by Marek Kadzielawa

SBB is a legendary progressive band from Poland. SBB formed back in 1971 by three seasoned musicians who wanted to play uncompromising progressive rock. Despite the limitations of the political system, the band persevered, and created cult following in Poland and abroad. After very successful run in the 70s, the band split up in 1980. Only to return several times in the 1990s, and finally returning for good in 2000. Always a trio (sometimes a quartet), the band soldiered on with its own version of progressive rock. SBB maintained to be original and inventive, even after nearly 40 years since its inception.
The trio includes the two core members: Jozef Skrzek (multi-instrumentalist, vocalist), and Apostolis Anthimos (guitar). Drummer, Gabor Nemeth, joined SBB in 2007 replacing Paul Wertico. This is a very international cast of players as Skrzek is Polish, Anthimos is Greek, and Nemeth is Hungarian.
Iron Curtain is SBB’s latest recording. It shows the band advancing in their tracks, and as always exploring new areas of progressive rock, with a fair amount of Slavic touch to spice things up. In addition to the new studio record, the band is very active releasing archival live recordings on regular basis. Most of which are phenomenal performances with great dose of improvisation thrown in.
Vocalist, Jozef Skrzek, is a very intense person to interview. Open about his love and contribution to the music. He is sometimes off the track, but very insightful in his opinions and thoughts. Skrzek is a very creative character, but at the same time frustrated by the lack of proper backing in pursuing international success and recognition.

I must admit I’m bit surprised how quickly this record was put together, and how good it turned out to be.
Jozef Skrzek: Well, I think we were intrigued by the theme of the iron curtain. We lived through this for many years. It was something that was always in our consciousness, as we worked on the record. But, it wasn’t the only factor. From the first meeting in Budapest (Hungary), we knew we had something special. Also, the selection of the lyrics brings in many new artists whom are new to us. All of it came together in the studio. I have to say that as a group we don’t meet too often, but when we do it’s a very productive time. And this particular time was very creative. We felt very close in our way of thinking, and our ideas were just flowing. I think this tells we’re a band that is still very capable to play anywhere in the world. Because of this creativity, each record is different, and each one reflects the mood the band is in. I mean, we’re three musicians that live in very different places. We are older, but more experienced as well, but we’re still have very close ties with art.
Listening to the new album, and the previous (The Rock), it is difficult not to be overwhelmed by the freshness of the music and the approach.
There’s something to it. Every time we meet, whether it’s in the studio or outside, the atmosphere is excellent. I mean we do have some difficulties when it comes to the band. On one hand, SBB is a world known band, and on the other hand we see the limitations of the Polish music market when it comes to progressive rock. SBB in the 70s was a band that truly developed a very original style, and was well respected for that. And now, we still have many fans, but it is still difficult to happen on a world scale. There are so many obstacles to overcome, and dealing with it is not easy. So, our biggest connection is music. It’s something that always brought this band together in any configuration. It’s like our chance to do something big and special. As individuals, we have many other solo projects going on. So, when we reconfigure as SBB, we’re very true to that cause. Also, when we do meet to play music, we are extremely well prepared to do that. Yes, we are professional musicians, but we do find happiness in playing and creating music together.
When I published my last interview with you I got a great response from people who wanted to find out more about the band.
That’s great. I’m very happy about that. Anything that can connect us to world scene is important to us. What we need is an agency or a record label with world reach ability. The internet is good, but it’s still not really a mean that could do all these things for us. The band needs an organization like some of the British or American bands have. We are a band with skills and reputation, but we don’t have the machine around us that could get us to that next level. When you look at bands like Deep Purple, and how well everything around them is organized. The difference is where you from. In countries like Poland or Hungary the show business is not developed at that level yet. The only solution I see is for us to make a record in a big studio with a name producer. I think it would open a lot of doors for us. The same way a lot of doors were opened for us in the 70s when we played many of the big European festivals. I mean we had people like Bob Marley, Gary Brooker, and countless of others coming up to us back then and sharing their enjoyment. Deep Purple were very impressed by us when we played with them recently in Poland. So, all of those limitations are very frustrating. But, it also drives us to do our best, to still be creative, and keep going. You could say, it all takes about five months. Four months to make the record, and one month for the tour. The whole process drives us and inspires us. But, what I mentioned about a producer and a record label is really of first-rate importance to us. You know, time is running away, and we’re not gonna be around when we’re 100 years old.
During our last interview, you’ve mentioned how much living under communism limited the band. How the band was not allowed to take brakes offered by the West. The title, “Iron Curtain” comes a bit as a surprise.
It’s almost impossible to describe what we went through in the 70s. Imagine a band in a communism block playing songs titled “Freedom.” Just about every concert we played in Czechoslovakia turned into a riot. Anywhere we went in the eastern block, the reactions were similar. The music was giving the strength to the people.
On the other hand, the title cut is like an anthem.
Yes, you got it. That’s exactly what it is. I even wanted to incorporate a choir into that song, but decided against it. And then you hear the soldier’s parade. This really shows what it was really like. The ideology and lies that people were feed up with. Even now, 20 years after the fall of communism, the country is still in turmoil. It is not easy to get things on the right track. And there is always that consciousness of what was in contrast as to what is. I mean you have many young people who have to go overseas to find jobs to make a decent living. Let’s face it, Poland is still a scarred country.
The track Camelele hypnotizes with its deepness. What’s the story behind this track?
Well, I don’t want to be known as the guy who is trying to knock down the barricades. It was good enough to knock them down once. It’s a romantic song all the way through. This song started out of a book of poetry that was given to me once. I saw a picture of a girl on the cover. She was very delicate, but there was something about her. As I looked through the book I came onto the lyric that makes up this song. I readjusted the lyrics to what and how I wanted to sing. Later on I found out the girl (Kamila Stabach) who wrote this poem died in a tragic accident, and was an incredibly romantic person who wrote poetry. Her family was in shock when they found out that we would be incorporating her poetry into our music. During the recording of this song I felt a very special presence in the studio. It was a very spiritual feeling. I mean, I never meet the person in real life. She was only someone I knew from a book, and what some people had told me about her, yet I felt some spiritual connection during the recording.

