Behemoth are set to unleash In Absentia Dei, a groundbreaking immersive livestream spectacular which will broadcast on Sunday, September 6 (Australia time) from a secret church location in Poland. The event will be streamed in high definition 4K, with an immersive experience option, allowing viewers to choose from 8 different camera angles in the multi-camera shoot or watch the “Director’s Cut”.
Before the big event we managed to grab a few words with bassist Tomasz “Orion” Wróblewski to find out what to expect and the latest with Behemoth.
You finished a very busy tour circuit supporting Slipknot across Europe early in the year and playing with them and others throughout the US in 2019. Were you able to sit back and look back on the big, mostly sold-out stadium tour and appreciate how far you have come as a musician and band? What were you able to take away from it & what will you try to avoid/ do different on the next big tour?
Orion: I had plenty of time after this tour due to lockdown. As soon as we get back, the whole story kicked off in Europe… It was a challenging and joyful ride. I appreciate every single time we take things a step further. This kind of tour means massive exposure and loads of newly converted people. I remember the time around Evangelion, when I couldn’t really imagine what can we do more and better. It seems that ever since, I just quit seeing limits. Slipknot is a touring beast, it’s a machine combining lots of people, talents, crazy production and tons of persistence. You can learn a lot from watching it from behind. I’m glad I was there. Same thing with Slayer a little time before, I’ll never forget being a part of their last tours. I never try thinking what should I do different in the past. Every time and tour is different, every single one needs a new approach. Whenever we do mistakes, we correct them as soon as possible. When we do next tour, we’ll think what we can do best at this very moment.
This last tour ended just weeks before the global COVID-19 Pandemic hit in March. Did these circumstances hold you back, especially your latest EP “A Forest” being release in late May? How were you able to work around the restrictions.
Orion: First two months of lockdown seemed like a worldwide-sized panic. It took a toll on me too – I just stayed at home, feeling insecure. At some point anxiety was gone, to some extent obviously, and we came back to work. We started recording demo songs without seeing each other, exchange ideas online, we made some really good music during this time. As for “A Forest” – it was supposed to be out anyways. We had to delay it a little, because of production delays, but working on this was no different than on any other vinyl releases thru New Aeon Music. It wasn’t that hard to work around restrictions – we could all do things from home, and pressing plants never really ceased their business, at least here in Europe. Around June/July breakthrough – we started rehearsing normally. We had plenty of time to rebuild our room where we meet, so coming back to regular face to face rehearsals was a blast. We’ll continue until we’re happy with album material.
You have been away from stages now for the better part of 6 months. Seriousness of this pandemic aside, have you been welcoming the ability to spend quality time with your family and not needing to rush around? Has the time come, when anticipation for you to finally get out on the road again is itching?
Orion: Oh yes, I enjoyed not doing much for some time. Last year and a half was extensive touring time for us, and having an opportunity to sit back and enjoy time with family was something that I needed. It feels awesome to be able to be lazy for a moment, after you’ve done something that makes you happy. The thing is – we live this way, I mean touring, for the last 15-20 years. Staying on tour too long makes you miss home, staying home makes you miss touring. There’s always some anticipation. Of course we try to find a perfect balance, but not at every point in time it’s possible. Sure I miss going on stage and having people in front of me. Although, rather than anticipation, I’m concerned about the situation of live shows in general. It doesn’t really seem to be over anytime soon. It’s not like ‘hey we have a vaccine, lets take shots and everything gets back to normal’. This will take way more time than we all thought at first.
The “In Absentia Dei” Livestream was only officially announced last week. With the immense technical effort – such as 8 camera angles and the location- to get this off the ground suggests, that the blueprint for it was born much earlier. Since when has this idea been playing in the minds of Behemoth?
Orion: We came up with this months ago. Initially, we wanted it to be and open air concert with no audience and no stage, at some point we moved it to this church location, and redesigned the idea completely. We plot things constantly. We do one thing and think about 10 another ideas and keep talking and consulting them. Everything takes time, some of the visions can endure a time trial, some die. This one seemed like a super interesting endeavor, we approach a live show in a way we never did before.
Using an old church as the location for this event obviously adds to the effect of it. Who stumbled upon this particular location and how did you get localities/ the parish to agree to use it?
Orion: The location is the same place that we once shot ‘Blow Your Trumpets Gabriel’ video. Back then – it belonged to the city and it was a struggle to have it for the video shoot. Now – as we discovered during location searching – it’s in private hands. A guy bought this property with some land around it, on the city auction. This sounds ridiculous, but that’s exactly what happened. It’s not a common thing in Poland. To be honest, it’s the first time I hear a church building to be in private hands in this religious country. The owner is an artist and patron of art – so he agreed willingly for us to hire his property, and bring some hell there. In case a parish had anything to say here – we wouldn’t be doing this.
