interview med Krupskaya
Name of the band-members? Alex, Matt, Ed, Tim
Where did you grow up?
Alex - In Hereford on the side of a mountain, it was all farm land and SAS where I grew up, an interesting mix especially on Saturday night.
Matt - I grew up on an estate in Stafford.
Ed - The Shire.
Tim - In Cannock a town in the West Midlands with a tradition in mining and world class hard rock musicians.
How old are you?
Alex - 38
Matt -32
Ed -28
Tim - 33
Who started the band? Tim - Well the initial seed of Krupskaya was planted by Alex and myself on a drive home one night after doing a gig with the band we were playing in at the time. Alex knew Ed from local bands and they had been playing together in a band called Fuck Hate Propaganda, our original bass player is a longtime friend of mine, we were all fed up of things flaking out and wanted to do a lot of gigs and just get into something properly with some focus. A little before that I met Alex through Matt who is our bass player now, I went to college with Matt sixteen years ago and when I moved back to this area around 2004 I looked him up after noticing his picture in an extreme music magazine and seeing he was still active with his band After The Last Sky. Matt was playing bass in Fuck Hate Propaganda with Alex at the time also and I think that band was reaching the end of its productive period, I emailed Matt and we talked about doing something together for old times sake so we all just met up in Stoke at Alex's studio he was running and just started smashing out some tunes with a drummer Matt new. That spawned a power violence band called Kzzch that did more gigs than practices which soon ceased to exist Alex and I got on and I guess that is where the first paragraph picks the story up. Same old story I suppose just guys from other bands coming together. It is worth keeping in touch with as many active musicians as possible even if years may seperate contact, you never know who will be about and wanting to make some noise.
Where have you played 2012/2013? Tim - Nowhere the band has been dormant at least gig wise since January 2010 where we played our last gig together in Bangkok. 2009 was very busy for us and there was a collapse I suppose in the most part due to all the activity. We returned home under a lot of financial pressure, our studio/rehersal space had flooded causing a huge amount of damage, our drummer at the time went to Uni down south, our bass player lived in Czech, I went to London to work - we never split up or fell out just things seemed to grind to a halt by default. Throughout those years up until now we had a recording released that was pretty well recieved and that we were really happy with, Ed & Alex did a bit of recording when Ed was in the country, he had left the band in '08 to work in South Africa on a shark conservation project but still had desire to be involved as time pressed on leading us to where we are now. We still remained in contact and wanted to do some more stuff with the band, didn't feel like it was quite over. Before this quiet period we pushed touring as much as we could, prefering to do some real work as a band to get our name around, it was the peak of the 'myspace boom' there was so much pathetic begging for attention and bullshit from bands new & old who seemed to want to be taken seriously by just talking shit on the internet and not putting any work in. Thanks to the DIY hardcore scene & Alex's terminator like attitude towards driving a van we played in 21 countries in about 3 years, played some mind blowing gigs with some awesome bands of all genre, met some inspirational people and made some friends for life.
Where can people see you?
Alex - Anywhere between Beijing & Moscow next summer!
Tim - We will start gigging again probably at the end of this year or early next, so you can catch us at the same shitty clubs and toilet venues as always. If we are still welcome we would like to return to anywhere we have played before. Hopefully back out to Europe again, S.E. Asia again early 2015 and a few other destinations being talked about and worked on.
Alex - If people want to see us just let us know and we will come, we will play anywhere for anyone, within reason!
Do you have a web-site? Tim - Yes www.krupskayaband.com we have a bandcamp just made also that is www.krupskaya.bandcamp.com and we have a facebook page which you can find by tapping the name into it if you use it.
What is the name of your best song?
Alex - Airbournd Dissapation Of Variant U
Matt - Any songs off the first or last release.
Ed - Contaminated Dead Atmosphere, The Earth Burns Beneath My Feet, Only Rats Came For Their Bodies.
Tim - I like playing a few in particular as for our best song I'm really not sure what that would be.
Who plays what?
Tim - Guitar
Alex - Vocals
Ed - Drums
Matt - Bass
What kind of music are you into?
Where did you grow up?
Alex - In Hereford on the side of a mountain, it was all farm land and SAS where I grew up, an interesting mix especially on Saturday night.
Matt - I grew up on an estate in Stafford.
Ed - The Shire.
Tim - In Cannock a town in the West Midlands with a tradition in mining and world class hard rock musicians.
