I have known Kamil for about 13 years – we have probably first met in a New Years Eve party in Pašilaičiai, Vilnius, where a bunch of metalheads were having some drinks and celebrating the welcoming of a new year. Some of these people have managed to set all the blasphemies and debaucheries aside, some, unfortunately not.
Kamil definitely did, because he has become a many of many talents. He founded a black metal act called “Sisyphean” where he plays the guitar. He has his own electro project called “Wertherian Gallows”. If that wasn’t enough, I can tell you that he also plays the bass guitar in the post-hardcore act “In.Bloom”. Some time ago, he played in bands “Division” and “Extravaganza”. That is not the end of the story – he also is a promoter in a extreme music organization called “Nekrokatarsis”, which organizes and promotes extreme metal and electronic music gigs and festivals in Lithuania.
Therefore, I was more than excited to be able to interview Kamil and talk about extreme music, its roots in his life, the sources of inspirations, favourite books and future plans.
Ironically, we meet in my husband’s rehearsal and recording studio. We sit down to have some coffee and talk about the things I hold most dear and interesting. I don’t want to waste time on any meaningless small talk about the weather, so we jump straight into the deepest well – into discovering the roots of his interest in metal.
How did you discover the extreme metal music? When did it all begin? How did you find this interesting and what was basically the story behind?
Probably the same way as many other people, at least in my age. The beginning was MTV and Viva on the TV back in the day, when they were decent channels playing real music. I lived in this neighborhood called Pilaitė and I found some friends who were already into this kind of music and older than me. It was approximately 20 years ago.
Back then the internet wasn’t as good as it is right now. Downloading something would be really difficult and probably you would need to put your PC for like a whole day to download one album. Therefore, what we downloaded, we downloaded really responsibly. And what happened here was that we had this music exchange thing where you would write some albums you found cool on CDs. The other guy also had something else on a CD and we would just exchange these CD’s.
I was already listening to rock music when I was 12 years old. The other guys were already listening to heavier stuff. I think that they introduced me to my first metal band which was “Napalm Death” already. I also discovered “Slayer” and stuff like that. So I generally skipped all those traditional bands such as “Metallica”, “Slipknot” and the like. And I think that “Dark Funeral” also was one of the first bands.
In general, it was very nice time because this whole process of exchanging CDs with each other brings very warm memories. You would cherish what the other person gave you to listen a lot back then. Nowadays, when everything is very easily available people don’t even listen to a whole album from the beginning to the end. They skip songs: if it catches your attention for the first 5 seconds of listening, you keep listening. If not, you skip it.
That’s how I discovered the music and I started then exploring a lot more stuff. Originally I began more listening to thrash metal and only then I like went into black metal or death metal, and doom metal. That has inspired me to start learning to play guitar, even though it was a very slow process. Eventually I had an idea to start a band. I did play in various projects. I wouldn’t call them bands – we were just trying to form bands with various people. The first serious band was “Sisyphean” which we formed in 2014.
Back in the day, did you belong to a subculture? When you discovered , for instance, “Napalm Death”?
Yes, you could say so, because those guys in the neighborhood were already listening to heavier metal, so they were my gateway people into the wider community. They were also the people who actually introduced me to going to gigs. When I was 14 years old, I was a bit afraid to go to these gigs because everyone was all dressed up and looked very aggressive – at least from the side. So for a 14 year old, it seemed a bit intimidating.
A funny thing is that my first ever metal gig was not far away from here, near the Polish House of Culture. I think it actually this festival (“Burning Steel” festival – auth.) where the lineup included “Argharus”, “Dark Funeral”, “Luctus” and some other bands – I don’t remember exactly which ones. This was a very long time ago. “Dark Funeral” canceled their show, but the gig still happened. It was the first ever live gig I went to. It was very inspiring and brought a lot of emotions. I realised this was the music I wanted to go deeper to and listen to more, and maybe play in a band myself. After the concert I felt that this was my thing, so I got connected straight away.
I mean, I was already listening to the music for quite some time, but it took a lot of years until I actually went to my first gig. And as anyone from Vilnius can confirm, the introduction to the wider metalhead community happened in places where everyone used to go: bars like “Apuokas”, “Barbakanas” and the like. Essentially, the same places where everyone from the same scene went to back then.
How did you decide to play the guitar? Why not the drums? Why not piano or the bass guitar?
I have always wanted to play the drums, but there was a socio-economic reason why I didn’t. Playing a guitar, on the other hand, was quite simple – you just needed to buy an acoustic guitar which could cost you 100 litas back then, and you could already start doing something.
