Herida Profunda Profile and Interview

Band – Herida Profunda

Album – Herida Profunda (2013)

Country of Origin – Poland/UK

Genre – Crust/Grindcore

Author – Hayduke X

Self Titled LP

Chaotic and vicious, Herida Profunda hit the ground running with their debut LP. The quartet, split between Poland and the UK, play the kind of grind that I love. That is, they get all in your face and scream their leftist politics, spittle flying. Mostly I stick to writing about the music, and we’ll get there, but when a band like this comes along, I take the opportunity to share a political thought or two. Herida Profunda are openly against racism, sexism, nazism, and war,  as well as supporting veganism. I’m with them on all of that, sort of, with the exception being that I’m not personally vegan. That’s really only because I have yet to take the stand (hard to do on limited resources with a family), but it may come.

Musically, the self titled LP provides a relatively pure approach to grind. There are vicious guitar licks courtesy of Jedras, bass lines that keep things moving by Gavlish, blast beats aplenty thanks to Jachu, and a couple different vocal styles provided by Edi, including a thicker death growl and a higher scream. With eleven tracks all less than three minutes, Herida Profunda is the musical formula for righteous rage. Hopefully their clarion call is both heard and heeded.

Split with Hellbastard

On their split with Hellbastard, Herida Profunda have clearly grown. This was especially noticeable when listening to the two releases back-to-back. The fifteen tracks featured here are still vicious, in-your-face grind, but they are also more deeply layered. The web this side weaves is intricate and massive. Instead of a few strands of auditory violence, the four legged spider that is Herida Profunda have woven a virtual nest for trapping the beguiled listener for the duration. With every listen, this release grows on me, especially this side. The Polish/UK quartet have created something special. Even their use of TV/radio news samples in Hipokryzja is engaging and serves as a natural ‘catch-your-breath’ moment in an otherwise exhilarating ride.

Split with Hello Bastards

First of all, the cover art is fairly genius. There are two children huddled together with bombs raining down on them. The bombs are labeled NATIONALISM, RACISM, XENOPHOBIA, IGNORANCE, and PROFITS. No need to search for deeper meaning. It’s all layed out right there in front of you. The Herida Profunda side has three tracks at less than six minutes total. Refugees welcome is mostly news samples over their music. The final two are absolute ripper grind tracks that will shred your ear canals. They lean a little further to the deathgrind side here, but have not gone completely that way. Essential tracks in what is becoming an increasingly essential discography.

With only two releases out, you are still a relatively young band.  Can you tell me when, where, and how you formed?

Hi Hayduke. First of all: Thanks for interest in our band 🙂 So the band was formed in my hometown Gorzow in Poland. As I remember it was end of 2011. I was just buzzing to start a new band when my old grindcore band split up in 2008, but for years I couldn’t find anyone suitable in my hometown. We played our first local gig in mid 2012. In 2013, we released the first LP and we played first Euro tour. It was a very busy year for us. Loads of small weekend tours and great memories. Lot of things have changed since then. We have had a few line-up changes. I moved out from my hometown, but it’s still great fun for us so we just move forward 🙂

As I understand it, you are mostly from Poland, but Edi now lives in the UK.  How did that come about and how does that change how you work together as a band?

Yes, it’s complicated with us 🙂 So starting from the beginning: I decided to move out to the UK in June 2014. It was a time when we had 3 members only in the band: I was on vocals, Rafi was on drums and Jedras (who lives in Poznan) was playing guitar. We could not find any bass player so we just decided to continue making new songs and playing gigs. Luckily we managed to find a suitable bass player – and that’s how Gavlish joined the band. It’s worth to mention that Gavlish lives in Zielona Gora, so there was 4 of us in 3 different cities. Unluckily, at the beginning of 2016, Rafi decided to leave the band due to personal reasons, so we had to find a new drummer, because we were planning some festivals and a Euro/UK tour later that year. Jachu decided to try to do some drumming with us and it worked and it’s still working until now 🙂 So now I live in the UK and I have to fly to Poland for band practices and gigs. Gavlish lives in Zielona Gora. Jachu is from Poznan but most of the time he works in Norway, so we can only play gigs and rehearsals when he is in Poland. And Jedras lives in Poznan where he runs his recording studio and is involved in Rozbrat Squat (where we have our band practice). It’s not easy to keep 4 people from different locations together and plan gigs and practices but – don’t ask me why and how because I don’t know 🙂 – it works somehow. For sure we don’t play gigs as often as we use to play. I’m less involved in the music writing process as I’m not present on every band practice. We are not in a rush with anything. We plan gigs and tours well in advance. When we meet, we try to spend every moment on practicing and writing new songs.

What is your inspiration for writing music?  What are your musical influences?

Most of our songs are fast, short and heavy, but we try not to name, label or define the style of music we play. There are 4 of us. The music writing process is quite “democratic”, so everyone is welcome to bring some new riff or idea and we will discuss it. I think labeling music with genres is more a job for the listener or reviewer than for a band. Regarding music influences, there are loads of bands we all like. For sure, if you listen to Jedra’s riffs you will notice a bit of Slayer mixed with Napalm Death. hehehe And I guess that’s ok to all of us 🙂

You recently had a split with Hellbastard released.  What has been the reception to this split?

