Tomasz, the bass player of the band was kind enough to answer our questions.
LOMM: Hi Tomasz, thanks for taking the time. Can you give a little biographical and historical info; who is involved in the band, and how did you guys meet up?
Tomasz: Hello, of course I can tell you something about that, although it will not be too fascinating, as in most of such cases. We met for the first time on the initiative of Luzzi (our singer) and a former guitarist in December 2019. At the beginning it was only a conversation of several musicians who wanted to follow a certain vision and who have not yet had the luck to complete some permanent and certain line-ups. That evenings conversation resulted in a first rehearsal at the end of 2019 and we found exactly what we were all looking for.
LOMM: Pandemic has taken an emotional toll on everyone yet the arts have been hit especially hard. The musicians are vulnerable to financial upheaval. How have you guys have been holding up?
Tomasz: We are financially independent, we have normal jobs and families. And although music is our love and passion, it is only our full-time hobby. The pandemic has totally crossed our initial plans and intentions. First of all the lock-down in spring 2020 and now in autumn are especially hard because we cannot even rehearse. We are totally peeved at this, but what can we do… Additionally, all concerts have been canceled… This year in early autumn I managed to see only two gigs: Lucid Void and Nazca Space Fox, both in masks…very strange experience! Unfortunately now everything is closed again.
LOMM: On the other hand you seem to have had a productive time. Is that right?
Tomasz: Initially, we planned to record a demo at the beginning of 2020 and start with local concerts, but the Pandemic has effectively destroyed these plans. We had time and we polished the material and in July instead of recording a demo we recorded our first full-length album. Finding a publisher also took us some time because due to the current situation the labels are reluctant to take on new deals. Besides most of the bands under contract, are recently composing new songs, which they will release soon… Anyway, our debut album “Everwill” will be released on Interstellar Smoke Records and Galactic Smoke House somewhere in the middle of January 2021 finally.
LOMM: Modern sounds are my thing J How about you? What does your genre means to you, why did you choose this genre?
Tomasz: I listen to a lot of different music – from Pop to Death Metal, other members also have broad horizons and a wide range of musical interests. But we all we love natural, organic sound of the 70s and this is our common marker. Anyway, we do not impose on ourselves any stylistic frames. Generally speaking, we have chosen Heavy Psychedelic Rock as our determinant, but we diversify this and add elements of Stoner, Doom, Space, Acid, Grunge, Fusion and Blues to our music as well. We do it in a purely analogue way, using microphones in front of the loudspeakers. The modern sounds created with Plug-Ins, quantifying, sampling, auto-tune and re-amping are not in our field of interest.
LOMM: How did the initial musical and thematic elements evolve?
Tomasz: The songs that are on “Everwill” were ready a long time before the band was formed, one can say. As I have already mentioned, before Giants Dwarfs And Black Holes we played in similar stylistic bands. In December, we simply put together the ready-made songs and gave them the final touches.
LOMM: Are you happy with your product? I mean, what aspects of it do you think you guys nailed, and what parts do you think you could improve upon?
Tomasz: “Everwill” is our first common album. We have recorded in our rehearsal room, which we have set up as a recording studio. On the way, we had to learn this and that. Certainly in the future we will do some things differently, but generally we are very satisfied with the final result. Mastering of this album has been made by Josko Joketovic who has done a really great job.
LOMM: How has the overall reception been?
Tomasz: During the recording session we improvised or jammed. Almost half of the record are free jams recorded live. This element of jamming is very important in our music and certainly we will continue to be in the future.
LOMM: Have you ever been on a tour? Given live performances? Is it tough for you not to be able to do so now?
Tomasz: Of course with Giants Dwarfs And Black Holes we haven’t been on any tour yet, but of course in the past each of us has played plenty of concerts with other bands in which we were involved. I love to play live, I love the magic and vibes on a stage… but it is probably impossible to describe this feeling in words without falling into banality.
LOMM: What do you see for your future? How is it looking?
