From The Dark Past: interview with Sirrah (Maciek Pasinski)
From The Dark Past, the TrueMetal column edited by Mickey E.Vil (Radio Onda D’Urto FM, The Mugshots) in collaboration with Henry der Wanderer (Nott, Nebrus, Ignis Absconditus). Rediscovering obscure gems unfairly buried in the past. Bands that, in the Nineties, had all that it takes to achieve success but for some reason there was no breakthrough. Follow us, today we will illuminate the darkness by bringing to light… Sirrah!
It was 1996 when, during one of my excursions to the Dracma Club in Turin to spend memorable moments with my friend Carlo Ortolano, Max from Northern Darkness Records approached me to give me some promos: the CDs of Entirety and Handful Of Hate and the cassette- compilation Eternal Rest Vol. IV. I was eager to listen to Necromass’ new work but the song that struck me most was ‘Bitter Seas’ by Sirrah from Poland. It became my daily soundtrack, I remember traveling with my eyes open dreaming of being able to make music like that: gothic, brutal, melodic, with those ethereal female voices, the viola, keyboards and the contrast between the growl voice and the clean one , in perfect dark rock mood. Sirrah have released two albums, really well made and promising; they played alongside the best bands of the time and demonstrated professionalism, both in the studio and on stage. But then they disappeared from the radar. Unfairly, I might add. How come? Let’s try to figure it out with guitarist/singer Maciek Pasinski!
Can you tell us something about the very early stage of Sirrah, the days prior to the demo? How was the scene back then in Poland?
Bajsahr and I were in the same class in high school. Around 91-92 we started playing guitars together, initially, then gradually moving into writing our own compositions. At some point we invited a rhythm section and started rehearsing as a 4 piece band. I was the only vocalist and I only used growl back then. Most of the early material was written at the shooting range in the basement of our school, where we rehearsed. At some point we stareted playing local gigs. Back then people in Poland were so hungry for music, we had large crowds at every gig even before the first tape was out. 500 people was a norm. We were never a big part of the underground, although I did some tape trading and got interviewed by underground zines. At that point we were still a local band. That changed quickly once Acme cassette was released in ’95. Before that happened though, we extended the lineup to 7 people by adding another vocalist, viola and keyboard players.
Can you describe to us the composition process of Sirrah back then? Which were your main influences as a band?
Our creative process back then was quite common. Guitarists prepared some riffs and harmonies at home and then presented to the rest of the band either on tape or play the ideas in rehearsal situation. From then on arangements would be developed, songs put together and vocals added at the end. At that early stage the main influences were all early doom/death metal bands like Paradise lost, My Dying Bride, Anathema and Candlemass. It changed when we started writing the second album.
Which differences did you experience between the recording of Acme – the demo, in 1995 – and the proper album the following year?
The Acme cassette was not a demo. We spent a really long time in the studio recording it. The session was spread over 8 months. It was a proper album, it just never got released on CD. When we signed a deal with Metal Mind in ’96, the first label (Melissa) refused to sell rights to the new one, so we decided to re-record the material because we did not have the new songs yet. In hindsight, I think we should have kept the original tempos, but we had a new rhythm section. They were brilliant musicians and we got too excited when recording it. Thanks to that the character of the songs changed and I think to this day people prefer the tape version. Other than that, the sound quality was better on the CD version, which again was not necessarily the good thing 😀
How did you manage to work with Music For Nations and how was the promotion handled by the label?
We had a deal with Metal Mind who represented Music for Nations in Poland. Our albums got licensed out to MFN and released worldwide through their licensees in countries like USA, Japan, South Korea, UK and western Europe. Promotion involved many interviews with metal magazines all sides of the world, printed ads, etc. We got to open for some bands like Deep Purple, played a couple of tours in Poland. Compared to our first label, the mareketing budgets and scope at MMP and MFN were great. There’s no comparison really. Our music reached many countries although we did not play in any of them. I know there are still people remembering us from that time and still coming back to those albums.
What do you remember about the amazing gig you did for Cracow TV?
It was part of our tour with Samael, Moonspell and Rotting Christ. The tour merged with Cannibal corpse/Immolation tour for two concerts, including that gig in the biggest TV studio in Poland. Metal Mind organised everything and they used to film a lot of bands in there. Some years later they got into legal trouble because of that infamous Gorgoroth gig. It was a great experience, as we watched many great TV productions made in that studio. Some employees took us for a small tour through the facility. I remember a huge costume department in the basement. I do not share your opinion about the gig though. We were very tired because it followed 3 sleepless nights in the van. It was quite sloppy. For some reason MMP never released it on VHS. It leaked out to Youtube in the recent years. I think we went there again in ’97 and played with Anathema and the Gathering.
How was the touring life back then? Which bands you played with and which memories do you have of life on the road?
