Ten Questions with MARC ANDREJKOVITZ from CRYPTEX – May 2020

According to a recent press release: “It’s a well-known fact that the music is at its most powerful when it arouses our curiosity instead of simply providing us with prefabricated answers. When it caresses our soul rather than just rousing our intellect. When it boldly embraces revelations unapologetically and is not afraid to dig deep instead of anxiously scratching the surface. CRYPTEX combines all these qualities on Once Upon A Time. The third album of the band from North Germany is their most emotional, most profound and uncompromising piece of work yet, arresting in its propensity for darkness. An album with songs stylistically ranging from (progressive) rock to metal, from calm to violent, from catchy to virtuous tunes. And a slogan as emotionally unsurpassable as the band’s music: “Love is the answer!”. Once Upon A Time will be released worldwide on 8 May 2020 – it’s a red-letter day: there may not be an international cultural revolution happening but Once Upon A Time will make all of our lives a bit more colourful and certainly leave its mark.” We get bassist Marc to discuss new music, influences, and much more…

1. Tell us a little about your latest release.  What might a fan or listener not grab the first or second time they listen through?

Our latest album “Once Upon A Time” is a dark, morbid fairy tale. A fanal (beacon) of love. A work of art that comes across as very large and brutal. It is full of tragedy, beauty and imagery. It is some kind of Anti-fairy tale with no positive end in itself. So the phrase “If they haven’t died, they still live today…” lacks at the end. Leaving is the last song on the album which depicts the wrestling of a tormented spirit in a monological poem with the protagonist finally freezing in emotional cold. Of course it is our most authentic and strongest album so far. And people who understand the artistic approach of the music of CRYPTEX should take their time to listen even a few times more to finally dip into the cosmos of this album.

2. What got you into music, and can you tell us about the moment you realized you wanted to be a musician?

Actually I came to making music quite late. I always wanted to play the guitar, I don’t know why, it was just some kind of need. But my mother told me my fingers might be too short. So I got into playing the piano for a couple of years. With 16, when I saved enough pocket money, I bought myself my first electric guitar and tried to play along to songs of Metallica, System of a Down, Blink-182 and many others I listened to at this time. Playing live came quite naturally, when I realized how much fun it is to do music together with others in front of an audience. And this is how it continued: stages and crowds got bigger and so did my own claims.

3. Building on that, is there a specific song, album, performer, or live show that guided your musical taste?

For me personally one of the most interesting artists of our time is Steven Wilson. I love the music he did with Porcupine Tree and the one he does with his solo project. He does not set himself borders for his creative output and he has the courage to do what he wants to do, even if it means that he does some ABBA-esque pop song that could unsettle a lot of his prog loving fans. I think that this is some very high quality of an artist to not give a crap about the reaction of others to the artistic output you are producing. For me authenticity is a very important thing in every kind of art and you feel it at the end if something is honest or just ingratiation.

4. Who would be your main five musical influences?

Queen, The Beatles, Steven Wilson, Peter Gabriel, and King Crimson.

5. If you could call in any one collaborator to do a song with, who would it be, and why?

I guess this would be Rick Rubin. This man is a myth. As a producer he has been part of so many productions and led them to gold. Not just in the monetary way of course. I love the work he did with Johnny Cash, System of A Down, Rage Against The Machine and many others. Because he worked with so many great artists it would be interesting what he could add to the music of CRYPTEX. But this might never happen of course.

6. How would you describe your music to someone who’d never listened to you before? What is the one comparison a reviewer or fan has made that made you cringe or you disagreed with?

CRYPTEX’s style covers a wide musical range. Our music consists of rock, alternative with slight folk attitude and prog-art. The result is an impressive mixture of sensitive and powerful symphonic compositions. Actually we don´t care about the comparisons reviewers do with our music. Furthermore a lot of press concedes some kind of uniqueness to our music. And I think this matters the most. It’s not about if you sound like someone else but if you sound like yourself.

7. What’s the best thing about being a musician?

You can create the music you always wanted to hear but never found anywhere else.

8. When was the last time you were star struck and who was it?

It was on February the 14th when I was in Vilnius (Lithuania) for a visit. One evening I went to some concert of some Lithuanian band called Garbanotas. They simply blew me away. There was so much energy in this room cause of their playing and their mesmerizing music. It was just authentic and magical. I do not have such moments very often.

9. If you weren’t a musician, what would be your dream job?

Actually I am not a full-time musician. I am working as a teacher for philosophy and sports at some Secondary school. I’m quite satisfied with it, so I can’t imagine doing something else. Both, doing music and teaching, fulfill me.

10. If you could magically go back in time and be a part of the recording sessions for any one record in history, which would you choose – and what does that record mean to you?

It’s hard to choose one. One record that comes to my mind is So from Peter Gabriel. I am a great fan of his music and his artistic claim. In fact he is one of the very great influences on modern music who brought world music into the experimental pop sphere.  The most thing I like about it is the idea of bringing the world together musically. And this is what Peter Gabriel did in his World Studios. He invited so many people from all around the world with different cultural backgrounds and created something unique and beautiful. Especially this album and the process of making it must have been some journey to the very roots of musical feel and expression – something I am very interested and open. In fact every human on this planet is doing music. This is something that bonds us. It seems to be some very deep need. And because so many different humans make so many different experiences, music as an expression of these experiences is way more multifarious and versatile than we think in the first place.

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Category: Interviews