1. Firstly I want to ask you on composing the new material for your upcoming album. I suppose, that you were quite busy in these months. How would you describe us the result of your effort ? When are you planning to record and release new CD ?

Well, I wouldn’t describe us busy, as it’s a well-known fact that anything related to our band is happening on a down-tempo basis. Not only the music. However, currently we’re trying to somehow reactivate our selves and it’s difficult to describe what will be the final result this time. Of course it will be something slow and heavy as it has been before, no major changes has happened on that sense, but the exact result is unknown at the moment. We have composed about 60% of the material for the new album but we haven’t started the so called fine-tuning process yet, which could have a big effort to the final mood, sounds, etc. of the album.

There has been some preliminary discussion with one studio possibility, but I can’t say anything about exact dates yet. Personally I would be happy if the recordings would happen during the autumn 2008, at the latest, but unfortunately I can’t say anything definite right now. The release date will be decided later, after we are ready to go to the studio, after recording dates are booked, and so on.

2. Another news are that you are planning some gigs for this year. Any further informations about them ? Was that few performances, that you have so strong experience, that you simply want to repeat it ? You played once in Prague. It was back in 2003, if I am not wrong. How did you like it ? Are you planing a return after 5 years ?

Unfortunately I can’t provide any further information about the possible upcoming gigs at the moment, as there has been only preliminary discussion about them. When we’re able to say something for sure, we’ll release the information on our website immediately.

Almost every band enjoys performing live shows. Skepticism is not an exception there, I think. Even when playing at the training place you’ll be able to produce trip-alike experiences if you’re playing music consisting of strong moods. When playing live (assuming all the “settings” are done well) that feeling can be doubled. However, it is a well known fact that Skepticism hasn’t been such an active live band, but that’s only a good thing in my opinion. There once was a seven-year long break between our gigs. After that we understood our music works pretty well when performing it live and when providing that only rarely, it works even better and the experience is stronger; for us and for the audience.

Yes you’re right; we played in Prague in 2003. If I remember the gig correctly, the place itself (excluding the back stage, it was a shit hole) and the audience were really ok. It was a pleasant experience for us. Oh yeah, in addition (if it was Prague, can’t remember 100%-sure) the “hotel” that was provided for us in Prague was pretty much like a mental hospital. That was a horrible place, but other than that I liked Prague. But to be honest, we weren’t really able to visit the city itself as we had a busy schedule.

Currently there are no plans to return, but I wouldn’t say no, if a proper possibility would present itself, so let’s see…


3. I was thinking about nowadays Skepticism. You have a brand new official website, myspace profile, you are going to release a new album, you are going to play live after quite a long time and you promised us an interview (if I am not wrong, you gave only one to doom-metal.com). Why all these things ? Why now ? You kept a big mystery among your band all over the years of its existence and it seems to me, that something has changed in your approach.

Every once in a while, during these decades, comes a time to release the ancient beast from the tomb, to teach the young generations a lesson… Seriously, I don’t have the answer. I don’t really agree on our approach changing, or how do I know, as there hasn’t ever been any “selected approach”. I just think our way to do our thing has always been like described, I mean, there have been more active, less active and inactive times. Maybe we just get tired at times, or maybe we just forget what it’s all about… However, the beast is now released and even we don’t know the final result this time. Personally I’m interested in seeing it and I’m also enjoying the process.

4. You are considered as a fathers of funeral doom. We could say, that you influenced probably all of nowadays funeral doom metal bands. Does it make you feel proud ? What do you think about present, modern doom metal bands ?

The situation has changed a lot since we started composing music. During that time there was only a tiny clue about upcoming doom-metal genre. There were former influencers like Sibelius, Black Sabbath, Saint Vitus, Candlemass etc. who clearly had understood the energy and the mood behind the slow and heavy music. The speed and thrash –metals were the main stream at that time, and the dead metal was rising. And the most important thing, there were no Internet and only the major bands were able to get deals and make albums. If you wanted to play extremely dark and beautiful music such as doom, you had to invent it somehow by yourself. It was somehow experimental I would say.

