One of my favorite band discoveries of the past year was definitely Indukti. If you haven’t investigated their debut album yet then you’re a big-time slacker. And in case you don’t keep up with the band news, you need to check out the latest tune added to their MySpace page - it’s the instrumental version of tusan homichi from their upcoming album (and yes, it is amazing as anticipated). It’ll be interesting to see how it turns out as a finished product with the vocals.

Much thanks to Ewa for taking the time to answer our questions, and of course much thanks to the entire band for creating such awesome music!

Indukti has a unique and somewhat exotic sound, partially because of the violin but also because there seems to be some elements of regional music from around the world. What are some of the artists/genres/styles outside the realms of rock and metal that may have influenced this sound?

There is a lot of music that we are listening to. Every member of Indukti has his own influences, and the mix of it might be the reason of the unique sound that you mentioned. Some of us love funk and classic rock, some are huge fans of Scandinavian metal (Ensiferum, Dimmu Borgir, Wintersun, Meshuggah), also original music from Australia and India. For me the only determinant for music is if it’s heart-breaking and if it moves me. So, in the same time I love Radiohead, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, Sigur Ros, Mr. Bungle and Kobong, Polish Unestimated Band - that unfortunately doesn’t exist anymore.

S.U.S.A.R. has become one of my personal all-time favorite albums. Should I expect similar music for the upcoming release, or will this album branch off into a new direction? Will it again be mostly instrumental?

Yes, it’s still mostly instrumental, but as same as on SUSAR we have some guests on this new album. We worked with great vocalists (Nils Frykdahl from SGM, Maciej Taff from Polish band Rootwater, and Michael Luginbuehl from Swiss band Prisma). Also we invited trumpet player - Robert Majewski, and Marta Maslanka - genius dulcimer player. The music on the album is going rather in the same direction, but it’s more powerful and mature, I think. We are very curious how it’s gonna be received.

Speaking of the next album, when can we expect it to be available to the public?

It will be this year for sure, but we still don’t know the date of premiere. We will make it public on our website and on MySpace as soon as we know it.

S.U.S.A.R. was released in 2005; what have you guys been up to since then? Is Indukti a full-time job for each of you?

Playing this kind of music you can’t afford living. So all of us have to work, to have a regular job. That’s why we can’t be Indukted full time, and that’s why you had to wait for our second album so long. Since 2005 we played lots of concerts, mostly on abroad festivals; we traveled a lot, met lots of fantastic people and played fantastic shows. Thanks to being in Indukti we can visit places we couldn’t visit without playing. This is really great thing :-))

Mariusz Duda offered his vocals for several of the songs on your debut album; is there a relationship between Riverside and Indukti that extends beyond the studio?

Not really, we play completely different kinds of music and we are joined in minds of fans only because we play on the same festivals (but on different editions) and both bands are from Poland. And finally, Mariusz had sang on our first album. We don’t have  expanded stage in Poland, so we can’t even meet on the same stage actually.

While we’re on the subject, have there been any talks of a future Polish invasion of North America? We’d sure love for you to tour the States and bring any friends along.

We’ve been in US, we played on NearFest 2007. That was really fantastic experience. As far as I know, they don’t invite bands for the second show, but we would love to come back to America. We have some contacts. Now everything must wait till second album is released.

The music on S.U.S.A.R. is credited to the band as a whole, not just one or two individuals. Do you have a prescription for writing compositions, or does the band just get together and see what happens?

Usually it is an improvisation on rehearsals in our practice room. Sometimes Indukti guitarists bring some themes, riffs, sometimes our drummer brings a complicated phrase of the rhythm (like in tusan homichi, try it from 3:12 ;-))) ) and we play it, change it, match it, till it’s good enough and ready. It takes time, but we think it’s worth waiting :-))