I would like to introduce the readers of Underton to the Warsaw band Steel Habit, whose rhythm guitarist is my good friend Maciej Bączek – a proud representative of Mińsk Mazowiecki, the city from which we both come.
The musicians openly admit to drawing inspiration from, m.in Polish, broadly understood heavy metal band Acid Drinkers. They have many successes on their account, including third place at the VIII Festival of Rock Bands "Dobra Strona Rocka", in which bands take part not only from Polish, but also from neighboring countries – Belarus, Lithuania, the Czech Republic, Germany and Ukraine. The chefs from Steel Habit serve meaty riffs of low-tuned guitars, greasy, powerful drum sound seasoned with very sharp vocals. The whole beautifully served on this year's still warm EP "Eyes From The Mirror". The appetite grows as you listen. What exactly does Steel Habit look like from the kitchen? Two members of the band will tell us about it: the aforementioned Maciej Bączek and the drummer, Dariusz Karpiński.
New album, frequent concerts. All this makes you spend a lot of time on the team. How is it that you manage to combine this with your personal life? After all, you both have a lot of time-consuming activities such as work or studies.
Maciej Bączek (M.B.) – My whole life is divided only into a band and a job that provides me with financial resources for further development of the band. In my free time I play the guitar or organize rehearsals.
Dariusz Karpiński – I am at the last stage of studies, I am just finishing my master's thesis. Until recently, I also worked as a telemarketer. Still, I've never had much trouble combining work, school and band.
You play concerts in different parts of the country. You also performed in Mińsk Mazowiecki, where Maciej comes from. How do you assess the organization of Minsk events compared to the rest of the Polish?
M.B. "We played a few times in Dujer, once even in Mjuzik Pub. Each time we had something to do with the organization of these concerts. Most often in various places in Poland it is the case that we come to the ready-made, so the situation looks completely different when we create such events ourselves. We are involved and we know the plan of the whole concert from the inside out. Minsk has always been famous for its well-thought-out events.
D.K. – We organize most of the events at which we perform. From time to time we join an existing tour, as was the case with the concert with Made of Hate and Lostbone. At that time, we did not put our hand on the organization. We only took our belongings and drove to the place. As for the Minsk concerts, it is worth mentioning the Dujer cafes. It is known that when it comes to sound system, the conditions are not the best, but the atmosphere is there and that's what counts. When it comes to Mjuzik, the case looks a bit different, nice stage, nice sound system, good bands. Greetings to the colleagues from Blast You.
According to your statement, you are connected with the Minsk music scene. So what impact did Mińsk Mazowiecki have on you?
M.B. – I grew up here. Minsk is also a place where I learned to play the guitar with local musicians. As for our band, even our first rehearsals took place in the troops, where I met Darek. This is where our first issues were created. At that time, we had no idea that such a crazy thing as Steel Habit would come out of it.
D.K. "Even though I don't live in Minsk, I feel very connected to this place. I am very sentimental, I like to remember what used to happen. For this reason, I would like to point out that cities had a big impact on me even before the formation of the band. I once had a girlfriend here, whom I now warmly greet. I have only good memories with Minsk, many nice things happened to me here. In this place I also met a lot of positive people. I'm always happy to come back here.
I learned from your Facebook page that you focus on fast and dynamic development. Is this really happening? How do you rate your progress since founding Steel Habit in 2010?
M.B. – Well, at the very beginning it was all just crawling. Fortunately, together with Darek and Mariusz Marszałek (git. leading – editor's note) we got to it quite quickly. From that moment our creativity began to germinate. The longer we played together, the more pace we threw for development. The first jump into the professional world of music was to record a demo. A moment later we planned to record an EP, i.e. quickly add material to what we already had. In fact, the development of the band is not only the creation and recording of numbers, but also the issue of advertising, i.e. playing more and more concerts. I think we're doing pretty well.
D.K. – In my opinion, as far as we exist, which is about three years, we are developing at the right pace. We do everything properly. We do not have connections in the world of metal, thanks to which we would jump straight to a high level. We do everything ourselves and I think we are doing well. The first concert took place at the Rembertów Festival in May 2011. This event can actually be considered a serious start of our team.
Recently you took third place at the Good Side of Rock Festival. Do you have other achievements that are worth boasting about?
M.B. – The fact that we took third place and won the award is of course a nice thing, but for me it is also an achievement that we practically stick to one line-up, apart from the bass player who was replaced by Maciej Solnicki a year ago. We have one goal and we pursue it together. This is our greatest success.
D.K. – Sometimes it happens that we even argue, but it only works out for good. If there were no such small tensions, everything would go according to one person's thoughts, and this in turn would be monotonous. It is much better when everyone brings their own ideas, thanks to which there is a lot to choose from. We brainstorm, from which comes the resultant of our diverse characters. We then compromise. And as for achievements, success is every event, new people at concerts, another number written or even a growing number of likes on Facebook.
In your short biography, there is also information that you play an extraordinary fusion of several metal trends with an emphasis on heavy / thrash. You can also hear from everywhere that you are inspired by our Polish Acid Drinkers. Which other bands influence your work?