I have no idea who was the first band related to the term “funeral doom” or who was the person behind the term. However there were a group of young bands who somehow brought the heavy music even further and in a way we were one of them. Well, I probably don’t feel proudness if I think about the possible influence but maybe it means we have been able to create something unique (or something close to it), which makes me happy and on the other hand, it seems there are some other people who understand extremely heavy music, which is also good.

I have to say I’m not so familiar with the current doom or even metal scene. Whatever, once in a while a very promising new band pops up, which is always interesting. It is also interesting to see that nowadays you could find a band playing for example doom-metal (or something similar) in alternative festivals or stoner-rock festivals as well. Hmm, let’s just say I like all the music providing great atmospheres. For me, it doesn’t really matter if it is doom-metal or something else.

5. Do you think, that you are liable to musical trends in your production or you are the ones, that create them ? Are you the subject „sui generis“ ?

I think, Skepticism is not liable to the musical trends. For example doom-metal was rising stronger then ever a few years ago and we were having hibernation during that time. And definitely we’re not the once creating them. The very first thing preventing it is the fact that we are damn too inactive. There could be other reasons as well. Maybe we’re just somehow unique, in a very slow manner…

6. Not long ago „Entering the Levitation – Tribute to Skepticism“ was released. Did you hear it? What do you think about it ?

I have heard it once on the last.fm or similar website. I haven’t seen the artwork etc. Somehow I’m a bit confused when thinking of the tribute. There are some songs where you have really put energy, pain, everything, or whatever, when creating them. There have also been long processes and now it feels a bit strange when some foreigners are using the same material that has came inside of you. On the other hand it is also an honor.

In my opinion there were a couple of songs where a band performing on the tribute album was able to find some of the original ideas behind the song. There were also a couple of really bad versions. Anyway, that’s only my opinion.


7. Skepticism´s line up has been very stable throughout the years. There has been no changes in your line up since 1993. This is quite an abnormal fact, don´t you think ? But you always had a problem with the bass player. Are you still trying to solve it (because of the new album or live performances, ..) ?

Actually there haven’t been problems with the bass player. In the very beginning we had a bass player who didn’t really suite the band in the end. Later on we decided to use organs and one idea was to produce the required bass frequencies via them. That has worked well since then and I can’t find a single reason why to change the way it is. A friend of us played the bass on the first cd, but that was done only to ease the studio work. On the following albums, we have played the bass by our selves and in the live performance the bass isn’t needed. Those are the current feelings I have.

As you said, it’s probably abnormal that a band continues so long without changes in the line-up. Anyway, that has been the case with our band and it’s difficult to think a situation where new members would join our band. At least those should be people we know pretty well.

8. What is the relation between bands name „Skepticism“ and your music ? Does the philosophy of scepticism refers to your personal opinions on the world order ?

Not really, the name of the band was invented such a long time ago that I can’t remember the exact meaning behind it. It could have had some philosophical thoughts behind it, but if so, it doesn’t anymore. The philosophy of scepticism doesn’t really refer to my personal thoughts, I pretty much know what to think about “things”, but that’s another story and probably not so interesting.

9. How much importance do you ascribe to your lyrics, philosophy of the band and visual page of your albums and performances ?

Lyrics are important to us, but I’m not the correct person to describe them as I’m not writing them. However, sometimes we have discussions on how a song sounds or looks like and that will affect to the lyrics of the song. Visual layout is important as well. It should reflect the idea of how we see the music. Well, performances are a little bit different issue. Since we’re not a stadium band our possibilities are a bit limited. Basically we play live in a very similar way as we do at our training place.

I’m not sure what do you mean by philosophy of the band, but I would say, we have been doing this quite a long time, so everything we do, happens pretty much automatically, based on the manner we have learned during these years.

10. While we have here this „deep look inside“, could you please describe your process of creating music, songs for your album ? Is someone the „brain of the band“ or is this process more collective ?

