Listen to the new Maciej Meller's song from his first solo album ZENITH!!!
Album is set to release September 18th 2020.
“Taking care of the melodies, color and articulation will probably always be the key issue for me. However it's also a matter of me always trying to adapt my instrument to a composition, to my state of mind and emotions which come out. A song, its atmosphere or the content somehow impose my perception of the way I lead my instrument.
It's not all sunshine and lollipops :) There's pain, joy, reflection, anger..." - excerpt from the interview for 'Gitarzysta' magazine.
Tracklist:
I. Aside
II. Knife
III. Plan B
IV. Zenith
V. Frozen
VI. Fox
VII. Trip
VIII. Magic
Maciej Meller – guitars, mandolin, whistle
Krzysztof Borek – vocals
Robert Szydło – bass guitars
Łukasz Damrych – keyboards
Łukasz Sobolak – drums
and
Szymon Paduszyński – backing vocals on “Plan B”
All music by Maciej Meller
Except “Trip” music by Mariusz Duda and Maciej Meller
All lyrics by Krzysztof Borek
All tracks recorded between Junuary and June 2020
Drums and vocals recorded at Paputek Studio by Szymon Paduszyński
Acoustic guitars recorded at Alaskan Studio by Wojciech Piotrowski
Electric guitars recorded at JNS Studio by Paweł Grabowski
Produced by Maciej Meller
Mixed & mastered by Robert Szydło
Language consulting by Anna Gancarczyk
Photos by Kaja Sosnowska, Anna Gancarczyk
Maciej’s photo by Bartłomiej Hałat
Artwork and design by Kaja Sosnowska, Łukasz Pach
Dear Italian fans, local authorities have just decided to cancel all the public events in some areas (coronavirus), including Milan and Treviso, until March 1st. We are incredibly sorry but this means we won’t be able to see each other during the “With the Sun Tour”. We’ll try to return to Italy as soon as possible and are already looking into the options.
***
Cari fan italiani, le autorità locali hanno deciso di cancellare qualsiasi tipo di evento pubblico in alcune aree (coronavirus), incluse Milano e Treviso, fino al primo di marzo compreso. Siamo terribilmente dispiaciuti ma questo significa che non saremo in grado di vederci durante il “With the Sun Tour”. Proveremo a tornare il prima possibile e stiamo già pensando ad alternative future.
News from Mariusz: Before I play the first concerts of the last leg of the "Wasteland Tour" with Riverside, and before I reveal some information about the new, seventh Lunatic Soul album, on which I've been working for a year, let me share with you the title of the first ever song I'm going to release under "MD".
"The Song of a Dying Memory". It is the beginning of a special cycle I'm calling "subcutaneous songs", or "adherent songs". New compositions will be released every few months and they will be characterised by... a gentler form and low-key vocals (at least the first two of them :))
"Subcutaneous songs" signed by my own name will be released only digitally for now. Thanks to that I will be able to share them with you during the breaks between Riverside and Lunatic Soul activities, without causing chaos or interference with the other music worlds.
With the release of the first song, you will also be able to visit a new website, where all my music achievements are finally organised in one place.
The release of "The Song of a Dying Memory" has been planned for mid March. More information will follow soon!
Thank you very much for so many warm words and your support, which I've been experiencing since Saturday, but actually since the beginning of my appearance in Riverside...It's been wonderful but sometimes tough 3 years. Especially at the beginning. We all had to plunge into a new situation and obviously the river flows continuously. But I think to myself that good and solid things are not easily created. They require hard work, mindfulness and simply some time. And this is happening right now.
I am so happy to be a part of Riverside team.
I would like to thank all of the wellwishers of the band for your kind words adressed to me.
I would also like to thank the Shelters from the Fanclub, especially for the Saturday - it was a great pleasure to share the moment with you.
To our crew - I am so grateful for introducing me to this Riverside world of stage adventures and surprises.
Big thanks to Mariusz, Michał and Mitek for their trust, and Grudzień for the piece of himself and the passion that he left with us.
My deepest thanks go to my dear family - my wife, my daughters and parents-in-law, because it is the hardest thing for them and they still did support my decision simply for me to be in the professional world doing what I was best at, this being playing the guitar...