How old are you?
Alex - 38
Matt -32
Ed -28
Tim - 33
Who started the band? Tim - Well the initial seed of Krupskaya was planted by Alex and myself on a drive home one night after doing a gig with the band we were playing in at the time. Alex knew Ed from local bands and they had been playing together in a band called Fuck Hate Propaganda, our original bass player is a longtime friend of mine, we were all fed up of things flaking out and wanted to do a lot of gigs and just get into something properly with some focus. A little before that I met Alex through Matt who is our bass player now, I went to college with Matt sixteen years ago and when I moved back to this area around 2004 I looked him up after noticing his picture in an extreme music magazine and seeing he was still active with his band After The Last Sky. Matt was playing bass in Fuck Hate Propaganda with Alex at the time also and I think that band was reaching the end of its productive period, I emailed Matt and we talked about doing something together for old times sake so we all just met up in Stoke at Alex's studio he was running and just started smashing out some tunes with a drummer Matt new. That spawned a power violence band called Kzzch that did more gigs than practices which soon ceased to exist Alex and I got on and I guess that is where the first paragraph picks the story up. Same old story I suppose just guys from other bands coming together. It is worth keeping in touch with as many active musicians as possible even if years may seperate contact, you never know who will be about and wanting to make some noise.
Where have you played 2012/2013? Tim - Nowhere the band has been dormant at least gig wise since January 2010 where we played our last gig together in Bangkok. 2009 was very busy for us and there was a collapse I suppose in the most part due to all the activity. We returned home under a lot of financial pressure, our studio/rehersal space had flooded causing a huge amount of damage, our drummer at the time went to Uni down south, our bass player lived in Czech, I went to London to work - we never split up or fell out just things seemed to grind to a halt by default. Throughout those years up until now we had a recording released that was pretty well recieved and that we were really happy with, Ed & Alex did a bit of recording when Ed was in the country, he had left the band in '08 to work in South Africa on a shark conservation project but still had desire to be involved as time pressed on leading us to where we are now. We still remained in contact and wanted to do some more stuff with the band, didn't feel like it was quite over. Before this quiet period we pushed touring as much as we could, prefering to do some real work as a band to get our name around, it was the peak of the 'myspace boom' there was so much pathetic begging for attention and bullshit from bands new & old who seemed to want to be taken seriously by just talking shit on the internet and not putting any work in. Thanks to the DIY hardcore scene & Alex's terminator like attitude towards driving a van we played in 21 countries in about 3 years, played some mind blowing gigs with some awesome bands of all genre, met some inspirational people and made some friends for life.
Where can people see you?
Alex - Anywhere between Beijing & Moscow next summer!
Tim - We will start gigging again probably at the end of this year or early next, so you can catch us at the same shitty clubs and toilet venues as always. If we are still welcome we would like to return to anywhere we have played before. Hopefully back out to Europe again, S.E. Asia again early 2015 and a few other destinations being talked about and worked on.
Alex - If people want to see us just let us know and we will come, we will play anywhere for anyone, within reason!
Do you have a web-site? Tim - Yes www.krupskayaband.com we have a bandcamp just made also that is www.krupskaya.bandcamp.com and we have a facebook page which you can find by tapping the name into it if you use it.
What is the name of your best song?
Alex - Airbournd Dissapation Of Variant U
Matt - Any songs off the first or last release.
Ed - Contaminated Dead Atmosphere, The Earth Burns Beneath My Feet, Only Rats Came For Their Bodies.
Tim - I like playing a few in particular as for our best song I'm really not sure what that would be.
Who plays what?
Tim - Guitar
Alex - Vocals
Ed - Drums
Matt - Bass
What kind of music are you into?
Alex - All kinds of metal, death metal, grindcore, noise, hardcore, folk. I don't go as far as Quiet Riot or shit like that.
Ed - No music. The sound of the birds in the sky and the exhaust fumes leaving the car consuming one another in a desperate harmony. We are all into a lot of different stuff. It is a shame considering the broad influences and appreciation of music within the band that this noise is the best we can come up with.
Matt - Any really fast or really slow DIY music and pop.
