Hello
all, this time I bring you an interview with Peter, mentor and vocals for the Latvian
band Skyforger. Known defender of his roots and devoted promoter of his country
history, their latest work Senprūsija deserves some more insight. This is an
opportunity to know more about him, the band and Latvian history.
MeP: Hello
Peter, thank you for taking the time to answer some of my questions.
Peter: Hi Davi, so lets begin!
MeP: 20 years
in the scene with 1 demo and 7 full length (including the latest Senprūsija).
How do you describe this long journey?
Peter: It was fun and sometimes not that
much of fun ha ha. Music is our hobby, so it isn’t that very serious here as if
we were some professional and commercial band. We did and still do things in a
way we like it, no one is telling us how to do or what to do. We don’t stress that
much if we aren’t successful as some other bigger bands - we are happy that we
had this chance to spread our music behind Latvia borders and have fans world
wide. We are happy that we are heard, acknowledged and known - Skyforger was
never about money or fame, so what’s more to yearn for! Also, we are still out
there and that’s something! In my opinion the biggest difficulty for the band
is how to manage to stay together for so many years! People are so different,
they and their personalities tend to change along the way, it is hard to keep
them together through good times and even harder when there arouse some
problems. So far we did it; let’s hope it will continue that way.
MeP: You have
a strong bound to your roots as shown in the lyrics. That historical seed you
try to pass, do you feel it is being well planted?
Peter: I hope so. Yeah, this is a message we
want to spread with our band and music, a message about the history of Baltic
people. I see how this thing is still unknown behind our borders, how people
still know nothing about Latvia, Lithuania and the Baltic. This topic is still
blurry and in most cases ignored in our common European history, in a sense
that if you are a small nation, you don’t count! But we were and still are
here! Our culture and history carries its own uniqueness, same as French or
German or Spanish ones - we don’t want it to be forgotten or stay unknown. I
can’t say if our work is that successful - only time will tell; but then again
from many small things you can create something big in the end. Our contribution
is just one of those small things for the big one.
MeP: Even if
we put all your other albums aside, Senprūsija alone would raise the Latvian
patriot feeling. Regarding the European political scene, is there any hidden
message?
Peter: Hmm not really – this album is mostly
about history and Old Prussian culture, though there are some songs which carry
that “read between the lines”. The one (Lepnums un spīts/Pride and Defiance) is
about how Christians tried hard to destroy our pagan culture, about how they
are still out there, operating as nothing has happened in the past centuries -
as if there were no mass killings and extermination of cultures.
The other one (Nekas nav aizmirsts/Nothing
is forgotten) is about how still there is hate between nations only because they
speak different languages. How history still is faked/told and written by
“victors” and bigger nations and how there are important figures and those not
so important, the so called “cannon food”, who been forgotten only because they
weren’t big shots. I mean, take for example Napoleon, a man who brought so many
suffering and despair to other “small” people lives, yet his genius everyone
remembers and talks about, while all those who died in his wars or by his
command are long forgotten and unknown as if they’ve never been there at all.
Is it a political message? I don’t know - more of a protest or acknowledgement of past.
Is it a political message? I don’t know - more of a protest or acknowledgement of past.
I hope one day this shit will end, but I
very doubt it – we aren’t learning from our past mistakes. I simply cannot
fathom how it can be, that in 21st century, at this level of education we have,
there is still so many people who are willing to go and die or kill other
people for interests of some politicians, bankers and other money grubbers! How
today someone is still so blind to see that he is just a peon for those guys!
MeP: Musically,
Senprūsija sounds more mature, strong and epic than the previous releases. Was
it intentional to match the message or just a natural evolution of the band?
Peter: I guess it was more like natural
evolution. We try not to repeat ourselves from album to album - when something
is done, it’s done, let’s do it different next time. At least we try ha ha. Of course
there were strong ideas behind it all: we tried to make whole sound heavier and
blacker (metal) than how it was on Kurbads album, so it was done intentional.
Also musically we tried to be more aggressive - it all came along with album’s
main theme and lyrics. But, yeah, there is always this natural evolution also,
when as a musician you learn and grow from album to album - only you never know
if it’s for better or worse for your music ha ha.
MeP: Respecting
the choice for singing in your native language, do you think that if you had
opted for singing in English you would have more projection abroad?
Peter: Yeah, it could be that way. I can see
it here, in my country, when on Skyforger concerts our people sing along with
us – I guess they feel more into our music and concert than people abroad, who
don’t understand our language and thus are robbed of joy and concert feeling to
sing their beloved songs along with the band. I’m sorry about that, but we
started this way and it’s too late to change it all now. Our language goes
along with the idea to spread our culture and history, language is part of it.
Also it is impossible to sing our folksongs in English – you simply cannot, they
are made that way. I also think it would be stupid and silly if some songs or
even couplets were in Latvian and other in English.
We are glad and grateful that those times of “only in English” are gone and
people have no problems to listen music in different languages! Like when I was
young, I didn’t understood shit what all those bands were singing about,
because I didn’t knew English! But I had my imagination – music, images of band
and pictures from the albums, they all helped to create an atmosphere and
determine if I like them or not.
And later, when I finally learned English
and listened again to those bands, in many cases I felt maybe it was better to
never know what they sang about ha ha.
MeP: I
usually leave the last “question” blank so that my interviewers can freely
speak. This is your time to speak.
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