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Respecting The Horrors Of War With DIETMAR KUMARBERG From 1914 · HEAVY Music Interviews

• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Hello. My name is Metro. I'm from nineteen fourteen from
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: Ukraine and nice to meet you.
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: Thanks for joining us the same name.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: Morning here, morning, I'll be there.
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: Nice now not in fourteen. Release your fourth album, The
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: Ribs Unit is on November the fourteen, So how are
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: you feeling about it?
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: I don't know how I must feel about it? Okay,
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: I'm happy that at least I'm still alive to because
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: you know, I'm from Ukraine, so it's not bad at
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: all in our circumstances. So at least we did this,
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: and we finished this album and we will release it
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: on nap On Records. And I feel really, I don't know,
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: let's call it some happiness because because I'm allowed to
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: do this and it's not bad.
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: At all, can you dive into the album a bit
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: deeper from a musical perspective and tell us what you're
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: going for musically this summer?
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: Okay? So with this album, we started with uh, of course,
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: every our album based on the real historical events and
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: with a lot of research, historical research, with a lot
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: of with the deep concept and so on. But with
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: this album we started in completely different way. We based
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: it all album the whole album based on the life
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: of the One Soldier. This is a soldier from my
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: hometown Lamberg, the western part of Ukraine called Galicia, and
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: the Galicia historically was the part of Astro Hungarian Empire.
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: So this is the war pass of the one Soldiers
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: when he faced the war in the very beginning of
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: the First World War, and you know, the Russians invaded
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: my hometown Lamberg, and they his regiment muster retreat and
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: he faced with the huge battles like Galician battles, battles
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: for Galicia and Premisial offense like the siege of Premisial
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: fort forts and so on. And the story begins actually
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: in nineteen fourteen, like for everyone in the Great War,
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: and actually his war pass from his hometown to the
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: Cheremisial Fortress, from Chamision forces to the Carpathian Mountains, from
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: the Carpathian Mountains directly to the Italian Front. Two years
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: on the enormous and madness Italian Front with a lot
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: of shells, with a lot of explosions and guards and
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: so on. And after that captivity and run away from
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: captivity together with his friends from Lublana, Slovenia, and from
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  Speaker 1: one Polish guy and he back home from captivity through
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: the Austria. He went back home and died in the
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: last day of the Shortcive offensive in this event called
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: this event called like Ukrainian Polish war. So this is
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: the aftermass of the First World War directly on in
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: our region.
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: Wow, what the title is Latin for with United Forces?
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: So how does that statement relate to the overall story arc?
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: First of all, First of all, with the United Forces
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: videbus unities. It's mean, you know, there was an old
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: punk rock song from chem sixty nine. If the kids
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: were united, they will never be divided. So it's a
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: little bit, a little bit reference like this. First of all,
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: like we were one empire, one united nations in the
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: time of the First World War. Yeah, so this motto
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: of the front Joseph meant this various units with the
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: United Forces, like croutch and people, Polish people, Slovak people,
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: Ukrainian people, everyone were involved in the one huge Austro
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: Hungarian empire and we were united in this. Do we
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: love each other? Of course not? But and for me
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: this reference from the First World War and some breach
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: from World War one two nowadays because you know, right now,
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: we have faced it more than eleven years. We faced
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: it with the Russian aggression and they invaded us, and
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: you know we faced it with the war more than
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: eleven years. And for me, various unites with the United Forces.
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: It's sounds like, come on, we need to be united,
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: support us, Let's do it together. Let's fight against the
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: same enemy, against this imperialisticals Come let's fight together. Polish people,
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: Baltic people, Finish people, everyone, Let's be united. Sound like this.
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: Nice life a lot easier if that happens.
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: Done it.
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: Done? So? Yeah, so you've sort of touched on this
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: a little bit, but you created a unique conceptual perspective
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: with the narrative taking place across that timeline from nineteen
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: fourteen to nineteen nineteen through the account of reukraining soldier.
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: It's a fascinating way to approach the album, Like where
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: did that the initial idea come from?
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: You know, I'm a historical narrat and every time with
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: every album, I'm digging deep with a lot of war memoirs,
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: some soldiers letters and so on, a lot of materials,
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: you know, and I perfectly know the Russian language, Ukrainian language,
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: Polish language, and so on, a little bit German, so
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: I could afford, you know, to find a little bit
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: more information, for example, in war archives, because I could
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: read not only, for example, just Ukrainian documents, but Polish
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: documents or some German documents, or some Russians documents. So
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: that's why I'm digging deep, and just you know, I'm
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: combined every scene in one huge concept. And of course
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: because I'm an historical nerd and I'm a fan of
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: the probably it would be wrong quardion like I'm a
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: fan of the Great War. No, I'm not a fan
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: of war at all, but I'm a historical fan of
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: every scene behind of it, you know, like a soldier's fate,
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: the storytellings like war events and even remnants and even
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: you can see some German rifles here or French helmets here.
