Interview with Kiss Balazs was done in 2005.
:: Let's start this interview from brief introduction. Please tell us about people who involved in CAWATANA. Are you professional musicians or CAWATANA is just your hobby?
The core of the band are: Kiss Balazs – acoustic and classical guitars, Soros Gergo – vocals, acoustic guitar, percussion, Benko Mihaly – keyboards, Kiss Kornel – bass. And occasionally we have some guest-musicans, on vocals, drums, accordion, etc. (and maybe more in the future). We are not professional musicians, but maybe I can say it’s more than a hobby. I don’t want to affect big words, but it’s the most important thing in our life.
:: As far as I know before CAWATANA you took part in some industrial projects and even metal bands. So, what has influenced you to change your musical preferences so dramatically? Just don't tell me that you are getting old %:)
Well, that’s true, that we played in some industrial, noise-ambient and post-punk groups in the last more than 10 years, but we never played in a metal band. We played music with distorted guitars, but it was always very far from metal. And I think there were no dramatical changes in our preferences, we always liked a lot of music, different styles, and we also like this kind of music for at least 8-10 years. So we liked this kind of music long since, but only 6-7 years ago did we feel so, that we should play acoustic music. I can’t say any good reasons, why this has happened so. And there is still a little industrial- and ambient-influence in our music, so the „background” has remained the same, the same approach, only the realization has changed a little bit.
:: I had no chance to listen to you records - I only have seen you live at MJ festival. Are there any differences between your studio sound and live performances? And what do you think about your MJ show? Are you satisfied?
There is a little difference between our studio sound and live performances. Maybe there are more vocal- and guitar-parts on the recordings, and there are more drums on our live performances. But the base is the same in both situations. The MJ festival was very great, we enjoyed it very much. Beautiful ambience, very good sound-technic, very good lights, nice people. And I think also our performance was good, we are satisfied with it.
:: How do you see development of CAWATANA in future? Do you plan to continue mix martial elements with romantic ballads or this balance will be broken?
We have no concrete plans for the future, but I’m sure, that we won’t play only one kind of music, so there will be martial elements, with a lot of drums, and there will be tranquil acoustic guitars and pianos, too. Maybe they will be mixed within one release, maybe they will be separated, we’ll see…
:: I have noticed that your "martial" songs remind me a bit glorious ACTUS. In fact, an interview with ACTUS will be in the same issue as yours. Have you ever met anybody from that band? They are from Hungary as well, am I right?
Yes, they are from Hungary, too. Some people say, that we play similar music, but I don’t think so at all. Besides the use of Hungarian language (only in a few songs in our case) and the use of a lot of keyboards, I think there are no other similarities. Their music is more „electronic”, we use mainly sounds of classical instruments.
I met Attila (the head of ACTUS) once, but maybe he didn’t know, that I’m in Cawatana, so actually we don’t know each other.
:: I continue my previous question. What do you think about your native industrial/ neofolk/ ambient / gothic scene? And are there any? Could you recommend us some bands from your country?
Unfortunately this scene is not too big in Hungary, but fortunately we have some bands, who make very qualitative music, and who are known internationally. First of all, the aforementioned ACTUS, they are the oldest band in Hungary in this scene. And the another well-known band is Scivias, they also play this kind of music long since. Amongst the newer bands we can mention Our God Weeps, they play some kind of neoclassical music, and released an album on Albin Julius’ HauRuck label. There is a new recommendable martial-industrial project, called Sturmast, they played some concerts in Hungary, and they are very good. I think we’ll hear about them in the future. And the man behind Our God Weeps has a new project with the man behind MozgaloM Magazine, it’s called Kriegsfall-U. Recently they released a split 7” with Wappenbund, and their first CD will be out at the beginning of 2005 on the legendary English label Cold Spring. They play sacral post industrial (it’s a kind of martial industrial, with sacral lyrics). And I have to mention also Dark Water Memories, it’s a ritual/ambient project, and released a 12” LP on the German label Membrum Debil Propaganda some years ago.
