METABIOSIS

GIRE

GIRE,,, STRANGE NAME ISN'T IT? WHAT IT MEANS? EVEN THE BAND DON'T KNOW. THE ONLY THING THAT IS FOR SURE IS THAT THEY CAN MIX DIVERSE MUSIC STYLES AND CREATE BRUTAL AND THE SAME TIME SENSITIVE MUSIC. IF YOU WANT TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THIS STRANGE BAND FROM HUNGARY, GO ON AND READ THE INTERVIEW(TRUST ME, YOU WILL ENJOY IT).

1.TELL US IN A FEW WORDS THE MOST IMPORTANT MOMENTS OF THE BAND'S HISTORY. WHICH IS TODAY'S LINE UP?

-So, Gire was formed in 1995 and released a demo one year later entitled "On dist." containing five songs of extreme thrash/death metal. After that I joined the band as a keyboard player and a new bassguitarrist (Balázs Hermann) also arrived. We had a tour throughout Hungary as guests of Intense. By 1998 our vocalist left the band, just like the drummer. They were not replaced by new members, so the guitarrists decided to sing and computers helped us creating drums. Our style changed a bit and in 1999 the second demo "Energire" was released gaining nice reviews in the underground scene. In 2000 a one-track promo CD came out ("Het madar") and finally our latest promo "Metabiosis" this year, in 2002. Completed with four songs, this is our first release in English. Older stuffs were in Hungarian. The current line-up since 1998 is the following: Zoltan Konya - guitars, vocals; Tamas Rozsnyai - guitars, vocals; Balazs Hermann - bassguitar; Tamas Katai - keyboards, programs.

2.WHAT DOES YOU NAME MEAN? HOW DID YOU SELECT IT? HOW IMPORTANT DO YOU THINK IS THE CORRECT CHOICE OF A BAND NAME?

-As far as we know, Gire means nothing at all - at least in Hungarian. I was not in the band when the decision was done seven years ago. By the way I personally think that a band name should mirror the general atmosphere of the music, a kind of summary of the mood. Important, indeed.

3.HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR MUSIC? GIVE US YOUR OWN DEFINITION OF WHAT YOU ARE TRYING TO ACHIEVE ON A MUSICAL BASIS.

-Our music is poetic, mystical and deep like a dreamtime forest. We try to paint different feelings and moods by sounds and words. To remember.

4.TELL US SOME GENERAL THINGS FOR THE BAND RELEASES. COMPARE THEM. ARE YOU STILL SATISFIED WITH THEM OR IS THERE ANYTHING YOU'D LIKE TO CHANGE? CONCENTRATE ESPECIALLY ON YOUR LATEST RELEASE "METABIOSIS".

-All right, our first demo is "On dist." in 1996. It is raw, harsh and hellish brutal with elements of extreme metal, thrash, death, grindcore, industrial and even black metal. It sounds very heavy, guitars are thick, drum is the weakest point in the sound. We like these songs, sometimes we play one in the gigs (we plan to record "Elegedetlen" for our first album). I think it's a decent stuff for a first release. By the very end of 1999, trhe seconf stuff came called "Energire". Due to the line-up changes and the three years that had passed since "On dist.", "Energire" is different. The songs are longer, more diverse and atmospheric. The raw aspects stayed with us yet lots of new colours arrived into the music. There are seven songs on this CD in 36 minutes with a strange sound thanks to the method we recorded the demo (without a studio). Keyboards and more acoustic guitars without losing the basic darkness and heavyness of the music. Then one year later a one-track promotional CD "Het madar" was released. This is one of our best songs ever. And finally we have arrived to the present: in 2002 our latest promo "Metabiosis" was done. Four songs in 26 minutes, more epic and more symbolic, kind of avantgarde metal. You can download all these tracks from our homepage: www.scythe.hu/gire.

5.IN THIS LAST RELEASE OF YOURS YOU USE SOME SPECIAL ISNTRUMENTS SUCH AS CONGA, DARBUKA AND DIDGEIDOO. HOW DID THEY MATCH WITH THE ELECTRIC GUITARS AND DRUMS? TELL US SOME THINGS ABOUT IT.

-Yes, we tried to use these exotic instruments to add more colours to our music. Darbuka is from Egypt and Didgeridoo is of course from Australia. Our bassguitar player, Balazs plays on them, while Zolcsi (guitars/vocals) is the one playing the conga. They fit pretty well to our odd songs. We want to use even more instruments in our future recordings.

6.YOUR LYRICS ARE POEMS. DO YOU WRITE THEM OR DO YOU TAKE THE POETRY THAT'S INSPIRING TO YOU AND BUILD MUSIC FOR IT? WHAT KIND OF POEMS DO YOU PREFER?

