interview with Wisdom
What´s the name of your band? Wisdom
What does the name "WISDOM" stands for? Originally it was a characteristic word with positive meaning; perfect for our goals. Later we gave more meaning for it with Wiseman and his story.
What made you call the band "WISDOM"? Some sleepless nights with thinking about a characteristic name, and a movie called “Wisdom”.
How was the band formed? It was formed in fall of 2001 in a pub.
What made you form the band? If I understand well your question, I was the founder of the band write the lyrics and do some management stuff.
Can you briefly introduce your band and who you are? We are simply a heavy/power metal band from Hungary. We like what we do, and if the audience likes it too, that's what makes us happy.
Where are all bandmembers from?/Who does what in the band?
We are all from the capital of Hungary, Budapest.
Gabor Nagy “NG” – vocals
Gabor Kovacs – guitars
Mate Bodor – guitars
Mate Molnar – bass
Balazs Agota “Balu” – drums
What were the ambitions of the band when you started? Or goal was to form the best Hungarian heavy/power metal band. But now we wanna be the best all over the world.
Could you explain your music to someone that hasn't heard you? Traditional heavy/power metal music with epic choirs.
Where was your first gig? In 18th October 2002. It was held in Miskolc, Hungary.
Where was the latest gig? In 23th November 2013. It was held in Dorfen, Germany.
Who writes your songs?/ who writes the music who writes lyrics?
Music: Mainly Gabor Kovacs, but sometimes everybody comes up with some ideas.
Lyrics: Me, Mate Molnar.
Who has the best sense of humor in the band? Maybe the singer, NG has.
What's good/bad with the band?/What genre do you feel you are? There are more good things with the band than bad, but of course, like in a long relationship, we also have some problems sometimes.
Why did you pick that particular style?/What are your songs about? We love this style, that’s why we play. Our songs are about many different things of life. Some songs are about Wiseman’s life too.
Do you write your own material or mainly covers? We write exclusively own songs.
Have you made any albums?/If yes what are they?
We have 3 LPs and 2 EPs
2004 Wisdom EP
2006 Words Of Wisdom LP
2007 At The Gates EP
2011 Judas LP
2013 Marching For Liberty LP
Do you have any clips on YouTube? We have 5 official music videos and many more videos on our YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/wisdommetal
How old are you?/What got you started in music? I’m 34. I was deep in the metal music of the 90s’ when everybody wanted to be a guitar hero.
At what age did you start playing? I was 13 years old.
How old were you guys when you first stood on stage? I was around 15-16 and it was in the high school.
What year was the band started? 2001 fall
How old were you the first time you saw a liveband play? I was around 10 when I was in a children’s camp.
How old were you at your first gig?/Best/worst gig you've played?
First: around 15-16
Worst: with my first band for 3 friends
Best: with Wisdom, when we opened for Iron Maiden
What places will you be playing in in the imidate future? In spring we will tour in Europe with Majesty and Stormwarrior.
Where have you played from then till now? We toured across Europe, played in more than 40 countries.
What songs are in your live sets? We used to play songs from all Wisdom albums, and never forget about our oldest songs.
Is it always the same sets live? The sets are always variable. We try to give always something new for the audience.
What has been the best/most promising gig so far? The Keep Wiseman Alive shows in Hungary.
Have you had any bigger tours from start till now? Swedish Empire tour with Sabaton, and Wolfsnachte tour with Powerwolf.
How big crowds do you usually play for? It is always different. Sometimes we play for 4-5000 people, but sometimes for only a few hundreds.
What are the plans for the rest of the year? We have an album release show in Croatia and after it we need to take a little rest. In the end of the year we plan to work on our next album.
Where do you usually play? We play in clubs and in big halls too, depends on a lot of different things.
How do you get psyched up for a gig? We used to make a pledge before the shows.
What are your goals with your music? We wanna make people happy with our music.
When did you decide to go all in for the music? In our teenage years.
Is it easier to get your inspiration from older bands or from bands more modern? We try to learn from all bands in the metal scene but also try to follow the modern developments in sounding for example.
What are your sources of inspiration? It can be everything.
What's the first step when making a new song? First we need inspiration. If we don’t have inspiration we won’t write any songs.
How do you feel about the downloading of music instead of buying albums? In one hand this is bad because it grabs the money from the musician’s pocket, but in other hand that’s great because everybody can listen to our music as well as those who have no money to buy a CD.
What would be your dreams for the band? To make people happy with our music.
Besides your own music, what genres and bands do you listen to? Hard rock, trash, rock…etc.
What would be your greatest fears for the future? Justin Bieber drops his clothes down.
When you are on stage, what do you fear most then? I’m afraid of falling down from the stage. We are running and headbanging pretty much on the stage, sometimes it is not easy to stopJ
Have you been part of any other projects? Wisdom is a full time work for me, so I won’t be able to participate in any projects.
Have you been in any other bands? All of us had bands before Wisdom.
What do you work with outside of the band and the music? Many different works we do. But all of them are close to music.
What would you do if there was no music? Make it J
How important are your fans? Our fans are the most important. We are able to do this because they are supporting us. We would be nothing without them.
What's the funniest/most memorable thing a fan has done for you? The tattoos are always the craziest things. We still can’t believe that many people tattoo Wisdom logos or Wiseman for example to their body for forevermore.
How often do you rehearse? It depends on what we are preparing for. Sometimes 3 times a week, sometimes once in a month.
Where do you rehearse? Luckily our drummer has a studio.
Name 2 of your own songs you like at the moment? Let it be Live Forevermore and Wisdom.
What do you feel is the best live band you've seen? Sabaton was very impulsive to me.
What drives a band that isn't all that famous and renowned to try to make a living on their music and to keep playing? It’s not easy to do this together with a common work after you get over a particular lever.
Do you have any WebPages? Of course, www.wisdom.hu or www.facebook.com/wisdommusic
Describe your show, visually and musically
Visually: We always try to make our shows unique with special scenes and transmit energy and power to the audience.
Musically: We always try to play the songs as good as we can however it is almost impossible to represent the sound of the albums perfectly. But we try to do our best.
How do you view the music industry of today? It is mostly about the booking nowadays, not about the CD releases.
What advice would you like to give other bands? We would need advices, not we should have to give.
What are the biggest obstacles for a band? I think always the band members itself. If they are OK, you can step forward easier.
What is best/worst with playing the clubs? It depends on the clubs. There are clubs with perfect technical equipments and crew, but also there are clubs like a mouse-hole where the barkeeper is the only crew.
Tell us about upcoming gigs and why we should be at them? As I mentioned in spring we will tour in Europe with Majesty and Stormwarrior. You should come to see a great metal show and to feel good.
What was one of the most quarrelsome times for you in the band? We had some, the latest around 2011 after releasing Judas.
What's your Pre-show ritual?We used to do a battle-cry before the shows.