“Something In The Space”

Interview with the Polish guitarist Przemek Pilacinski

By Sergio Vilar

What are the origins of Signal To Noise Ratio? How did the band integrate?
A few years ago I tried to create a band to perform some of my early compositions. The music was very strict in form and technicaly to advanced for us, so I decided in spring 2003 that we should give it up and try to play something fit to our abilities. The goal was to play some concerts, learn to improvise and gain expierience. That's how Signal to Noise Ratio was born. The, first simple, compositions then became a bit more complex and we ended up with music that we were not only able to play, but in wich we found artistic satisfaction.
Signal To Noise Ratio the line-up is: Marysia Bialota in synthesizer, Przemek Pilacinski in guitar and Izaak in drums. The guest musicians are: Edwin Jastrzebski (bass guitar), Ola Jaromin (vocals) and Natalia Uzieblo (transverse flute).

If you had to describe your musical proposal to somebody, who has never listened to it, how would you characterize it?
That's always very difficult to me. I usually say, that it's rock music with a lot of improvisation. We call it unbound rock, because we know no boundaries of style and play in a rock sounding line-up of drums, bass guitar, electric guitar and synthesizer.

Was the style always the same from your beginnings, or or did it change with time?
There was no time to radically change the style, as the band started its existence 1,5 year ago. On the other hand, change is a part of our style and we try to sound different every time. The compositions, that can be found on our demo are the only ones, we created so far, but we alter these pieces a bit on every concert. One of my goals as a composer is to separate the musical thought from the arrangement and instrumenatation. I try to leave as much free space for interpretation as possible.

What process you do usually use to compose your music?
I come up with a general idea of the composition, compose the guitar lines and say, what I'd expect from the rest. I also often prepare some harmonic overview in form of chords and leave it for interpretation for the other musicians. Then we put our ideas together on rehearsals, and when the piece is ready, play it for a long time to get used to the harmony, upon which we improvise solos.

How do you distribute the work inside the band when composing? Do all the members compose or is there some main composer?
I am the main composer, but every band member creates his or her lines. We're also working on a song composed by our drummer Izaak right now.

How is the progressive rock scene nowadays in Poland? Are there many people that listen to this type of music ?
I think it's very good. I always see a lot of people on concerts of bands such as Riverside, Naamah or Indukti. On the other hand this doesn't affect us very much, because we have a different vision of music than the one that dominates modern progressive rock.

What are the limitations of the scene in your country in comparison with that of the rest of Europe?
Right now we played only in Poland. You can ask this question in a few years. :-) One thing I can say is that we get more interest from media from outside Poland than from our own country. That's really strange for an underground band.

Does there exist some support of the radios, the MTV or the magazines?
From the MTV, for such bands as ours , I guess no, although we don't have a video to test it. There is some support from the radio. For example, our music can be found on a music chart for amateur groups, organized by the Polish Radio. As for magazines – we have reviews in a few internet magazines. I don't know of any paper magazine in Poland, that writes about such music as ours.

How is your relationship with other Polish bands, for example Ankh, Millenium, Satellite or Riverside? Have you shared scenarios with some of them?
Well, there's no relationship, except for some personal ones. They're proffesionals, we're just beginners. That also solves the question of sharing scenarios. Maybe in the future, who knows?

A last question. What can we expect from your next works?  
If we manage to find a new bass player, we'll propably finish some of the compositions, upon which we work now, in the next year. The music will be more complex, with more sophisticated harmony. There will be some songs with male vocals, although we don't have a singer yet. The sound also will be improved, as we gain new equipment, and the technical level is also getting better, as we all learn. I think it's too early to say more.

Thank you Przemek, would you like to give some message to our readers?
I invite you to our web page, http://snr.rockmetal.pl. In the “discography” section you can find our demo album free for download. We'll gladly know your opinion on our music – fell free to contact us, we will surely reply.

Nucleus interview: 18/12/04