RIVERSIDE - Back from the Midlife Crisis

23. September 2015

Riverside

RIVERSIDE - Back from the Midlife Crisis

Loreley, "Night Of The Prog" 2015. As the first magazine worldwide we get the new album "Love, Fear And The Time Machine" played by Riverside singer/bass player Mariusz Duda himself in the band manager's car. Duda, who celebrates his 40th birthday on 25 September, initially seems surprisingly nervous and agitated when he reports on the genesis of the sixth studio work. Above all, one statement makes you sit up and take notice: "I don't know whether this is the beginning of the end or the end of the beginning". This is not the only reason why we agree after the first run: "Love, Fear And The Time Machine" represents a caesura in the band's vita. It is an album that is extremely strongly influenced by the personality of Duda.

eclipsed: Mariusz, your texts are always autobiographical. At the end of your debut "Out Of Myself" there was for example the insight: "Thereʼs sadness in my mind - ok". In an interview with us you described yourself as a "sad guy who laughs every now and then". On "Love, Fear And The Time Machine" you transport your most positive thoughts. Change and renewal are central themes for you at the moment?

Mariusz Duda: I wanted to find out under what conditions people make important decisions. Far-reaching changes such as moving to another country, a job change or another 180-degree turn. What does one feel in such a situation, at a crossroads? Which instinctive and unconscious forces are at work? I think there are three things involved. First of all, you feel a certain excitement, perhaps even a feeling of freedom, when you say to your boss: "Goodbye, I'm starting a new life now". I call this feeling on the album "Love". Add to that the fear of the unknown: "Fear". And then there are the experiences from the past and the idea of the future that play a role in the decision-making process. So a kind of time machine: the "Time Machine".

eclipsed: How have you changed yourself as a human being in the last few years?

Duda: You mean whether I still have my midlife crisis in front of me at 40 or already behind me? (laughs) I don't know, at least I didn't buy a Lamborghini or start an affair with a 25-year-old girl. Actually, it can be expressed quite briefly: I have recorded a lot of sad things in the past and I was just tired of it now. So maybe my midlife crisis is really behind me. This time there should be a glimmer of hope at the end of the album and not the wish to cut your wrists.

eclipsed: When did you first perceive this change in yourself?

Duda: Quite deliberately after the last Lunatic Soul album, which is about suicide. Then it became clear to me that I no longer wanted to focus exclusively on these dark thoughts. I also saw it as a new artistic challenge. Expressing myself in sadness has always been very easy for me.

eclipsed: So does your music sometimes work as a kind of self-therapy?

Duda: Certainly, even if not all texts necessarily deal with me as a person. By the way, I don't think I'll be singing about flowers and sunshine on the next album, because I still feel enough melancholy in me.

Lesen Sie mehr im eclipsed Nr. 174 (Oktober 2015).