Getting to Know…Weesp | Interview

Dmitry Budko (“Mi”) of Belarus alternative post-metal band Weesp unveils ‘the goods’ about the band to The Musical Hype on interview #9. 

Ah, it’s so sweet to get to know more about a wide variety of musicians.  Here, at The Musical Hype, genre has always been secondary – why pigeonhole when there’s so much to like? Following interview #8 (electronic artist Restless Modern), we shift to Weesp, an alternative post-metal band from Minsk, Belarus.  Representing the band is bassist Dmitry “Mi” Budko, feeling us in on ‘the goods’. Fasten your seatbelts for the wild ride that is interview #9!

Brent Faulkner, The Musical Hype (BF): Let’s get this started off right. For those who may not be familiar with you, what would you say makes you/your band distinct or unique? How do you rock the audience’s socks off?

Mi, Weesp: From the very foundation of our band, we were aiming to create our own music not limited by the frames of a certain genre and its rules. I think it’s also dictated by the way we write songs – we always experiment a lot, and each band member participates in decision making. I have to admit on the other hand it often makes the process of songwriting rather stressful thing, but we believe it makes the music more diverse and interesting. And we recently decided to go further in this tendency – we are preparing some new singles to release by the end of the year, and I feel they are way more progressive.

BF: Okay, let’s explore some juicy backstories. How did your band form and what were some of the goals or the visions you had as a band early on?

Mi: No mystery legend here. We were teenagers who loved to drink beer in a garage, so that’s where it all started. And almost no band members (except the drummer) were never changed during Weesp’s life path. So, we are like a big family. Our goals back there were simple – record a demo and play few gigs in front of our friends.

BF: Let’s talk more about goals.  Have your goals or your perspectives changed since first starting out? What do your aspirations or goals look like now?

Mi: After we achieved our first goals (simple demos and playing small gigs back in 2000’s), it went further – through recording of long play albums on major studios to headlining open air festivals. Now our main goal is to write and release our third album, go on EU and UK tours, and, engage more fans.  Also, one of our goals is to get to some of top festivals to perform there.  Well, it’s all about being heard, and to be closer to our listeners. This is our main goal during all the time we are on the stage.

BF: Everybody is influenced by somebody else. Who would you consider some of your biggest musical influences and how are they influential?

Mi: There’s a lot of the influences. Back in the days we were highly influenced by RHCP [Red Hot Chili Peppers], Tool, Muse and stuff like that. We also like some industrial and electronic stuff like NIN [Nine Inch Nails] and darker and sludgy stuff like Behemoth or Neurosis. However, we strive to create our own unique sound.

BF: Ah, the fun stuff.  What’s your craziest tour story or the wackiest thing that’s happened during a performance?  Feel free to be creative.

Mi: Here is the story. Lex [Alexei Falco, vocals/piano] loves to climb on stuff that stand on the scene. It might be amplifiers, drums, loudspeakers and etc. The most wild and funny climbing was when we were playing our solo a show in Zyrardow (The Void Tour 2016 in Poland). We played in a club where audience can watch the show from two floors. And I don’t know why but on one of our songs Lex decided to climb to the 2nd floor straight from the scene using amplifiers for it. That was awesome. The funniest thing was that then he didn’t even have an idea how to get off from there. Finally, he made it while listening to a snare roll like in a circus.

BF: Up until this point in your career, what would you describe as your favorite song you’ve recorded or performed live? What makes that song special?

Mi: That’s really an interesting question – actually I know that each of us would name different song if we had to, but truth is that different tracks are favorite in different moments of time. “Black Sails”, “Who We Are”, and “Illumination” are the songs that we really love, they are actually fully stand for the topic we discussed in previous question. Actually, more or less, all of them do. “Not Over”, “Roads, Hotels”, and “The Stream” are more personal and emotionally expressive, “Monsters” and “After Us” are more into a game of contrasts that we always love to play.

We are really keen on knowing what people think about these songs and I’d like to use an opportunity to say that we are always happy to get any feedback, it’s extremely important for us, so feel free to engage our social media and other platforms and let us know what you think!

BF: Is there anything else awesome, cool, or left of center the world should know about you? Secret talents or surprising tidbits?

Mi: We try not to drink alcohol or use anything else before the shows. Also, we always do a small stretching and warming up before going on stage as if we don’t – everything hurts the next day and we can’t be good on stage the next day. It looks funny.  And yeah, I think we are good on stage, so you definitely should check us out if we’ll play in your city.

BF: Closing this thing out, what is you/your band currently working on, promoting that you can share with us or want us to know about? We love secrets, but there’s no pressure.

Mi: Actually, we have released a new album and few music videos this year. You can check them on iTunes or Spotify, or have a look on our YouTube channel. Now we are almost finished the acoustic album which is going to be released early 2019 and also an all new single or even EP album to show some pieces of a new album we are working on right now. Should be cool, so stay in touch.

BF: Thank you so much for sharing taking the time to answer these questions, and best of luck moving forward.

Mi: This was Mi of Weesp. Thank you for your attention! Stay true to yourself and to what you believe in! Follow Weesp at social media and stay in touch.

Weesp links:

https://www.youtube.com/weespwilldestroyus

https://www.facebook.com/weespband/

Check our albums here:

https://weesp.bandcamp.com/

https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/weesp/id925286149

Photo Credit: Weesp