M.B. – As far as I am concerned, the style of playing the guitar had to be strictly adapted to my technical skills, which are not super crazy. I wanted to translate it all into sound cool and heavy. I also do not hide that he is inspired by Acid Drinkers. Their simple riffs catch the ear, which I like terribly. As for other inspirations, the Russian band Amatory definitely has a big influence, which, in my opinion, is a world champion in creating heavy music. These two bands have the greatest impact on my style of creation.
D.K. – I'm not going to be very original when I say that. I've been listening to Metallica since I was a kid. Also, inevitably, this band certainly influenced my drumming. And what about other bands, Machine Head, Pantera and recently even Gojira had a big influence on me. Recently, our native Decapitated has also made a big impression on me. It draws a little bit from each of them. One thing is for sure, we don't copy their music. We only get inspired.
So let's move on to the new EP "Eyes From The Mirror". Everything costs, both studio and pressing. How did you find the funding to release the album? Did the income from the concerts help you a lot?
M.B. – Income from any concerts is a legend. (laughs). So where does the money for the new album come from? From your own pocket. I work hard all the time to have money for new strings, organizing rehearsals, recording songs or commuting to concerts. Everything costs money.
D.K. – What happens more and more often that we get a refund for traveling to various events. Sometimes we even have a beer and some food, then it's really good. We want to mention here a great team from Ciechanów. Whenever we play for them, we have it all easily provided. For this reason, we greet the PsychoArt association.
The album is characterized by a very good quality of recordings and quite an interesting sound. I would like to know how the recording process went. Did the pressure of time you had in the studio allow you to record the material in the way you wanted? Are you satisfied?
M.B. – We immediately said to ourselves that we are looking for a studio that does not give us limitations. The amount for recordings is predetermined and we have as much time for recordings as we want. I immediately thought of the Glyn Records studio in Grębków, which is run by my old friend. I recorded there with my previous band. We had the comfort of coming for the whole weekend and we could focus directly on achieving the sound that suited us. We didn't manage enough to make everyone happy, but I think it's great. The sound is juicy and heavy. All the accents we wanted were emphasized. Our whole character has been poured onto the tile, and this is the most important thing.
D.K. – We made the most of the possibilities that the whole room and the equipment in it gave us. All this, of course, with a lot of help from a sound engineer. It couldn't be better in this studio. In short, we are satisfied.
Although the author of the lyrics is not with you, I would like to ask about their message. What exactly is the title track about? What are the sinister "eyes from the mirror" that look at us from the cover of your album?
M.B. – Each of us interprets these ominous eyes differently. For me, first of all, they are a reflection of my own fears.
D.K. – Our vocalist, Łukasz Podgórski, likes the dark atmosphere of horror literature. When writing the lyrics for "Eyes from the Mirror" he was inspired by Graham Masterton's book "The Mirror of Hell". As for the graphics depicting the eyes, it was created by my friend from primary school Paweł, whom we also greet.
The third and my favorite song "Blindfold" is about the blind pursuit of gold and crowns. Is it just a fantastic abstraction or is it reflected in contemporary reality?
M.B. – I do not know what exactly the singer's intention was here, but as I mentioned earlier, everyone perceives these lyrics differently. The way I see it, every man is locked in a dead end, where everything revolves around money. Whether this is good or bad is determined by the individual character of a person. In the "civilized world" each of us already has a predetermined plan for life, saying mainly that you need to earn. We are blinded by money, it is impossible to survive without it. Most often, we simply need financial stability, but in some cases people seem to be striving for great wealth. This causes humanity to disappear in them, and this is the most sad thing.
And what about the distribution of the new EP? When will it be available?
D.K. – It is a matter of two months at most. Everything is ready. The plant that will produce this record for us is also selected. The main thing is to complete the accumulation of appropriate funds. We also found a few organizations that will support us m.in. Fabryka Zespołów (Factory of Teams), which is definitely our most important patron. It is also worth mentioning the Facebook profile called Rembertów Directly. The guys write about local news and promote as much as they can the district of Warsaw where I come from. This is a good thing and it promises to be a really nice cooperation.
Have you already wondered where exactly you will be able to buy it?
M.B. – Actually, only with us, from our private black suitcase. Of course, at concerts, using Facebook and on Allegro. We do not anticipate cooperation with any agency yet, nor is it the goal for this album to hit store shelves. We want to distribute it on our own, primarily so that as many people as possible can get to know us.
Finally, I am forced to ask this terribly boring, trite question. What's next? What are the plans of the Steel Habit team for the coming months?
M.B. – Recently, we try to focus primarily on the most professional sound, so that everything is as expressive as we expect.
D.K. – I think we will continue to deal with what we have been doing so far. We want to reach more and more new people so that this band is more and more recognizable. We are working on new numbers and, above all, we are planning more concerts.
Will you also play in Mińsk Mazowiecki?
M.B. –Of course. We invite everyone to the concert , which will take place on November 30 in the Minsk café Dujer. It's going to be fun.
D.K. "Yes, sir. We are coming back here after almost a year of absence. As a reminder, the last concert we played in Minsk was in Mjuzik Pub, where we performed together with Blast You and Hellectricity. I hope everyone missed us.
See you then. I wish you good luck on your way to success. Thanks!
photo: Andrew Wasowski