Rockezine.com interview with Closterkeller on Oct 06, 2002

with Anja Orthodox on Oct 06, 2002

Anja and I agreed some weeks after the Castle Party festival to do an interview. Due to our busy agenda’s it took place a few weeks later than planned. No problem though, because CLOSTERKELLER proved to be one of the best Gothic rock bands in Poland. So there’s always enough going on to ask and tell…
		First of all did you like the Castle Party in Bolkow (Poland) this year? There are 5 personalities in our band and each of us has a different preference concerning music. But the Castle Party atmosphere and the people who visit the Castle Party caused a deep need to come here again in all of us, in spite of out personal preference. Regarding the music we partly accommodate with the opinion of those who didn’t accept the average of electronic bands over rock ones. Electro is cute but pure gothic rock is much better!
		I believe you played a great show out there… Do you feel the same or did you miss something? It’s not ours to judge our gigs - we see them from a quite different point of view, in a way - from inside. But we are aware that we managed to create an uncommon visual show on stage. Perception of our music itself people can done by listening to our CD at home but our special show on stage makes it possible to develop a deeper contact with our creation. About the show: we thought we could do better, but we were stressed a little by the fact that some songs had their debut performance here and this concert at the Castle Party was also our return to the Party after three years of absence. A lot of things depended on this show. Still we know we are experienced musicians.
		CLOSTERKELLER started back in 1988. Although your band name rings a bell, we never had the chance to hear or see you before. Is your market mainly in Poland or do you have fans in other places as well? Unfortunately, we had some bad experiences regarding managers and labels that were promoting our music abroad. We have always heard lots of promises, unfortunately it never became more than that. None of the promises were fulfilled. It’s a pity because we know that our cd’s that did find their way abroad were received with great interest. Recently our offer to perform on a festival in Holland has been denied because someone thought of us as not a very gothic band. They explained us that we played to “light”. Anyway, we really would like to be noticed and to start our existence abroad - we just think, even it is rather sad, that our creation is better understood and appreciated there than in our own country. Here in Poland we have no outlet for heavy and ambitious music other than the plastic pop created in manager’s offices of big corporations. Besides that we don’t have enough personal contacts, although that’s very important in business and media in Poland.
		Your music is very diverse; your influences seem to be rock, dark wave, progressive rock, metal and pop. Did this evolve into your music throughout the years or was this mixture there from the beginning? Both. Our music has been diverse and evolving from the beginning. From the start the music of Closterkeller wasn’t strictly limited to any kind of music, just like it wasn’t limited to any kind of sound. Any musician who has been involved in creating music for Closterkeller (and during it’s history. The band has had lots of members) has brought something personal to our overall sound. All the same Anja’s sensibility, characteristic to women, was able to keep it all moving in the appropriate direction J and so Closterkeller has always had its own specific climate. In the beginning the music of Closterkeller was closer to the classical sound of British Cold Wave of the eighties. Then our music has evolved into harder sounds of rock and even metal. And recently we started to use sounds of real Dark Wave origin!
		Your latest release was a “Best Of…” in 2001, are there plans to release a new album? Will it be released worldwide? Yes, we have some new songs. We presented them at the Castle Party Festival. For what we have heard the audience was delighted. People told us these songs were better than the older ones. Wow! Amazing! But regarding the situation on the Polish music market I described to you earlier in this interview, we would like to release our new album through a big foreign label that appreciates our music and also would like to explore our big potential and our character. It is very sad for us but we are tired and discouraged playing music in Poland. It seems show business and the media don’t notice us. How long we can live this way?
		I believe that the Polish language is perfect for the ‘atmospheric’ (or Gothic) rock that you make. Still, I can believe that the use of Polish lyrics can create a gap to people outside Poland and therefore they won’t buy the record.
