„Our audiences are the reason we want to go on” – an interview with Piotr Brzychcy from Kruk
Kruk has supported such bands like Deep Purple, Santana, already mentioned UFO, Thin Lizzy and Uriah Heep. Have the relations you established with all those artists helped the band in a way? Once you said you presented them with your CDs after concerts, so what I’m asking is if Kruk somehow benefits from these relations as much as they benefit from listening to your music?
PB: We support them every time we can, so it speaks for itself really. They know us and after almost each gig we get a lot of heart-warming words from our masters. If you are encouraged by the musicians who contributed in composing the greatest rock monuments, then nothing can motivate you more. The major benefit for us is being able to learn from the best. You can observe this “gig-machine” perfectly working and confront yourself with this rolling stone. Add to it awareness of dreams coming true and then you don’t need to waste your time looking for other uplifting stimuli – they are right here. Thanks to these great bands we have an opportunity to show ourselves to some amazing audiences who are extraordinarily favourable to our music tales. Sometimes I wonder why it is like that and there’s always one conclusion: they are us and we are them. There’re no barriers, we are a monolith. Each of them could possibly stand on a stage and each of us could possibly be a part of an audience. We love music and that’s a basic bond and delight.
You emphasized that your unfulfilled dream is to stand together with Ritchie Blackmore on one stage.
PB: It’s not quite like I dream about standing with Ritchie on one stage cause I guess I wouldn’t be able to play anything [laugh]. My knees have their strength limitations. However, providing I could be an incurable dreamer, I’d tend towards a vision of taking part in a concert where Ritchie would play rock from the very start to the finish. As you can see, my dreams in this matter aren’t that excessive, yet still almost unreachable.
How are your albums evaluated abroad? Does the feedback go hand in hand with a need for concerts outside of Poland?
PB: Considering a fact that our albums are released from the very beginning in English, we have our own place in the foreign music market. We get lots of positive reviews, flattering opinions and decent comparisons, for example to Behemoth, Vader or Riverside. If people compare us to the bands that matter overseas, it means everything is all right. I also repeatedly come across a statement that we’re the best Polish rock band; I take such categorisations with detachment, but still it gives me delight that again motivates me. There’re many reasons we’d love to play abroad, but so far nothing like that has happened because of fate misfortunes. I hope however, it’ll soon change.
How would you describe your audiences throughout your up to now career?
PB: I go to many different shows and what really makes them good, right after the stage potential of a particular artist, is the audience. Audiences that go to concerts of iconic rock bands in a very demanding society; they have imagination and want to explore new lands, of course within a clearly defined area. I think this is the reason they give us a head start and I guess we still exist thanks to them. They are the reason we want to go on, they buy our albums, they go to our shows, they even want to befriend and support us. I always emphasise that Kruk is not my band – it’s a band of all people of good will who feel and see the same. I really hope it’ll never change.
When you’re asked about your favourite artists, you name Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath with no hesitation. Does it mean you’re not interested in anything apart from hard rock and music of 70s?
PB: Of course I’m interested [laugh]. The music back in 70s consists a basis to me; it’s something I was raised on. I also followed it as a musician, but I’m not limited to this period only. I listen to nearly everything, I love blues, but at the same time I don’t despise good death metal. I like high quality pop music, but I don’t refuse a chance to tire my ears with good thrash metal. I’m not fond of country music, but I’ve convinced myself of nu metal. Is there any genre I don’t like? There actually is – it’s most of hip hop and (usually) artificial Polish pop, which can be easily categorised as disco polo.
I presume you would never change the current Kruk line-up, but let’s be wild for a moment. If you had a power to make your dream band, what would its line-up be? Let’s say, you don’t have to limit your choices to living only musicians.
PB: I’d join Deep Purple [laugh] of course with unforgettable John Lord.
Thank you and see you at Kruk’s concerts.
PB: Thank you and see you soon. Sincere greetings.
The official Kruk’s site: kruk.art.pl
The concert pictures provided by the kind permission of Przemysław Kokot Moment in Time.