Spiritual is a good word to describe the record as a whole, don’t you think?
I’m very surprised how the whole thing played out. The way the songs are placed on the record, which by the way is very correct, and it still feels that way now. I’ll be willing to admit the album has a very Slavic feel to it. Over the years it was always mentioned to us that we are a very Slavic sounding band, regardless of our technical abilities. Everyone picks on that as something unique in our music. You can definitely tell where we’re from without seeing how we look. When you finish a record, you listen back to it. And you always feel you could do something better or different. When it comes to my voice, I feel it comes out the way it comes out in that time. So, if I did it again I may not get the same feel or effect because I may not feel the same way. When I record the vocal parts, I tend to build some kind of a feel inside. When you sing, it’s like the biggest truth comes out of you. You show who you are, and how you feel through your singing. When you are trained singer, you tend to be very technical, and may loose some of your feel. But then again look at Pavarotti, who was an exception to that rule. Speaking for myself, however, I tend to be taken by the beauty of what I’m about to express through my voice. My singing is all about feeling that beauty. It’s like magic, sometimes combined with power, or anger over something. When I sing about mountains, I want my voice to be as white as snow. I want to sound like the highlanders who live in those areas. But, I produce the sounds that I’m capable of. That’s my current voice disposition. Every show we play these songs are performed and sang differently. So, when you hear us live you might hear something even more diverse than what the record offers. You never know where the feel will take you.
The album has a very organic sound that reminds of the dynamics vinyl records used to have, what was the recording process like to achieve such results?
We record together as a band. We may be separated from each other, but we do play at the same time. Once the initial recording is over, we go back and add special effects, and other things that will make the recording sound better. But, the initial recording is the band playing live in the studio. We are usually very prepared to do that in the studio. So, once we have the skeleton of what we want, we start to work the songs individually.
Since we last spoke there is a number of archival releases that continues to appear on the market.
Well, there are record labels that are still interested in releasing live recording from SBB as well as my solo performances. There are box sets of live tapes, and plenty of other recordings. Our archives are quite extensive. Let’s say we recorded something, and only an hour of it was released, and then other hour was left in the archives. So, what happens now, we go back to it, and release the whole thing.

