10Q’s with Piotr Rogucki of COMA
Coma are a massively popular band in their native Poland and they aim to recreate that success elsewhere with the upcoming release of their new album ‘Don’t Set You Dogs On Me‘ plus a European tour including two dates in the UK in March. Over to vocalist Piotr Rogucki…
1. What are you currently up to?
To keep your stamina up you have to move on, this should be our motto, so we are trying to live this advice up. We play gigs in Poland all the time, about twenty shows are approaching in the next three months. We are gonna play two gigs in Great Britain as well, in London on 25th of April and on the next day in Manchester. Moreover, we’ve just finished writing songs for the new album and planning to hit the studio in March. What’s more, we are hoping to play a few festivals in the summer time, and it would be awesome to have luck with setting up a European tour in autumn. It appears to be an interesting and quite busy year.
2. Could you take us through the new album ‘Don’t Set Your Dogs On Me’…
‘Don’t Set Your Dogs on Me’ are not just a few various songs collected in one CD. The story is hidden behind the scenes. If you are a careful listener, you can observe the story of a poor soul. A kind of moral descent in the name of rebirth into the better existence. The main character is carrying the burden of crucial mental changes.
At the beginning of the story 1. “Keep the Peace” I’m trying to convince listeners that the revolutionary changes are needed, and providing them with the courage necessary to commence the journey together with the fictitious character. 2. “With You” is a little naive praise of an idea that shearing doubts with a beloved person is easier. Then 3. “Always Summer” we create the atmosphere of undefined longing in the adverse environment of winter in Warsaw, an element of concern shows up. After this introduction we are visiting the bottom of existence, sexual disorders in 4. “Dance With a Queen”, drugs abuse in 5. “Rainy Song”, narcotic trance and displaced anxiety in 6. “Late”, personal disaster, infidelity and empty anger in 7. “Lion” a breakdown with a beloved person in 8. “Furious Fate”, last attempt to retrieve the relationship in 9. “Don’t Set Your Dogs on Me” then denial and escape in 10. “Song 4 Boys” and 11.”Moscow” but also looking for the answer to what went wrong? Eventually the rebirth and decision to start again in 12. “A Better Man”. 13. ” When The Music Is A Flame” is our general ‘summing up’ of the story we presented and a kind of invitation to the world of our music. But this is just shortly.
3. You have made a great YouTube video for ‘With You’. Who came up with the idea for this and how important is it for a band now to have a YouTube video for any new single/album release?
The idea is taken straight from the photo session we’ve done with a very talented photographer Albert Pabijanek, he decided that we should be painted to get the effect of distance between us as private people and the message we share as a band. Since that moment we have been painting our faces for almost every concert to make our personality more transparent on the stage, and to make the show more theatrical. We used the same aesthetics making the video clip, it gives the feeling of coherence with the audience. Videos on YT are important, they are our last commentary to what we’ve done. Sometimes it helps to get the message across. But you need to treat the clip as an art tool, unfortunately it isn’t always possible.
4. You started to sing in English on the last album and carried on with this new album. How did that go down with your long term fans and have you gained more fans as a result of doing this?
The reaction of some of our Polish fans was unexpectedly adverse. Quite many of their opinions are reluctant or even aggressive. They don’t want us to sing in English. And I don’t know why… Somehow I find it really stimulating. I feel as if I’m risking everything playing against the attitude of the crowd. I know this feeling from experience, it is quite frightening. We expect, however, to engage more listeners behind our native soil so we should communicate in English, it’s obvious.
5. The new album cover is a striking one! Who came up with the idea for it?
This is art work of our bass man Rafal Matuszak, he is a talented graphic, he made all of our covers in the past, and our recognizable sign regarding the covers production is to make the message as simple as possible and visible even from the distance.
6. What have been the live highlights and why?
Every show is important, we love playing gigs and this is the most exciting part of work. Albums are just the beginning of an adventure, a kind of introduction before we hit the road and start performing. If you haven’t seen COMA on the stage, you don’t know the answer to what we really are as artists. We played some important events as a supporting band on one stage with Pearl Jam, Linkin Park, Limb Bizkit, Tool, but these big names we can only put into our CV, much more thrilling was to play a few small concerts in Germany and Austria recently where people didn’t know who we really are and the only vehicle to convince them was our music. This is the feeling of pure and fair contact between us and the audience. In Poland listeners put their expectations on us, they love us or hate us. In any other country only music matters.
7. Has the internet helped you get your music out there or has it in some ways hindered it by websites offering free downloads? Do you still rely heavily on CD sales as opposed to downloads?
I do not really think about it, this is rather business than the artistic part of our life. I attend it only when it is impossible to avoid the topic. The CD is important as an art work and it will always be something precious for me and for fans but, frankly, it doesn’t matter to me if the label is selling CDs or audio tracks. Moreover, the Internet helps to communicate us with fans, to say what’s up and hello, but only playing concerts helped us to engage new followers.
8. You have a couple of UK shows coming up in March. Have you played the UK before and what sort of set can fans expect? Do you keep the same setlist for every country you play in or do you change it slightly to suit a different country’s fans?
There were some organizing obstacles, so we had to change the dates of the gigs, now we are gonna play on 25th April in London, 26th April in Manchester. We want to play a big show with all elements including proper lights, visualizations, pieces of scenography, good sounding, etc. we are gonna mix Polish and English songs to create an energetic, two hour performance, we expect a strong group of Polish fans, so it is impossible to play only in English, they have known us for much longer as a Polish band.
This is just the beginning, in summer we are planning to play a few festivals and it depends on the kind of event what the set list will be, we are not afraid to change the plan during the concert when we see that the expectations are different than we thought before. However, we don’t have any recognition yet, we need to play more gigs to know the audience needs in different parts of Europe.
9. What made you want to start making music and who have been your musical influences?
In my particular case, the need of acting on the stage emerged early. It was just deep conviction that I must perform in front of a crowd. When for a long time I couldn’t realize this dream, I felt unhappy and I felt I wasted my life. I’m also an actor, I was studying in Krakow Acting High School, so this way of expression is my destiny. If I didn’t sing, I would act in the theatre. But music gives you more freedom than acting, here you are your own director and you write your own drama. And because my love for both kinds of expression (playing music and acting) is so strong, my first and most important influence is David Bowie.
Strong sounds like Tool or System of a Down this are the
field of inspiration for the guys, but all we do is always a mix of a different styles. Some reviewers blame us for being an undefined band without any concrete style, where COMA really is? They tend to ask. The answer is COMA is everywhere! We are searching all the time and this is the reason for our existence, not reaching the goals but looking for them. Not answering the questions but asking.
10. What do you enjoy doing in your time away from music?
Usually we plan what to do in the future, music takes the biggest part of our life, but when you spend most of the year with guys in the van, you appreciate private life as well. To save the mental hygiene, I sometimes appear in films and series, play on theatre stages and make my own music in solo projects, it is really healthy and inspiring. This year I’m planning to take part in Warsaw Marathon. It’s an important goal for me. To keep your stamina up you need to move on. So let’s go.
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THE RASMUS Rest In Pieces (Better Noise Music)
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