The theatrical qualities of Behemoth live shows are what keep audiences captivated: costumes, fire spitting, corpse paint; all that rage and darkness that seeps into the onlookers. Will you be able to recreate this same feeling with people sitting at home, in front of their TV screens?
Orion: That’s a challenge, but you’ll see how we manage this. I’ve seen streamed shows before – they don’t really differ much from regular shows, recorded with video cameras. We wanted this one to be a cinematic experience, a whole new story, most likely impossible to do with audience around. There’s things you can do different, why not to try doing them? People will sit back and relax at home watching it, and they need something extra than a regular thing, in order to enjoy it. To make it interesting, we got rid of obvious stage gear, we used the location and it’s advantages to make it look stunning. I believe it is going to be something absolutely unique.
With so many cameras, will it feel like shooting another video clip, filmed in one continuous take?
Orion: I believe the experience is something between a video shoot and a live show. It’s got features of both, difficulties of both too. Definitely something I haven’t tried before. I wanna try it!
How long were you able to rehearse for the “In Absentia Dei” event? Did you guys have some virtual rehearsals or were you able to get most done the old fashioned way: in person.
Orion: Good old fashioned rehearsals, for about two weeks straight. There’s nothing better than seeing each other face to face. You could play in front of your computer for years and never feel what you feel when you’re with people. We’ve incorporated some songs that we haven’t played for ages. We had to re-learn them, work on tons of new samples, backing tracks, clicktracks, you know, all that technical craziness. Even if two weeks seemed way enough for all that at first – it turned out to be rushing things really hard coming to the end. We’re also during the album writing, so we had to have a break in this, to get ready for ‘In Absentia Dei’.
Having followed frequent news about blasphemy allegations against your band from within your own country’s clerical and judicial system, are you expecting there to be repercussions following this live stream?
Orion: Absolutely yes. There’s so many people having nothing better to do than finding out and pointing towards us their absurd accusations. That’s sad. And funny. We’ll see how much longer we can live here facing censorship, repercussions and all this stupidity. Shitstorm starts in 3.. 2.. 1.. Blahh. It disgusts me. The art is meant to be free.
Behemoth offers a large variety when it comes to merch articles. This includes limited edition, signed vinyl(of which I own probably way too many myself). What is an item of merch that you as a music fan would like to see in a band’s merch area? Do you normally go for typical items such as t-shirts or are you a bit more eclectic, depending on the band?
Orion: When it comes to artefacts, Im rather a traditional person. I’d rather get a shirt than anything sophisticated or of common use. I myself do not collect bands souvenir treasures other than records and clothing. But there’s people who love this kind of stuff, and we, bands, deliver. I like artists with some story behind. So if talking about something more than a shirt or a record, what I’d like to be able to get from bands that I’m a fan of – is for example a biography book. A story, a background, an inspiration, an insight, something that takes things even deeper than the creation itself. Something that makes you understand or just see, the choices, the ways things go.
There have been many live stream events since the beginning of COVID-19 with bands streaming concerts without an audience, record release events and bands interacting more with their fans on platforms such as Instagram TV and YouTube. Do you think, that this is a positive side effect of it all: Bands becoming involved on a more personal level? Will this be something to stay?
Orion: That’s one point of view, of course. And I’m partially happy to see people more involved, and being involved on a personal level. The other point of view is that some of the artists are getting close to being desperate. I’m not surprised – most of us is the people who have been doing this for a considerable part of life and there’s not much more we can do. It’s a thin line I don’t want to cross. Of course it’s positive to see it all happening now, but it’s happening because there’s no other way. We all need all gates open, we all need freedom and no restrictions. It feels weird to live and create in the world that doesn’t allow people to see end experience one another’s energy and presence. It’s a different world now for us. It feels alien to talk to people through social media only. It feels science fiction to have your phone as your only gateway to the world. It’s all like a next Black Mirror episode. I was born before the internet era. I see all advantages of it, and use them extensively. But this is not how I want to meet people.
With most large scale music events throughout Europe, the US and inadvertently the rest of the world cancelled until most likely next year, what do you see on the cards for Behemoth in the coming months? Rehearsals? Writing new material? Taking up a new hobby?
Orion: I see my friends in event/concert business, just going down with their life investments. I see companies in bankruptcy already – and still there’s no light in the tunnel. I remember people still expecting festivals to happen in 2020. Now they don’t know if they’ll happen in 2021. No one knows what is going to happen next year. We’re on our regular cycle and we just simply proceed with writing. Rehearsing now up until the end of October, possibly entering the studio in November, mixing the album late winter/early spring. A single ready before summer, album out in September, start headliner touring in October. 2021. That’s a plan. But in nowadays circumstances, planning anything is just a wish. We need to make presumptions and eventually rethink them when circumstances change.
Tickets for this theatrical extravaganza are available now at https://www.behemoth.live
