Batushka interview (Bartłomiej Krysiuk, Rafał Łyszczarz, Jakub Śliwowski)

Interview by Davide Sciaky

Puoi leggere l’intervista in italiano qui.

Hello guys, welcome to TrueMetal. How are you doing, and how is the tour going so far?

[Jakub Śliwowski] The tour is going well. Actually, half of us is sick, that’s why we’re drinking tea with lemon.

[Bartłomiej Krysiuk] But it’s normal when you’re on tour.

[JŚ] It’s like, the first week everyone gets sick.

[Rafał Łyszczarz] Hello everyone, I’m the patient zero. I started it all. [laughs]

Of course, this is going to be the last tour for you under the Batushka name, how does it feel? Is it a sad feeling or is it just, I don’t know, part of life?

[BK] I think we are excited about the new chapter. So, it’s not a farewell tour, we are taking it as something normal and we are looking forward to the future.

[RŁ] It’s not a farewell for us since we are still going to be there, just under a new name. So, that’s how we look at it. It’s like an ending of a chapter. When you read a book, when the chapter ends, you’re not sad. You’re just eager to read another chapter.

[JŚ] For me it feels kind of refreshing because we’re putting away all the bad stuff. Just finishing this once and for all: new chapter, new name, new songs, new album and let’s go.

Yeah, in terms of songs, do you think the setlist you play is going to change dramatically in the future? Or is it going to be just a continuation of what you do now?

[BK] It will be a continuation but with the new songs, of course.

[RŁ] Yeah, we will try to incorporate as much as we can of the new album to refresh the entire set. But we won’t abandon the old songs. They will be played.

[JŚ] Yeah, there are some songs that we are going to put into probably every show, like “Polunosznica” from “Hospodi”. Like “Irmos II” or “Irmos III”. Because we always play them and people really enjoy them live. And after the album will be out, we will probably play the whole new album from the beginning to the end.

[BK] Because the new album is a complete story.

[JŚ] So, like, playing two songs from the new album and two songs from “Hospodi” makes no sense.

[RŁ] At least not at the beginning. After some time when people get adjusted to new stuff, we can definitely mix it up a little bit. But it has to be set as a whole story.

This name change comes after a big legal dispute that has been going on for many years. As we know, in the end the judge ruled against you, preventing you from using the Batushka name without Krzysztof Drabikowski’s permission. Do you think you might have ended up changing the name anyway? As you said in your press release, with a new name you can now focus more on the music and leave all the drama behind, after all.

[BK] We want to leave behind these bad feelings and all the things that our haters and our followers are talking about. Around the band, around the name. So, it’s going to be more focused on the music. That’s the core of the name change.

[RŁ] Basically we sped up our decision because we were considering it for quite some time. Since the split! But it was always, “Should we do it? Should we not?”. And this just sped up our decision to go with it and see what happens.

So, this is something you’ve thought of for a long time.

[RŁ] Yes, definitely.

[BK] Actually, also the new music is somewhat different than the stuff that we released before.

[JŚ] Yes, that’s definitely something new. With a lot of ethnic instruments, folk stuff. It’s pretty Slavic, I would say.

It’s Folk from your country, from your heritage.

[All] Yeah.

[RŁ] Yes, we didn’t want to be held back by the idea of Batushka that was created throughout the years. So, it will help us expand on the sound. Not abandon it in any way, but expand it.

This is something else I wanted to ask you, if you could give me a glimpse into what’s going to happen with Patriarkh and, as you said, you’ll be going into more of a folk-ish direction.

[BK] Everything is changing and we must go forward. Definitely with the new album we do this.

[JŚ] Also the album, especially this album, is connected to some songs and chants that we incorporated into the album. And they gave us a route where to go, what instruments to use. Because there’s a lot of them on the album. There’s not just drums, guitar and bass. There’s a lot of orchestration stuff, the folk instruments.

[BK] And female vocals.

[JŚ] Female vocals, a lot of female vocals.

Is this something that you will bring to the live stage?

[JŚ] We already did it, but our vocalist couldn’t come for the entire tour. She had to go back to Poland. But yeah, that’s something that we want to incorporate.

Also, the folk instruments?

[BK] Also, yeah.

[JŚ] Yes, we also did that on the last tour in Poland.

[BK] We used real instruments.

So how many people are going to be on the stage?

[JŚ] Well…[laughs]

[RŁ] Well, it depends.