		Do you think the language is a barrier or is it proven that people can overcome the language barrier? Anja sings in Polish in Poland because the importance of our lyrics. The audience identifies with them, they experience and feel them. One can say the lyrics are a half of the success of the band. Anyway we are aware that the beauty and melody of our language can be felt and appreciated only by us, people from Poland. But we do not feel strong enough to be pioneers of language revolution in gothic rock. So outside Poland Anja will sing all or almost all songs in English. English is, after all, also a beautiful language and almost “classical” for rock music.
		We even found an English language version of “Blue”. Was this an attempt to reach a bigger market? No. This is an old story dating from 1990. It`s one of the examples of how we were deceived. Bosses of the SPV label told us to record an English version of “Blue” to release it in Germany. And… the album has only been released in Poland in an English version - it has never seen the German market. It was awful. Anyway: we’ve prepared English versions to almost all of our songs and the delighting translation were made by our friend and anglicist - Unicornus.
		Your live performance during the Castle Party showed that CLOSTERKELLER apparently sings about emotions that are heard in Poland. Can you tell me more about the lyrics? Anja’s lyrics are simply about people. About their feelings and about how they are changing according to the situation. The characters of her lyrics don’t have to be from Poland. Anja’s lyrics are mostly impressive, misty landscapes of human consciousness and sub-consciousness, of love and hate, getting lost, and sometimes of madness, mostly. Anyway, Closterkeller has released 7 albums already, so there are a lot of lyrics on these albums. You can also find lyrics describing our Polish reality, but there are only a few who speak of it. Fans love Anja for her personality and activity in the musical field. This can be seen on the Internet. Fans are inspired by Anja’s lyrics, fragments of her poems are mottos of numerous home sites or blogs (virtual diaries). It is so elevating to us. You can also see a big influence of Anja’s poems on the creation of Polish young gothic poets. Her writings are a model or simply a school for them.
		Can you tell us more about the Polish gothic, rock and metal scenes? Do you have a good club culture, enough places to play live? Actually the heaviest forms of rock, metal or gothic rock in Poland live in the Underground. Media don’t want to hear about it at all assuming that “the potential customer of the advertisers will change the program or channel” when hearing something like that! It is complete nonsense, just schizophrenia, but unfortunately this is the way these things go. As for playing concerts, we have rock clubs - quite small or bigger - in every city. The situation is not tragic, but it also is not very good. The Polish scene? Hmmm… There’s a very strong metal underground here. The situation of Polish metal is probably the best. You can hear lots of Polish young bands, even though they are often strongly influenced by foreign trends. The Gothic scene also gets on rather well. We’ve got more and more new bands but still it seems to me that in this circle a strange stagnation has taken control. We are delighted to see other bands having Closterkeller as a musical inspiration and vocalists singing the way Anja sings, but often it all ends quickly and they don’t evolve from this moment on. There are also some bands looking for their way in Dark Electro scenes - maybe they will create something fresh but in this kind of music it is really hard to cross over. So in general: we have interesting bands, gifted musicians and a lot of good will but simply we suffer from the lack of strong charismatic personalities.
		You will play on the Dark Nation Festival in Vienna, what do you expect from that? Did you play many concerts outside Poland and how were the reactions on those concerts? Well, just as a precaution, we don’t expect anything. And if any chance will appear in future - we would be really happy. Last year our friends from Daimonion played there and they have received some propositions. And regarding to us, the first reaction appeared: we were invited to perform in Budapest when getting home from the Dark Nation Festival. We played abroad only a few times during our 14 years of activity. And we were recieved really great. Our concerts are really very good. Really. Everyone who doubts it is welcome to our concert in Vienna.
		If people are interested in your music, where can they order your CD’s? I think the better way is to buy them in one of the internet shops, you can find links at our website www.anja.pl/sklepik.html
		Something you always wanted to say, but never was asked… Literally? Hihi! Here you are: “OK, if you really insist so much we can agree and play this European Tour including the biggest Gothic Rock Festivals!” Greetings, AnjaO
(Beautevil )