BANISHER interview 2007

-Hello Hubert, firstly I must say that your two demos blow me away, be it musically or sounding. The two demos “Sorrow of death” and “Human sacrifice” show a real mastery and awesome tracks composition. Can you tell us the story of BANISHER as well as your musical background which seems to be undeniably an important part of your musical activity?
- Hello, thanks for your opinion dude! Banisher was created in July 2005, in December we've recorded our first demo "Sorrow of Death", than we had a little break (high school, matura exam etc). After Summer Holiday we have recorded our first album, but we have released only a forerunner of that cd, which is "Human Sacrifice". You know, problems with money and of course we didn't like some parts, so we must re-record few tracks. we didn't want to release a nice album, haha, our debut must be a killer one! In the second half of 2007 we will finish full-length cd, the name of that album isn't known yet. About band members - in June 2006 our bass player left the band, so we had to find a new man for his place. Our team for today is Hubert Wiecek - guitar, Michal Wyrwa- guitar, Kuba Gawronski - vocal, Michal Such - drums and Bartek Kies on bass. About our musical background - we listen almost to every kind of music, the only condition is that it must be good. I listen mostly to jazz-rock, funk, fusion, classical, jazz-metal, technical metal and grind. I also like "instrumental onanists", haha

-It seems that BANISHER got hard times with line-up changes? Do you find a worthy bass player as you have used different session bassists on both demos?
-You cannot imagine how hard is to find a bass player who could play this stuff, haha. Finally, about month ago, our bass player has been found, his name is Bartek Kies. On both our cd's bass parts were recorded by Tomek Trzpis, by the way that guy played with us at the beginning. Tomek played in several bands from Rzeszow, and he knows how to play his instrument, so I knew who will record that stuff if we wouldn't find a bass player. Now we have a permanent bass player, so we shouldn't have problems

-When listening to your stuff some bands like CORONER, DEATH and ATHEIST come to mind. I also find similarities with Canadian bands like NEURAXIS, MARTYR or even GORGUTS. Do you agree with the brand “technical brutal death metal” that fits to BANISHER?
-I think that our style is something between the first group of bands you've mentioned and brutal technical bands like Cryptopsy, Suffocation, Dying Fetus etc. But we don't fit to any of the "brands" because we are to br00tal for the stricte "technical death metal" and not enough br00tal for "br00tal death metal", hahaha. we have really agressive vocals, fast and twisted guitar parts, but our drum parts are quite different than usual death metal bands. Maybe you have spotted, but we don't have blast beats, which for many of death metal bands would be a misunderstanding or even blasphemy hehe. We'd rather make broken-twisted drum parts, we use blast beats as short bridges haha

-Technical music like yours isn’t very widespread in Poland. I mean we usually find death and black metal, except BANISHER and SCEPTIC who are the few bands into this type of technical metal. Are there any other bands close to your style? Why do you choose a more elaborated music style?
-Thats why we chose to play music what we play, because nobody plays like that. Bands play fast and brutal or technical like Death, Nocturnus. In Poland it is really hard to find a band that could fit our style, you've mentioned Sceptic, but they are as I said "less brutal" hehe. There are/were only few bands that really impressed me - Yattering, Ingenium, Necropsy, Parricide, Decapitated and Redemptor. Besides, I don't listen to metal as much as I should, only our stuff on reh's and gigs hahaha!

-The second demo “human sacrifice” is in fact a promo EP whose aim is to get a deal with a label that should release you first album. Actually, do you have any proposals? Can you give us info about that upcoming release? What will be the title of the album and how many tracks will it contain?
-Unfortunately for us, 2 track EP was not enough to impress any label, if you want to sign papers you must have ready LP with cover art etc. This is the condition for every label in the world. It is sad, but it is true. Time when you were sending demos to big labels and signed contracts for first LP has gone. There are thousands of bands like us, better and worse that have the same situation. Sometimes I see a really shitty band, guys who cannot handle their instruments and those bands have signed contracts etc. This is so unjust... But you cannot give up, the only way to sign a label is poisoning their asses, maybe you will have some luck. Actually, we didn't send so much of this EP to labels, maybe 10-15. Soon we will make a massive spam to labels that responded when we were asking them if they're intrested. So maybe we will have luck