-I am a teacher of Hungarian grammer and literature, so I'm pretty much into poetry. These poems are written without considering any music, just for themselves. Some of them become lyrics for Gire, but I never change them because of music. These poems are very personal, always written in Hungarian. Songs of Metabiosis were translated into English but telling the truth I don't like them that way. Yet we had to do it for our chances over the boundaries of Hungary. I adore nearly all branches of literature, especially Shakespeare and English romanticism or the Hungarian scene of the whole 20th century. You may find great works in all eras, that's for sure.

7.HOW ARE YOU PLANNING TO PROMOTE YOUR WORK? CAN YOU DESCRIBE A TYPICAL GIRE LIVE SHOW?

-We have sent our Cds to plenty of labels and we are just ready with our first video ever. We have not got too may gigs. This year we have had only four because of different things. Generally a live show takes for 45-50 minutes, we play from "Energire" and "Metabiosis", sometimes even a song from our oldest demo. There is nothing more just us on stage. We don't play cover songs, merely own stuffs. I think our performances are cathartic.

8.WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF YOU WEREN'T ABLE TO COMPOSE MUSIC?

-What I do even now: write and paint. I would travel and read and sleep and dream.

9. WHAT'S GOING ON IN THE UNDERGROUND SCENE OF YOUR COUNTRY? DO YOU FIND IT INTERESTING? CAN YOU SEPERATE AND NAME SOME GOOD BANDS?

-We've got great bands here in different styles, but only one-two labels deal with them so plenty of bands are without contract - just like us. My personal Hungarian faves are Nulladik Valtozat, Korai Orom, Masfel, Ahriman, Felix Lajko, Nebron, Sear Bliss, The Dethroners, De Facto, Eclipse, Garden of Eden, Colorstar, Kispal es a Borz, Land of Charon, Neural Booster, Blind Myself, after@all, Moon of Soul, Gozero, Varso or Hetumoger. Some cool bands are already not active: The Bedlam, Necropsia, VHK, Intense Agonizing, Subject or VHK.

10.WHICH IS THE WORST AND WHICH IS THE BEST REVIEW YOU'VE EVER RECEIVED?

-We've received lots of great reviews - most of them are exeggarated anyway, butt I can't pick up the "best". Underlined are the originality and the depth of the music. The definitely worst review was about our first demo from Dark Flowers fanzine. The guy wrote that we shold have kicked out our vocalist.

11.WHICH IS THE BEST PART IN YOUR MUSIC AND IN THE BAND IN GENERAL AND WHICH THING DO YOU THINK YOU SHOULD CORRECT? WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU NEED IMPROVEMENT?

-We are strong in building the structure of songs and in creating the mutuallity of music and poem. We need improvement in sound and more new songs should be written.

12.HAVE YOU READ ANY INTERESTING BOOKS LATELY? HAVE YOU WATCHED AN INTERESTING MOVIE?

-The last book I've read was "Traveller and moonlight" by a Hungarian author Antal Szerb. I find it amazing. All time best books are, let's see, "The Master and Margarite" by Bulgakov, "The fifth seal" by Ferenc Santha and "Happiness" - a compilation of short stories by Dezso Kosztolanyi. Movies? "Shine!" by Geoffrey Rush.

13.IF SOMEDAY YOU HAD THE CHANCE TO MEET THE CREATURE THAT CREATED THE UNIVERSE, WHICH WOULD YOUR BIGGEST QUESTION BE?

-Why didn't you work a little bit in the seventh day, too?

14.IF TIME TRAVEL WAS POSSIBLE, WHICH HISTORICAL PERIOD WOULD YOU LIKE TO VISIT AND WHY? WHAT WOULD YOU MISS THE MOST FROM OUR TIME?

-Interesting question, indeed. I would like to go back to the 1930s of Hungary. Really poor period worldwide, especially here, but the literatural life was richer than ever. Our greatest authors, poets worked then influencing each other the most creative way. A literatural magazine called "Nyugat" ("West") hold together these artists for long-long years. The golden age of Hungarian literature - something missing from the present.

15.WHICH IS MAN'S BIGGEST TEMPTATION?

-I don't know, at the moment I just want to be with the few people that I love more than anything.

16.WHAT PROLOGUE AND TITLE WOULD YOU LIKE THIS INTERVIEW TO HAVE?

-Oh, I really have no idea, please find something out instead of me...

17.THANK YOU!HAVE I FORGOTTEN TO ASK YOU ANYTHING AND YOU'D LIKE TO MENTION?

-We thank you for your interest in Gire, great questions, Nick! All the best!!!

Nick "William_Kidd" Parastatidis

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