I might not manage to respond to all the posts and comments, but I’m grateful to each and every one of you for them. The last shows of ‘Wasteland Tour’ are ahead of us, there will be plenty of occasions to show gratitude.
Dear friends, this is an incredibly important moment in the history of our band. From the beginning of February 2020, Riverside are officially not a trio any more, we are a quartet! It is with incredible joy that we would like to announce that the fourth official member of the band is...
Well, you can't have expected anyone else? :)
He's been with us for over three years. He let us recover from the tragic loss we have all experienced, he helped us survive and become, from year to year, a better and better live band. He has been our friend and our brother. We are welcoming him in our midst with great joy, in which we hope you will also share!
Ladies and gentlemen, on the guitars in Riverside: Maciej Meller!
Being a good guitarist and loving music is one thing, but being able to fit in with your personality, incredible modesty and humility, that's an incredibly important thing in our band. Maciej meets all the criteria and we are truly happy that he wants to continue our journey with us.
***
We still remember. And we still go back to the moment when, after we lost Piotr, in 2016, the massive amount of your support made us continue as Riverside. We were not ready to invite anyone to our family at that time. "Wasteland" had to be recorded as a trio. We simply had to cope with the loss on our own.
Now, it's high time for Riverside to have a guitarist in the line-up again, not only during live shows but also in the studio, when working on new material. So we are really pleased to let you know that after coming back from the final, spring edition of the Wasteland Tour 2020, together with Maciek, in the new line-up, we will start working on the eighth album.
The upcoming spring concerts will have a different character, a different tone, and Riverside will sound mightier than ever before. We would really like to see you there!
Last but not least - Piotr Grudziński will always be in our hearts, we all still love him and we will never forget him. But we have to move on. We are on a journey, they are waiting for us. There is more to create in this life, more to see, more to know, more to save. We hope that you will decide to stay with us again and that you will let us help one another through all of this.
We’re coming closer to the big finale of our 'wasteland adventure'. The surround edition of the album with a bonus 'Acoustic Session' EP will be out in four weeks (29.11.2019), and the final concerts of the 'Wasteland Tour' have already been announced for March and April 2020. But let’s start with the new clip to our title composition, created by our friends from Sightsphere.
'Wasteland' is without a doubt one of our most important releases, thanks to which the band was born again. We’d like to thank all of you who have made it possible.
And so we are returning with the final edition of Wasteland Tour. The last shows in Europe promoting our seventh studio album will take place in countries where the sun shines on a regular basis, hence the name of the tour - WASTELAND - WITH THE SUN TOUR 2020. We're counting on the sun to come out already in February and March :)
In our song "Acid Rain" you can hear the following words:
Living in a fallen land
With fallen minds
In an uncertain place without the sun
Where are we now?
Well, firstly, in this case, “without” wouldn’t make sense, secondly - if we still don't know where we are now, we know for sure where we will be in February and March 2020 :) We are truly happy to be going back to Spain, Italy, the Balkans, and finally, after a few (too many) years of absence, to Greece and Turkey.
We're preparing for you: a new setlist and lots of surprises!
See you in the following places:
26.02 - MADRID, MON LIVE, ES
27.02 - BARCELONA, SALAMANDRA 1. ES
29.02 - MILANO, LEGEND CLUB, IT - canceled
01.03 - TREVISO, NEW AGE CLUB, IT - canceled
03.03 - LJUBLJANA, KINO ŠIŠKA, SL
05.03 - ZAGREB, TVORNICA KULTURE, HR
06.03 - NOVI SAD, POZORIŠTE MLADIH, RS
07.03 - THESSALONIKI, PRINCIPAL CLUB THEATER, GR
08.03 - ATHENS, GAGARIN 205 LIVE MUSIC SPACE, GR
10.03 - ISTANBUL, ZORLU PAC, TR
11.03 - SOFIA, MUSIC JAM CLUB, BG
12.03 - BUCHAREST, QUANTIC CLUB, RO
13.03 - CLUJ-NAPOCA, /FORM SPACE, RO
15.03 - BUDAPEST, BARBA NEGRA, HU
„Shrine of New Generation Slaves”, our fifth studio effort, will be reissued in gatefold double picture disc LP, with printed inner sleeves limited to 500 units. Release date - 31th of January 2020.
