Features
SBB's Jozef Skrzek: The Daily Vault Interview
by Mark Kadzielawa
Jozef Skrzek sounds very relaxed speaking from his home in
SBB(which stands for Silesian Blues Band) is a fantastic progressive rock band from
The band split up in 1980 only to return in 1993. Since then, the group’s activity has been nothing short of intense; whether it’s releasing new music or archival material, SBB is making up for the lost time while simultaneously making their name vital again and regaining the respect they once held. Recently, the band was invited to perform at the Baja progressive music fest in
Nowadays, the band is comprised by Skrzek and Antymos from the original line up joined by Paul Vertico, and recently, the drum stool was handed over to Gabor Nemeth from
SBB recently released The Rock, a solid album that will ensure the band’s longevity and legacy in progressive rock history. The disc was only released in
Jozef Skrzek dissects the new record track-by-track and also gives his insights as to what went into the making of these songs; he also discusses a bit of history and unfulfilled ambitions along the way.
What inspired you to call the new record The Rock, and what is the title song about?
Jozef Skrzek: The idea for the song came to me actually during one of my trips. I was visiting a mountain range, something I often do. As I was walking up and down the mountain trail, I felt inspired, and it turned into this song. Musically, it was the first recording we did in
“Burning Minds” returns to the 1980 motif from Memento z Banalnym Tryptykiem (direct Polish title). Was this intentional or coincidental?
Memento is a special record for us. We did come back to that theme very briefly in this track. It serves as a springboard for this song, as it really builds up and takes off on its own. This song also has a very deep lyrical content, and musically it just fits the mood. The lyrics deal with losing a father, and anyone who has gone through the experience is able to relate to the pain that is left behind.
In “Heaven And Hell,” the band sound like a locomotive that is gaining speed before taking off into the unknown.
This song shows a very wide space when it comes to the musical textures. It has a very interesting keyboard sequences. We were trying to show a musical mood that would reflect the title. Also, it has a lot of possibilities when it comes to performing it live. It’s a very imaginary track that requires reflection from the listener.
“Silence” is a song in the right place on the record. It’s sort of turning point that calms the listener down before the second part of the album kicks in.
“Silence” is a very special song to me. It involves a piano, and when you listen to it, it’s a like the time is standing still. I consider this song to be a pearl in my catalogue. It’s a very delicate track that allows you to breath, yet it carries a special message. It’s a song that shows happiness in itself, and that’s what the lyrics are dealing with. We’re very happy how we were able to make the lyrics and the music to come as one.
“Sunny Day” has a very psychedelic nature, and it’s very interesting how this song evolves.
Sunny Day is like a blues song. It’s a song that evolved a lot when we were writing it, but it’s kept in a blues convention. If you were to strip it down, you’d see it strictly as a traditional blues song. We were trying to make the time stop with this one. When you listen to this song, you should be able to relax as if you were lying down on a tropical sunny beach. Your life should stop, and you should just feel free and unaffected by the daily stress.
“My
Our guitar player, Apostolis, was always close to jazz. He was very influential in how this song turned out. On this track you see how jazz and rock connects in our music. There is a lot of diversity in this song because it is so multi textured. And his guitar is all over the place here, so you definitely hear what he was after.
“Pilgrim” is a track that could go on and on. It has that ongoing texture and it could probably be developed into a phenomenal song live.
This is exactly what we were thinking when the song was being written. We first presented this song live during a festival. This song is written for recently deceased Czeslaw Niemen, one key artist in Polish rock music. And the festival was dedicated to him, so we did this live not knowing how it would turn out. And the reception was great. We continued to develop this song, and as you said, it could go on forever. Also, we were writing music to a classical poem. It’s never easy to do that, to be able to match the music to words that were written long before us and still maintain what the words and music were intended to perceive. The poem has an incredible line in it: it says you only have as much earth/ground as your foot is able to stand on. I found that to be such an outstanding and inspirational thought when writing the music.
“Akri” is a song that shows off the excellent instrumental ability of the band, but it also shows how you can combine several emotions into one powerful piece.
“Akri” was the last song we recorded for this album. We were basically done with the record. Prior to the recording I was in
“Zug A Zene Mindenhol” is a first duet in the history of the band. You performed the song with Tamas Somlo from Locomotiv GT. The song is interesting because it is performed in two languages.
This song was just having fun in the studio. It just sort of evolved out us being in the same studio, and wanting to do to something at the last minute. So we did, and it was fun for us to do. When it came to the recording of this song, we did it in simultaneously from two different locations. I was recording my part in
Staying on the topic of
Gabor Nemeth is a veteran when it comes to playing drums. He’s a very interesting person. He is very dedicated to his craft. Gabor lives and breathes drums. He’s a good arranger, and has a very musical intuition. He reminds of me of Jerzy Piotrowski (SBB’s original drummer) in the way he approaches his instrument. Gabor is very involved in music, at all times. If he’s not playing, he’s doing drum clinics. There’s always something going on musically in his life. He helps out a lot of young kids to become musicians. I mean, he lives for anything that has to do with music. He’s always ready to play, and his drums are fantastically tuned at all times. He’s a very intense drummer. I mean, prior to him coming into the band we played with Paul Vertico, who is a known personality in the music world, but Gabor in his own way is very original. When we did some initial live shows with him, it automatically clicked musically. We knew we had found a great musician at that very moment.
I’ve heard that your current album was supposed to be recorded in
Yes, that was our initial plan. We were going to do some recording at Paul’s (Vertico) studio. We wanted to record some of the tracks in
The last few years were extremely fruitful when it came to releasing your archival recordings. All of your albums are now available, so are countless live recordings, and even few DVDs were released as well.
It all started when our Polish label, Metal Mind Productions, asked us to put together an anthology [a 22-CD box of all the band’s studio and live recordings]. This box was sold out within a month. I felt this set could go places outside of
Why did SBB break up back in 1980?
We felt a little exhausted at that point. We were very active for the number of years and that certainly took a toll on us. We were doing many concerts in
Throughout this time, all of you were individually active -- what caused the band to reform in the ‘90s?
We’ve always maintained contact. We didn’t part in a bad way, and we’ve always stayed in touch. We never stopped being close as people. At one point we’ve decided to play together just to see what’s left in us. From the very first moment, it felt great to play as SBB again, so we just carried on.
In the meantime, as the band was absent, it became very popular on the international scale, even more so than when it was functioning.
That’s right. Whenever we play we get a fantastic response. People do remember us from the past and there are plenty of new fans that got into us. They always tell us the band’s music makes them feel free, and I think that’s great. These are also the emotions that go into our music. I used to get massive amount of letters from the