Who are you, what do you do, and what interests you the most these days?
Hi I’m Alex the founder of the band, I play guitar and scream. I am most interested in music in this life, I listen to almost everything, I adore brutal death, doom, sludge, synthwave and trap. I'm a huge horror fan, I love exploitation movies, videogames, I'm very interested in insects, they delight me. In the future, my dream is to write a soundtrack for a video game or a slasher movie.
Which bands have you played in and what instruments did you play?
I played in 5 projects. my first project was noise ambient, I did almost everything there, except my friend did the covers. My second project was cybergrindcore, of which I was the only participant, I did absolutely everything there myself, now it's hard for me to take these projects seriously, it was part of the search for myself. A year ago I played bass in a black metal band, but our paths diverged. I also did a horrorcore trap, but my main project in life is Opium Warlock, it started as a one-man band in 2018, and then in 2020 I found other members and we became a live band.
What equipment/gear do you use and how satisfied are you with it?
I use Orange crush 120, I play right in poweramp, my guitar is Epiphone Sg, I'm satisfied with the guitar sound that I have, I also use a custom distortion pedal that a former guitarist made for me, a couple of delay effects and that's it, I like everything, although of course it always seems that it's possible to make our sound heavier
Tell me about your latest recording - how it was created, and who collaborated on it and how was it received by the fans?
Our last album has not yet been released, it was the longest and most difficult work in my life, this is the first album that I did not make completely myself, the first album with the band, and it was also our first album that was recorded in a professional studio (if you are in Prague and want to record some metal, I highly advise Dödsmürd Studio, this dude is a real pro and knows how to approach musicians), we did all the previous releases ourselves, so this is a very important step for me, finally I have an authentic, live recording that can represent our concert sound. I hope doom metal and sludge fans will appreciate it
What influences you the most in your creative process?
Most of all I am inspired by life and death, life is an amazing thing and you never know when and how it will end, nature is also very inspiring. I am also inspired by the aesthetics of the 70s and 90s, it seems to me that these were stylish times, and of course I am inspired by other musical projects, the zeal of people to create, and to do it not for money, but to feel alive, this is real magic.
Which song and lyrics would you highlight?
Buddha's Dealer is the most important track on the album for me, it was on my last release in 2019 and I think it was the first good track that I composed, we re-recorded it on the new album and with a new sound I think it sounds awesome, I wrote it during a very difficult and depressive period of my life when I had no hope at all and I was at the bottom like never before, I couldn't understand why I live and what I do, I don't even know how to explain it, but this song is very important to me
What were your musical ambitions when you started, and what is the reality now?
When I started, my ambitions were as follows, I wanted to create a psychedelic doom album and put it on the Internet and for at least 10 people to listen to it, for me music is a kind of diary of my life, nothing has changed since then, although more than 10 people listened to us, which I am incredibly glad about
Can you share an interesting story from the life of your band?
The most interesting story that happened to us was when we went to Josefstadt it was a mini version of Brutal Assault after covid. I went there to listen to Belzebong, it's one of my favorite bands and one of those bands that made me start playing doom in the first place. We met them and gave them a grinder in the form of an egg, after their concert I caught the pick of their guitarist, although I was incredibly stoned and drunk, and a year later we had the opportunity to play with them in Prague, it was one of the best days in my life, the day when I realized that I was not doing music in vain, by the way, they had our grinder :)
What do you have planned in the near future?
Our plans for the near future: the release of the album. Right after that, we plan to start writing new material and play wherever we have the opportunity. Now we are a completely new band because all the past members have left, I am the only one who remains. So I hope the new participants will breathe in new ideas and energy
Do you feel like you are part of the local music scene?
Yes, I feel like a part of the local doom scene, doom is unfortunately more dead than alive here, but we have a lot of high-quality death and black metal bands.
What emotion or reaction do you want to evoke with your music?
I think it's subjective, everyone perceives music in their own way, but I personally would like people to be blown away by us.
Do you try to align your creative work with something or differentiate yourself from something else?
Strangely enough, we play very conservative music, everything has been invented by Black Sabbath for a long time, but I'm trying very hard to make our band special, I'm trying to find our atmosphere and our vibe, I think we managed to achieve this on the new album
Do you have nostalgia for any retro genre(s) or decade(s)?
I miss the 2000s, the times when I was a kid and metal was played on TV, it was a great time when I was little, I listened to Korn and Slipknot on MTV, and in general metal seems to have developed for the last time, then there were so many cool bands. Many old-school metalheads will deny it but it was a golden era, it was the last time when metal called a huge number of fans from among "normal" people. I believe that metal will not die, and I very much expect it to return in a new form.
Which current trends within subcultures do you like, and which ones annoy you?
It seems to me that with the advent of the Internet, subcultures as such have mixed and dissolved into each other, I don't even know what to answer this question, personally I don't consider myself to be a subculture, I'm just a dude who makes metal.
What is your personal boundary beyond which you are not willing to accept an artist?
When the creator believes that his point of view is the only true one and tries to propagandize something, in my subjective opinion this is wrong, people should feel art with their rotten soul and draw your own conclusions.
Which sound (studio, album/band), artwork (album cover), and music video impressed you the most recently?
I really liked the Fleshwater band, these guys sound like modern deftones, I missed a similar sound, I found them by chance and it was great. I also really liked the band "Those poor bastards", it's satanic country or something, our new bassist showed me this band, and it was fantastic. The music video that blew my mind is a new Epicardiectomy music video, these dudes are fucking legends of Czech slamming brutal death, their new work looks better and scarier than many horror films I've watched this year and the cover of their new ep looks stylish as fuck to me, I love slamming brutal death like I said.
Music album, book, movie, TV series, computer game, tattoo studio, and beer that you recommend. What is your vice ?
I advise you to listen to the Album of the Negative Slug - Knee-deep in Raw Savage, it's a mixture of sludge and grindcore, very nihilistic and dirty music, the sludge we've been waiting for and deserved. The best book I've read in my life was Victor Hugo's Les miserables, it's a very melancholic, beautiful and cruel story, the best book I've read. The film that I recommend is the original Texas chainsaw massacre of 1974, this is my favorite horror movie, I would also advise you to watch the movie X, this is essentially a tribute to the Texas massacre, shot very stylishly and pays homage to the classics. I think that the best video game that has ever been released is The last Of Us, when I finish it, it caused a storm of emotions in me and made me think, this does not happen so often, especially when it comes to AAA games, which are mainly attractions, this game is art, the highest point of artistic presentation in interactive format, of beer I will recommend Czech classics, this is Branik, the cheapest beer that is here, it tastes like a sludge, cheap and very evil. My main vice is probably Drugs, Sex and Rock’n’Roll.
What is the best recurring event that you look forward to attend ?
Definitely this is a Brutal Assault, this place is like metal Disneyland, it's perfect, I want to die there, and of course I hope that one day I will be able to share the stage with Belzebong again.
Is there anyone on the local (or global) scene with whom you would like to read an interview on Jablka ďaleko od stromu?
Negative Slug from Croatia
Motto/favorite quote or message at the end.
“Never Try”- Charles Bukowski, Thank you so much for your interest in our band, and I can't wait for the release of your compilation, metal will always be alive, subscribe to our social networks, the new album will be very soon and it will be better than everything we did before, Satan bless you.
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Links:
https://www.facebook.com/opiumwarlock
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTzFayGB4G_M1iqwYEBbf-g
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