To all our fans worlwide. We are honored to present you this first interview from
Nocturne Magazine ( from Serbia )
http://nocturnemagazine.net/interview/199/the-committee-istoriju-pisu-pobednici-mi-smo-glas-mrtvih Here is the English translation for the curious souls:
The Committee is in one way pretty secret project. Why is that? Why do you want to be so mystified? Igor Mortis: Many people who only receive their information from the TV and newspapers, have a very limited view.
Therefore it's important that these people
Judge our music for what it is, without
Prejudice and pre conceived notions.
Our anonymity assures that. Besides, when you analyze most important historical events, you inevitably come to the conclusion that the masterminds remain in the shadows, while colorful well groomed puppets dance and play a spectacle for the masses.
It is said that The Committee project is an international one. Can you share with us from which countries the members are? Igor Mortis: Off course. Our bass player is Belgian, but he has Dutch roots. Same goes for our guitarist; his origins lie in France.
Our drummer has family in Ukraïne and Hungary. My origins are in Russia. For the moment we all live in Belgium.
A series of strange coincidences and freak occurances brought us together. Working as an international team turned out to be very productive, due to so many differences in upbringing and way of thinking and handling.
I wouldn't want to work any other way.
Your debut demo was recently released. Interesting enough, it is released on 50 CDs and 50 tapes. I really like and respect that. Interesting way to promote the work in today's „only mp3 bands“ world... Igor Mortis: We have to thank our drummer William for that. He’s the person who orchestrated the release on tape and cd.
He’s an old skool thinking metalhead who loves to have a physical
Item to hold and cherish, instead of an mp3 file in cyberspace.
And off course we will have to move with the current technological zeitgeist, so a digital release of Holodomor ( and future albums ) will happen in digital form, parallel to the physical releases.
We have some interesting mixture of doom, black, Pagan metal. How would you describe your music and lyrics? Igor Mortis: On
Metal archives we are classified as atmospheric black metal. It can describe our music if you never heard it before.
I would say that The Committee is neither black, doom, or pagan. We play the music that best suits the lyrics and atmosphere of the moment.
Thanks to our diverse team, we are not bounded by any rules or standards. Remember the feeling when you heard an amazing song that made your hair stand up on the back of your neck?
This is what we are working on to achieve.
From the infos that can be found online, it is said that The Committee was founded back in 2007. Your first demo was finally issued in 2013., after whole 6 years of silence. Why that long? Igor Mortis: In the beginning of 2007 I started out as a one man project. After the first draft of 3 songs was ready, the project sat on the shelf due to lack of time.
Only when our drummer William heard the songs by
Accident in 2011, he insisted on forming a proper band.
I am still
MAD at myself for not launching The Committee earlier. Many years went by due to procrastination and laziness.
I am ashamed for that.
Demo „Holodomor“ has a strong Message, same as whole The Committee project, which can Summon in your unique message: History is written by the Victors, we are the Voice of the Dead. Tell us something more about that. Igor Mortis: I think as a Serbian individual you can relate to this message. We all know that something is seriously wrong in this world.
We can feel it every day no matter what country you consider your home. The values that we learned as children are wiped out by new empty concepts and cults.
We learn the history from the point of the victors, with total disregard for lives lost on both sides. Our way of thinking is manipulated in order to judge without investigation.
We are thought to obey. Our message challenges the beliefs of many people and offers an alternative view on many interesting events and facts. I think this is why our fans like what we do.
We do realize that we are balancing on a thin blade of “political views”. That’s why we strongly refuse to be labeled.
We bring our music to our fans, regardless of race, nation and religion.
Judging from the cover of the demo many can conclude that you support Stalin and his actions, ideas. But it's not like that at all, is it? Igor Mortis: Off course Stalin was a monstrous dictator who has blood of countless people on his hands.
Nobody can deny this fact. The only argument I can offer, is that I am blessed with the ability to investigate this interesting person from the side of English speaking writers, as well as Russian ones.
I have the luxury of balancing all the facts and filtering the subjective material in order to come to one conclusion.
Yes Stalin was a horrible person when you look at him from the democratic eyes of Western people. Throughout history Russia has been ruled by force of a strong King or leader.
This is the only way to keep a country with 9 time zones together. Democracy works in the West.
In Russia and other nations ( for example the Middle East and China ) the only way to get things done, is by force. Results matter! Before Stalin, the country was a peasant community. He managed to transform it into an industrial superpower.
In the West this was done by the so called fiat currency system. In Russia this was done by the blood and sweat of millions of people, simply because the monopoly of printing money belongs to other nations. We do not support the actions of Stalin.
We consider him to be a very interesting person who gave the Imperial regimes a run for their money.
This fact alone makes history so interesting.
It seems to me that your idea was to explain the people couple of things about history, oppression, media coverage, etc. Do you think that people will hear your message? Are they ready to listen some different views? Igor Mortis: First of all, most metal fans I know are very smart and educated people. Our message is not meant for the masses of people who are happy with a 9 to 5 life with highly anticipated drunken weekends.
We KNOW that our fans are interested in what we have to say. Simply because we feel the gravity of everyday life and we know that everything is not as wonderful as the media wants us to believe.
And second, we are just too tired of hearing so many bands that worship Satan and paganism as their main theme.
Not much new stuff has been done these few years. We want to bring something new and exciting to our fans.
For now the response has been beyond our expectations. We are continuously motivated to go on and work even harder.
What does the song „Not Our Revolution“ stand for? We have some sort of a hidden song in it, as well. Igor Mortis: “Not our revolution” tells a story of a small group of foreign people who overthrew the Czar and took control over Russia in 1917.
