Click Interview with Schröttersburg: ‘Everything Has A Structure And A Meaning’
Schröttersburg is a Polish music project that was originally set up in 2008. The band kept experimenting with new influences and music styles, resulting in a lot of albums, but at the same time more explicit Industrial influences mixed with Trance/Tribal elements. Their last album “Kosmogonia” was released at the end of 2023 on Zoharum -and also on DIY Kolo, Bat Cave and N.I.C. Records, is a continuation of the previous work. But above all it is a feast for the ears for all fans of early Industrial music and it is not without reason that names like SPK and Test Department came to mind. I talked about it all with 2 members of the band: Krzysiek and Michał. (Courtesy by Inferno Sound Diaries)
Q: Schröttersburg has been around for a few years now. How did the band saw the light of day and what brought you together in terms of music, influences and life experiences?
Krzysiek: The band as a musical creation came into being around 2008, but in its current form since 2010. The starting point was Punk/Post-Punk, but over time there was a desire to further explore and exploit other musical regions. Hence, we have evolved from Punk roots (“Krew”), through Post-Punk melancholy (“Ciało”, “Melancholia”), fascination with the orient and Industrial (“Om Shanti Om”) to Tribal rhythms (“Kosmogonia”). Everyone listens to a variety of music. The guys in the rhythm session tend to be fascinated by heavier sounds, while Michał seems to listen to everything from Free-Jazz, Experimental and Electronic music to Black-Metal or Industrial.
For me personally, the musical form/style doesn’t matter that much. I treat music as a form of expression of what lies somewhere under my skin, and which is difficult to express through words. My experience of battling with inner demons certainly has a significant impact on the sounds I generate. Powerlessness, hopelessness, emptiness, inner screaming and anxiety are certainly hidden between the words and sounds in our songs. That is why our songs have a rather Trance-like, Psychedelic and neurotic structure.
Michał: Actually, Schröttersburg has been around for more than a decade. We were brought together by the desire to play, to express ourselves in a sonic language, to experience sonic transcendence during concerts, to create in general. At the very beginning we were mainly inspired by music from the 80s, New-Wave, Cold-Wave, Post-Punk, but Noise-Rock, Industrial, Kraut-Rock, Dub were also important, which later became evident on our next albums.
Q: I understand that the band’s name refers to your hometown, Plock, which was renamed Schröttersburg by the Germans during World War II. This seems somewhat controversial. Why did you choose this name and is there any deeper meaning behind it?
Krzysiek: For me, as a resident of Plock, the very name Schröttersburg has a pejorative connotation. When I hear this name, I sense anxiety, pain, hopelessness and suffering, and I imagine what the inhabitants of our town must have felt when they had to live at that terrible moment in history. I would like to remind you that 30% of the inhabitants of Plock were thrown out of their homes, deported to concentration camps and mostly murdered there. Many of our town inhabitants are unaware of the gehenna which the people of Płock endured during the years of occupation. By naming the band under this name, we wanted to pay tribute to those inhabitants who were not able to survive the end of the war, and somehow make the locals aware that apart from the good periods in the history of our city, there were also those, about which there is silence.
Q: Your albums show a variety of influences, with a noticeable Industrial feel, especially on the new release “Kosmogonia”. How do you assess the musical evolution of Schröttersburg, especially on the latest album?
Michal: We set ourselves from the very beginning to draw from different sources and combine musical genres. We have never been able to stand in one place and lock ourselves into ‘one sound’. Maybe it’s because we listen to a lot of different sounds, we try to get to know new artists, new records. To find something interesting in the world of music, both old and modern. I see our evolution as developing and going even further, expanding on what we started with breaking down our boundaries that we sometimes set for ourselves.
Q: Can you talk more about the origins of “Kosmogonia”? What is the album about and what stages did you go through to create it?
Michal: When we started working on “Kosmogonia” a certain common thing emerged that set the tone for this album. It was the rhythm. A Tribal, Trance-like, blunt rhythm that gives the hallmarks of urban shamanism. When creating this album, we thought of something primal and raw, something that could take us back to the place of the Beginning, the birthplace of… everything.
Q: How do you see the evolution of Schröttersburg over the years and what elements from your earlier work are still present in “Kosmogonia”? Do you think that the latest album is always the best?
Michal: I don’t think so, in fact I try not to go back to the past. I’m interested in creating rather than analyzing. The evolution of Schröttersburg is of course audible. The Trance and mixing of different musical currents is still present here. Anyway, we never assumed beforehand that a particular album should sound a certain way. It always came from interaction, improvisation, new sound sources, new instruments and how we influence each other when playing.
Q: How do you take your music from the studio to the stage and how would you describe Schröttersburg as a live band?
Krzysiek: In our case, working in the studio is similar to playing live gigs. We record on a set basis, so we use exactly the same instrumentation as in a live show. We don’t play around with recording separate tracks and adding instruments one by one, because we think it sounds artificial and lacks the authenticity and energy we produce when playing together. Only the vocals are recorded at the very end, so that Michal can concentrate fully on his instrument.
Michal: During the recording process we use a lot of instruments, machines, scrap metal and effects. We take all of this with us to the concerts in order to accurately capture the sense of the Schröttersburg sound. It wasn’t easy, but now we have mastered it. For me, every concert is about going into a trance. Entering an inner or transcendental dimension and passing it on to the audience. Our live performances have a beginning and an end, they are concise and blunt. Even when we sound rather atonal or noisy, everything has a structure and a meaning.
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