Tomasz: Assuming we don’t talk about looking into a crystal ball or read the cards? Hahahaha… As soon as the world will get this pandemic under control then we would like to play as many concerts as it is possible and naturally record our second album.
LOMM: Could you tell us about the lyrics / themes /concepts you focus on or plan to focus on? How did the ideas come about, and how do they influence the writing process? Who is writing the lyrics?
Tomasz: I will at least try to hahaha… I write a lot of music and lyrics, but I am not able to define exactly how and why I do it. Many times I have thought about it and I really do not know. Actually, I do not look for the answer anymore. But it is very simply – I take a guitar and play hahahah. I do it, because I have to, because I feel such a need, because it gives me pleasure and great joy, because the very act of creation is something incredible and intimate and so on… This is what I am. I close my eyes and I can fly, float between clouds, or even more so in the intergalactic space. It is a great feeling and I do not need any drugs or external stimuli for this! Never! I close my eyes and see pictures which, from time to time, I write down and so the texts are created. They are often intertwined with personal experiences or observations. But it is just me – it is my music, my texts, my world. But everyone can interpret and perceive them freely.
LOMM: Which is more exciting? Being on the road or studio?
Tomasz: Playing live and the act of creation itself are the most exciting for me. Being on the road is sometimes very hard work, which is far from to be exciting … In a studio you also work and record material which has already been created, arranged. Except for jamming and improvisation it is also only a kind of work and handicraft. At least I perceive it so. Anyway, the recording gives me also a lot of fun, especially the possibility to observe how from this whole puzzle step by step a finished work is created – but it is already my engineering approach to the subject hahaha…
LOMM: Who is composing the songs?
Tomasz: The whole band composes generally. It looks like this. Either me or Roland – the guitarist, we have some pieces of music or a few riffs, but finally in the rehearsal room we make arrangements and the last polishing together. Often we change the structure or even the particular riffs. Pure collective creative process, at the same time we jam a lot and try many different solutions. We are free and we allow our music simply to flow and fly… higher and higher and higher hahaha… This is very exciting!
LOMM: What bands do you draw your inspiration from?
Tomasz: Very important bands to me are All Them Witches, Budgie, Hawkwind, Ten Years After, Black Sabbath, Pink Floyd, Brant Bjork, Soundgarden, Samsara Blues Experiment, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, Thee Oh Sees, Frank Zappa, Magma, King Crimson, Metallica… these last few names are rather not heard explicitly in the music of Giants Dwarfs And Black Holes, still do they inspire me very much… I do like Wight, who play funky stuff or Björk as well, even Madonna – her last album is brilliant! I listen to very, very many different styles of music and all of them inspire me in one way or another.
But not only music is inspiring me. I try to have my eyes and ears wide open to the surrounding beauty of the world. A walk with my dear wife under an umbrella, on a cold, rainy December night can also be very inspiring. This is how the text of “December Bloom” was written, for example.
LOMM: What’s more important to you? Catering to the audience or music for its own sake?
Tomasz: And what exactly do you mean by that? A 3-day festival on an island, where there would be no catering, there would be a humanitarian disaster, even if the best bands would play on this festival hahaha… but you do not ask about that, do you?
LOMM: When you look back your music career, what do you consider to be your greatest accomplishment?
Tomasz: I started to play music already in primary school in 1992, but somehow I have never looked back from the perspective of achievements, because ultimately it is not the most important thing. The goal has never been important for me. The most important aspect for me is the way, which leads to this goal. Of course I am glad when our music reaches people, when we can record an album and publish it – it is very, very important and somehow it has winged us as artists, but as I have already said, for me the most important thing is music and the process of writing itself and at the same time remaining independent, free and faithful to myself. And I do it! It can probably be considered as the greatest achievement.
LOMM: Anything else you think your fans should know?
Tomasz: Just check out our music, maybe you will like it. Thank you very much for this interview. Take care and stay healthy.
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