Gabor Szakacsi – Sledgeback – Uber Rock Interview Exclusive
Written by Matt Phelps
Sunday, 01 March 2015 04:10
Gabor Szakacsi has spent (just over) the last ten years of his life fronting Sledgeback, the Seattle-based punk outfit he formed after moving to the US from his native Hungary.
Last year they released their highly acclaimed ‘Land Of The Freak’ album which has been praised by many (including myself) as being the strongest of their career. I shot a few questions across the pond to Mr. Szakacsi who was only too pleased to rattle off some fantastic answers about Sledgeback’s current upward swing.
Hi, Gabi, great to be talking with you again. It was a bit of a big anniversary for you last year as 2014 marked TEN YEARS of SLEDGEBACK. How do you feel when you think about that?
Lots of mixed memories but no regrets. Everything we have done, we did with true hearts. Did everybody like what we did? No. Definitely not. Did that turn us away and make us change our ways? No. Not at all. That is why I have no regrets. If stuff didn’t work out it was our fault. If it did, it was our victory. We have done everything to make ourselves happy first. If you are unhappy doing what you are doing you need to stop. We are still here, and that should tell you the story. It is a milestone and when I look back on those 10 years with Sledgeback I smile most of the time. That is how I would like to walk towards the next years. Appearing on festivals like Warped Tour or Hempfest, sharing the stage with awesome bands like Flogging Molly, The Generators, The Accused, Casualties, The Briefs just to name a few will always bring back sweet memories.
Did you expect it to last as long as it has when you first put the band together?
To be honest I was hoping for it. I don’t think you can really make a concrete plan in a rock and roll band. You usually plan for one thing and something else happens. Just like on a show. We had countless low points. Ups and downs and those are the times when we had to be strong. The line-up changed throughout the years because of the hardships and problems but things worked themselves out. Tim Mullen, our drummer, was a huge help for me personally in my hard days. He has a big heart and he was always able to wake me up and bring me back from the depths. On the other hand I started Sledgeback as a side project of C.A.F.B. because I wanted to do something in America. As you probably know I still work with C.A.F.B. too. Writing music and producing stuff for those guys. I love to work with both bands. After Sledgeback got somewhat known it required my full attention that is why I took a long break from C.A.F.B..
You certainly marked last year in style with the release of your latest album, ‘Land Of The Freak’. I think it’s quite possibly the best album you’ve done. How do you feel about it yourself and what has the response from the fans been like so far?
Thank you for saying this. I feel the same way about the album. I think this album beats all the older ones, including our debut, ‘People’s Choice’ from 2004. I heard throughout the previous years that Sledgeback were unable to write songs as strong as the ones that appeared on the 2004 album. Nowadays some of the same people seem to have changed their minds after hearing ‘Land Of The Freak’ which really gave us a boost. We wanted to concentrate on keeping the same style, because that is who we are. But at the same time we really worked hard to bring out the deep emotions inside the music and between the lines, if you know what I am saying. We paid lots of attention to the smallest details, but wanted to avoid overdoing it. I think we kept it simple and beefy. That is what we wanted, and it seems like people understood what we were saying. Almost everyone I personally talked to, had a good opinion about it.
It’s taken a while to get here though, the first new studio album for Sledgeback since 2010, that’s quite a gap. How come it took so long to follow up ‘Bite The Bullet’?
We needed time to find ourselves again. I think the 2010 album did not come out as good as we hoped, and we wanted to find the points of our dissatisfaction. It took us some years and hard work to step in the right direction and keep the style in the same time. We did not want to push ahead with any material that doesn’t contain the feelings and drive we intended to share with our listeners. These were the main reasons.
So did you approach the making of this album any differently to your previous ones?
From the musical standpoint, not really. Except the things I said about the small details. We wanted to keep it simple and raw, but with the quality of a 2014 recording. On the other hand we tried to talk about some issues of today’s world along the timeless struggle of mankind. Next to loss and love now we mixed in a small amount of politics too. I personally wanted to make this happen. That is visible on the CD cover too, which was drawn by the same guy who did our previous ones. O. Shaul Rummel. He’s worked with us since 2004.
