Interview with Subscribe singer Máté Tilk

I recently had the chance to speak with Máté Tilk, singer for the Hungarian metal band Subscribe, about their new disc Bookmarks. This is a band I was recently turned on to and I have quite honestly been listening to them ever since. At its foundation, they are a metal band (a strong one at that), but dig a bit deeper and you’ll find many musical layers at work that make their music multidimensional and so much more. Here’s how the conversation went.

The packaging for your latest disc, Bookmarks, is quite intricate and detailed. Where did the idea for this come from? Who created the artwork and is there a concept behind it all?
Máté: Yes there’s a concept behind the record, every song is dedicated to one of our members. Every song is telling a story about our life, which is playing an anchor, a bookmark role in our life. This is why we decided to make the artwork and packaging in a book alike way and name the album Bookmarks. The artwork was done by a young Hungarian talented guy, called Joci Barnabas (www.bjgraphics.hu), who is usually responsible for our visual outfit.

Are you happy with the way Bookmarks came out?
Máté: I am, in every manner. This is our third full-length album and it truly manifests our way of thinking about music. Our previous two albums were a bit like a compilation of our past, but this is different now. This is what we’re now, what we feel and live in. On the releasing week we were high fliers of the Hungarian top 40, which was a very unique situation, cause this kind of music is not so popular here. This is still a subculture/underground style.

What lyrical themes do you cover?
Máté: Every song is part of our life. Mostly the songs are about a loss of an important relationship, a love or someone’s relative. This album starts with a trilogy’s second and last part what we started on our previous EP. The trilogy is my story, where I fight with my own feelings inside, represented in a metaphor, which is an early medieval knight story. Every person in the story is a feeling inside and the story line is one of the hardest parts of my life ever. There’s “Gay Rodeo” which is about Balint, our other singer. It’s like singing to a mirror. He’s facing himself in this song, it’s a self-knowledge analysis. Why and how he lives his sometimes selfish life. If you read the lyrics during listening you’ll get a piece from our private life and you’ll be able to feel the same and get your own conclusions which can help you through various situations.

I have never been to Hungary, what is the hard rock/metal scene like there? Do you find support from you fellow countrymen?
Máté: Yes, we’re in a very lucky position that we could have reached here what we did. We’re quite a big name in our country and in the surrounding ones also. The Hungarian rock/metal scene is a bit odd and old school, but we could manage to get respect. We and a good community of bands managed to build up a very strong and crowded core around us in the last 10 years, so these days ordinary rock music listeners are more open to new. I admit our music is not the easiest one to understand and to take in, but if you give a chance, you won’t be disappointed.

When you have some free time and the band is off the road what do you like to do?
Máté: Well, for me it’s not so usual that I have free time. Besides the band I live an “average normal guy” life. I’m an electrical engineer, who’s working for IBM, thus I have limited time, but drinking is one of my favorite hobbies.

What is the toughest lesson you ever learned in the studio and on the stage?
Máté: Well, I think for every musician one of the toughest lessons is when you realize that you can never be prepared enough for the studio and it doesn’t matter how hard you worked in the rehearsal room and the last point/stage of a song is when you push the stop button. On stage, as for me, it is essential to pay attention to your health, since none of the gigs worth to get injured and go to hospital. Unfortunately, there were several cases when my concert ended on a hospital bed right from stage, because I broke my leg or just cut up my half face…

I feel like this record takes chances artistically. How hard is it to take chances with your music in an industry that is declining?
Máté: I think our music is able to show new ways to those who got bored of usual rock and roll. I feel and see the change of metal/rock music and how it’s getting more to the background, getting a bit into crisis and the mainstream styles are now mainly electronic ones. For instance, nowadays I listen to electronic music more often than I did in the past, but electronic music will never be able to give the same atmosphere as instrumental rock and roll does. The present and future of instrumental rock/metal music is a kind of fusion with electronic styles, but instruments will never disappear. As people get more complex music, they learn more from music and this developing process will never end and this is good. Good music always evolved, always will and it always should.

What kind of touring plans do you have in store for this year? Are you playing any festivals at all?
Máté: We’re quite an active band, only the first half of this year is sleepy for us. We’ll start touring from May mostly in our home country, but there will be gigs in other European countries, too. Naturally, if someone would like to see us in the States, we won’t refuse it.

What is next for Subscribe?
Máté: The present is to concentrate a bit more on ourselves and develop our stage work. The future is to get our music spread to a more international/wider audience.

Check out the song: “Anxiety Found Shape in Contradictions – Act II. Delusion”