Interview
(Progressive Newsletter Nr.53 09/05)
excerpts from an interview with Maciek Meller (Guitars)
After our last concert with Emila, on 15.02.2003., we unofficially suspended our playing. After year break we met to talk abort the future of Quidam. It turned out that Rafal and Damian - our rhythmic section - had their own plans. They decided to engage in band called MENSKI. And we, Zbyszek, Jacek and I, decided to continue playing under the same name. We started looking for new rhythmic section and vocalist, and after we managed it we started hard working and so we have new album.
What were the reasons for the line-up changes, how did you found the new band members and can you tell a little bit more about their musical background?
Emila decided to connect her future with Warsaw, privately and professionally. Due to she moved there, further cooperation was impossible. But frankly speaking, there was other important reason - Emila did not want to sing that genre of music, she did not want to sing in Quidam. About rhythmic section I have already mentioned in 1st question, they wanted to play more traditional rock. The time of change has come. With Maciek Wroblewski we have known each other before, at that moment he was free so he accepted our proposition. Mariusz Ziolkowski with his prog-rock band After…was recording his first album in Zbyszek’s studio. And he also accepted our invitation. Searching for vocalist took lots of time. For many reasons we wanted male vocal, but it turned out that it was not easy to find a vocalist to band like ours. And when we almost decided to widen range of our searching to female vocal, suddenly Bartek appeared. He sang in band called NEO, in which I occasionally played. In this line-up we rehearsed couple of old songs and it sounded OK, so we started to work on new material a then whole line-up felt each other.
Were there also moments, when there even seemed to be no future for Quidam at all or thoughts about starting with a new name?
It was never so hopeless, but the most difficult moment was when Emila left. We were afraid that it would be difficult to find someone as charismatic and well singing as Emila, but Bartek’s attitude surpassed all our expectations. With him and with the rest of the band cooperation is great. From the beginning we did not take changing name Quidam under consideration. Up till that moment Zbyszek and I have been doing 90% of our material, we have produced our albums, we have watched over everything. We have been working on the good name of Quidam so we didn’t see reasons for changing the name. I think that spirit of Quidam remained.
Was the decision to sing in english clear right from the start?
Bartek is doing great in this language so we wanted to try. Now I can say that perhaps it was one of the reasons for better response to this album than to the previous ones, which is very important for us. Thanks to this our lyrics can be understood by more people who can experience our music better. Who knows, maybe in future we will record two versions?
Did you also try out other new things with this record concerning composing or recording the album?
We improvised much more then ever for sure, and then we picked interesting moments which now you can listen on suREvival. Additionally, for the first time we recorded a professional demo, and it was very helpful. We will try to work in that way in occasion of our next album which we are planning to release in Autumn 2006.
Some parts and ideas slightly reminded me of a little bit of Porcupine Tree and Riverside. In which way did other bands or artists influence you?
Compositions of Steven Wilson I know very good, but I hardly know Riverside. I confess to this first inspiration eagerly, but our musical interests definitely go beyond accomplishments of Porcupine Tree…Everyone of us listens to varied music from jazz, classics, pop to different genres of metal and who knows what else.
How does the album title "surREvival" reflect the of current status of Quidam?
As a matter of fact, title reflects our current situation: we survived, we revived, although it seemed to be surreal…
Did you receive any feedback so far about what your old fans think about your stylistical change and new musical approach?
As we could foreseen, opinions are extremely varied; from delight to severe critics. From my observations it looks more or less like this: 80% are delighted, then small group of restrained people (15%), and vestigial amount of people who are not satisfied (5%). I have an impression that on west, in particular in Germany, where in previous years it was difficult to come into being for us, we have very good reviews, I think better than ever…We are very happy of this fact, and we need that kind of support in those not easy beginnings of new incarnation of the band. But I hope that we earned that good response of our album with music included on it…
Kristian Selm © Progressive Newsletter 2005