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: I have a lot of some military stuff in my house.
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: So I'm a fan of that period. So that's why
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: I'm combining everything in one huge concept. And we working with.
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: This something like this, Yeah, across the eleven songs on
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: the album, like we witnessed the onset of war. You've
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: got the extremities of war. Then you've got the emptiness
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: of follows. It must have been a very emotional process
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: for you going through all of that created process and
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: living that life to an extent, is it had.
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: Of course, it's about emotions because as I told you previously,
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: more than eleven years we faced with the war. We'll
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: live in the country with war, and more than three
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: years we live in the country actually with a full
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: scale invasion. Every time we have a drawn attacks, cruised
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: missles here, Ire Series and Irates, and a lot of
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: my friends have died. You know, it's really it's complicated.
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: Our guitar player now in the army, so it gives
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: you a lot of emotional background. And of course it's
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: not about positive vibes and positive emotions. It's one hundred
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: person about hate and anger. So that's why this album
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: I assumed actually as one of the not one, our
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: most aggressive album just at all. And that's why it's
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: always about personal emotions, as I told you, about hate
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: and anger, and a little bit about grief and some
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: sadness because a lot of losses and and of course
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: the second part of album really personal stuff because you
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: know it cames of course it's about our protagonist, but
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: lyric cames with some of my perspection and my personal feelings.
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: You know, I split it with my daughter more more
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: than three years already. She stayed in the safe and
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: peaceful Europe in Slovenia, Lublana, and I'm staying here in Ukraine.
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: So it's it's really complicated when you cannot hug your
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: you know, embrace your daughter, for example, and it gives
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: me a lot of not positive wipes and a lot
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: of emotions. So that's why I even in our lead,
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: gives a lot of you know, like a personal stuff
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: like I want to embrace my daughter, I want to
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: embrace my wife, and so one like, yes, it's about
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: it's one hundred person person about emotions. It's not. It's
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: not only about you know, like let's play some fucking
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: metal or let's recording the metal album. Let's record in
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: the new metal album, No fuck the Ship. Let's spread
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: all our hate, Let's spread all our anger, all our feelings, emotions,
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: let's you know, like spit in the face of the crowd,
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: because we are full of it and we wanna we
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: want to share it with you some like this.
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: Yeah, does it? Does it take a while to disassociate
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: after you've finished the album, like and you've got a
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: lot going on anyway, but feelings that you'd have to
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: harness to make that album, like does it? Does it
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: stay with you when you finished?
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: M okay? We are staying in Ukraine, you know, And
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: I don't know how we allowed to traveling across the
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: Europe and playing some gigs with this album or don't.
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: I don't know, So it depends. And every time we
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: faced with the different circumstances like uh situation on the
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: battlefields for example, the fucking Trump with his madness ideas
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: and madness politics every time as something new for Ukraine,
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: and we just don't know how to react with all
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: the shit. And this shit affects of course affects our
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: country and a lot of things, different shitty things you
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: faced every day, you know, And I'm just I just
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: cannot build some plans or live my own life like
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: you know, like normal people do. And it's not only
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: about me, It's about all Ukrainians, you know. We are
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: all here and we volunteering, We are all all war volunteering,
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: and right now in Ukraine, if you are male, you
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: could be just only in two positions for the front
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: or at the front, you know, and a lot of
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: my friends are actually right now in the trenches. And
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: we as a band were volunteering. We are war volunteering.
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: We collect and all the nations, all money, what we
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: can earn from the gigs, from the merriage and so on,
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: and we bring it back and donate to the regiments.
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: We buy some armored vehicles and a lot of medicine helmets,
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: armored place and on. You know, in that type of circumstance,
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: build some musical plans or plants with the touring, or
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: plants with a grow up as a band is just
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: just not possible.
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: I already hear that. Bright.
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: I just I just give you. I just give you
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: a little context about it.
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: I'm not learning something. It's it's it's it's amazing what
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: you go through. Br it's and you're still smile and
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: by other fun you do that.
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: Come on, man, at least, at least I'm not in
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: the trench right now. I have all my limbs, and
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: you know, I stay in the in my house and
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: millions enormous amount of Ukrainian mans. Uh, do not give this,
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: do not have this, you know, and that probably I'm
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: not in so bad situation and condition. So yes, I'm
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: still smiling because because my mind will blow up if
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: I'm following in some depression or something like this. No,
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: you must smile it because it's just just a reaction
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: of your mind.
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: Jesus, And let's talk to more music and get you
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: smile and some more brother like you. Essentially the sonic
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: landscape of the music with things like samples and there's
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: war speeches in there, there sounds of battle. How difficult
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: was to integrate those elements into the sonic palette that
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: that you've created.
