Planet Caladan: My congratulations after the excellent concert!

Peter Pejtsik: Thank you very much! The audience was very nice for us!

PC: Let's start with the After Crying history: When was it founded, who was the originator?

PP: I guess it would be the best and the shortest if you visit our web-site, where you can read a long history about the band and find out every detail. But in short I can tell you that it was founded in 1986. We started playing concerts after a 4-month rehearsal-period. We released our first official album "Overground Music" in 1990. In the following two years there were many changes in the line-up, but somehow the core behind the band remained the same. The band's actual origins draw back to 1978. Some of us: Gábor Egervári, Tamás Görgényi, Csaba Vedres, our guitar player Ferenc Torma, and the guy who makes our covers - Kornél Beleznai, were classmates in the secondary school, and they played in a lot of bands. I was not in their school, I went to a music school. All the new members came from music academies and conservatories.

PC: Tell me now about your early influences and inspirations. When putting the band together, did you want to play certain kind of music, or were you just experimenting?

PP: No, we founded After Crying for a certain aim to create the real classical music of our age - because the so-called modern classical music is not modern any longer, and it's not easily understood by people. Actually, I wouldn't say that *our* music is easily understood by people, but at least there is a chance that normal people will understand it. So we did not agree what the modern composers locking themselves away, we wanted to keep connection with the audience and we were looking for those influences which would make us possible to build up a language, which could be used for talking to people and could be understood. And still we could talk about serious and real things about world. So it shouldn't be a cheap language, it should be complex enough to tell poems and music, not only normal ordinary speech, to tell serious things about philosophy, but still it is very important that people understand it. So we found what was called art-rock or symphonic rock. The main influences were King Crimson and Emerson, Lake & Palmer. These two bands were the great masters for us, we learned a lot from them about using elements from classical music and modern music to create a new sense, a new synthesis. In 1996 we decided to follow the progressive music path, because there was the audience that appreciated us most, who was most open to our ideas. It was certainly a good decision.

PC: Does this mean that at the beginning you were oriented mainly towards classical music and then started to combine it with rock?

PP: No, I believe the orientation of the band is the same since we found it!

PC: Well, the albums are quite different...

PP: Yes, they are all different. You see if they were not different, why to release them? This may be one criticism for us that all the albums are different, but I think the worst criticism would be that all the albums are the same!

PC: I agree with you absolutely!

PP: So I don't think it is a different music, I think it's only a different orchestration, a different point of view of the same basic idea, which is NOT AT ALL a musical idea. It is a philosophical and theological idea about the world, about people, the God and the connection of these three.

PC: Was it the message that you want to convey to people that made you use English as the main language in your songs?

PP: Yes, sure. It is very important for us that people understand us. Yes, there are lots of instrumental pieces, but when we do sing or say some words, then it is very important for us that people understand it. These lyrics are not you know, blah-blah, we write lyrics when we really want to convey something. So you are right, this is why we want to sing in English.

PC: I have to tell you that some people prefer Hungarian, even when they don't understand it. I think that not many people are able to concentrate on the music and lyrics at the same time, especially when hearing it live.

PP: Still we would like to give them a chance. This particular concert will be transmitted by radio and many people will listen to it. I hope that at least 10% of them will concentrate on the lyrics. Maybe they will record it, listen to it again and get nearer to the point we are talking about all the time.

PC: Back to the band itself - what do you apart from After Crying? I suppose it is not you main activity in life.

PP: Why do you suppose it?

PC: Well, I know how it usually is with such bands like you...

PP: Yes, unfortunately it cannot be our main activity. On the other hand, I think it is very important for me and for the other members as well to have some other activities, because if you see a typical history of these big bands, they usually last something like 7-8 years, when all the members are creative people. Then they disband, come together again and make new records... I have a theory about that - it is because they concentrate on the common business too much and they cannot put all their ideas into it. After 6-8 years it becomes more important for the members to express their own ideas because they didn't have the chance in the band. So they disband because they feel they want to play their own music. So I think this is very good with After Crying that we all do different things in the same time. This is the reason that we could be together for 14 years.

PC: And it is not getting boring!

PP: Yeah, and there are not many ideas in the background wanting to come forth, breaking the whole band. So I think it's healthy to keep up some other projects. I for one orchestrate symphony music for films and pop industry, some other guys are teaching in high schools, instrument and theory, others play in other bands, we have an Irish-music band with Ferenc and an Irish-man. Gregory releases our records as well. It all helps to balance the different parts of the band.

PC: You said that you opened yourselves to the progressive rock scene, you visit festivals and are getting applauded everywhere. What is your opinion on the current state of the scene, basing on the bands that you have heard?

PP: Politely or honestly?

PC: Honestly! Is it progressing musically, or does it have to progress somewhere?

PP: Well, it does not progress. What I think is that the second wave of progressive music, "neo-progressive" as it is called, is not at all as good as the first wave of progressive music, as the old, good bands. There is a bunch of groups, that are very skilled, very clever, but still not many of them have the ability to compose really good, high-class music. But I don't usually listen to progressive music. Actually I don't listen to too much music at home at all. But I have to tell you that the audience of these bands is the best! I do think that the audience will find out what I'm. Talking about now, and I start to fee l that this big swell of progressive music that started in 1993-94, will cease. We never wanted to play progressive music, we started to call it progressive because this way we found these people, and I'm very happy that we found these people. But we keep working on our own way, which now includes a project with a symphony orchestra. We just played a second concert with them in Budapest, which was a great success! It is not a big symphony orchestra, because we have to keep things going easily and fast. It's something like 40 people on stage.

PC: Is this orchestral project your next release plan?

PP: Now we played a retrospective program of symphonic songs that are already on the records. Some of them retained their original orchestration, some were re-orchestrated for orchestra and us, and there were some new pieces as well. We are planning to work with this project and to involve this orchestra in the next album. Maybe we will record it live, but we haven't decided yet. I have to tell you that this is not a regular symphony orchestra, these people are all our friends that we worked together on the records, who were our school-friends and classmates. So this is a fantastic orchestra, everybody wants the same thing, because they do understand what we want! This is a really hard-working, very clever and very talented young orchestra.

PC: It sounds really interesting and I will be very much looking forward to the possible release!

PP: And I really hope that people will realise that this is the real contemporary music!

PC: What are your nearest plans from now on?

PP: The day after tomorrow we will play the last concert of the Millenium (laughing) for After Crying. Then we finish playing concerts, and start working on the new record, start composing, rehearsing. We don't plan to play any concerts until Spring-time, when we want to prepare a new program for the orchestral project and play a couple of gigs in the current line-up. We have some invitations for the festivals. One of them is the American NEARFest, the next one is in France, and there are a couple of other ones. So we may put together a small and short European and North-American tour. I don't think this time we will go to Mexico, because we have to work on the record. Usually to put together an After Crying record it takes 11 months. So we are really in time to start working on it if we want to release it next Autumn.

PC: Well, I don't want to take too much of your time, thank you for the interview and the special welcome for the Planet visitors!

Polshack