Rust and Sabre, a duo that is strongly raising the bar of the Groove and Hard Techno scene in Europe, talk about the creation and development plans of Theia Crush.
Dominic: Theia is a historic planet that hit the Earth about 4.5 billion years ago and this is how the moon was created. It’s hard to find a more meaningful name for a duo like you. What was going on musically before the big clash?
Rust: Musically? Basically the same if you ask about the genres I was involved in. On a purely promotional basis, from 2009 to 2019 I co-led Warsaw Mechanism, one of the most famous underground acid techno collectives. I think we did a really great job over these 10 years, but at some point the formula simply ran out. Then I had a break for over 3 years (it was during the pandemic), but what I was sure of was that I wanted to continue doing events. I was just calmly waiting for someone who would be specific and competent enough for the job. As luck would have it, I met Sara, who not only had the same ideas as me, but also turned out to be a link with – let’s call it the young generation – something I totally didn’t have.
Sabre: As for me, I certainly can’t say that I’m an old techno veteran. I had my first encounter with culture and techno music during the pandemic. Then I had the opportunity to participate in one of the many illegal events taking place in the capital at that time. Subconsciously, I have always been drawn to electronics, but the vastness of the mainstream and the algorithms that direct me towards this trend kept me away from finding my destination. When I first went to a rave, about 300 people gathered in a small space, and I heard techno (I don’t want to reveal who was playing then), it took me about 10 minutes to decide that this was the music I had been looking for all my life. From there it was an easy road, I started regularly attending all the events I could, and since I’ve always been a digger, I quickly started looking for tracks for myself. After about 6 months, I was convinced that the next step would be learning how to mix, which has fascinated me to this day. In search of new musical and visual experiences that the Warsaw scene couldn’t offer me, I started dreaming about organizing my own events and that’s how we are here and now.
Dominic: You are a young collective that quickly became part of the underground hard techno culture in Poland. What are your goals for the next year or two?
Sabre: We are not and never intended to be a collective. It is not without reason that on all Theia Crush channels we describe ourselves as an organization promoting broadly understood techno music, which we understand as advertising above ourselves. First of all, we focus on raising the awareness of the participants of our events. I’m not talking about convincing anyone of our musical taste, but about paying attention to detail. My dream is that someone who leaves our party and goes to the next event will tell themselves that music doesn’t sound so good everywhere, and sunglasses are not an element of style, but a necessary thing to see anything in the club space. In this way, I hope that promoters in Poland will be forced to improve the quality of their own events, although I am not saying that there are no good events in Poland. If I am to refer to event plans, we have a very ambitious plan for the summer season, which I hope you will hear about next year, and ultimately we would like to organize a festival that will attract not only Poles, but also people from all over Europe.
Rust: First of all, we have never targeted the underground hard techno culture in Poland. We just want to do good, quality events. We’re into groove, techno, hard and acid techno – it just has to be good. Unfortunately, in Poland, ‘collectives’ are pigeonholed, but after the party with Don Woezik, from what I see, we are labeled a ‘hard techno collective’. Maybe because these were our first two and probably the most spectacular events. However, later we organized two parties with bours?, which moves in hard groove, and a party with Total, which I would classify as hypnotic groove. What are our goals? This year we have three more events planned: in Wrocław, Warsaw and Kraków. In the first half of 2024, the plan is similar, i.e. to present ourselves to the Polish public in several more clubs and cities, while during the holidays we want to launch our series of outdoor events. Continue to consistently strive for something like a warehouse party. Generally, our assumption is not to be dependent and affiliated with a specific club or city in Poland.
I hope that the upcoming season will significantly show that we will not focus on one genre and that we are open to broadly understood electronic music.
Dominic: Are you planning events in other musical areas than hard techno?
Rust: Of course. We want to do what excites us, and we are passionate about the area from Chlär, through Badboombox, Anetha and the whole Mama Told Ya, to Rikhter and Klangkuenstler.
Sabre: I think we’ve already done that. I hope that the upcoming season will significantly show that we will not focus on one genre and that we are open to broadly understood electronic music. I would like our bench mark to be a guarantee of a good event, regardless of who we book.
Dominic: What is the best club in Europe in your opinion?
Sabre: I didn’t go to many European clubs, in fact I visited more foreign festivals, but I left my heart in RSO. I can’t describe the impression this place had on me, but during the event from Saturday to Monday (oops), I met many people who charmed me with their awareness of music, which additionally influenced the overall impression of this place.
Rust: This is an incredibly difficult question because, to be honest, I visited them quite a bit. I also try to travel a lot to foreign festivals, because there you can find a lot of inspiration. In this group, I would mention places such as: Jasna 1, Closer, cross club, Berghain, OST, Bootshaus, and Paradiso, while RSO is at the top of this list. Great space, brilliant, dedicated sound system, very relaxed atmosphere, great people. I can devote a separate entry to the question about the best festivals in Europe:)
Dominic: Do you also plan activities outside Poland?