And fortunately sometimes there are good concerts in Hungary, with well-known bands from all over the world, for example Death in June, Sol Invictus, Der Blutharsch, In Slaugther Natives, Ordo Rosarius Equilibrio, Deutsch Nepal, etc. But unfortunately not too often...
:: You have played industrial/dark ambient and now you play neofolk. Do feel any difference between creation music with "live" instruments and electronic one? Personally, I think that we have too many shitty bands that write their music with computer and that can not even play any "real" instruments. At the same time neofolk or even metal genres need more knowledge and skills - people need not only play their instruments, but also they need to know how record them properly. Am I right?
Well, we always played with „real” instruments, besides drum-machine we used percussions, guitars, keyboards in our industrial-crushcore and noise-ambient bands, so it wasn’t a big change in our life. And I definitely feel differences between creating music with real instruments and computers/samplers/keyboards/etc., but we like both ways, and we like mixing them. Playing with real instruments has a kind of „magic”, you can feel the music form between your hands, and it develops, changes from time to time. And playing with samplers/computers give you more possibilities, you can do such things, that you are not able to do with real instruments. Both ways have their own specialities, and none of them are worse or better than the other, only you should find the best way.
In the near future we plan a release played only with real instruments (guitar, piano, cello, flute, trumpet, accordion, drums, etc.), but at the same time we plan a release that will be played probably only with electronic equipments.
Skills and knowledge are very important in every kind of music, but I think the most important is talent; the great ideas and their realization.
And the best solution to record the music properly is a good studio, with good sound-engineers. Nothing can compensate for the proficiency and the experience.
:: Well, it looks like Hungarian scene is pretty well-shaped, you even can visit shows of bands like DI6. Our fans need to go abroad if they want to watch a show. So, I'd like to ask you about Hungarian scene more. It had developed spontaneously or are there some people in your country that has formed it, influenced its progression in some way?
It has developed „step by step”, there were some people, who has formed it. First there were some fanzines, that cared about this music (for example Masodik Latas, Mozgalom, NOE), then Alexander Rady of Scivias organized a Blood Axis/Allerseelen-concert in Budapest in 1998, I think it was the first concert of this scene in Hungary, apart from the concerts of Hungarian bands (ACTUS, Scivias), of course, and then he also organized a Der Blutharsch- concert. And recently our friend, Zero from Negative Art Prod. organized two Neofolk Meetings in Szeged, South-Hungary, with In Gowan Ring, David Mellor, Kinovia, Scivias, Cawatana, etc., and he organized concerts in Budapest, with Death in June, NON, and a festival called Unicornis, with Ordo Rosarius Equilibrio, In Slaughter Natives, Der Blutharsch, Deutsch Nepal, Novo Homo, Kinovia, Scivias, Cawatana. These were the biggest influence for this scene in Hungary, I think.
:: You play neofolk music and - let's witness it - this kind of music is based around doubtful ideas (like rebirth of paganism, revisionism of WWII, or at least valuing human qualities like patriotism and human dignity.) In any way this kind of values does not popular in modern world, so mostly bands do have some problems with current system. What do you expect from your listeners? Do you create your music for their joy, or you would like to affect them, send them a message and your vision of this world?
I don’t think, that neofolk music always has to be based around doubtful ideas, it’s typical only for a smaller or bigger part of it. And I don’t think, that we want to send a direct message to our listeners, if they enjoy the music, that’s very good. Maybe our lyrics are „indefinable” a little, so it’s very hard for an „outsider” (I mean who is not the author) to go into it deeply. But first of all we make music for ourselves, and if anyone else enjoys it, we are glad of it.
:: From your words I have understood that lyrically CAWATANA is purely abstract and its texts about heroes and 'violent' stuff are nothing but tribute to 'unwritten rules' of neofolk. Right?
Well, I don’t think so. Quite the contrary: we don’t care about the rules at all, we don’t know exactly, what the rules are. And we don’t want to sing about such things, that we don’t know or aren’t interested in. And I don’t think, that in our lyrics there is much „violent stuff”, we are simple, silent, peaceful guys, who just want to play their music.
:: Please tell me about future plans for CAWATANA. When do you plan new releases? How do you plan them? And so on.
