Guitarist Bartek Bereska of the Poland progrssive rock band Osada Vida has taken a moment to answer some questions. Osada Vida released their album Uninvited Dreams at the end of 2009 (review) .

By Eduard Antoniu

USA Progressive Music:   Dzieku-je for making yourselves available for an interview. You started in 1997, right? How?

Bartek Bereska:  That’s right. Band was formed by two mates in ’97, Adam Podzimski  and Lukasz Lisiak. They were studying together at the Silesian University. Next, Rafal Paluszek joined the band. After some perturbations, in 2005, the current line-up was formed and hasn’t changed since then. 

USAProgMusic:   In an era where other artists take years and years to put out an album, you managed to come up with three concept albums in as many years. How come?

Bartek: To be honest, we were somehow forced to do this by a contract with our record label (Metal Mind Productions).  Secondly, we had so many ideas that it wasn’t a big deal to do so <laughs>.  

USAProgMusic:  Were there any releases by the band before these three albums?

Bartek:  Yes, before I joined the band, they’ve already recorded and released three unofficial CDs, titled “Moment Krytyczny”, “Droga na księżyc” and “Osada Vida”.  But these albums are not available anymore.

USAProgMusic:  Is your fourth concept album already in the works? :)

Bartek:  No.  I mean, each of us works personally, at home…but we haven’t discussed any ideas yet. It’s not said, that the next album is gonna be “conceptualized”, or whatsoever.  Our albums just happen during rehearsals, so it’s difficult to predict something at this moment.

USAProgMusic:  How can you manage both day jobs and making such good, original music?

Bartek:  Thanks for the kind word!  How…? I don’t know <laughs>. First of all, music is our greatest passion ever; we devote a lot from our life to it. Personally my thoughts oscillate around music almost all the time. For me, playing rehearsals and gigs, working at studio, practicing at home, is just a pleasure; it’s a big part of my life. That’s also the case for all guys from OV, we just breathe music so we try hard as we can to find time for it, sometimes it’s not easy at all, I mean to find time, but it’s worth it, definitely.

USAProgMusic: Are you a one of a kind band in your region or are there other artists making such good, original music like you in Silesia?

Bartek:  Yeah sure, in Poland, not only in South where Silesia lies, we have quite a few nice progressive bands. The most popular are Riverside, Quidam, Indukti, Believe, but there are some younger bands as well, Division by Zero, Animations, Retrospective, Perihhelium, After, to list only a few… They are definitely worth checking out.

USAProgMusic:  Where do you see yourselves in the overall Polish contemporary music landscape that, in that past few years, produced artists like Indukti, Strawberry Fields and Satellite, for instance?

Bartek:   In my opinion we differ considerably from the mentioned bands. We mix a lot of different genres since we listen to various kinds of music, staring from rock-metal, through jazz and funky to ambient and electronic staff. We incorporate these styles in our songs; I don’t know any other band in Poland that does the same.

USAProgMusic:  In "Tongue", from the band's second concept album, "The Body Parts Party", you use a synth theme that reminds me of the one in "Tom Sawyer". So, would you include Rush too among your influences? :)

Bartek: Rush is one of our biggest influence, kind of a “Hero Band” ;)

USAProgMusic:  Why is Rafal’s nickname "R6"?

Bartek:   It comes from the surname, Paluszek. In Poland, the very popular type of battery  R6 is commonly called “paluszek”, which means “small finger”, that’s it… but I’m not absolutely sure ‘bout that! <laughs>

USAProgMusic:  So, with artist names like R6 and B2 (for you) in the same band, do we have an R2D2 robot, "Star Wars" reference here? :)

Bartek:  <laughs> No!  They have nothing to do with Star Wars or whatsoever!  R6 I’ve already explained, my nickname B2 comes from my name and surname, double “B”. Someone asked me, “Why not 2B instead of B2?” I said, that B2 reminds me a model of bomber, 2B – a pencil…

USAProgMusic:  Are you familiar with the album "Armaghedon" (1995) by the Romanian band Celelalte cuvinte (The Other Words) from the western Transylvanian city of Oradea? The choice of sounds for the metal aspect of "Uninvited Dreams" is similar to the overall sound of that album.

Bartek: Sorry, I’ve never heard about this band, too bad, but I will definitely check them out.

USAProgMusic:  Most of that band's line-up are of Russian descent. The guitarist is from Tiraspol in the Dniester region. In another song of theirs, he uses a theme I was familiar with from the region of Romanian-Serbian interference. You're from Silesia in Poland. So, can we speak of basically the same traditional themes circulating across such vast areas of Eastern Europe?

Bartek:  I don’t think so, we don’t have really much in common with Russian or Romanian cultures, there are some similarities, but rather negligible.

USAProgMusic:  I noticed guest vocalist Natalia Krakowiak, as well as Lukasz's brother Marcel, got your very special thanks in the Uninvited Dreams album's credits. How did you get the two of them involved in this album?

Bartek:  Natalia is a Marcel’s very good friend; she’s a professional singer working in a gospel choir. Łukasz asked her to help him build the lines during working on them in the studio. She recorded some tracks, but they were so good, that we decide to leave them on this album. Marcel is not singing on this CD, but he was very helpful for Lukasz.

USAProgMusic:  What dreams would Osada Vida invite in the future?  Again, thanks for the opportunity for this interview.

Bartek: Thank you very much for your interest in our music! Dreams… too many to count them!  We still dream about gigs in Western Europe, maybe in the US.  We dream about playing with our “heroes” on one stage. We dream that the creativity that we have will still be developing and will lead us to some interesting music and points in our lives.