Tim - All sorts, most types of metal and rock across the board. I have a lot of phases, I was really into death metal and the more metal end of grindcore for years. Besides that I have an interest in most genre of music - hip hop, techno, house, downbeat stuff, dub, reggae, indie really whatever I can get my hands on. Lately a lot of prog & AOR music, before that I was listening to a lot of black metal bands for the atmosphere, a huge spectrum often changing from day to day or week to week. I will always love Iron Maiden.
Have you been on tour this summer? Tim - no only in our minds.
Do you have a planned tour anytime soon? Alex - Yes, China, Russia & Mongolia possibly Kazakhstan. A full on ice assault on the farms and villages of these areas which are full of bears, binturongs and wolves. Currently being organised and planned for the summer of 2014...
Who came up with the band name? Tim - Alex did, there is some background to it, in a nutshell Nadezhda Konstantinovna "Nadya" Krupskaya married Lenin in 1898. She became a powerful women however if you follow the history she ended up becoming a victim of the system she helped to create. Which I suppose is the essence of the name, perhaps we will all end up like that. Plus we liked the sound of it, something a bit different that does not instantly conjour up connections with the usual subject matter found playing this kind of stuff.
Who writes the songs?
Alex - Me
Matt - Me
Tim - Me
Alex - We all write them but I tell everyone what to do in my cack handed non musician way.
Ed - The typical process involves me sitting in a room with headphones on behind the kit listening to such instructions as 'more driving', 'more violent', 'something sparse', 'something fast but slow', 'something with more snare but less snare' etc...
Alex - I have never actually said 'something fast but slow' my direction gets some good results out of Ed haha. Krupskaya is all styles of music played at the same time.
Ed - Krupskaya is proof that democracy has no place in the realm of creativity.
Tim - In the early days we just put stuff together in rehersal time. As things went on this evolved into a process of writing structures on the drums first, usually involving Alex & Ed working together. I would then demo some guitar over the parts they had recorded and we would just use the parts or songs we liked most.
There was some stuff wrote around guitar riffs after the first release but I got a bit moody that it didn't sound like how I had imagined it in my head, and as anyone who plays guitar knows, this is just not acceptable! The process we got into seemed to give everyone a chance to play what they wanted and keep Alex's control fantasies fulfilled. I like approaching the drum tracks as a blank canvas, I would work with Alex in the studio for days at a time recording guitar sometimes with a bag of weed as I was smoking regularly back then and it created a nice atmosphere to create for me over what they had already done. Not that you need that shit to make music, I just liked doing it. We would bounce ideas of each other and just get the best takes, I would ask him a lot about what to do next, it was fun, we spent a lot of hours working like that and I loved every minute of it really. Sometimes the odd brick wall would appear but on the most part it was flowing. We started really getting into using the metronome as things progressed also.
The stuff we are working on now is still using this style of writing. It is sounding brutal they have nailed some killer drum tracks earlier this year and I can't wait to get behind them. After this session we have discussed a mix of writing styles incorporating an organic approach mixed with what we have been doing before, hopefully reaching the perfect balance.
What song do you play the most?
Matt - Whatever song Alex tells us too.
Alex - It depends anything that is hard on the vocals gets dropped from the set straight away!
Tim - These have been played on all occasions since they were written - Clouds Over Pripyat, Norilsk Is The World, The Same Dull Echo, Rebirth Island, The Mines Of Butugychag, Bhopal.
Do you play the same songs each performance? Tim - We have had a variety of different sets over the years with songs getting dropped or added to it, lots of different running orders so I guess not. Some of them like the ones mentioned above I think have been played at pretty much every gig Clouds Over Pripyat has.
Have you realesed a album or single? Tim - Our albums our pretty short usually around 20 minutes, so perhaps we have never done what would be considered a 'full length' album by normal standards. We have released quite a few split 7" records with other bands and been on numerous compilations and in recent years been involved in some 'net only' compilation releases as the popualrity of this has grown. Check out our bandcamp or website for more information and free downloads of most of it.
Are you working on any new songs?
Alex - Yes we are working on some songs to tie up the loose ends from the previous existence of Krupskaya and we've got some new songs that are a bit longer, trying out some new styles but still within the sound we are familiar with.
Tim - Yes hopefully some strong new Krupskaya material to see the light of day by the end of the year or soon after.
Ed - No music. The sound of the birds in the sky and the exhaust fumes leaving the car consuming one another in a desperate harmony. We are all into a lot of different stuff. It is a shame considering the broad influences and appreciation of music within the band that this noise is the best we can come up with.
