“I wouldn’t say that we’re a debut”
The polish post and sludge scene is flourishing, and not a moment too soon. Echoes of yull just dived into the polish sludge, and it was a beautiful, highly-rated dive.
Kosa: Could you tell us how you ended up as Echoes of Yull
Echoes of Yull: Echoes of Yull are: me- Michał Śliwa and Jarek Leśkiewicz. We have known each other for years, we both have our own projects, I have Zubik, Jarek has:Naked on my Own, we also both play in Opollo. At the beginning of 2008 I decided to freshen up a little the themes and ideas that came to being when I was still playing in Yul (2000-2003). I turned on my old 8-track and as it turned out, just before that band fell apart I was working on some new songs that we were suppose to play at our concert with Different State. All they needed was a bass-line and mixing, and that’s how “Open” and “Or” were created. I started recording new songs, and somewhere in the middle of that process Jarek just joined me, what turned out to be a very natural process. He brought a big shot of energy and ideas into the process, and after another 4 months we had ourselves an album
Kosa: Why do you create such a screen of mystery around you? It’s hard to get any information about you from your myspace profile (http://www.myspace.com/echoesofyul) as well as from the press info that I’ve got along with the cd.
EOY: it has nothing to do with mystery. It’s rather an aversion towards auto promotion.
Kosa: Blurred pictures, sheep, some images that might be connected with holy characters, are those religious allusions?
EOY: The profile is concentrated on minimalism of the form, I wouldn’t look for any religious allusions there.
K: What pushed you to writing a genre of music, that unfortunately is still rarely popular amongst polish artists?
EOY: And what’s popular amongst polish musicians?:) Look at the internet, how it’s changed the way people get to the music. Now it doesn’t matter from which country ayou are from…
K: What is the source of inspiration for writing such music?
EOY: Life, music, literature, movies, so all the usual inspiration canonJ
K: What’s the message behind EOY?
AOY: If I were to use a movie comparison: “a slow narration in Antoniony’s spirit”. It’s all about being able to grasp a sort of state of spirit, meditation, sometimes the feel of the moment. Minimalism, a repetitive form are all means for obtaining a kind of zen, or a sound equivalent of “the dream machine”. I am aware that our music is in a niche, but thanks to that, every one of it’s receivers may see it as something personal
K: I treat your music as being instrumental, and vocals that can be heard here and there as just another element of your musical puzzle. Am I right?
EOY: Yes, you are. As far as this album is concerned we treated voice, as just another instrument. However in the songs that we’re working on now have more vocals, and the arrangements are more “clear”
K: Officially there are two of you in EOY, and there are many more instruments used on the album. Are there any chances for seeing you live?
EOY: There is a chance, but it’s hard to declare anything now. Maybe we’ll play with live musicians, maybe with our laptops. One way or the other it’s going to be impossible to perform our multilayered music live. We used a colossal amount of instruments, starting with really small ones like the stylophone, or a pocket mono synthesizer, next there was the vocoder and an accordion, percussion instruments from all over the world and ending with a prepared piano that we used in “Third time”
K: Actually why did you decide to be a duo?
EOY: There are some guests on the album, and there were two additional people involved in the studio work. It’s a perfect deal: there are few frictions and it’s easier to talk. There are going to be more people involved in the second album, two drummers (we already have recorded drums for few songs) there will even be some turntable elements, not in the scratch showing off kind of way, but rather as “freezing” the adapter (I’ve just ended a recording session with a Dj), however the root of the band will remain as it was, a duo.
K: You wrote, recorded, produced the album by yourselves, why then have you decided to publish it elsewhere, unless the record company is also yours. You also did the artwork by yourself?
EOY: The recording company is also ours! We established it with our friend and manager Marcin Mikziński. Jarek did the artwork
K: The tendency among bands nowadays, especially those who debut, is to release rather shorter albums than longer. Haven’t you thought about shortening it a bit?
EOY: No, the length of the album is fine by me, besides I wouldn’t really call us debutants…
K: Your music sounds as if it was a soundtrack to a horrifying horror movie, and it’s just asking itself to combine it with some images. Is there any chance that we’ll be able to see a video for any of your songs?
EOY: It would be great…who knows, maybe someday.
K: Is there any connection between the forming of EOY and the growing media interest in such bands in Poland as Blindead and Tides From Nebula?
EOY: hahaha. Is that a hidden accusation of conspiracy? Honestly speaking I don’t see any connections between EOY and the bands you mentioned. I respect their music but I believe that we come from different interests and traditions.
K: You made a great record. What are your hopes with it and what are your plans for the future? Any new material?
EOY: Thank you! Yes, we are recording some new material, we have much more music than we had during recording of the first record, and we are planning a split with the Guantamo Party from Wroclaw, maybe an ep. But there is no pressure in our actions. With this record we are actually learning how to function as a record company, we are sending out promos, looking for distribution around the world. We are also planning to issue the Naked on My Own ep and an album from Opollo. Also the 8th track that I mentioned before had on it a track that I’ve prepared for a photo exhibition by Marcin Diechtar in 2002 called “ Korozja”. It’s a 40 minute long drone based on one riff and a bunch of feedbacks ( I only played it once live with Yul, on the Underground of Poland festival in 2003), I want to re-master it and maybe place it on the WAAP Records Website, which we are now starting.
K: As usual I leave the last words to you. Any ending reflections?
EOY: We are still sorting out the distribution details, so if you don’t want to wait for the record to turn up in your music store write to echoesofyul@gmail.com
K: It’s sure worth it. Thanks again for the interview, and good luck
Interview conducted and translated by Kosa
Edited by Phil S
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