-The guitar sound on both demos is rather powerful and heavy. Which guitar tuning do you use on those records? What types of guitars do you handle? What do you think of 7 strings guitars used by neo metal but also by MORBID ANGEL or CANNIBAL CORPSE (Vile), and 8 strings guitars used by MESHUGGAH? Do you think those instruments are able to make disappear the actual 6 strings or that it’s a just a trend or maybe experiments?
-This is a very interesting subject... On Human Sacrifice we used a Hohner the Jack Proffesional guitar with Seymour Duncan SH4 pick-ups, tuning on the whole album is D exept intro where one guitar is a seven string Carvin DC 727 with standard tuning. We prefer the D tune, it is not too low and not too high, perfect for music that we are playing. This tune is low enough to sound heavy and brutal (see Deeds of Flesh) and isn't too low to have clear sound. What do I think about 7/8 string guitars? Hmm, First of all, to play those instruments you should play well on 6 strings, then you must have really great amp to sound really good. Also there is a diference between for example 6 string tuned to A and a 7 string tuned to A, the sound is kind of different. In my opinion, nobody should go lower than B, because when you're getting lower you are actually playing music in frequency which only whales and dolphins are able to hear, heheh. Besides that 7 string guitars are a good idea for experiments. Of course it depends also on kind of music you play - if your priority is heavy and low sound - why not? But are those low tuned bands really need to go so low? I liked Meshuggah much more when they were tuned to Bb( Destroy Erase Improove, Chaosphere).

-Regarding the actual metal scene, do you think that technical abilities are being more and more used and put forward? If so, can you tell us why? Do you think everyone can enjoy extremely technical bands such as BENEATH THE MASSACRE, NECROPHAGIST, CAPHARNAUM or PSYCROPTIC without getting bored?
-I think that people are getting bored listening to bands where actually nothing is happening. I really enjoy bands like Psyopus, BTM or Necrophagist, you listen to them and say - Duuude!! They are insane! Technical metal is getting more and more popular, bands know that in those days you will never get a high status band when your playing like bands in the 90's. I think that most of that well known BIG bands would never sign a label starting now instead of 15 years earlier. Some people just had luck to be born earlier, haha. I think that bands like Necrophagist, BTM, Spawn of Possession are the future of metal.

-Let’s deepen the previous question. Do you think today it’s possible to get amazed in terms of speed, technicality, brutality, etc…? Do you think it’s still possible to remain interesting with always going further?
-This is very hard thing to improve, but you see that it is possible. Of course it is not true that the faster/more brutal/technical you are that you are better. The band must have that "something" that will impress the listener. When you are playing as fast and brutal with no sense this will never be good. You must know the basic theory of making music, harmonies, pitches, scales, progressions and you must have talent. And luck. Or your uncle must be a boss in Sony or Roadrunner, hahaha. When you have that, success is a matter of time

-Music had always gone through barriers and many bands evolved deceiving some fans (and getting new ones); bands like ATHEIST “Elements”, PESTILENCE “Spheres” and GORGUTS “Obscura” & “From wisdom to hate”, CYNIC “Focus”, etc… all these bands released personal and adventurous albums at their time. What were your reactions when you first heard those freaky releases? Can BANISHER evolve with drastic changes or surprising new elements?
-I love all those albums, especially Cynic. Those bands where really important bands in history of music. I don't know how far Banisher could go with experiments, considering the fact that for almost 2 years I listen actually only to jazz-funk-fusion, new songs will be(are) very psycho-jazzy-progressive, hehe. But i think that when you establish that you are playing death metal or heavy or anything else, it is good to stay in those tunes. If you want to play different music, create another band. Of course you can't play the same for 40 years like AC/DC, hehe. Your music should improove, but drastic changes aren't good. When you put new suprising elements to your music, it shows that your band can evolve and you are good musicians. But when you push it up too far, it might go really bad for your band.

