Nasciturus Interview

 

1.For those who have never heard of you before, can you tell us a little about the team?

We have existed in our current form since 2020. We are a power trio, with a classic guitar-bass-drums lineup. We play black metal, but you can hear a lot of other influences in our music. We don't allow ourselves to be pigeonholed, which is why some of our songs are firmly rooted in the 80s and almost no blasts, while other songs can even be called "modern". Our lyrics are inspired by the legends and fairy tales of our region, the Foothills, Beskids and Bieszczady Mountains. Music is always hard to describe, so I encourage all readers to listen so they can experience it for themselves.

2.At the end of April your first full-length album will be released, how is it musically different from the previous split?

The split features songs from our live demo recorded at home in late 2021. They are included on our album "Fabulae" (with minor changes) alongside five other compositions. Each track is different, there are no two similar songs on the album, which is a product of our inspirations, as I wrote about in an earlier question. There were guests (Michal Barszcz - guitar solo in "Pomirki", Lukasz Sarkowicz - guitar solo in "Pokucie"), who added a lot of color and soul, we also all sing (both Rafal and Wojtek, that is, the drummer and bassist have songs where their vocals are the main ones). We also used acoustic guitar, or synthesizer, but to a very small extent, as a spice. On top of that, we paid a lot of attention to the production, for which Dominik from Dirty Sound Records (a fantastic studio) is responsible - a dirty but spacey sound with guitar in one channel and bass in the other (a tribute to the 60s).

3.What kind of lyrics touch on local stories, legends and tales of the Beskids, can you tell us a little more about your interest in this subject?

I won't hide that the main inspiration for this approach to the subject was the absolutely fantastic Malokarpatan from Slovakia. They were the ones who opened my eyes to black metal, thanks to them I discovered what this music is in general and began to explore the subject. In addition, I have been a fan of Polish traditional, folk music for years, hence the desire to smuggle this layer in the lyrics. The source I draw from are legends written down by Andrzej Potocki, a writer, regionalist, journalist, who wrote them down over the years in our region. These are tales that are often dark, not obvious, and strongly incongruous with today's world, that is, strongly overlapping with the nostalgia and atmosphere that accompanies black metal music.

4.What is the meaning and inspiration behind the name "Nasciturus"?

The idea for the name was born in a Roman law class (I was studying law at the time, but that adventure ended quickly), when we were learning the paremia. "Nasciturus pro iam nato habetur, quotiens de commodis eius agitur" ("A child conceived is treated as already born when it benefits him"). The very word "nasciturus" ("to be born," "unborn") sounded very strong, so I concluded that it was the perfect name for the band I once created. It's been sixteen years since then, so you could say that we couldn't be born for very long, but we finally made it.

5.Can you tell us a little more about the graphics that are featured on the cover of the new album?

The artwork for the cover was created by our drummer, Rafal, who is a man of many talents, and one of them is drawing. It corresponds with our music, and is the door to it. We sing about things that have passed, yet relate to our region. An old wooden house, a well in the yard and an apple tree is an image we remember from our childhood - such yards were part of our rural landscape until recently, and in these houses in the evenings people told each other tales and legends.

6.What are some of the best concerts the band has played so far, and how would you describe your stage performances?

It's hard for me to judge, so far we haven't played a lot of them, each concert is different, with different dynamics, audience, atmosphere. If I had to single out an event specifically, it would be the performance at the Grasz Bór Festival 2024, where in the summer, in the early afternoon we played for the waking festival attendees in the middle of the forest. Bright sun straight in the face, blasts and a wall of trees - a beautiful thing. As for our performances, they are very different. We allow ourselves to improvise during concerts, each time our songs are slightly different from each other, which is allowed by the fact that we play as a power trio, we have no samples, so there is no boredom.

7.Do you have any concert plans after the release of the new album?

Concert plans are... so far plans. We would like to create a specific event to celebrate the release in our city, Rzeszow, and also in the autumn we would like to move on with concerts around Poland to be able to communicate our legend to all interested parties.

8.In 2023 you where a part of a split, can you tell us a little bit about the bands you shared this recording with?

The idea for the split came from our Czech friends Peter and Jan, who together form Pásmo - a band, a concept, a project that is hard to describe exactly. Each of their productions is a long story, a whole world for music and lyrics. Personally, I understand their stories as songs about the search for true freedom, based on experiences and cultural clichés. Jan is responsible for Swordsman - in his blend of black/punk you will find more references of soulful, inner reflections. The last project on the splice is Ježura, Peter's child, which also evades patterns. Once it sounds new-wave, at other times it is close to punk, and there are often symbolism based on the reality of the world from behind the "Iron Curtain." All the bands on this compilation share a common trait: a longing for a world that no longer exists.

9.On a worldwide level how has the reaction been to your music by fans of black metal?

We are now starting to reach out more widely with Nasciturus' music, and there is positive feedback. Many people pay attention to the heavily exposed bass, others to the vocal arrangements, but we still have to wait for a wider response. In Poland, the feedback is rather positive, although some have said that we are "awful," which in the context of black metal should be considered a compliment. I hope that through such interviews we will reach more metal fans around the world, so that in the future I will be able to answer such a question more widely. :D

10.Where do you see the band heading into musically during the future?

The material we are currently composing contains more blast beats. However, you can still hear that this is Nasciturus. We don't have any framework that we stick to, if we want a song to have elements of heavy and Marcyful Fate-style drums, we play it that way, so that we can weave in elements of blackened death in the next part of the song, and end with a waltz on a clean channel. When we create a song ourselves, we don't know how it will end - we just jam until we think the piece is ready. Hence such eclecticism in our music. And this is the one thing I can assure you that we will continue not to limit ourselves in any way.

11.What are some of the bands or musical styles that have had an influence on your music and also what are you listening to nowadays?

MALOKARPATAN! This is where it all started. I read an interview with them a few years ago and then listened to their second album: "Nordkarpatenland." Totally crazy, they turned my world upside down. Until the moment I met them I considered black metal to be second-rate music (with a few exceptions, e.g. Furia and Emperor I loved before). That was the impetus to resurrect the band and invite Rafal to join. In the beginning we were supposed to be based solely on the first wave of black metal, but I'm not such a concentrated songwriter that I'm up to the task, so we started mixing in all the ingredients that black metal consists of with all its history. After Wojomir joined, we stopped limiting ourselves to any genre at all, but we didn't stop playing black metal. A huge influence on us, what not to listen to right away, is Polish traditional music, or rock in general, or even pop, as we often use standard chord progressions in songs, just arranged differently. Each of us has played in many bands, in different styles, from brass bands, to ska, prog rock, to death metal, so the list of things that inspire us must have been 10 pages long. :D It's the same with the music we listen to: at the moment I mainly listen to Dubioza Kolektiv, Little Big, a lot of rave and jungle, and if metal at all, Lamb Of God, whom I appreciate more and more every year.

12.Before we wrap up this interview, do you have any final words or thoughts?

First of all, I greet all readers and strongly encourage you to listen to our album. Also, I appeal to each of you to find some stories, legends, tales from your region, no matter if you live in Indonesia or Florida. In many of these stories there is beauty, fear, ugliness, joy, but most of all there is emotion and history for you to discover. Cheers!

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