Sabre: The longer we operate as Theia Crush, the more I am convinced that this will happen sooner or later. Several teams from Europe have already contacted us and expressed their willingness to cooperate, but before taking such a step, we will certainly have to reorganize our thinking and approach the topic well in order to do something both original and spectacular.
Rust: At the moment no. We rather want to develop our own label, merchandise and promotion of Polish producers.
Dominic: Another edition of the Wisłoujście festival taking place in Gdańsk is behind us. It is a mystical event that ends the summer open-air season. Since you were on this year’s line-up, how was your performance? What was Theia Crush’s set like?
Rust: For me, it was the first opportunity to see what Wisłoujście looks like, right from the inside. I must admit that the production of this event is at an excellent level. The Fortress itself does a huge job, it is definitely a place for this type of events. As for the performance itself, it was really ok. We played on the Bastion stage on Sunday and finishing at 10 p.m. our old stage was full. Overall, this is a great year for us when it comes to B2B gaming together. Apart from the all-night concert at Smolna and the above-mentioned Wisłoujście, we will play together at Undercity in November.
Sabre: After the end of the set, I was devastated that we didn’t manage to show the 100% we can show. We quickly returned to the hotel, mixed with feelings of happiness because we could play in such a place, for a really great audience, and sadness because of the previously mentioned reason. Fortunately, we had recorded our performance and after listening to it, we came to the conclusion that it was great and probably just nerves.
Dominic: What are your plans for the fall-spring 2024 season?
Rust: At the end of September, we organized an event at STK in Krakow, this time in cooperation with the KWAS team from Wrocław. It turned out really great. We will return to Krakow in May next year at the earliest… If we are talking about the end of 2023, we have two confirmed dates – December 1 at the Ciało club and December 8 at Jasna 1. Details soon. I think we can say for now that we will be visited by two representatives of the Mama told ya label, a recently very sought-after Bulgarian producer who lives in Berlin, and three artists from Iceland – all this during the next two events! In spring, we will see each other in Warsaw in the new cubicle at Oczki 1A. We would also like to finally organize an event in Tricity – we will see if we can do it.
As you have already mentioned, we are currently in the underground sphere, which is synonymous with techno culture, but I want to be in a place where when we post an event, everyone will want to participate in our event, as an experience that will not be repeated, so it is worth it don’t go.
Dominic: I once saw vinyls in your collection. Do you still play with twelves?
Rust: Honestly, not so much. Possibly at home. However, I have been buying new vinyls for a long time, personally I think that, firstly, much more music that interests me is released digitally, and what’s more, playing with 3 CDJ’s is much more creative for me. Which doesn’t change the fact that I will never sell either my turntables or any of my vinyls in my life.
Sabre: It doesn’t concern me, my contact with vinyl records was only when I gave the CD to a friend who had to sign one of them (laughter). Despite the opportunity to learn how to play vinyl, everyday life does not give me enough time to devote myself to it, and I know that my nature would not let me quit until I learned to do it at least satisfactorily. Ultimately, I would like to devote myself to music production, so I don’t want to add activities that could dissuade me from it.
Dominic: What is the biggest challenge for you when organizing events?
Rust: The hardest question at the end. Generally, organizing quality events in Poland is one big challenge. We lack a bit of infrastructure for this. We set ourselves the goal of quality, which in our opinion is a perfect sound system, a visual setting that does not tire people and complements the music. Here’s a big up for Przemek Jankowski, who is in control of it and, in our opinion, is one of the best people in Poland in this field, and no matter how colloquial it may sound, it’s music. Additionally, we want to promote new, interesting artists/DJs, and unfortunately in Poland awareness of electronics is quite low – it is simply not something that is in people’s blood. And I’m talking about society in general, not those who are already stuck in the climate. We will never be Amsterdam or Berlin, and therefore what “sells” us is Boris Brejcha rather than the previously mentioned mama told ya. That’s how it is and I don’t really believe (though I hope) that it will ever change. Another challenge is that people accept low quality. The fact that there are few places in Poland with a good sound system and acoustics, because that’s where you need to start and with a partnership approach. The fact that we have to take into account Western rates for artists and Polish rates for admission… etc. etc. The topic is the river. However, no matter how colloquial it may sound, we believe that it is possible and we have specific plans for our festival.
Sabre: For me, connecting the sound system and lights is a breeze, we have great people we can rely on, so I’m not worried about this issue at all. At the moment, I think that our biggest problem is to build recognition and become part of the awareness of event participants. We have built a reliable base and nothing makes us happier than a person who shows stickers from previous events, which means that they have come back to us. As you have already mentioned, we are currently in the underground sphere, which is synonymous with techno culture, but I want to be in a place where when we post an event, everyone will want to participate in our event, as an experience that will not be repeated, so it is worth it don’t go. Dream BIG or go home.
Dominic: This is what I wish you with all my strength!
Socials:
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