When listening to the live recordings I have to admit SBB was one of the more dangerous and unpredictable bands on stage. In fact, it’s the stage where the band truly comes alive.
(laughs) Well, we played so well with each other. The band was so well coordinated musically, and we allowed each other a lot of space. I’m glad a lot of it was documented. Sometimes we knew about it being recorded, and sometimes we didn’t. It seems like the 1970s were entirely devoted to music. That’s all we lived for, just music. That time was so productive, and I think it’s still fruitful to this very day. Let’s just say SBB has the decade of 1970s, and the decade of the new century. If you look at the 80’s and 90s, there was no SBB. It was two empty decades. I mean I was doing a lot of solo work, Anthimos went back to Greece, and Piotrowski (original drummer) worked with other bands, and eventually immigrated to U.S. I was doing a lot of music at the time. I got heavily into electronics. I was playing in a lot of churches. It was a new form of music, and more spiritual way of performing. But, someone like Klaus Schulze (a veteran German electronic artist) was very taken by the idea. I still do things like that to this day, but I play very differently now than let’s say in the 80s. In those times, there was a very revolutionary attitude in the country, and I think it was reflected in the music, and what people got out of it. The church in those times was more like a refuge. The people could come, pray, or listen to the music. And on the outside of the church gates, there would be communist special forces harassing them at times. So, it really was a place to get away from it all. Those were the times, the drama, but the artistic intensity of it all was something incredible. The amplitude of such events caused my art to take a very emotional and spiritual turn. When I look at the 70’s and 80s I think of those two decades as very important. Their importance stretches for different reasons. One was very musical, and the other was more spiritual where the music came as mean of the changes taking place in front of my eyes. I remember when I started playing churches, all of a sudden my name disappeared from the media. I became the undesirable who was doing things the system didn’t like. This didn’t bother me that much I was growing as an artist and expanding my horizons. All of a sudden we get to year 2000, and there comes Paul Wertico. Why would Paul Wertico who spent years drumming with Pat Metheny want to play with us? An original Yankee from Chicago wants to join a Polish band. I had a hard time comprehending this, but it did happen. When Paul joined it woke up SBB again. We were trying to get it going before, but there plenty of false starts. Then Paul comes in, a person with a lot of invention, a lot of heart. He had no problem commuting to Poland from Chicago. He had no sense of time or distance. He just wanted to do it. For Paul it was a true art, it was the revelation, it’s what he wanted to do. He was telling us that with SBB he felt he could do anything artistically, and he found himself within our style. About two years ago we were supposed to record a record in Paul’s studio, and then get in touch with Mack (Reinhold Mack- a producer known for his work with Queen, ELO, and SBB’s New Century in 2005)). But the record label could not come out with enough money to finalize the project. They questioned as to why we have to record overseas, why with Mack. They felt it could be done in Poland at the lower cost. You can ask a lot of questions as to why. You see, when we played the Baja Prog Fest (2006) in Mexico, we had a lot of people attending this festival, and we realized that a lot of people love this band, and want this band to be present on the international scene. And when you’re only stuck in Poland then you limit yourself. Here we have a very commercial market, and that’s true for the rest of the world. But, other markets also have plenty of space for jazz, progressive, and any other type of music. As family man, I feel strongly that my place is here, but when it comes to the music I feel equally strongly that it has to be spread out throughout the world. That’s if you want to be heard and be successful beyond your country’s borders.
The fact that you are a talented and able musician is no secret. Were there ever any offers to work with musicians of your caliber?
There were plenty of offers over the years. There was an offer of doing something with Genesis. There were plans of forming a band in Germany through Arias agency. Mack wanted me to be available to work with people he was recording with. There were few offers to work with artists in the classical music world. There were many people in the electronic world that ere interested in doing something. You know the Berlin school of playing. This from Focus wanted to do something as well. Things like that come at all times, and who knows what will happen. A lot of these offers require fast decisions, and bravery. At this time, I can only commit 50 % because I’m a family man. I’m trying to make up for the lost time when I was only devoted to music. I’m trying to organize my time. My family is very supportive of me, and I’m very lucky. SBB is my life as well, and I’m trying very hard to make it as successful as possible.

Links:
http://www.skrzek.com/skrzek/strona.php?i=6
http://www.sbb.pl/sbb/
http://www.metalmind.pl/index.php?jezyk=en
http://www.isilesia.info/index.php?language=en