As I mentioned earlier we had a couple of tours in Poland. Our first tour was with Samael and one year later we did a headlining tour with Moonlight. Apart from that we opened for bands like the Gathering, Cannibal Corpse, Immolation, Deep Purple. We played some big festivals with popular Polish bands. Attended by up to 10,000 people. We always had fantastic response from the crowd but what I remember is that even back then I did not think I was built for touring life. It made me very tired. I liked playing live but everything else involved in making that happen was just a hurdle. I think if we continued touring, my mental and physical health would have deteriorated.
What can you tell us about the production and the response to Did Tomorrow Come…? What was the issue about the incorrect title of the album?
For some reason MFN thought the album title was incorrect grammatically and they changed it without asking for our permission (Will Tomorrow Come?). The lyrical concept dealt with time travel and paradox of changing the furure/past. The paradox and the grammatical glitch in the title was very fitting, but it seems not everyone was ready for it. Compared to Acme, responses were more mixed. A lot of people who liked the debut were not ready for such musical detour. We gained a lot of new fans though. I think the second album was more challenging musically and lyrically. It was more complex and progressive. Same as for Acme, we got fantastic reviews.
TheMANcalledTEA, qip, Scald, Pincer Consortium: can you introduce to the readers your post-Sirrah projects?
TheMANcalledTEA was a project I started right after Sirrah broke up. I invited a couple of Sirrah members – Tomasz Zyzyk (voc) and Krzysztof Passowicz (synths) plus Pawel Nafus who played guitar. We built one demo. I wrote all lyrics and most of the riffs. A wild avant garde industrial metal with twisted tchnical, cyberpunkish lyrics. I think the songs were great but probably too weird for mass consumption. We started writing the second demo but never finished it because we split after I moved to the north of Poland.
qip was my first solo effort. After a decade of hiatus. I moved to Belfast and started a family, then in 2012 I started writing music again. Several years later I released an album titled ‘On Ephemeral Substrates’. A mixture of death metal, industrial and movie soundtrack music. It was released on CD by Arachnophobia Records in 2016. I still love the songs. The production could have been better. It was the first album I mixed by myself. I have made a big progress since then. Some years later I released 3 singles under qip moniker. I’ve got about an hour of new music written for that project already, but no ideas for lyrics. https://qiptunes.bandcamp.com/
Scald – they were an avant-garde grind band from Belfast. I met Pete Dempsey of Scald at a housewarming party. He mentioned he had some unused riffs and lyrics left after the group had disbanded a decade earlier. He needed someone to put them together and develop into songs. It was very little in terms of music though. Just one riff per song. He sent the lyrics though, and that’s where it really clicked with me. They were brilliant. Very innovative in terms of language/vocabulary and storytelling. It was a 10 song concept for an album titled Regius I. I took his riffs and added my guitar parts, vocals, and all the other instruments. I changed the vibe radically. He was quite surprised when he heard the results. We took time, recorded his vocals too and released ‘Regius I’ in 2021. It is a very epic and eclectic album full of grandiose cinematic atmosphere, rich in layers and various vocal parts. I used a lot of clean vocals on it. It was a step forward for me in terms of production too. Regius II is in the works, although it will not be a metal album. It’s co-written with Scald’s drummer and brilliant illustrator Paul McCarroll. We released 3 singles from it already. https://scaldbelfast.bandcamp.com/
Pincer Consortium – When working on Scald material, I really enjoyed writing music to ready lyrics. The process was very inspired and brought great results so after releasing ‘Regius I’ I asked Pete to write a non-Scald concept for me. The only guidelines were: dark, elaborate storytelling, hyperdetailed, easy to follow and freeform. I think it took him about a week to write it. He ticked all those boxes. I was blown away by the quality (and quantity) of the lyrical content. As usual the process took about two years and we have just finished recording. the album is called ‘Geminus Schism’. I can honestly say it will be my opus magnum. Compared to all my previous output, this is the wildest, the most brutal and certaily most complex piece of music. I would not be able to compose it without the lyrics written first. We had a deal that I would not change anything in what Pete wrote so we had to be creative with phrasing. I think it made the music even more interesting. It will be out very soon. https://pincerconsortium.bandcamp.com/
Tell us something about your activity as an AI designer.
It’s just a side hobby. Not much to talk about. I like generating images with AI, quite often creating storyboards to songs of mine. I use it to make artwork for Pincer. A Polish band Agima Sun used one of my AI images for the cover of their debut album.
Back in 2013 Sirrah re-united and released a couple of EP’s. What shall we expect from Sirrah in the future?
No idea. I was not part of the reunion because I already lived abroad. I do not think they would ever reform again.
A final message and greeting to your Italian fans?
I was never aware about existence of any Italian fans of any of my bands/projects. If you do exist then from my world I bring you greetings!