Vogg: Hey what’s up? Covan is still recovering .He is at home now and this makes him feel better, but still his condition is not good. I’m sorry, but I cannot talk a lot about that. He needs a lot of time.

AD: How are the efforts in raising money to help support Covan, his family, and the family of Vitek going?

Vogg: I don’t talk about money in official interviews. I can say that Covan needs a lot money for recovering and Witek’s wife Ania has collected money for Witek’s daughter Emilia to make a good future for her.

AD: It seems like the support from within the scene/from fellow bands has been excellent?

Vogg: Yes, there were a lot of bands and people who supported us and I’m very, very thankful. I have a huge respect for every person who did something to help Covan’s family, and mine and Witek’s family as well. Thank You so much.

AD: What have you been up to over the recent months in addition to raising money?

Vogg: The “Human’s Dust” DVD was released this month. Personally, I think it kicks ass!

AD: How pleased are you with the DVD, and what involvement did you have in putting it all together?

Vogg: Thanks so much! I’m proud of this release. We were young and we did it well, you know. Shows came from 2002 and 2004 so we didn’t have a huge experience on stage but it looks and sounds ok for me.

To be honest the DVD is produced by Metal Mind productions and Massive music (our then manager/label). They made this DVD together. Last year we starting to think about our real DVD with Covan, with “Organic Hallucinosis” songs but unfortunately we cannot do this anymore. It makes me really sad.

AD: Are there any plans to release any video material of recent gigs/tours in the future?

Vogg: We’ll see. I don’t think about this at this moment.

AD: What plans do you have for the future, both personally and musically?

Vogg: I still think about this. I lost my brother Witek, my dear friend Covan needs a lot of time and nobody knows when he will be full recovered, my band does not exist. I lost everything in one moment in some fucking, stupid accident. My situation is really hard now. I was doing this band for almost 12 years so it’s not so easy to make new plans for future. We’ll see what happens, you know.

AD: Obviously, Decapitated are probably one of the youngest bands to have made it in extreme music. What was it like for you at the time, as a teenager to have a record deal, be selling records worldwide, and touring all over the place?

Vogg: That was a dream. That was everything we dreamed about when we were kids. I remember the moment when I was signing our first deal with our management because I was 16 or 17 and I was shocked haha! That was really amazing to have a chance to record albums and play tours with great bands. Of course that were a lot of hard moments and it was really hard work sometimes, especially for the young kids that we were but we always knew that we had a huge chance for something special so we never give it up.

AD: How supportive were the more established metal acts to you when you first started up?

Vogg: I started listen metal because of my older cousin who showed me old school bands like Slayer, Motorhead, Onslaught, Sacofago, Unleashed, Tankard, Obituary, Sodom, Exhorder, Carcass, Exodus and many more. Later I became a huge fan of bay area thrash metal together with Brazilian stuff like Sepultura and some polish masters like Acid Drinkers and Kat(greeeeat!!!). Later together with Witek and Wojtek(sauron) we started to discover death metal and bands like Death, Deicide, Morbid Angel, Vader, Monstrosity and some black metal like Emperor, Satyricon and Immortal...so I think that Decapitated is like a mix of all these things, and this kind of metal inspired us most on the beginning.

AD: For you personally, who are the major influences on you as a guitarist?

Vogg: There’s a lot of guitar heroes like Hammet, Kisser, Vai…they helped to influence me to make my own style but the main influence was always Dimebag Darrel(r.i.p.)

AD: A lot of bands stick to the same formula for each album. I think that each of your albums has offered something different to the listener. Was that something that just came naturally, or was it a conscious decision to make each album that little bit different?

Vogg: Definitely it comes naturally. It’s like this - your live is changing, you are changing so music is changing naturally together with you. I think is better to make something different than make variations about a one song or one album.

AD: Do you have any favourite Decapitated songs and why?

Vogg: I like all songs. Some of them are more catchy or maybe more cool than others but I like all stuff we did because I treat them like memories. Maybe it’s weird but for me is like that.

AD: Obviously, Poland has produced some successful bands. What is the scene like there today?

Vogg: I still like old polish bands like Behemoth, Acid Drinkers, Kat, Vader(even its not the same band like with doc a couple years ago). From the new bands I really like Blindead, Ketha, Lipa-li…

AD: What are you currently listening to and is there anyone out there who particularly impresses you at the moment within or outside of the genre?

Vogg: At the moment I’m listening to a lot of Alice in Chains, Down, Friederik Thornendal, Bjork, Meshuggah, Miles Davis, Glen Gould, Chopin stuff, Pantera, Black Label Society and Mr.Bungle.

I’m very impressed by Meshuggah, because those guys are real musicians and they based on making music not on making ups or something else what I’m not so much interested in. The same about DOWN - I love this band.

AD: Vogg. Thank you very much for your time. I wish both yourself and Covan well, and I hope that we will see both of you in the future at some time.

Vogg: Thanks so much for this interesting interview. I wanna express my huge respect for all people who support decapitated since years and who help Covans and Witeks family. All the best!

For more on the band check out http://www.myspace.com/decapitated
http://www.decapitated.pl/

Interviewed by Andy Duke

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