-In your biography it is written that you played gigs with SEQUOIA, MESS AGE, DEMETER, DEMISE and CLIMATE. Can you talk about those bands and especially SEQUOIA which is supposed to come from France but I don’t know them? What kind of music do they play?
-Sequoia is a French hardcore band. We were supporting them on our first concert a month after the band has been created. Bio on our website is actually year behind us, as far as now we also played with bands like Sceptic, Virgin Snatch, Thy Disease, we were playing on a big fest in Malbork with 20 other bands, also we had some gigs abroad in Slovakia and Czech Republic, where we are going to play much more abroad, concerts in those countries were fantastic! We would also like to play in Ukraine, Belarus, because in those countries there is lack of concerts and people are thirsty hearing some metal!

-You are a very young band but you released your first demo the same year of your creation. How many times do you rehearse a week? Do you really kill people with rehearsals? ah!ah!ah! What’s your everyday job?
-At the beginning we were playing every day about 4-8 hours/reh, now we cannot play as many rehearsals because we are studying in different cities. Now we are playing only before gigs, because we don't have time and conditions to play more. We count that on Summer holidays we will kill ourselves with every day rehearsals, haha! Of course, every member of our band is practicing( I think so, I am) their own instruments, so we won't get out of fit.

-Out of the metal sphere, do some members of BANISHER have interests in other musical styles? Do they play in some non-metal bands as well? Does it give you fresh idea when composing/rehearsing new stuff for BANISHER?
-As I said before, we are interested in many kinds of music. Very often on rehearsals we play quite different things like jazz, fusion funky stuff, even popular Polish songs, game stuff etc. I don't remember that one of us is playing in other band, maybe this is good because nobody shares time for other band. But I would really like to join other non metal band, especially a big one, heheh. Fresh ideas come to Banisher from things that I listen at the moment - when I have some ideas, I just simply write them on my computer, if there are enough ideas I create a song. As an interesting thing I will say that most riffs on new songs are created with no guitar in my hand, I write songs in notes, heheh. This kind of writing has better and worse sides - you will never create crazy broken parts without writing them anywhere, programs are really helpfull, but sometimes you can write a riff wich is totally impossible to play. But at least I have something to practice, heheh

-According to you, what are the bands you are the most proud coming from Poland? What are the bands you consider the most representative from your country?
-I think that now no1 is Decapitated. Also we have Behemoth and Vader, which are killer on stage. We've had Yattering, they were my favorite band, but they have split up. Also we have many not well known bands that are really kiler - Parricide, Necropsy, Eskaton, Ingenium, Redemptor, Cremaster, Ketha, Esquarial, Vedonist and many more wich I do not remember at the moment.

-Do you keep yourself informed of what is released today in extreme metal? What has impressed you lately? Have you heard last SUFFOCATION album?
-I heard maybe one song on myspace, but I don't remember it, heheh. For today, in my brutal "top 5" 2007 is Psyopus, Beneath the Massacre, Martyr, Negativa and Despised Icon. Of course Necrophagist rules, Cryptopsy also, Dying Fetus, Cynic, Coprofago, Meshuggah, Psycroptic, Spawn of Possession and Suffocation. When i was younger I was buying all those metal zines and I was well informed about the metal scene, now I'm not really interested in it. Once a time someone gives me a link to a band wich is worth of listening and some of those bands are killer.

-Well Hubert, It’s over for today, I covered everything I think. Thanks for the answers, be sure I will wait for your first release. I let you conclude this chat. Cheers!
-Thanks for the interview, it was nice to talk, stay tuned for our debut album, also visit our myspace profile: www.myspace.com/banisher you can listen there to our demo and EP and find there always something new and interesting. Big thanks and see ya!