Last Saturday, on the 23rd of April, I got to sit down with Robert (drums) and Adrian (guitar) from the Polish sludge/stoner metal band Sunnata, ahead of their gig at Tallinn’s rockclub Rockstar’s, which in a way was ironic, because rockstars are exactly the kind of people who the guys in Sunnata don’t relate to. Being the down to earth dudes who don’t feel like they’re above anyone, even on stage, they happily answered any and all questions that I had, even if they reiterated that they were way too sober for some of the more philosophical things I threw at them. Tallinn was one of the stops on Sunnata’s road while promoting their brand new album Zorya, which came out on April 11th – a record that the band calls 100% Sunnata. What does that exactly mean? Well, that you must hear for yourself, but Robert and Adrian did give a comprehensive look into the workings of the band, while letting me peel behind their personalities as well. At the end of the interview, you’ll notice Adrian kind of disappearing from the conversation. It’s okay, nothing happened to him, and he didn’t quit on me either, he just had to go and dispense the typical problem that comes along when you enjoy a few bottles of beer. Mind over body is something that we all should strive for, but when your body reminds you that you need to take a massive leak, you just have to set that as priority. All I can hope for is that Sunnata do the opposite of Adrian’s bladder, and really burst out with this new album, which if you haven’t yet you should really hear.
To start things off, you’re in Estonia for the second day in a row, you played in Tartu yesterday, how was the experience there?
Robert: The place had a very specific vibe. If you have such spectromatic visuals as we had yesterday, a crowd full of people, and a huge stage in an old building, it creates a very specific vibe that every band performing live would like to experience.
Adrian: And it’s never only about the place or the visuals, but obviously the audience as well, and people were reacting to us from the very start. We started playing, and I saw people tripping, that we were on this journey together. That really pushed us forward, to give the audience the best of us.
Hearing Sunnata live versus on record, what are the differences? What makes your live shows special and different from your records?
Adrian: Well for this record (Zorya), we were thinking of making the songs sound the same on the record as they would live. Of course that’s not 100% possible, because we added some things to the record that can not be pulled off live, but we tried to keep the vibe and atmosphere of a live setting.
Robert: I would say that the main difference is in the noise level. Sunnata music live is a physical experience. With our latest album Zorya, we really wanted to catch that organic feeling, the one that we have when we are jamming or playing live. That’s also why we decided to record all the instruments together.
Adrian: The album was recorded live – what you hear on the record is what we played together in the studio. But of course we added some slight touches later on, that’s a regular thing to do.
Robert: But live we add that physical experience to the mix, which is generated through the amps. We generate a lot of bass, we like low frequencies, and we like making them go through peoples’ bodies. When you merge that with different repetitive structures, the music can really take you into a trance and generate a very specific mood, which is also our goal on stage.
Because you mentioned words like “trance,” I take it that you are quite spiritual people inside the band as well, or would you not say that?
Robert: Not me. The attitude that you get from our music comes more from our sensitivity, than spirituality. We go through certain motions when we are playing, but they have nothing to do with our spirit. We are not that kind of band. We are apart from any religion and spiritual admission. On the other hand, we are trying to reach as deep as possible, and do things our way.
You’ve already toured with some pretty big name artists during your time together as a band, for example Kylesa springs to mind. Do you have a favorite tour partner that you have played together with or opened for?
Adrian: We kinda do. Two years ago we went on a trip together with a band called Moaft. They aren’t too well known – they are a trio from Poland who play, as they call it, regressive alternative music.
Robert: We became friends on tour, and it was great to open together for Conan. And we toured for like three weeks in Italy, Germany, Slovenia, Austria et al, so we had a lot of time to spend together. They had a lot of similarities with us. We didn’t know each other before the tour started, but we proposed to them to go to Europe together, and it worked well. But, for example, playing with Conan was also really cool, because those guys are really nice. Simply nice, down to earth people, and we like down to earth people, instead of people who think they are somewhere above. We prefer to play with people who are very human, without that shitty rock ’n’ roll attitude.
Adrian: It sounds boring, but we are not rock ’n’ roll, at all, we hate it!
Well you know, the rock ’n’ roll lifestyle is nothing novel, so you don’t need that to be distinctive.
Robert: But there is that ethos of rock ’n’ roll lifestyle that is still in the air, and some bands are really into that. Some act like douches, while they don’t even know how to tune their own instruments. There are a bunch of bands who have more form than actual content. That is not our style. We prefer to play with people who are more down to earth, but very devoted to what they do.
Where have you noticed this kind of wannabe rock ’n’ roll lifestyle the most? On tour, or back in Poland?