I was not from a family which could host a whole drum kit to play with – I lived in an apartment, not in an actual house, so I would not have where to keep those drums. My parents wouldn’t pay for a drum kit so the guitar was a natural way to begin this journey. And I don’t know – I just stuck with the guitar, because it probably is the best way to reflect one’s emotions into sound. The most straightforward way, I would say.
Did you attend any classes or did you learn on your own?
I attended some classes, but those classes obviously were more oriented towards classic guitar stuff like blues and similar things which I didn’t like. Eventually I didn’t play the guitar for some years and then after going to the UK where I lived for a few years, I started playing the guitar again and took it seriously. When I returned back from the UK, “Sisyphean” was established.
How did you decide to create a band that plays black metal? Were you the initiator?
I was the only original member left, but some years ago our original first guitarist Tautvydas returned back to the band for the role of bassist.
It was just a simple thing; when I was going to gigs, I saw these bands. I liked the energy, the atmosphere. Naturally, I also wanted to l generate this wave of energy with the guitar. That’s how it all started. Later, after more years have passed and the juvenile wishes just to play transformed into a thing where the music became more of a personal diary kind of thing.
Some people write books or engage in the visual arts. In my case, I wanted to translate what I feel or what’s stuck in my head into music.
When we were young life was simpler. A lot of things have happened since then: the dissatisfaction with people around me, the dissatisfaction with society grew. Some friends took their lives. Relatives, acquaintances and other people around your life come and go. Some go away from this plane, some due to various reasons no longer cross through your life. So you start your journey being a stabile, non-spoiled, juvenile person. With time you start to become more realistic and your perspectives change. Playing in the band eventually became more of a writing, a diary keeping process than just playing – just because it’s fun. And that’s probably the main reason why I am still doing music.
It sounds like this is some kind of a constructive and productive coping mechanism in essence.
It kinda is. I’m going to be totally honest. If something happened in my life and I just wouldn’t be playing anywhere for some reason, I’d probably eventually just decide to leave this life. Music just helps me with living through life and being occupied with stuff. If music wasn’t part of my life, I would probably wouldn’t be such a productive member of society right now.
Indeed. It is important to find something that you love and stick with it. And it’s really nice that you have found music.
Yeah, I mean, I was doing a lot of other stuff at the same time. I also went to the art school and I really loved painting. The only reason I’m not doing painting right now is because I just don’t have enough time. But I would want to continue doing it. That’s why COVID was quite nice, because my normal daily life didn’t exist and I had like a lot of time. So apart from music, I also had time to start painting again. Nowadays there is not enough time to do everything.
So do you create the music for “Sisyphean”: song structures, the music, the lyrics? What is the process there?
We work as a team, so everyone creates the music together. Nowadays, the process looks like that: someone brings in some kind of motives and then we work together as a team, continue creating a song from the motives into its fullness.
Back in the day, the lyrics were more of my thing, although I’m not a vocalist, I really had a lot of ideas and things which I wanted to say, so I was creating the lyrics. Nowadays our vocalist Dainius is creating the lyrics.
You have another project running at the same time. I’m referring to “Wertherian Gallows” which is, of course, electro music, so it’s completely different. I was doing some research before this interview and I was looking on the Internet for more information about your electro project. You had these beautiful short videos with the waves, and the sea, driving through the forest. What is your source of inspiration?
It’s just a thing that some people play in five different bands, but the music between those different bands sounds almost the same. In my case, I simply don’t want to play in three or four different bands where the atmosphere the music creates would be similar. I can fully cover darker, philosophical topics in “Sisyphean”. However, there are other things in my mind which I want to tell and that fits in my other projects. So with electronic music, it’s more of an abstract thing, because there are no lyrics. It’s more about the abstract emotions inside of you and simpler things in life. So that’s why I have always been a fan of electronic music.
Unfortunately, right now I’m not investing a lot of time into that, because the priorities are with my main band “Sisyphean.” Yet, I do have a lot of material which I eventually want to release. I have around 20-30 minutes of ambient music created, so someday it will have to go into the light of the day.
When you’re doing music under one band, it’s great, but you can get tired or burned out at some point. The magic in life is having a variety in everything that you do – would it be music or would it be for example food. You couldn’t eat the same thing like the whole week or like eat only Italian the whole week.
You could if you wanted.
I mean, you could, but you would get bored with it. So you need a bit of variety in your life with everything in order for each of the things to be creative and be fresh.