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: With every our album and the men behind of the
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: whole samples, soundscapes, noises stuff and so on. You know,
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: I'm a huge fan of the industrial martal and noise music. Yeah,
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: I'm a huge fan for sample like Mars Bow and
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: Stood About and so on bands like this, And every
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: time with every our album, I'm just digging and try
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: to catch something original sounds, original speeches and original samples.
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: I try to cut from some something from the interesting movie.
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: And you know, just it gives you when you listen,
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: when you go through the album, it gives you a chill,
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: like some cinematic stuff like you are not just only
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: listening to music, but you are probably at the cinema
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: with a good movie, you know, and it gives you
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: a little bit a little bit more understanding about what
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: we what we're singing about. And of course I love
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: this type of type of musical creation, Like you find
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: some soundscape, you place some noisy stuff, some drawns and
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: some original sounds, and it gives I don't know, or
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: it gives you or just for me, but it gives
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: a little bit goosebumps, you know, like, yes, yes, it's
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: about atmosphere, it's about the original stuff.
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: You know.
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: You can dig, you can dive in deep with all
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: these additional sounds for me, and I hope I hope
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: it works with the people too well.
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: It does be like it is not as if you
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: could just put them in anyway. You can't just carry
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: I'll write it in there, and I'll write it and
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: they're like, how hard is it? How much planning do
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: you have to put into it to place those things
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: in the right places to make it have maximum fact?
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: You know, I when we started with a new for example,
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: new song or the whole album, I already got in
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: my mind the whole picture and the whole concept actually,
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: because we started not with some guitar reefs or like
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: blastbits or like a tipic metal band. No, we started
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: with the historical research and I bring some bullet points
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: of the storytelling and bullet points of the lyrics upcoming lyrics,
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: and provided to my guys and explain everything behind of it.
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: And we started like this. And immediately when we talking,
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: for example, I don't know, like the Siege of especially yeah,
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: the song about the biggest siege during the First World War,
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: and enormous amount of people were there and just in
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: three days of attack more than forty thousands of dead
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: Russians and so on. And I give all this historical
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: stuff to my guys and they prepared in the music.
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: But in my head I already have prepared, you know,
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: like the complete, the complete vision of the song. And
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: I understand, okay, here I will place probably some original
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: sound in Martian sounding, because it's about Martian, it's about braveness,
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: because it's the first day of uh just first day
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: of the Great War and everyone you know, like we
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: are imperial soldiers, let's killed all our enemies, and they
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: thought that war will end it just in a few months.
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: Is and everyone were filled with all this, you know,
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: like blood rage. And that's that's why I'm trying to
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: combine it with right sounds, and probably probably it works
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: because you're asking about it, so probably it works.
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: Excuse my ignorance, say, buddy, but I just said, all
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: of your albums start with the track code war In,
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: and they all end with the song war Out. So
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: what's what's the thought process behind that.
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: It's the same, the same stuff what I talk to previously,
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: because you know, it gives you some diving intense like
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: work out, you are entering the war, you are entering
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: this good movie or this good book, and go through it,
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: you know, just it's like in not a typical intro,
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: but it is. It's about involving you to our story,
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: you know, like diving, diving deep with this, and it
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: gives you a right vibes, right chills, and you like, okay, okay,
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: I'm I like it and I go uh through it
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: from A to Z something like this. And that's why
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: we always use this war In and work out like
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: you are diving and you're returning back.
• 18:39
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: That's amazing. Well, thanks very much for you, John, And
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: it's been fascinating conversation. I enjoyed that the album The
• 18:45
  Speaker 2: Very Best United is novemberfore it Angel, I don't listen
• 18:48
  Speaker 2: before this mightn just just wow. But what you've done
• 18:52
  Speaker 2: the brother, that's okay, it's really good, epic. It's like
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: graduations and out on the ride one day.
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: Thank you.
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: It would be a Travis d if you didn't get
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: to play this ship live brother.
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: As one man, as one blind man said, let's see.
• 19:42
  Speaker 4: Got sorry we have sorry Sory go.
• 19:51
  Speaker 3: Way okay, s I'm not being strong father voe old hours,
• 20:14
  Speaker 3: your old condo field voice so real now away time
• 20:40
  Speaker 3: it's boy, how like a cause? Conny came my trap
• 21:33
  Speaker 3: s tod not.
• 21:37
  Speaker 5: I know where the sky stars? Me am I sparl
• 21:47
  Speaker 5: scout be I'm my sparle scout, No, my be yenough
• 22:44
  Speaker 5: not you enough time.
• 22:46
  Speaker 3: Every days to the loss of my friends, I convers, I.
• 22:53
  Speaker 4: Mean for good dots the world all.
• 23:07
  Speaker 3: I s s voice some time, so old top. It's
• 23:43
  Speaker 3: a boy's