[BK] It depends, but I think it’s more interesting for the crowd. We will be developing the stage. That’s the full set that we have in the recording studio. We’ve tried on the tour in Poland with the female vocals and also with the folk instruments.

[RŁ] Yeah, especially that happens at the end of the show. We have this short break and then we enter with the new stuff.

[BK] Like, Patriarkh are entering.

[RŁ] Yeah, like Batushka ends its set and then Patriarkh arrives on stage. That’s how we thought about it. And yeah, in Poland that was the moment that female vocalists and folk instruments happened on stage. And the base lineup that we’re traveling with at this point is 6 people, but we go up to 9. If we’re able to, it all depends. We all have different schedules. So, the core travels, but then the additional members can join, it depends.

[JŚ] Playing in a band with like 4 or 5 people is quite easy. Not always, but usually quite easy. But like with 6, 7, 8 or 9? It’s challenging.

[BK] But also, we’re thinking about Patriarkh as a way to level up Batushka. So, it will be a levelled up Batushka also in the lineup.

Lyrically, Batushka is quite rooted into the religious theme. Is Patriarkh going to depart from that?

[BK] No, no, we are also continuing with the lyrical themes about the religious. But it’s more with the folk themes.

[RŁ] From the people’s perspective, not just from the church’s perspective.

Going back a few years, when you started out, in hindsight, it’s easy to see how Batushka found a huge success, because you were different enough, you were bringing something new to something that people knew and loved, and a nice stage show that works really well. But at the time, were you expecting this kind of success? Was it like, “This HAS got to work!”? Or was it a surprise when you started to have that kind of success?

[BK] I think it was a surprise. It was not even expected that Batushka would become such a big thing. So, it’s absolutely not expected.

Do you have a specific moment that you remember when you maybe looked at the crowd and though, “Okay, this is getting really serious”?

[JŚ] Oh, I got two moments like that. One of them was somewhere in Portugal, it was either Porto or Lisbona and the crowd was crazy there. I was like, you know, watching people crowd surfing and stuff and there was a lot of fire on the stage as well. There was no security or the barricades and I was like, “Oh fuck, that’s dangerous!”. And the second moment was in Bogota, Rock al Parque festival.

[BK] It was the same for all of us.

[JŚ] It was like 40,000, 50,000 people, it was like a sea of people. I was shaking for the entire set.

[BK] When you’re going on the stage, you can’t see the end of the crowd.

[RŁ] Yeah, you don’t see faces, you see a sea of people.

[JŚ] And I’m like, trying to play a riff and my hand is shaking like that. [Laughs]

The good thing for you is that you don’t really have to look at the people. You’re masked, they’re not going to notice if you look somewhere else.

[RŁ] That’s what I was actually about to say, that I went on during the changeover and plugged in all the stuff and saw the sea of people and when I went on stage with the mask on, I basically saw the photographers and that’s it. [Laughs]

In terms of live show, are there going to be big changes? I mean, I guess new costumes, but is there something else that you’re working on?

[BK] Yes, that will be also changing in the costumes styles and I think we won’t appear as followers of the Orthodox Church, but we are making some kind of our style, our interpretation. The new costumes are ready, we’re waiting for the inauguration show.

[RŁ] What you see on stage on this tour is not final yet. It’s still a transition. It’s a lot different than the previous one, but it’s not like the final, final. We’re slowly incorporating new stuff to the stage.

[JŚ] But it will still remind you of Batushka. It’s as big a change as we did in 2019 with “Hospodi”, that was much more radical. It will still remind you of what we were before the name change.

As we said many times already, you changed a lot of times during your career: musically, in terms of lyrics, in terms of costumes. Do you think eventually you’re going to move away from the religious themes as well? Is it something that you think is possible or is it too rooted in your identity?

[JŚ] Well, I would say there’s so many stories and really interesting people in the Orthodox culture because, I don’t want to spoil too much about the new album, because I can’t, but we’ve got some ideas for next albums and stuff. There’s a lot of stories that we want to tell with our music. I don’t know, I think it’s hard to say if we’re going to move.

[BK] I think in Batushka you will find also it’s a conceptual band and conceptual album always will be released. I think we are not going to move away too much from the liturgical themes or the Orthodox Church, but we are developing in our universe.

[RŁ] Depending on how long we will continue as this entity, we never say no to anything. It depends on how we change as a band throughout the years, basically. It’s supposed to be an Orthodox cultural thing. So, we’re not aiming to move too far away from it.