Robert: Oh, everywhere. Statistically speaking, every population has that “wannabe rock ’n’ roll star” group represented. I’m not talking about those guys who are living like easy riders, but those who are thinking that they are playing rock ’n’ roll, and that implies, to them, that they have to act like they are stars from the movies, which plain sucks. And that isn’t a phenomenon in any certain country or scene, that’s universal.
Before being Sunnata, you guys were together in a band called Satellite Beaver, which was active from 2008, before you changed the name to Sunnata in 2013. What beckoned the name change?
Robert: The original name was like a contrast to Ufomammut.
Adrian: It’s a funny story, because I actually joined Satellite Beaver in the spring of 2013. I learned all the songs from the Satellite Beaver EP The Last Bow beforehand. So I went to the rehearsal, all positive, thinking fuck yea, gonna play some stoner rock, it’s gonna be awesome, and we actually played through the songs on that EP, but when we were done, the other guys said “great, but you know what, we don’t really play that kind of music anymore.” So I was like “ok, show me what you play,” and they started playing some heavy, heavy shit. I wasn’t into that kind of music then, I didn’t know that kind of music, and at first I was really like “fuck, what is this, I didn’t come to play this.” By that time, the guys had almost the whole of Climbing The Colossus written, so the change had started earlier than 2013 for sure. I don’t know what triggered it though.
Robert: I know! I wasn’t playing in Satellite Beaver from the very start, but I joined the band about a year after it was formed and have been a part of the core of the band since. For a long time we were a traditional stoner rock band, and we actually got along in the scene, for example we got to play at Desertfest Berlin, but the more we played together, the more it dawned on us that stoner rock isn’t really the direction we want to go. I guess it started from our (editor’s note: the one who Adrian replaced in 2013) guitar player Tomek, who was getting more and more into doom metal. We never set any parameters for ourselves, we never said that “ok, we are a doom band now” or anything like that, we just played together and decided to see what happens. Back then, when we were starting to experiment more, we started playing music that was more akin to what Sunnata does right now – this kind of sludge-infused stuff that can be heard on Climbing The Colossus. After Adrian joined, after we recorded Climbing The Colossus and toured for it, we can now say that our new album is 100% Sunnata.
So Climbing The Colossus was sort of a stop gap?
Robert: Yes, it was like a transition from one band to another, because some of the songs (on Climbing The Colossus) were written before the Satellite Beaver material was even released (in 2012). So we took a long time, a good two years, to make that transition from Satellite Beaver to Sunnata, but we needed to make the change, because our new direction didn’t match Satellite Beaver, it had a completely different attitude.
Photo by Vladan Bures
You’ve just come out with your new album. It’s called Zorya, it is your second full-length CD, and it’s been out for about two weeks now. What can you say about the recording process of the album, compared to your debut? How was it different?
Adrian: It was different in every way, from top to bottom. With Climbing The Colossus, we thought that the Satellite Beaver EP went well, so we decided to do that album the same way: record the guitars in the rehearsal room, the drums in the studio, and the vocals also in the rehearsal room. The album cover and artwork would also be done by the same guy (Jeffrey Smith). So with Climbing The Colossus, we went in, thinking of going with the same approach as last time, but it turned out nothing like we expected, and didn’t work as well as we would have liked it to. On Climbing The Colossus, every part was recorded separately, it went track-by-track, and it took over two weeks. It was a hell of a ride, and kinda terrible at some points, although I must say that I really like the vocals on Climbing The Colossus, which took the longest to record, a lot. With Zorya, we said to ourselves that we need to do it a different way: go to a proper studio, get a proper sound engineer, make the material sound the best it can.
Robert: And we made it sound the best we could. We booked ourselves into a studio with a great sound engineer from Satanic Audio, who understood what this genre is all about, and who understood what effect and results we wanted to get out of the music. It was a risky step, but we decided to record all the instruments together. The biggest surprise was that it worked even better than we could have imagined, because we recorded the album in two days. It was like, I set up my drum kit, and had to pack it back in in an instant, because everything was done!
I take it that you guys have great chemistry then? Because for even the really big names around the world it takes more than two days to record an album.
Simon: To set the record straight, we recorded the instruments in two days, the whole process of getting the album done was of course a lot longer, including recording the vocals. Also, we had so many rehearsals before the actual recording, like every second day for two months leading up to the recording – it was crazy! But it worked, the producers in the studio were laughing, saying that “guys, you need to fuck something up, it’s going way too well.”
