DJ interviews: HimAir

Hey there everyone its DJ Dizzy here I sat down with band Him Air who had this to say about their music career

How'd you get started in music?

Michał J. Walczak: The HimAir band consists of two musicians with experience in two completely different music genres. Cezar and I started cooperating by pure chance. Cezar would come to one of the last gigs of my acoustic rock band, Voodoo Seeds, and asked if we could meet up and try to put together a new tune. Only later I have learnt he was a legend and pioneer of Polish death/black metal. His Christ Agony has also fallen apart at that point and he wanted to try something new.

Cezary “Cezar” Augustynowicz: Yeah, I wouldn’t exaggerate so much with that legend, but it’s true that me and my mates started the genre in Poland. But that’s not our topic today. Nonetheless, we met up almost exactly a year ago to try and make some songs which were later included to the rerelease of my two-CD “Darkside” album which showed up in 1997 for the first time. “Cry wolf” is by far my favourite song. Then, as it turned out our cooperation was quite fruitful we decided to go with the flow and create a new music project – HimAir.

MJW: Good to hear it (hahaha). So, in April last year we started working on our EP, “Spiral Clock 2018” which was released at the end od August 2018. It consists of four songs. Two of them (Not anyone’s game and YMAR) have been video clipped by our friends from the Attic Film Production. You can find them on our Youtube channel.
CCA: Michał was responsible for the lyrics and vocals. I on the other hand composed the tunes.

Who are your inspirations or influences?

CCA: It’s hard to talk about specific inspirations or influences. We do not base on any specific genre or a band. What we can say here is that it is more about the sound of the 80s wrapped up in a modern style. Besides we are strongly influenced by what we have been doing in the “pre-himairan” time.
MJW: True. However, I’ve heard some people compered us to Joy Division, Dead Can Dance or Depeche Mode.
CCA: Anyway, we call it prog. black rock.

What advice would offer aspiring performers?

CCA: Create as much as possible. But remember, not everything has to be released immediately. Even though you have no experience whatsoever, record yourself a lot. Only this way you are able to spot your strong and week parts. When you finally ready to record something, do it even with your mobile phone and send it to your friends. Let them be your first judges.
MJW: That’s right. For my part I can add that cliché everybody knows: “practice makes perfect”. By that I mean you should play gigs as of the as you can. One gig in front of people is worth 5 rehearsals. Trust me. If you don’t believe me check the Beatles’ history. Their countless gigs made them perfect and famous. Also, remember that haters are everywhere and they are the first ones to give their opinion. Don’t pay heed as they are people who either have no idea what they say or they are just jealous. On the other hand, always be open to so called constructive criticism. It is there to help you not to discredit you.

How do you set yourselves apart from other bands or singers?

MJW: Some time ago I have coined a sentence that describes us best: “To get the HimAir effect you combine two musicians of two different generations, representing music styles which are as far from each other as it is only possible.”

CCA: And he’s hit the nail on its head with that one. Just think, how many bands do you know which consist of an acoustic rock musician who played mostly ballads and a representative of black and death metal for the most of his life?
MJW: Yeah, on the face of it you go: “Whaaat? Is that even possible to make anything like that work out?”. Well, we know now it actually is. And we do not stop here.

Any new gigs or albums in the future?

CCA: We are still a duo and our music in order to be played live requires some more musicians, so we haven’t been playing any gigs yet. However, as we are developing and making more music we think of broadening the squad.
MJW: As for new albums, recently we have been working on an LP. This Thursday, Jan. 17^th we are releasing a song and a music video “Memories” which is going to promote the new album under the same title. It will be released later this year.
CCA: So stay tuned and follow us on Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, Spotify, Deezer, and so on and so on.

Special thanks to them for this interview & I wish them nothing but luck in their success. Until then I'll catch you on the flipside! Stay awesome & rock n roll!