Decapitated is touring North America with Mushuggah and Baroness. How has it been so far?
It is just a great tour. It is the tour that you always dream to be in. There are only 3 bands so everything works easy and fast. All the guys and crew from Meshuggah and Baroness are very cool with us… fantastic people. So, everybody help each other. The guys from Meshuggah and their tour manager are supporting us. We don’t have any problems. It is just an amazing tour; we can just enjoy to play music. We feel great!

You guys have been here, in the US, a few times the last few years. Is this the best tour here so far?
Humm… yeah, probably! This tour is probably the biggest tour we ever did in the US so far. I did 9 tours here with Decapitated. We played twice on Summer Slaughter festivals which were very, very huge. And also a Fear Factory tour which was a big thing to us too. But this one is the coolest tour, I think… good feelings.
I can see that in this one [tour] there is a different crowd. New people can see us playing and that’s really good to promote our band. Yeah… great success!

Have you seen your fans base growing throughout the years in the US?
I think that we are still working to have a good position in the US. But, I think that to be in this tour, to open shows for Meshuggah, is already a new level for us. So yeah, I think this band is growing. Every time we come here, every new tour, I can see that it works… we are getting better and better.

What is in the agenda for the rest of the year?
After this tour we are going to South America to play 5 shows. Then we come back to Florida for the Scion Rock Fest. And then we will go back to Poland and on June 5th we will play with Lamb of God. After that we will have a short vacation and after that we will play in a couple of festivals mostly in Germany and Poland. After that we have a tour in Asia in September. We will play in Indonesia, Japan, Thailand… and Nepal!

Really?? Nice!!
Yeah, yeah! NepFest! I hear that there are many metalheads there. Vader played there last time and there were a couple of thousand people.
After that we have some plans but they are not confirmed yet. For the beginning of next year we are planning some tours in Australia and in the UK and then we will probably stop promoting “Carnival is Forever” and maybe we will start working on the new album.

You said that you will work on a new album next year. So, you guys haven’t started to work on the new album yet…?
Humm…not really but we are starting to think about that, more and more. It has only been a year after the release of the last album but, time is running. Carnival was a good album for the “come back”. We want to keep doing [music/albums] so people don’t forget about our band.

Is it still too soon to talk about the new album?
Yes, it is a little bit too early to talk about a new album. We’ll see… I never know what will happen on a next album because we change equipment, we have new experiences in life, and we listen all the time to some different kinds of music. All of this together inspires you to make your own songs.
I’m hoping that we will create something that will be our own original style. I’m looking for that… To create a new sound like Meshuggah did, Motorhead did, Gojira did. So, I hope we will be lucky and we will find our own style, something original.

Do you think you will go back a little bit to your roots?
Ah…hard to say. Not really…or not that much for sure. Our first album was kind of a classic death metal album. Of course, there was something fresh [about it], some technical stuff. But, it was very much inspired by old school death metal bands like Vader, Cannibal Corpse, Deicide and stuff like that.

Going back to “Carnival is Forever”. Was it a successful album?
I think this album was kind of successful, for sure. I’m being kind of egoistic but for me, this album was good. I’m very happy about this album. It has good rates, good songs, good sound, good production, an interesting cover and story behind it.
Some people like it and some people not really because it is not what we were doing in the past. It is a new direction, for sure. About the responses from the fans: I saw good reviews on the internet. A lot of great musicians like this album so, it means a lot to me.

Carnival is Forever was the first release after a long period of time. During the hiatus with the band, how hard was it to decide if the band should or not come back?
After the accident? I thought that I would not come back (to play music). But after some time my family and my girl[friend] pushed me to start thinking that maybe I should go back “onstage”. I started to play with Vader before I did Decapitated again with new people. This time that I spent with Vader gave me some confidence. I was thinking: “if I can play with Vader, if I can tour again, maybe I can do my own band again”. So, it was something like that.

Talking about your music: Decapitated has been around for a while and has influenced many bands. How does it feel when someone comes to you and tells you that Decapitated inspired their music?
It feels great! It means that what we are doing has some sense. If someone listen to us and can get inspired to do music, that’s amazing. That means a lot to me for sure! Maybe not many but some bands are inspired [by us]. I can even hear it in their music. It’s amazing!

Now the other side: You have been playing since you were 15 years old. When you look back at your entire career, what has metal given you all

these years?
Oh, metal has given me so much! I’ve traveled all over the world so many times…so many beautiful places, countries. I’ve met so many nice people and I have the opportunity to play my own music to people and they know our music and they know our band. If they like it I’m happy because if it [my music] make them feel happy and better it is fucking great! So, metal gives me a lot, everyday!

Talking about the former band member, Covan. I think all fans would like to know: how is he doing?
Covan is in a bad condition. He goes to rehabilitation everyday; he lives with his parents and his sister. He can’t do anything by himself: he can’t speak, he can’t move, he can’t do anything. He can hear and see what’s going on but, you know? He is a prisoner of his own body. And it is so long… it’s been 4 years. It is very, very sad. It is just fucked up. We are trying to help anyway we can.

The video that was released on the net about him, with some news and asking for people’s support… has that helped a little bit? Can the fans help?
I think that it helps. People can see this video and send some money, donations. There are some websites where you can help Covan: http://www.wakeupcovan.com/ or http://adrian.org.pl/en/. There you have all the info on how to help him.

I hope he will be well in the future. I know that some people in similar situations got better and better. Covan’s parents don’t have an idea of how to help him so he could make a bigger progress. I don’t know… maybe some different type of medicine could help him.

So, if the fans that are reading this and want to help, should they send money even if it is a little amount?
Yeah, yeah. Some people send even like, 2 bucks or something like that but, it feels great. Even if it is not much it always supports the family when they see that people around the world sent something or even write [them] an e-mail asking how Covan is. It is a big help!

Going back to Decapitated now: what should the fans expect from you guys in the next years from now?
It’s hard to say, you know? You can’t [even] say what you expect for tomorrow. We will just keep doing it… if we are able to do it, if we have the opportunity to make albums. We have a nice deal with Nuclear Blast for the next two albums… we have so much work to do! We are working all the time. It is a 24hr [a day] work. We are thinking all the time about how to sound better, how to make better songs, how to do better shows. We are trying to get more experience; we are trying to be better and better.

Any messages to the SOM readers?
Thank you for this interview. I hope we can still play to you all, for a long time in the future. We will try to do our best so you can enjoy metal when you listen to Decapitated. Good luck for all of your and see you soon live!