How was the recording process for this one? Pain free or were there a few issues?
There are always issues in the studio, things you don’t count on before the recording sessions. That is always a small amount of pain at least. The album was not recorded in one session. It was more like a process that lasted for months. Certain things can only be recorded the right way if you are actually in the mood. That is when your feelings being channeled into the texture the most natural way. So it was time consuming but mostly painless.
Talk us through some of the tracks and the stories or feelings behind them, let’s start with the most obvious, the title track ‘Land Of The Freak’, what inspired you to write that one?
‘Land Of The Freak’ is about, how I see some people around me. It seems like disrespect and idiocy are becoming accepted and it’s really bothersome. Things like people want to own everything but have no responsibility. They believe everything they hear in the media and want to have the latest crap, without knowing what they are doing. It is really bad. Call me old fashioned but that is how I see it. I see them spending on unimportant things they think enrich their life, but they don’t see they lie to themselves. Sometimes I do the same, yes, but I see this on many as a habit lately. They don’t see their own freedom is slipping away because they are ignorant. Sometimes I feel it is too late in some parts of the planet, and the ‘Land Of The Freak’ is already happening. Just look around.
Two of my favourites are ‘All Night Long’ and ‘I Am’, give me some info about that pair…
‘All Night Long’ and ‘I Am’ have quite a similar meaning to me. It is about staying who you are and not turning away from the path you choose, even if hard times are rolling in.
‘Frustration’ is another that really stands out for me lyrically. What can you tell us about the story there?
It is the personal life where almost all people have problems. They may cover it up good or hiding behind walls but they all have it. This song is my visualization of that. People questioned us in the music video of this tune about the “bathtub” parts. To me it means getting clean from something or someone. It is a frustrating thing.
With your song writing, you guys certainly swing for the underdogs with plenty of your lyrics. Are they the starting point for your songs or do you just build the ideas up around whatever melodies you have?
It depends. Lots of times a riff already has a mood. If that is the case we build the lyrics around the music, but on most occasions I already have a lyrical idea at least. Sometimes it is just a title I write down on a piece of paper and leave it on the desk or on my amp. Later when we come up with a chord progression that fits the title, we shape a song out of it. It has to flow free otherwise it loses the spirit. If you don’t feel it in your spine it is not right. To me that is the key. The lyrics are mostly picturing things from our life.
So with the CD readily available and the digital version of ‘Land Of The Freak’ also available for people to download via Amazon and the like I have to ask whether you have any plans to get a vinyl version of the album out there? Maybe through a Crowdfund/Pledge campaign? Has that crossed your mind at all?
We plan to release the album on vinyl in the future just like our 2006 CD came out as a 12″ a year later. The Crowdfund is a great idea but to be honest we didn’t try it yet. We might give it a shot. Before we do anything like that we will have to come to terms with our partner Sliver Records first. They are great so I don’t see any problem with it but we like to keep a good working relationship with the guys. Chad Fondren, the boss is a very cool cat.
And finally. I believe you’re already working on a follow up project to ‘Land Of The Freak’ called ‘Black Hole Syndrome’. Can we end this with a few words about that and when it might be available?
‘Black Hole Syndrome’ is the work title of a small documentary we started a while ago. It is a doc type movie thing about C.A.F.B. and Sledgeback. The past and how all this music thing followed us/me around since 1987. It will feature short interviews about experiences and influences. We do not have lots of live concert footage so we will use old photos in it along the songs from the two bands. The interviews are being recorded at different places and times. But there is another project I am working on this year too. I am recording a new album with C.A.F.B. after an 11 year break. That should be released sometime in the summer of 2015.
Well it sounds like you’re gonna have a busy year, we wish you all the best for it. Thanks again for talking with us today.
[Live photo by Keith Johnson]
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