Robert: We are really happy with how the whole process went, and really happy with the final result. And that’s a good point, what you said about the chemistry, because yes, we are friends in private life, as well as friends on stage, as a band. There’s no real leader in the band either, we are all equal. Sometimes it’s a bit of a pain in the ass, but despite everything we like each other. That makes you comfortable in every environment: on stage, in studio, on tour. I am booking shows actually, and I have seen plenty of bands who simply do not like each other; their only common point is the band. Sometimes it works, but for us it probably wouldn’t. We spend a lot of time together: 6-9 hours a week in a rehearsal room, then meeting at shows and going to shows, and just hanging out as well. When you are all friends outside of the band, all those petty personal issues, that I have seen other bands deal with, are nonexistent. We are all open-minded, kind, and honest guys. The name Sunnata means negation of ego, and that applies to us as well. We are very easygoing.
You said that you are all equals in the band, but what happens when you need to make a tough decision and you are all shrugging shoulders? Who takes the reigns?
Both: We take a vote!
Robert: And because there are four people in the band, it can often be 50:50 haha.
Adrian: When someone says something like “I can do this if you guys really want to,” we go for it, but when someone, even one of us, is categorically opposed to something, we don’t push that agenda further.
There is obviously a lot going on all throughout the album, but there is no denying that the riffs carry the biggest workload. So more a question for Adrian, but what does it take to write a spellbinding riff? Is it something that comes naturally, or something that you have to hone over and over?
Adrian: That’s a difficult question, it’s a bit of both. For example with “Beasts of Prey,” I was sitting in the rehearsal room, thought out loud that we should play something different compared to what we usually play, and the riffs came to be in like five minutes. The spell of the riff had been cast! But sometimes we’re really carving out the riff, and it just won’t come to fruition. Some songs only take a couple of rehearsals to finish, some take months – there’s no one way to do it. It’s different every time and there is no golden rule.
Robert: But it’s always a consequence of what you are already doing. If you are playing the same riff in the rehearsal room over and over again, you’ll find a solution where to place it or what to make of it. If you just give yourself some time, it’s going to work.
Studio time. Photo by Marcin Pawlowski
Playing this kind of stoner/sludge style seems to have gotten very popular in the metal scene. Why do you think that is? Why is this kind of style making a big splash right now?
Robert: From my perspective, there are a couple of different factors. First one is that it’s just a trend right now. Throughout the years, there have always been different trends, and this trippy, stonerish direction just so happens to be the trend right now. On the other hand, what I have noticed, especially in Poland, is that many young people are coming to the shows. I started to wonder why that is, and from my perspective, this music fits this generation of young people. These people are focused on freedom, they don’t give a fuck about things. Bad things can also come of this attitude, but the good thing is that these people are looking for ways of expressing themselves. This slow, trippy, heavy, melodic stuff is perfect for that. It has a vibe that speaks for this generation. Of course, I have no doubt that the trend will end, in a year, two, or five, no one knows, but every genre of music has its highs and its lows. There is a strong probability that this hype, or trend, that you noticed, is going to die in a couple of years and will be replaced by something new, that no one can predict yet.
The name of your new album is Zorya, and now I will be spouting some plain wikipedia-level knowledge, but as far as I read, the name Zorya references the guardian goddesses of the universe in Slavic mythology, the Morning Star and the Evening Star, who guard the palace of the sun and the Doomsday Hound Simargl from breaking free of his chains and destroying the universe. Why name your album after such deities?
Robert: Because it sounds nice. At least that was the first thought. I mean yes, of course we were looking for a main topic, not a concept, but a main topic to revolve the album around, and when we found the Zorya myth, it turned out to be a very good keyword for what the album represents. We are not very attached to the entire story behind it, because we are not very Pan-Slavic guys.
Adrian: The music comes first. We didn’t set out to create a soundtrack to the myth or anything. The music comes first, and then we think of the atmosphere, and how to name what was created.
Robert: Zorya came to be the name of the album quite naturally, and fast. We really liked the story behind the name as well, the album’s artwork is dedicated to the story actually, but that’s all. The music came first. Maybe it’s not the most attractive answer for you, but that’s the truth: we chose the name, because it’s nice.
Since we already mentioned the album cover, which is really beautiful and awe-inspiring by the way, I thought of a question regarding that: because it reminds me of a place that I can not go to, for you, if you had a chance to go to any place that you wanted, doesn’t matter if real or fictional, what would be that place?
Robert: For me, I really like to be close to nature. When I’m all by myself, surrounded by nature and no people, it really calms my mind, so I would say that Iceland would be a great place to visit. I’m planning to go there in the near future, because I feel it’s the place to be for my mind. When you are in a very minimalistic environment, close to nature, you’ll feel what’s real. When you take distance from society and cut yourself off from social networks, you’ll have time to feel what’s real and think things over, instead of constantly chasing something, that might not even be real. A social trend created by consumption, for example – it’s not going to make your life better. From my perspective, what makes my life better are the moments when I can sit down, calm my mind, and feel who I am.
