Interview of Mortis Dei (Poland)

Hi. Bartosz “Bart” Gawronski Mortis Dei guitarist, greets you.

1. Thanks for your time. Tell us about your band and what you do for your band. 

- Mortis Dei was born in the early 90s, since then the line-up has changed many times and the only person in it is Grzegorz "Greg" Zaremba, bassist and ... let's call it the "father" of the band. The current achievements include 4 demo albums and 4 full lengths, of which the last "Salvation Never Comes" was officially released under the wings of Metal Scrap.

2. When did you decide you wanted to be in a band? 

- In the context of Mortis Dei, if you get an offer from the legend of the local metal scene, there is probably no other option, previously I co-created the music in Execute, which was the release of the album "Katharsis"

3. What is different about being a musician than you imagined?

- Every beginner musician wants to be admired, he wants his music to be successful, to some point is the publicity hound and then you find a place in a row. This is not a reason for discouragement, we do our own and thoughts about fame are far behind us.

4. What gear do you use and why? 

- Currently we play seven-string guitars, as for the equipment I use the Peavey amplifier, it is simple but effective, standard effects, no digits.

5. What music do you listen to that would surprise people?

- I'm not limiting myself too much, is it surprising to listen to  jazz or electronic music? Of course, these are species in a break from metal :)

6. How do we find your music and merch to buy?

- We are available on all platforms, if you have an internet search engine will find everything

7. How did you get a record deal? Or do you want a record deal or are you DIY?

- As I mentioned before, up to a point, there is the desire for existence on the big stage, recording sessions for "My Lovely Enemy" and "Last Failure" in Hertz studio (Vader, Behemoth) brought some expectations and hopes for release by the label. Why did not it happen? everything was released by self, in the case of "Salvation" the procedure looked the same, we sent the material where it was possible and managed to do it with Metal Scrap.

8. What bands do people compare your music to?

- Honestly, I have no idea what bands we can compare to. We play our own, it always was like that, we never modeled ourselves on a band, of course we draw inspirations but not on the principle "hey - let's play like this or that band" we do not play what people like nowadays.

9. Are you pro Spotify / streaming services ? Or do you think it hurts sales? 

- In our case, you really get the money for the band when you sell the CDs at the gig. You play gig, you sell records, t-shirts, what you have there. We have nothing to websites that provide music. You want to buy a CD, buy it, download it for free, ok, I hope you liked what we recorded.

10.  What’s the ultimate goal for the band?

- Play until we have enough strength. The band struggled and struggles with various adversities, now the activity is suspended, I think it would be good to return to the stage and kick people butts.

11. Will we see you tour? 

- We now have personal shortages in line-up, as I said, the band's activity is suspended, we've survived the death of our drummer Maciej, Lukasz, our vocalist decided to say bye bye with the stage.

12. Who would you love to tour with? 

- With someone from the home scene, Vader, Decapitated, Trauma. We played with the guys from Trauma and I would like to repeat it in the future

13. What is your favorite song of yours and why?

- I do not have favorites

14. Why should people take the time to listen to your band over the thousands of other bands? 

- Out of thousands of bands, less than half play something that is not a copy of another band, I think that if you make the initial selection you will find us in this close group

15. What are your favorite music websites labels podcast etc? 

- I'm limiting myself to youtube

16. Is imagery important to you? Do you judge albums by the cover? 

- I do not pay special attention to this, it is like with a human being, how I would judge someone only by appearance without listening to what he has to say?

17.  If you could choose a cover song your band mates would hate what would it be?

- I do not see any sense in this :)

18. Is the record or live show more important?

- Playing live is like a test of knowledge subjected to a strict assessment, a lot testifies to the band, so yes, most important is the live concert, those several dozen minutes when we express ourselves through music, and if you give people the energy contained in it, you will buy your album.

Of course, recording new material is an important moment, but it's the most enjoyable when people are having fun listening to us live

19. Name 3 people dead or alive you would want to play your music for

- if you do not mind I will point one. Maciej Urbaniak, our drummer who passed away after a serious illness. If we go out next time on stage, it will be for him, each of our concerts will be for Maciej.

20. Lemmy Ozzy Dio and Rob Halford in a cage match who wins?

- Ozzy, a guy from a medical point of view should have been dead for a long time, he is fuckin terminator (haha)

Seriously, these are the legends for which I have a great respect, especially for Dio and Halford