mind.
That's all right.
I don't know enough to know that this is the best or that is the best. If I like the woman, if I like the body and I like to watch her in action, that's just what I like. So, it's not like I collect it. I don't collect movies, I just like to watch them. If I feel I need to watch that, then I do that.
What are some of the musical groups that have influenced you and your career?
It's not just metal bands, but I think there are like three main bands that changed my life. The first one was Black Sabbath, it was the first band I listened to ever. It was kind of a turning point in my life. Then there was Judas Priest. I'm still a big fan of the band, I am so happy that we could play with then just two months ago. While on tour with Morbid Angel we played Poland with Judas Priest in a big festival. That was a great show. It was the first time I saw them live, can you believe that? Third is Slayer of course. I am still a pretty big fan of brutal music like Deicide, Morbid Angel, Suffocation, and Immolation, Malevolent Creation. I know the guys, they are buddies of mine. I'm a very big fan, but besides that I am a very big fan of movie soundtracks, I like to listen to that music. Some classical stuff, punk rock, some pop music I like. I liked the last Madonna album, for example. However in general, I am a big metal fan.
Mauser and Peter "strike a pose." Mauser is a bit confused by the Madonna refrence, although Peter is a big fan.
This is what Peter is trying to imitate in the pic above. Much scarier when he is covered in gunk, eh?How about the band Manowar? Do you know of them?
Of course, of course. Sign Of The Hammer is my favorite.
Oh yeah, that's a great album. I just saw Manowar live for the first time about 2 years ago and they blew me away, with their live show, but they don't play the states that often. They don't have a big following in the states, because unfortunately the United States metal following isn't that big.
They are back aren't they?
Are they back in the States?
No, I mean back in the business, they took a big break.
Yeah, they had some line-up changes, but they just put out a new album and a double live album called, Hell On Wheels Live.
Is it out already?
Yeah, it's out.
I'll pick it up.
Here's another funny question. Who has the biggest penis in the band?
(Peter laughs hard) The biggest penis?
Yeah.
I don't know. (Peter turns to Mauser, who is watching the interview, and asks him the same question in Polish... Mauser laughs too). We didn't compare them. Should we do that?
I figure you guys tour a lot, you may see each other undressed.
Maybe if we'd make like an action together, just had one girl or something we would know about that.
That happens a lot?
No, I said, IF we did, then I would know. That's why I don't know about sizes.
Have you ever experienced any trouble with any of the bands that you have toured with?
I don't think that it was like real problems. Sometimes we got problems, but not big problems, but some problems with the guys from Scandinavia. Sometimes the guys are looking for a very comfortable life, a very comfortable tour, or something. And sometimes personalities clash, and I cannot understand. I understand the realities of touring and I try to understand the situation, though. But, I don't think that we get like real problems, no.
Personally, I'm a real fan of Polish sausage. What's your opinion of Polish sausage?
(Peter laughs again) I might not be a big fan, but Mauser is a big fan of Polish sausage.
Yea, Kilbasi!
Kilbasa is a Polish word for sausage.
It's wonderful, you throw it on a BBQ. I love it.
I'm not against it, but my favorite dish is Perogi. (Mauser says, "Ahh, Perogi!!!") Gelumki, or a salad, but a special kind of salad with vegetable/paste dressing, or something like that. Plotski, is something different, it's like a... I'm not a good cook, so I cannot explain how to make it, but it's really good. It tastes good.
I like that kind of food a lot.
If you visit Poland, visit me, I'll show you the best food ever.
I'll take you up on that. Definitely, the next time I'm in Poland, I'll look you guys up. OK, just give me your thoughts on a few bands:
Strapping Young Lad
Ahh, that's one of my favorite drummer, Gene Hoglan, is in that band. I don't know the songs so much, but I've listened to it once or two times, the CD. It's heavy, but very modern kind of music. It's like a Fear Factory meets Slayer meets Megadeth. Very strange, but very good. If you see them, especially Gene Hoglan, say a big, big hello from Peter from Vader please.
Absolutely.
We met him and he is a big guy, but so friendly. I was very surprised. We met him in LA. The first trip here in 1993. It was a big deal for us, just to meet this guy. Please don't forget about that.
Venom.