Adrian: I guess we are all introverts in the band, in a way. Someone said the other day that Satellite Beaver was so extroverted, so outgoing, but there’s an introverted side to us, definitely.
Well maybe you can come out like that tonight. Estonian people are also kind of introverted, so maybe if you come out like “Hey all, this is Sunnata, we’re gonna play some heavy shit for you guys, but come on down!”, maybe that will liven the crowd up real fast!
Robert: Yeah, but we’re not really that type of band to be on stage like “ooooooooookay, now this is the next song, you know the lyrics, let’s sing, one two three.” No. What you are going to see today is that we almost do not speak at all. We start and we finish. We go to our own world on stage, but that doesn’t mean that the energy is also kept inside us, no, the energy comes out. It’s our synergy on stage that goes to the speakers. Besides, who wants this shitty talking between the songs, it doesn’t work with this kind of music. When you are older and actually have interesting topics to share on stage with the crowd, why not, but the typical “this is a breakdown, break the fuck up” talk – no thanks.
When you are in writing mode, and you are coming up with all these different ideas, is it hard for you to put your ideas down on paper, into a song structure, or is it real easy for you guys?
Adrian: We are always recording stuff and playing it back on the computer afterwards, mixing it in our heads. We don’t write things down on paper.
Robert: It’s natural and we are jamming the riffs over between the actual rehearsal hours. We have everything recorded, and we listen to that. At one point one of us comes out with an idea, saying how to put some sections together, and that’s how Zorya was written. That’s the kind of creative process that works for us.
So creatively, you could say that you are more of a jam band?
Adrian: Pretty much, yes. Some songs are written before the actual rehearsal time, which is good because it gives us a starting point, but the song takes its form when we are jamming. We record our sessions, think them through, and then mix the right parts. The song that was at the beginning never sounds like the final product.
Robert: Sometimes we re-arrange everything. Destroy what we had built and re-arrange it. Because we can. The song structures are actually improven on in time. When we have a song written and recorded, that doesn’t mean that we are going to play it live exactly the same way. We make changes sometimes, and live we have these semi-improvised parts. How long do these sections go on for (at a given rehearsal or show), no one knows, because we’ll play them for as long as we can, because we can.
Like you said, you are more of a band that doesn’t really do concepts at this time, and are more concerned with just getting your music out there and playing the best music you can, but from a more social-conscious aspect, do you think that there is an issue that people should be more knowledgeable about?
Robert: If I could say one thing to people all around the world, it’s that slow down.
Adrian: Enjoy the time you have!
Robert: That’s the knowledge that people really forget about.
Adrian: Fuck the money!
Robert: We are of course saying that because we don’t have money. But yeah, my point is that people should be more knowledgeable about themselves.
Adrian: It’s all about the experiences that you get in life. You don’t want to wake up at 50 and think “what the fuck have I done with my life, just working, doing nothing interesting, I wish i could change it.” Our aim is not to end up there.
Robert: Of course, we are following some social standards. We all have day jobs and we do regular everyday things, but we try to not get lost in that, and Sunnata is a great buffer for that. Sunnata is a place we go to after work, and it’s a totally different place compared to our work. For me, it let’s me feel who I am. The work I have, I really like it, but it doesn’t generate any added value for me. What generates is traveling around the world, expressing myself, playing the music that I love. That makes me feel that I am here, and that there are so many beautiful things around me. Every tour reminds me of all this. When you are working a lot during a regular week, and you get into the van by the end of it – you’ll have a ton of space to look into the sky and think; you’ll have a lot of internal space for your thoughts, your worries, your everything, and that reminds you that everything around you is pretty great. I don’t or can’t think about that at work, and that’s killing the soul of living. I mean, what are you going to tell when you are 50? That you were the best worker at your job? Maybe for some that is of value, but I would say that you should get more life out of your life.
The gang. From left to right: Michal (bass), Adrian (guitar), Robert (drums) and Szymon (guitar, vocals)
You as artists, you as people playing music, do you have an end goal as well? Something that you would like to reach?
Robert: It’s a constant and infinite process, actually. We are not aiming to be the biggest metal band in five years or anything like that. We are not aiming for any goal. We do what we do, and we try to do it the best way we can. Just trying to improve all the time: playing more, creating more, playing better. There is no end for that, this process is infinite. It’s going to last for a long time, I hope that for the entirety of my time here. Sunnata is such a big part of our lives that it should never fade away – otherwise we would forget who we are.