Unfortunately every country that has natural resources or shares an excellent strategic position on the map ( just like former Yugoslavia ) will always be targeted by other nations to profit from.
In the game of life, anything goes. Any method and trick, no matter how immoral and macabre it may be, is used to take control.
The only way a nation can survive this atrocity, is by unity of people and strong leadership. “Not our revolution” is a template that is used up to this day.
I suppose your next move will be a full-length. When we can expect it? Are you going to release it yourself or through some label? If you can, tell something more about the debut album. Igor Mortis: The full length album is scheduled for the end of 2013. It will be in the same grim theme as the demo, however we want to focus upon the stories of individuals who lived in the turbulent years of the Russian revolution and the Stalin era.
It’s important to notice that unity plays a big part of the full album. We have a lot of work to do in order to create a very dark and guttural sound.
When our fans listen to our music, we want to make sure that they are dragged inside the songs to experience everything with all of their senses and imagination.
Off course the full mastering of the album will be outsourced to an external professional due to the critique of our current sound.
We want to improve ourselves every step of the way, because our fans deserve only the best we have to offer. As far as the release goes, we are very realistic about the underground scene. We know that many labels are struggling to make ends meet due to competition from online retailers and mp3 releases.
That’s why we won’t make too much effort is promoting ourselves as a potential band to “sign”.
We believe that if you are good enough, there will be interest from the labels themselves. We hate it to be “in your face” band who scratches on every door.
We are open for collaboration and off course we would like to release vinyl as well as CD’s, tapes and mp3’s.
Any plans for live show in the future? Igor Mortis: Most definitely. We will play live shows from the moment our full album hits the scene. Our only wish is to keep our anonymity.
Big thanks for your time and good luck with the project. I really hope that The Committee music will be recognized by many fans! Thank you for your interest in our band. From what we hear so far from our fans, keeps us motivated and hungry to do even more.
And a new review from powermetal.de: Atmosphärische schwarzmetallische Klänge mit einem Blick in Die sowjetische Seele. Aus Belgien ist uns Die erste Demo-CD einer multinationalen Band namens THE COMMITTEE ins Haus geflattert, deren Mitglieder serbischer, ungarischer, russischer, französischer und niederländischer Abstammung sind, und Die keine Berührungsängste mit totalitärer Ästhetik zu haben scheinen. Denn auf dem Artwork prangt Die heroische Büste des Josef Stalin, Die Bandinsignien erinnern an Die Sowjetunion und das Album ist nach einer völkermörderischen Hungersnot in der Ukraine benannt. Soll hier also quasi ein Gegenentwurf zum Schwarzmetall vom rechten Rande zelebriert und der stalinistischen Diktatur gehuldigt werden?Nun, Die Band bestreitet dies und sieht sich als unpolitisch. Die Geschichte werde Von den Siegern geschrieben und Die Band wolle den Toten eine Stimme geben, vorliegend den geplagten und unterworfenen slawischen Völkern. Die Erklärung klingt plausibel, denn Die Band bezieht in Interviews und auf ihren Internetpräsenzen auf durchaus reflektierte und auch kritische Positionen, so dass ich für politisch korrekte Anwandlungen vorliegend keinen Raum und keine Not sehe. Daher wollen wir uns der Musik zuwenden, welche einen klaren schwarzmetallischen Schwerpunkt hat, diesen jedoch mit deutlich spürbaren doomigen Momenten verfeinert. So könnte der instrumentale Opener 'Utopian Deception' auch wunderbar zu einer Funeral-Doom-Scheibe passen. Der folgende Neunminüter 'Katherine's Chant', der sich auf Die berüchtigten Katjusha-Raketen der Roten Armee bezieht, deren Werfer diesseits der Front als Stalinorgeln bekannt waren, zeigt dann Die ganze Klasse der Band. Melancholischer, dabei aber sehr traditionell ausgerichteter und eingängiger Black Metal singt das kalte Lied der Taiga, flicht dabei zunächst ganz dezent slawische Folklore ein, um letztlich in das bekannte russische Volkslied 'Katjusha' zu münden. Dieser dramatische Paukenschlag lässt sich schwerlich übertreffen, doch Die Band versteht es, das Niveau hoch und Die Spannungskurve stabil zu halten. Das Titelstück 'Holodomor' gibt sich programmatisch hoffnungsloser und marternder, doch auch hier bewegen wir uns in einem absolut klassisch-schwarzmetallischen Bereich, der Von flirrendem Gitarrenstrumming, rauem, verhalltem, hintergründigem Gesang und stoischem Schlagzeug lebt und im elegisch-majestätischen Midtempo dahin schreitet. Zum Ende hin wird dann mit 'Not Our Revolution' auch noch das Tempo merklich angezogen, wodurch der (durch einige Minuten Stille zweigeteilte) Viertelstünder eine weitere überzeugende Seite der Band offenbart und am Ende in einem Outro mit massiven Blechbläsern und russischen Chören endet, welche aus einem sowjetischen Film der stalinistischen Ära stammen könnten.Auf EP-Länge kann diese Band jedenfalls musikalisch auf ganzer Linie überzeugen, wobei das russische Element sehr präsent ist und vor dem inneren Auge Die weiten der Taiga ebenso aufflackern lässt wie alte Kriegsberichte Von der Ostfront. Damit fängt Die Band wohl genau Die Atmosphäre ein, welche ihr vorschwebte. Defintiv eine neue Band im schwarzmetallischen Sektor, Die über großes kompositorisches Potenzial verfügt und Die es zu beobachten gilt. Note: 8.50 http://powermetal.de/review/review-Committee__The/Holodomor,22653.html 
Follow your duties here: http://the-committee.believeband.com/ 
