Photo Credit: Tina Korhonen
Instrumental post-metal quartet Telepathy are celebrating the release of their new album Burn Embrace, the follow-up to 2017’s Tempest which saw the band touring alongside the likes of Sólstafir and Saint Vitus. Combining a hefty mix of sludge, doom and blackened metal, we caught up with guitarist Piotr Turek to find out more about the band’s interesting back story, their wide range of influences and more.
Firstly, tell us a bit about yourself and your band.
Hi, my name is Piotr and I play guitar in the cinematic sludge metal band Telepathy. We’re predominantly an instrumental four-piece that released our last album Tempest in 2017, and in the exciting last couple of years you may have seen us touring across the UK and Europe alongside the likes of Sólstafir, Saint Vitus, Bongripper and Rosetta, or at festivals such as Roadburn, ArcTanGent and Desertfest among others. We have a new record, Burn Embrace, which has just been released.
How did the band form and how long have you been together?
Well, kind of a long story!
Myself and my two brothers Albert and Krystian were born in a small fishing village in the north of Poland. All we ever wanted to do growing up was to play in a band. Touring and writing albums was our main aim, and at that time doing this on an international level was very difficult, if not unheard of, in Poland. So in 2005, I made the drastic decision to move to England.
Moving countries was not easy and it took a few years to become settled. In 2010 my brother Albert and I decided to go to a local music tech college, where we met Richard for the first time. We clicked very quickly, and since our first practice together we haven’t looked back.
We released our debut mini-album 12 Areas in 2014. After a few successful tours supporting the release, Krystian decided to leave the band. To this day he is one of our main supporters and often joins us on tour, to help document the shows.
Following this, our friend Ted joined as our permanent bass player and we recorded Tempest with Jaime Gomez Arellano (Solstafir, Paradise Lost, Myrkur, Cathedral) in 2017. From here things went kind of nuts, we’ve toured with some of our heroes, played festivals all over Europe and haven’t really been off the road since!
Can you remember the first time you realised you wanted to make music?
It’s actually one of the first memories I have. I remember listening to Queen and Dire Straits records at night in my bed on an old tape player. There was always music in our house, bands like Black Sabbath, Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin were part of my parent’s record collection. My older brother had a big influence on me, he bought the Metallica – Ride The Lightning tape, and as soon as I heard it I knew I wanted to be in a band.
Who and what are the band’s main influences?
As a band, we’re influenced by all sorts of music, from good old rock and electronica to some of the great classical composers. It was actually a similar taste in music that brought us together as friends to begin with. As for our listening habits, it could be anything from Run The Jewels, Slayer, Chelsea Wolfe, Darkthrone and Neurosis, to Bohren & der Club of Gore, PJ Harvey, Bjork and more. On the whole, we are attracted to heavy and unique, emotionally visceral music.
What do you aim to achieve as a band?
Our aim? To never stop being a band, to keep touring and writing new records. We love what we do, and we’re always looking for the most intense and emotional manifestation of our music.
For those who are yet to see you live, what can they expect from a Telepathy show?
We’ve been told many times that our live show is like a wall of sound, a huge wave of emotion that’s about to crush you – and I like that! I can honestly say that we give 120% each night, and we do it because we love connecting with those people who come out to the shows. I honestly believe you can’t match the intensity and human interaction of a live show, and being able to share this music and journey with everyone is a huge part of why we do this.
What’s next for Telepathy?
Personally, I’m already thinking about writing the next record, but before this can happen we will be out there touring hard with Burn Embrace. We’re very pleased and proud of this new record and we’re focusing on bringing it to as many people as possible. Right now we’re rehearsing for another year of touring and we have a lot of cool announcements coming for our fans across the UK and Europe! Thanks for reading and listening!
Telepathy‘s new album Burn Embrace is out now via Svart Records, available to purchase HERE.