OK, maybe I'm not the biggest fan in the world of this band, but I respect this band. I got the last album, but still my favorite albums are the first three albums. Welcome to Hell, Black Metal, and World Sin are my favorite ones.
Those are the ones that really put Venom on the map.
They changed life also.
Absolutely.
Not just because the started black metal with their song title, but because they are good. They tried to do something different.
Metallica.
I still love their old LPs, I still got Ride The Lightning album, and I still have Master Of Puppets. Except for the last one, I got all of them. I'm not very much into the last album, but I still think they are a professional band though. The only thing I don't understand is why they cut their metal roots. This I can not understand. They are still good musicians, even if they think to make something different. I still respect their first albums, and I'm not going to just throw them out because they changed something. I still like to listen to "Fight Fire With Fire", "For Whom The Bell Tolls", and songs like that.
Sometimes I have a problem listening to the old stuff, because it makes me angry that they completely sold out to MTV.
I know that in the metal scene in general, in the underground, people are very much into the musicians and music, and if the band does something different the people think that the band betrayed them. That's why so may people are so angry at Metallica, because they changed. They betrayed metal. I try to understand both sides.
Now two non-metal bands... The Spice Girls.
My favorite is the blondie. What is the name?
Baby.
Baby is the blondie? I like the woman with the real body. Not fat, not skinny, but I hate just the skinny babies. I like woman with the ass, not big buns, but good for hands. I also like the one that quit.
That was Ginger.
Yeah, Ginger. Didn't she make something for Playboy or something? I heard a rumor she did some softcore porn? Is that true?
Yeah, I think so... how about Yanni?
I don't know Yanni.
Oh, he is this guy that plays terrible new age type shit jazz. He is really terrible. I thought you might have heard of him, because he's Greek. I figured being from Europe, you might have heard him.
I have no idea about him.
That's okay, he sucks.
One of my favorite bands that is not so metal, but still metal, is Marilyn Manson. I like his kind of singing, I like his kind of sick view of life. This is a kind of interesting thing that has happened in the last few years.|
It's amazing that he can become so popular.
Being so ugly.
Yeah, and so Satanic, and so evil.
Yeah, he is evil. A strange kind of illness, but he is evil.
Mauser shows exactly what Alberto V05 Hot Oil can do for your hair.Who do you think is more evil, Marilyn Manson or Glen Benton from Deicide?
I don't know. I know Glen. We used to tour with them, so I know him personally. I don't think he is evil. He is a human. He is talking about evil things. He feels that. He knows what's up with that. He doesn't just talk shit, he knows what he is singing about. I don't think he is evil because he is not killing people. I don't know anything about that. I don't know Marilyn Manson personally, so I don't know what kind of person he is. I know just him through his music.
Here is another fun one, are you familiar with the wrestler that used to wrestle in the 70's and 80's by the name "Polish Power" Ivan Putski?
Ahhh, The Polish Hammer! (Peter then takes his hands cupped together and smashes down like a hammer). Jay Blackovitch, the singer from Malevolent Creation, he talked about this guy. The Polish Hammer!!! (He does the hammer again.) Wrestling is very popular over here in America, but it's not popular in Europe at all. It's a very American thing. An American sport, lets call it sport, it's kinda like a circus also. I know the name definitely because of Jay. What is his name? Putski? His name is Putski, right?
Yea, Ivan Putski. Can you count in Polish for us, 1 to 10?
I know I can.
(Peter counts for me, and here is my attempt to bring you the phonetical version of those words. I deserve a raise just for doing that. Any Polish readers, please forgive my attempt.)
Rasst, Va, Che, Shteddy, Beinch, Scheshed, Chirum, Oschem, Jivim, Cheshet.
Thank you very much for the interview, do you have any last words for our readers?
I wont tell last word, it's not the time for the last word. Not now. If you mean something, just to tell anything. I'm just happy that we can play in America, I hope the future will be much better and easier for us. We are still Vader and will be Vader. We are for people who need power, who need something manic, madness in their life. That is why we are here, that is our destiny to put some madness in the world, especially for Americans. Watch out for next trip, enjoy the madness. We are with everyone into metal and madness. And just be more tolerant. That is the password for the future, Tolerance.
