Thy Worshiper is back and they released a new EP “Ozimina”. Time to chat with these Dariusz of Thy Worshiper, about the new album, songwriting, living in Ireland and other stuff.

Congratulations on your epic new release “Ozimina”….what sort of feedback have you been receiving up to this point regarding it?
“Thank you very much. The feedback is very good. Much better than we expected. As this is EP we haven’t paid as much attention as we normally do when issuing full length album regarding promotion, but still, we received huge number of positive reviews from all over the world. It means that all we’re doing right now has a hell lot of sense and gives us strength to continue this and do it better.”

Play what we feel
There are numerous elements involved in the Thy Worshiper sound, are you still a “black metal” band or is that too confining or straightforward a genre? What best describes the Thy Worshiper sound?
“I don’t know for sure if it is still Black Metal or not. I believe it depends on personal point of view. If you take Black Metal as dark, depressive, dirty, unholy etc. music, we probably will fit. But if you take it as classic Scandinavian music with “screaming” guitars, aggressive vocals, fast percussion and so on – we definitely won’t be Black Metal.
We create our music based on emotions and we are not interested in fitting us to any kind of genre. We play what we feel. If someone hear Black Metal in it – fine. It really doesn’t matter for us as long as our music will host us wild satisfaction from doing it.”

With such a long history what are the major differences from the beginnings of Thy Worshiper in terms of the overall direction of the music? What has remained unchanged if anything?
“Nothing has really changed. We still base on our fillings to describe music. We just changed a way of doing it a bit. Definitely we are more experienced musicians, we control better of what we’re doing with our instruments, we are older, so have bigger baggage of knowledge, got some new influences… but the spirit remains the same and this is actually the most important for us.”

How did moving from Poland to Ireland alter/change the direction of Thy Worshiper for the better or worse?
“It changed for better. We finally have a solid backline and have regular rehearsals among the people we trust and like. All band members living in the same city where in Poland it would not be so easy to work out. The only problem here is that Ireland is a small country and metal scene is not developed as good as on the continent. Playing live here is problematic as you can do it only in few places in all Ireland where frequency might be very pure (and most of the time it is). Touring costs are much higher and we need struggle with it as well, but still, found more positives than negatives to live and create in Ireland.”

All fully satisfied
Has the songwriting process changed given the different members and eras of Thy Worshiper or has the basic process remained unchanged? Is there an open door policy with regards to bring new ideas to the band?
“Of course it is. And always was. Thy Worshiper is a band not just project. Songwriting process is maybe much more complicated in that way, but gives us more fun and brings to the point where every one of us is satisfied. We don’t need session musicians who will play of what one of us will tell him/her to play or sing. We might give some ideas, clues etc. but never force to play exact note.
Most of the time we are jamming and recording ideas. After this we choose better parts and start working on those.  All band members are involved. It takes time, generates tensions within the members, and argues suggestions. We do a lot of changes. Every single song is evolving by hard work. Sometimes we have to forget about song and go back to it within month or two with clear mind, fresh ideas. Sometimes we’re finishing song in one or two rehearsals, sometimes not. Everything depends. But the idea is that every one of us must be fully satisfied with the final effect.”

Who/what are the biggest influences in creating the Thy Worshiper sound? Is there anything that you are not afraid to integrate into the discussion as far as either musical or lyrical concepts?
“We have none. To be specific – there are influences out there which we use, but never in direct way. We don’t like to do music based on someone’s ideas, but let be realistic – we haven’t create nothing what hasn’t been done in the past. We listening music very actively and we draw from the source whatever we can, but we’re doing it unconsciously. For most of us Mongolian music is something which inspired us, but again it is not of what describes our music. You can find lots of influences on our records, but always it’ll be just variations on the theme not specific riff, fragment, note nor melody.”

Struggle
How are you able to juggle things like recording, performing, etc with everyone’s busy schedules outside of the band?
“There are six of us. Everyone has its own live and not much time to spread between live and band. After all we’re finding time to rehears at least three days per week, sometimes more often, sometimes without few members, but everything is progressing and going well. We are planning things like touring and recording in advance to get enough time to book holidays from our works. If you’re not professional musician and treat music like hobby, you have to struggle with such problems and solve it. And that is exactly of what we are doing.”

How important is the live performance to Thy Worshiper? Is a necessity for getting the full concept of Thy Worshiper out there or is being just a studio act OK and performing is a task?
“I believe both are on the same level of importance for us. Recording is to consolidate of what we’ve been working on for specific period of time, when the live performance is to present our emotions regarding to these recordings. It’s easier to understand our music on our gigs. During live shows you can experience of what we’d like to convey to our fans. We heard opinions from various sources, that our music is better live than on the albums, but we can’t play gigs without background which is nicely recorded CD. Being in the band brings responsibilities. In that case it will be recordings and live performing. The band is as good, as presented live, so we have no choice but like it.”

How far back into the catalog of Thy Worshiper do you consider going back to as far as performing songs live? Are there songs from the early days that may end up being re-recorded or are those older tracks too far away from today’s Thy Worshiper to really consider doing so?
“We always play something from our first and second album. And yes – we re-recorded old stuff on Ozimina (“Wsrod Cieni i Mgiel” song for example), but we won’t record it any more. It’s not that we don’t like it. It’s more about time we haven’t got to focus on old material. We’d rather prefer to work on new music. Don’t get me wrong – we do not exclude re-recordings, but we don’t bother with this at the moment.”

No cons
With the internet, access to music has become extremely easy. What are the pros and cons for you?
“There are no cons at all for us. We listening music from internet before buying CD to check if it’s worth it. If it wouldn’t be possible we probably would finish with plenty of crap music on our shelves. Internet also is the quickest and the fastest way to reach producers, reviewers, promoters etc. You can use internet to present your music to a wider range of listeners, especially when you’re playing such unobvious music like we are ;)”

What will you be doing as far as supporting the new release? Will there be a tour of some sort?
“We are about to record new album. It will happen on January 2016. After that we have some plans for touring. We definitely will play in Poland and will give few shows somewhere else, but not sure yet where and when. Everything depends on new LP release date, which is our priority at the moment.”

Favourite releases/albums of 2015 so far??
“If I’d have to point a bands which I favourite the most it going to be Non Opus Dei – Diabel, Mord’A’Stigmata – Our Hearts Slow Down, Mgla – Exercises in Futility and probably few more, but nothing which I would remember right now.”

Closing thoughts??
“Thy Worshiper Dariusz: Thank you for interview. Smoke responsibly, enjoy our music and wait for upcoming album. It’s worth it. ;)”

By: Jeff