Collective is the best word to describe the process. Everyone will bring their own ideas and opinions to a final song, even if one individual member has created all the riffs for it. The process is always, let’s say, constructive. Probably that’s the reason why the process is always so slow. It’s like constructing buildings from the scratch. Once in a while we try different methods, but typically it happens as described. A “starting shot” for a new song could be an abstract idea, a visual image of how the song should look like, a new sound, a couple of new riffs, etc.


11. Your discography is quite rich, nearly each one of your recordings is highly evaluated. I don´t know about any negative review, that you have on any of your albums. What about to think restrospectively and explain, what does each one of your means to you ?

For your (or reader’s) information, I had to save this question as the last question to answer. Somehow it felt too heavy to answer. Well let’s start anyway; otherwise this won’t get finished…

Our first release was a 7” EP in -91 and during those times I played in another band as well (actually I have been doing it every now and then and am doing it currently as well, but that’s another thing). You can hear the death metal type of influences from the EP and one reason for that was, we had two guitars but no keyboards in the band back then. I can say (when listening it nowadays) there are some nice ideas included on the release and it was pretty well played and done, if you think about the fact that we were so young and spent only one day at the studio when doing the EP. By the way, it was a really cold winter day.

After the first release we found the idea to use organs and that immediately reflected to the music we were doing. If I remember correctly the Everdarkgreen was the first song tailored for the new line-up. After a while we recorded the AEOTHE KAEAR promo tape. I haven’t listened to the tape in a long time, because I don’t own a cassette player... However, that tape was distributed here and there and finally we ended up with a record deal with the Red Stream. Those were really interesting times; we had a lot of trainings and we searched/developed our sound.

Then we recorded the debut album and if I remember correctly the feedback was very dissonant. Some liked and some people said it was too boring etc. Nowadays, I use to listen it rather rarely, but when I do, I usually get surprised of the simple ideas in the songs on the album. Our music could be more minimal nowadays, but the main ideas in the riffs and songs are typically more complicated than they used be and sometimes I miss that touch we had back then.

After that came the Lead and Aether cd and the ethere mini-cd. Composing music for those releases was a long and difficult process. For example, composing the March and the Stream took two years. Well, you can hear the pain behind that song. However, it is always an excellent trip to play it. I don’t mean with a stereo system, but manually with instruments. Personally I also like the song called Aether. Somehow I think we succeeded in composing that particular song. Then came the time to create the ‘aes’. It was a musical experiment for us, it was an entirety combined from tens of ideas and different atmospheres and it still doesn’t sound like a puzzle.

The last releases were the Process of Farmakon and Farmakon albums. I really like the heavy sounding on the mini-cd including the sound of an old harmonium we used there. On the Farmakon we used a little bit different studio process than earlier. There are some songs I like, such as the fourth song of the album (commonly called as “Untitled”). I think, we will never be able to compose anything as lunatic as that song is.


12. I would like to know your opinion on these bands. Could you please characterise very briefly what do you think about them or simply what do you have in mind, when I mention their name ?

Esoteric – Friendly English gentlemen (my greetings…).

Evoken – I know this is a pretty well known band, but for some reason I haven’t heard their music.

My Dying Bride - I was a big fan of the early productions. Somehow I lost the band after those years.

Pantheist – Well, I remember the Funeral Procession Tour 2003. They drank all the beer everywhere, or wait… was it us, can’t remember for sure.

Shape of Despair – Well done music, but somehow a little bit too light (difficult to describe in details) for my taste. Probably I should become more familiar with the band before describing more.

Until Death Overtakes Me – I just listened to them from the myspace a few days ago. Rather heavy stuff, you can hear ambient kind of influences in their music.

Worship – A nice old song called Into The Pentagram from Samael’s old production comes to my mind. I probably haven’t heard the band (I mean Worship) itself.

13. So, that´s all, I guess. Thanks for your time spent answering our questions, thanks for that wonderful music you´re producing all this years. If you want to add something at the end, please do so. Last words belongs to you.

Thank you and remember; a great mournful sounding composition empowers you and makes you feel good, not depressed.