VODNIK – Interview with Vince Anastasi (drums)

„You can compare some of our sound to bands like Meshuggah and Pantera who have labeled themselves or have been labeled as ‘groove metal’. (…) the new material is going to be a huge, heavy step up from ODOJ. It’s going be wild and brutal.” – Vince Anastasi.

Anzelm Bohatyrowicz : The essential question is why do you choose band’s name as VODNIK?… None of you didn’t live in Middle Europa… Thinking by your surnames?

I can totally understand your thinking. Jeremy Jackson (you’d have to ask him about his surname) on guitar is actually Czech and he adopted the name Vodnik from mythology for our band before we became a 4-piece. It quickly grew on all of us, because it’s a really gruesome, soul enslaving frog demon and we think it’s pretty metal. Plus, it’s a Russian Amphibious Armored Personnel Carrier.

Anzelm Bohatyrowicz: Another matter is how you define your music’s style – Groove Metal. But I’m old metalhead and for me it is simply Thrash Death Metal… in moderate connection.

It’s completely fair to look at most bands like us and generalize them as ‘Metal’, ‘Thrash’ and/or ‘Death’. Now-a-days you have a myriad of styles, imagery and branding and it all helps to define bands in the pantheon of endless metal genres fans and musicians alike have contributed to. You may have heard of ‘Death-core’. In terms of our music, we like to focus more on grooves and sometimes weird but cool timing. Cool to us anyway. You can compare some of our sound to bands like Meshuggah and Pantera who have labeled themselves or have been labeled as ‘groove metal’. It tends to be or seem very ‘progressive’ sounding, like progressive death metal, but is sometimes thrashy and involving ‘Hardcore’ elements.

Anzelm Bohatyrowicz: The massive, melodious, distorted guitars make an impression… Will the pioneering song be a foretaste of the entire album?

‘Our Dead, Our Joy’, or ODOJ (Oh-dodge) as we like to call it, was sort of this new wave in our own sound that we felt was a step in the right direction. At the time, we felt it was our strongest track. For me, it was the first time I’d recorded in a professional studio, so it was a massive learning experience. Since then we have been fortunate to be able to work our newer songs to what we believe is an even stronger and heavier direction. Our producer, Luc Chiasson, who worked with us on ODOJ, is very professional, knows his metal better than most and we are all proud of what’s been happening in the studio lately. We as a band still enjoy and will perform ODOJ in the future, but it does sound and feel much different from what’s to come.

Anzelm Bohatyrowicz: Fuck, I like the effect of a monophonic radio… What was the idea?

Certain sections of songs can benefit from being centered or mono, especially if you want certain parts to be really clear or create a sense of position in space or lack thereof. Though I can’t exactly remember why we did it that way. I think it was Luc’s idea haha.

Anzelm Bohatyrowicz: In general, you have a first track, some offical single and what will be your next step?

For Vodnik, ODOJ turned into a ground-breaking project in a lot of ways, and helped us learn and become more professional. We’re going continue that trend with our upcoming EP. We are taking our time with it in many ways, but we do have plans for each song in terms of release, including new videos. We are probably going to release something leading up to next summer. All I can say is that the new material is going to be a huge, heavy step up from ODOJ. It’s going be wild and brutal.

Pavel: What themes will be in your lyrics of the next tracks?

The new EP deals with many subjects and themes that all four of us deal with and think about in our daily lives. However, some themes also revolve around things that we enjoy such as science fiction and social/political commentary. Some other themes and subjects that we delve into on the new EP are addiction, debt slavery, and political angst/distrust for plutocracies. Lastly, we also write songs from the perspective of the Vodnik creature. From this perspective, we write about concepts such as self-transformation, honour, desertion, karma, time, space, conceptions of the nature of God, and other philosophical ideas.

Pavel: And what about your concerts? Will you plan some?

A: We are taking time away from live performances for the time being in order to ‘re-brand’ and help make the new EP all that it can be. We are working on improving and optimizing everything we do from merch, social media, and preparing our new live set(s) for gigs. We know that we have a lot of ground to cover so time away from gigging is in our best interest at the moment. Most of us have just started new jobs or are focused on finishing university. I just started an apprenticeship and Vince is studying in Japan. Once we’ve settled in, we plan to return to the stage with a vengeance to play our new material around late 2019. You can expect us to emerge shortly after we release a new track/video. I won’t say when… We aren’t that concerned because when we return, we’ll be a new band (same members of course) and we believe our music will do the talking, and screaming for us. Pavel: Thanks for the interview! Good luck!

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