As I’ve written before, we plan two releases for this year, we’d like to record them this summer. One of them will be an EP, recorded only with „real instruments”, for example acoustic and classical guitars, piano, cello, flute, trumpet, accordion, drums. The other one will be a split cd with the Argentinean band Kutna Hora, will be published by the Argetinean label Twilight Records. It will contain music, that shows the „experimental” side of Cawatana, created by mainly keyboards, samplers, sequensers, etc. There will be 5 brand-new songs on it, each one will differ from each other, and will differ from any songs we made earlier. And possibly will be out a 7” single in Italy, and some tracks on various compilations.
:: CAWATANA plays live pretty often for a band from Hungary. You came as far as Lithuania or even further. Could you tell me about your best show so far? Why do you consider it your best? And what about your worst?
Yes, we had some concerts all over Europe, we enjoyed most of it, maybe the best one was at the Wave-Gotik-Treffen festival in Leipzig, Germany in 2003. I think it was our biggest concert, on the biggest place, in front of the biggest audience, and these people were very competent and polite, and it was together with such great bands, as Fire+Ice, Changes, Tenhi or In Gowan Ring. We enjoyed it very much. But we enjoyed all of our concerts more or less, we visited some beautiful places in different countries, we met a lot of nice people so I can’t tell you a worst one. Perhaps the first ones were not so good, our music and line-up were in progress, we developed step by step, but we enjoyed them as well.
:: We all were lucky enough to witness transition of two centuries and complete renewal of political map of Europe. Iron curtain has collapsed, wall in Berlin was destroyed... Hungary has freed from Soviet pressure. What do you think about recent changes in Europe? What is for good and what you don't like?
I feel things are going on the right lines, I’m glad of most of the changes. Not all the changes, of course, there were some bad things that happened, but I have a positive outlook upon life, I try to search for the good things in everything, I try to see the good side of things, I don’t like to lament, to complain.
Although I didn’t see big Soviet pressure in my life, I was born in the middle of 70’s, in the so-called „soft dictature”, and Hungary was called the „most cheerful barrack” in this period, but actually it was no freedom, no democracy. I was a child in that time, so I didn’t experience it deeply. But I’m glad it’s over.
And I think it’s very good to travel without borders in Europe, without passport, and no customs, etc. But I don’t like the growing xenophobia in some countries.
:: I know that you and another guy from CAWATANA are 'official' drummers for ALLERSEELEN. Could you tell us a bit about your cooperation with Kadmon? Could you tell us about him? How different he is in 'normal' life from his image?
Yes, we have played drums on the last few concerts of Allerseelen, and I hope there will be some more in the future. This cooperation is very fruitful and useful for us, we could get to many places all over Europe (Italy, Germany, Lithuania, Belgium, Denmark), we have had a lot of good (and a few bad) experiences. And we enjoy these concerts very much, it’s very good to play these songs live.
Unfortunately I don’t know actually, what is his „image”, but Gerhard is a very kind, polite, friendly man.
:: Let's imagine you could save any 5 albums of your choice and all the rest will be gone, disappear for future generations. What would you choose? You can name any albums of any musicians, even Britney Spears :)
Oh, it’s a very difficult question. As a music lover, I like a lot of music, and I’m always looking for novelties, so I can’t choose only 5 albums. I don’t have favourite bands, I don’t have favourite albums, my „favourites” are always changing, I like both „old” and „new” music. I can tell you only the bands, that were „milestones” during my life, since my age 10: Kraftwerk, Hungarian punk and „alternative/avantgarde” bands, Joy Division, Laibach, Godflesh, Neurosis, Swans, Death in June, Sol Invictus. They influenced my musical taste, and maybe influenced my music a little bit in the last years. So I would be very sad, if the albums of these bands would disappear. But of course there are a lot of other albums, that I would miss very much.
:: And the final question would be.... what would you wish for CAWATANA if any of your wishes would come true? Just one wish :) but as fantastic as it could be %))
Another difficult question. I don’t know what would be my big wish. I’d have some little wishes, but they are not so „grandiose”. Fortunately most of my wishes came true in the last years, and another little wishes will come true soon, so maybe I can say, I’m a lucky man (but not as lucky as I could be, of course).
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