Matt - Any really fast or really slow DIY music and pop.
Tim - All sorts, most types of metal and rock across the board. I have a lot of phases, I was really into death metal and the more metal end of grindcore for years. Besides that I have an interest in most genre of music - hip hop, techno, house, downbeat stuff, dub, reggae, indie really whatever I can get my hands on. Lately a lot of prog & AOR music, before that I was listening to a lot of black metal bands for the atmosphere, a huge spectrum often changing from day to day or week to week. I will always love Iron Maiden.
Have you been on tour this summer? Tim - no only in our minds.
Do you have a planned tour anytime soon? Alex - Yes, China, Russia & Mongolia possibly Kazakhstan. A full on ice assault on the farms and villages of these areas which are full of bears, binturongs and wolves. Currently being organised and planned for the summer of 2014...
Who came up with the band name? Tim - Alex did, there is some background to it, in a nutshell Nadezhda Konstantinovna "Nadya" Krupskaya married Lenin in 1898. She became a powerful women however if you follow the history she ended up becoming a victim of the system she helped to create. Which I suppose is the essence of the name, perhaps we will all end up like that. Plus we liked the sound of it, something a bit different that does not instantly conjour up connections with the usual subject matter found playing this kind of stuff.
Who writes the songs?
Alex - Me
Matt - Me
Tim - Me
Alex - We all write them but I tell everyone what to do in my cack handed non musician way.
Ed - The typical process involves me sitting in a room with headphones on behind the kit listening to such instructions as 'more driving', 'more violent', 'something sparse', 'something fast but slow', 'something with more snare but less snare' etc...
Alex - I have never actually said 'something fast but slow' my direction gets some good results out of Ed haha. Krupskaya is all styles of music played at the same time.
Ed - Krupskaya is proof that democracy has no place in the realm of creativity.
Tim - In the early days we just put stuff together in rehersal time. As things went on this evolved into a process of writing structures on the drums first, usually involving Alex & Ed working together. I would then demo some guitar over the parts they had recorded and we would just use the parts or songs we liked most.
There was some stuff wrote around guitar riffs after the first release but I got a bit moody that it didn't sound like how I had imagined it in my head, and as anyone who plays guitar knows, this is just not acceptable! The process we got into seemed to give everyone a chance to play what they wanted and keep Alex's control fantasies fulfilled. I like approaching the drum tracks as a blank canvas, I would work with Alex in the studio for days at a time recording guitar sometimes with a bag of weed as I was smoking regularly back then and it created a nice atmosphere to create for me over what they had already done. Not that you need that shit to make music, I just liked doing it. We would bounce ideas of each other and just get the best takes, I would ask him a lot about what to do next, it was fun, we spent a lot of hours working like that and I loved every minute of it really. Sometimes the odd brick wall would appear but on the most part it was flowing. We started really getting into using the metronome as things progressed also.
The stuff we are working on now is still using this style of writing. It is sounding brutal they have nailed some killer drum tracks earlier this year and I can't wait to get behind them. After this session we have discussed a mix of writing styles incorporating an organic approach mixed with what we have been doing before, hopefully reaching the perfect balance.
What song do you play the most?
Matt - Whatever song Alex tells us too.
Alex - It depends anything that is hard on the vocals gets dropped from the set straight away!
Tim - These have been played on all occasions since they were written - Clouds Over Pripyat, Norilsk Is The World, The Same Dull Echo, Rebirth Island, The Mines Of Butugychag, Bhopal.
Do you play the same songs each performance? Tim - We have had a variety of different sets over the years with songs getting dropped or added to it, lots of different running orders so I guess not. Some of them like the ones mentioned above I think have been played at pretty much every gig Clouds Over Pripyat has.
Have you realesed a album or single? Tim - Our albums our pretty short usually around 20 minutes, so perhaps we have never done what would be considered a 'full length' album by normal standards. We have released quite a few split 7" records with other bands and been on numerous compilations and in recent years been involved in some 'net only' compilation releases as the popualrity of this has grown. Check out our bandcamp or website for more information and free downloads of most of it.
Are you working on any new songs?
Alex - Yes we are working on some songs to tie up the loose ends from the previous existence of Krupskaya and we've got some new songs that are a bit longer, trying out some new styles but still within the sound we are familiar with.
Tim - Yes hopefully some strong new Krupskaya material to see the light of day by the end of the year or soon after.