You’ve mentioned that “Sisyphean” is darker, more philosophical project. In my opinion, your electronic project is also expressive. Of course, there are no lyrics, but the names of the songs sound quite poetic to me. Not necessarily philosophical, but whenever I see the titles, I would get ideas about books.
Because this is a reference to a specific book.
So that’s “The Sorrows of Young Werther”, am I right?
Yeah, it’s based on that book. When I was reading this book in school, I didn’t think that I was going to like it, but actually I really did. It’s still one of my favourite books.
In the novel Werther was spiritually dying from his inability to be together with the woman that he wanted to be with. In my case, the title “Wertherian Gallows” is about the modern life. It’s about the people who are struggling to be in the current society, in the modern fast life. That struggle eventually leads to the wish to like isolate oneself from the modern day life.
And how did you learn to make that kind of music?
Electronic music is a really good ground to learn things, because the only thing which you need in order to start doing something is just a MIDI keyboard. When you start to understand how to do things, how things should sound, you can buy an analog synthesiser and stuff like that. So it’s really a good ground for anyone who wants to do music.
I would recommend not picking up the guitar first, but getting a MIDI keyboard and starting to learn this way. This way you will learn the basics. You will understand why this sounds good with that. With a guitar you just look at the tablature. You’re just playing, playing, playing based on the tablature, but you don’t understand how to compose stuff, because you don’t learn the theory.
So if I compare all the projects I play in, the middle ground between that and this would be “In Bloom” where we play this post-hardcore type of music which is less extreme than “Sisyphean”, but still expressive and beautiful from a different angle.
How can you physically manage to be involved with so many different projects and initiatives in parallel? I cannot comprehend how you can fit everything into your schedule.
Well, everything that I do is now reaching its maximum. I wouldn’t have any more time to do anything additional. On the other hand, it is all a mindset thing. You invest your time in where your true passion sits and you won’t ever count your time.
When you think about it. Usual blue or white collar people don’t have any hobbies or bigger passions. Usually people finish work, then they go home, make something to eat and then sit on the sofa and watch “Netflix”. And that’s all they do.
In my case, I have a proper and serious day job. I return home after work and spend most of my weekdays in the studio. Either in rehearsals, creating music or doing something music related.
I cannot really imagine myself just returning home after work and watching TV all day what most people do.
If that wasn’t enough, you also organise events within “Nekrokatarsis”. Can you tell me more about it? Is it your idea? Is it somebody else’s? How did you join this organization?
It’s a fun story. It all started in 2011. Our company of friends which included Dainius, who is the vocalist in “Sisyphean”, Simonas from “Luctus” and some other people – traveled to this festival in Berlin called “Nuclear War Now Fest”. We saw a lot of cool bands playing and we were astonished. It was a very inspirational festival for us, so we decided we want to organize something similar ourselves. No one in Vilnius hosted events with this more niche kind of bestial black metal, death metal. Together combined with industrial/noise/ambient electronics.
We hosted a vast amount of various gigs in Lithuania, but the most important event was our “Armageddon Descends” festival which had six editions up until today. Well, we had to have a 7th edition, but unfortunately COVID got the festival canceled.
Nowadays, we only do dedicated, exclusive gigs with the bands we think are really cool. The latest ones were “Malevolent Creation” in October. There was also this gig in June where we hosted a very promising re-emerged US band called “Akhlys”.
We are not organizing “Armageddon Descends” right now, because the socio-economic situation is not really good for us. The flights are really expensive. We never invite any bands which are just touring somewhere in Europe. All of the bands are exclusive fly-ins and that makes things very expensive.
if we’re talking about the metal side of things, I think the 6th edition of the festival only had “Nahash from the Lithuanian metal side of things and a few Lithuanian artists from the electronic music stage. So when 95% of your lineup is exclusive bands, the production costs are very high. Maybe in the near future we will be doing another edition of the festival. No promises for the moment. Time will show.
What are your future plans? What will Kamil be doing in five years?
Well, the main thing and my main ambition would be to do more things with “Sisyphean”. We will definitely already have some more albums released. We do have a lot of ambitions just to play as much abroad as possible. Actually, I would really want to have a few massive tours through Europe and maybe even one in the US. We already had a 17 date tour in Scandinavia last year, so why not.
Apart from playing and creating music, I really want to enlighten people on what good music is. That’s probably one of the reasons why we have been organizing festivals and gigs here in Lithuania. Looking in perspective, I think by this point we already did quite a great job and influenced many people here. So I will definitely be continuing on working with various festivals and gigs in some form.
Deviant Generation 