And these religious themes, in Black Metal traditionally there’s been a lot of criticism towards religion but for you it’s been a bit more neutral, perhaps, maybe not as direct and blasphemous as other bands. What is your position on religion, do you feel like you’re just telling a story or is there a criticism to religion?

[BK] I think we are a band that is not going to the left or to the right side, but we are going straight ahead and also, we are developing the profane sacrament. That’s the main core of Batushka. So, it’s not a criticism or not.

[RŁ] We’re basically neutral and we want our listeners to decide what they take away from it.

[JŚ] We’re just trying to tell our story the best we can.

[BK] The listener must choose what they want to take away from it.

[JŚ] Because a lot of people actually asks us, are you guys Satanic? Are you Orthodox? Are your songs Satanic? And we’re like, no, they’re not. But if you think they are, yeah, it’s fine.

[RŁ] So, it’s up to the listeners to decide.

Have you ever had any problems in your own country?

[All laugh]

[BK] Yes, of course.

[RŁ] A little bit.

Because as you said the people have to decide, and some people decided that you are on the “wrong side”.

[RŁ] Obviously, when they see an inverted cross they just go… blasphemous!

[JŚ] They go nuts.

[BK] Now in Poland I have one court case about the blasphemy.

Against you?

[BK] Yeah, yeah.

That’s crazy.

[BK] Well, it’s normal.

[RŁ] It’s not as bad as Behemoth had it, because Behemoth attacks the main religion of Poland. And Orthodoxy is a little more on the Eastern side, so less people fight against it, in theory, but still.

And you never burn Bibles on stage.

[RŁ] No, we never rip them. We never burn them. No.

That helps, I guess.

[RŁ] But people that are very Orthodox, they don’t even like you being near the Orthodox church in our robes.

[JŚ] Oh, yeah, definitely.

[RŁ] They’re touchy. [Laughs]

So, I guess you sort of took on the role of storytellers of the Orthodox Church to the “outside world”, to those might not know much about it.

[RŁ] That’s one of the goals of the entire band.

[KB] Correct, we are messengers of Orthodoxy. [Laughs]

[RŁ] Sharing this mostly on the Metal side, but still messengers. And we met a lot of people who, even in the States or in Finland, people who were not exposed to Orthodoxy in many years. And through our music and our band, they came back to their roots from when they were younger. And even though you might interpret it both ways, blasphemous or praising God, they still found their way into this being nostalgic about, “Oh, my childhood. I remember when I was in the Orthodox church and so on. They brought it back to me. The incense, the entire liturgy”. It’s awesome, it’s awesome seeing that.

Do we have people coming to you telling these stories?

[BK] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[RŁ] All around the world basically.

Since all of you perform with your faces covered, from the outside we don’t really know much about what’s going on in the band. Can you tell me more about the relationship between all of you within the band? Like, are you all participating in songwriting? I don’t know if there have been a lot of changes in the lineup, or…

[BK] No, it’s – how can I say – it’s a normal band. [Laughs]

[RS] It’s been pretty stable, the core of the band has been pretty stable since the split [from Drabikowski], basically. So, drums, guitars and main vocals, we didn’t change at all. We are all still the same. And sometimes we have to figure out how to bring someone to choir instead of someone else who cannot go on tour. That happens, but it’s not like we’re changing each tour.

[JŚ] No, no, it’s stable at this point.

[RS] And we actually all have ideas for songs that we bounce towards each other and have many different approaches. Sometimes we just meet together and write the song. Sometimes an entire song is written by one person and then thrown out to the rest. It depends. It’s really fluid and we’re still figuring it out. Yeah, with every album it looks completely different.

I’m thinking that also because of the legal issues, Bartłomiej was more visible than the other members and maybe people assumed that it was his personal project, but you’re telling me it’s more of an organic band.

[RŁ] We’re still a regular band, basically.

[JŚ] Yeah, it’s just that Bart was more in the public eye.

[BK] Yeah, I took all that on me.

[JŚ] All these memes. [Laughs]

[BK] All the evil… That’s me. [Laughs]

Do you read what people say online?

[JŚ] Of course.

[RŁ] Yeah, we’re not engaging in it, but usually it gets around to us at some point.

[JŚ] Yeah, of course we know what’s going on, but we’ve got a lot of work to do. We’re focusing on the music and releasing the album. And there’s a lot of stuff planned for next year that are pretty fucking huge.

[RŁ] And there are more things happening in the background than these haters realize basically. We are very busy. Yeah, we don’t have time to respond to every hateful comment.

[JŚ] Let them comment, say whatever they want. Good luck, have fun.