Yes we decided to release this as picture disc. I know that not everyone is a huge fan of picture discs, but from my point of view, I’m very happy with this release. Based on reviews we received, I think it went quite well. The year after we released the picture disc and CD release in Europe, Give Praise records made a CD press for the USA, so I think that’s the best proof of good reception 🙂

Are you happy with the way it turned out?

Yes, there was a lot of great labels we worked with this release. It was a huge DIY cooperation, and thanks to this, there are more countries where you can get our stuff. This release was a big step forward to us. We managed to play some great festivals and we have some more planned this year.

How does it feel to be able to work with such a well know (in terms of crust) entity as Hellbastard?  How did that come together to share this release with them?

Initially, we planned to release a split with Besthöven, but it didn’t worked our due to Fafao’s problems at that time. We could not communicate very well. We already had labels confirmed for that release. The artwork was ready, so at some point we decided to find another band to share this release with us. I wrote to Scruff and he immediately confirmed, so that was easier than I expected. I also live in the UK. We keep in touch, visit each other, do some weekends out together, so it has become a very cool friendship. What I really like is that Hellbastard is still very passionate about DIY ethics and let’s say “politics”. Scruff was supporting animal rights in 1986 and he does now. He wrote the “nazi killed” song then and it’s still valid today. I know that Hellbastard had some line-up issues (which I think are solved now) and is still moving forward. It’s hard to talk about them in terms of “crust” because their music evolved, but I’m very happy to share a release with them.

Who designed the album cover?  Does is have any particular meaning?

Our side of the cover was designed by Rafal Wechterowicz from Too Many Skulls. Check his work out. He is an awesome artist. He’s a friend of ours and we trust him, so we just came with one idea: “animals revenge on mankind” and let him do whatever he wants because we knew we will not be disappointed. Huge thanks also goes to Cris from Wooaaargh who put everything together for pic LP and CD version.

Describe what a live performance is like for Herida Profunda.

Usually we are tired but happy. We need to travel a lot to get together and then usually we need to drive a lot to get to the place where we play, but then the minute we start, it doesn’t matter anymore. Then it’s time to have fun, play the gig, have a beer, talk to new and old friends 🙂 I really like playing  gigs. I wish we could play more often.  On the other hand, I think we are doing quite well considering the distances between band members.

As I understand it, you are a fairly political band.  What do you stand for?  What do you feel is important?

I think all of us were fairly political even before the band was started, so the statement of the band and what believe in came out naturally. Living in Poland it is almost impossible to be indifferent on what the Polish government is doing. There are ultra-catholic fuck-ups that give the green light to the far right. It’s fucking unbelievable what’s going on sometimes. We all support the antifascist movement. We all feel disgusted with the catholic church in Poland that has nothing to do with any morals or ethics. We all say no to homophobia and islamophobia that have raised their ugly heads in the last few years in Poland.

What do you hope your listeners gain from your music?

As you noticed we are trying to be a political band. We want to talk about things we think are important. We had a discussion years ago on how to get to people / listeners who would really get something from it. When it comes to music, you just like it or not and that’s fine for us as long we enjoy making it. But it’s more about the message… a few years ago we played a gig in Germany. The venue was located in the near distance to a slaughterhouse. You could hear the animals inside. We spent more time talking about it on the stage then playing songs hehehehe but a few months later we received a message from someone who was at that gig saying “I heard what you said. I though about it. I agree and decided to change my diet”. What an awesome feeling that was. Since then, we have this discussion. It’s not a problem to talk about animal rights to vegans or vegetarians – they already know and they are conscious of their decisions. The problem is to get to people who do not have their opinion set yet or are willing to change it if your argument is good enough.

What is the place of politics in music?

There is no place for lack of politics in music 🙂 Ok, I understand that some of the people listen to music just for fun, go to the shows only to get drunk and relax from everyday tasks. Hardcore, punk, crust, grind is rooted deep in activism. It’s a form of protest. This is how I see it. If you don’t want politics in music, try country or some other stuff where people sing about butterflies and teddy bears.

What is the current political situation like in Poland?  How about in the UK?

Poland is currently deep in catholic shit that often gives a green light to far right. It looks like it’s a fashion now to be a nationalist among youngsters, but the example comes from the top… UK is leaving the EU, so that’s interesting from my point of view. You would have thought that this would give some space for racism, but to be honest I don’t see much of that shit here. Maybe because I live in a small town. Anyway, it’s very hard to predict what will happened about Brexit and what will be the consequences. Time will tell..

What does the future hold for the band?  Do you have tours or festival appearances coming up?  Are you working on new music?

We are working on a new release right now. It will be a 7 inch split and hopefully it will be out in July/August this year. We are booked on some nice gigs in Poland: antifascist sport tournament combined with a gig in April and Fuck the Borders Fest in Warsaw in July. In April/ May we team up with Spanish grinders from Himura for a tour in Spain, Basque Country and France. And in August we will play a European tour and we will appear on Monte Paradiso Festival in Croatia and Chimpy Fest in London (fucking exited!! 🙂 ). In the meantime, we are making new songs that will go on our 2nd LP, but for now I think it’s too early to say anything more.

Is there anything else my readers should know about Herida Profunda?

Yes, we would love to play in your country / city / squat / venue so hit us up 🙂
You can check out / download our releases for free @ www.heridaprofunda.bandcamp.com
Thanks for wasting your time reading this interview 🙂