And so we've been talked into this yet again. It's our second encounter, after LFTM, with the surround sound. We're hoping that revisiting this release in a different dimension will bring you a lot of joy and positive feelings, especially that we're still touring with this material. As a bonus, we have prepared a few acoustic tracks in quite surprising arrangements.
We're hoping it will be an interesting experience!
***
A special edition 2CD+DVD version of the “Wasteland” album is scheduled for release on November 29th, 2019 via InsideOutMusic.
The ”Wasteland - Hi-Res Stereo and Surround Mix” 2CD+DVD will be released as Digipack format with Slipcase and includes a DVD bonus disc of “Wasteland” as Hi-Res Stereo 24bit version and as Surround Mix, plus 3 video clips („Lament”, „River Down Below”, „Wasteland”).
This special edition also contains 5 previously unreleased acoustic versions on a separate CD.
1. Vale of Tears - Acoustic (05:18)
2. Out of Myself - Acoustic (03:57)
3. 02 Panic Room - Acoustic (03:26)
4. River Down Below - Acoustic (05:01)
5. Wasteland - Live Intro (09:00)
It's not through studio releases but through live performances that many people have become Riverside fans.
If you haven't seen a concert we've played, we simply haven't met yet :)
***
We live in times of big live productions, stunning light effects, bigger and bigger LED walls and multimedia presentations. Tracks are meticulously programmed, which often leaves no room for improvisation and turns them into background music illustrating what happens on the screen. Hopefully, the latter will never happen to us.
Obviously, we care about the visuals during our concerts, but... it's not the most important element to us.
The most important element is YOU.
And us :)
We want to feel good on stage. We want to have fun, which is why we often allow changes, improvisations, modified versions of tracks. And just like our music is mostly about melodies, our concerts are mostly about interaction. The contact between each of us on stage and between the band and the audience.
If you're thinking of going to our concert and you'd like it to be an experience of the "close-your-eyes, sip-wine-on-the-couch and get-peacefully-immersed-in-the-music" kind, you've got the wrong band :)
Riverside concerts are charged with rock energy. The sound is more powerful than on studio releases. (Looks like we've always been metalheads at heart ;) ) Luckily, there's also room for reflection, for what gives us more than just physical pleasure. At some point, you get this special something that makes both us and everyone who comes to see us, experience a kind of "catharsis", something that fills us all with energy lasting for many days after the concert.
We'd been looking for this sort of balance for many years, more or less successfully. Until we hit a different dimension with our "Wasteland Tour". From the first concerts in the autumn of 2018, we've been trying to understand what makes it different. A change of the setlist? More people at our shows? New venues? No, that's not all. Each of us feels that everything's different now, that it's all more... substantial, more on point and, most of all, incredibly good ;)
And now we’d like to bring you some inner balance with our live shows, we’d like them to be a kind of ritual allowing you to connect with us and achieve mental equilibrium. Because, frankly, the studio releases are there to fill the gaps and help you survive between tours ;)
***
We'd like to thank everyone who has already come to see us live during "Wasteland Tour". We'd like to thank you for your loyalty, love, support and trust.
The American and Canadian concerts? WOW. That was one of our biggest adventures and journeys through all the possible states of mind ;) We've already said that, but we will say it again: you were truly amazing. And we promise again to go back to the other side of the pond as soon as possible.
We'd like to thank you all from the bottom of our hearts for coming to see us during the American Edition of the Wasteland Tour. Six shows behind us, 18 ahead, but what we can already say for sure is that your unbounded energy is truly motivating and inspiring for us. We feel younger and stronger, and our shows have never been so charged before. See you soon in the following venues:
10.05. Philadelphia, PA - World Cafe Live
11.05. Brooklyn, NY - Warsaw
12.05. Cambridge, MA - The Sinclair
14.05. Quebec City, QC - Salle Sylvain Lelièvre
15.05. Montreal, QC - Club Soda
17.05. Toronto, ON - Mod Club
18.05. Detroit, MI - Magic Stick
19.05. Chicago, IL - Chop Shop & 1st Ward
20.05. St. Louis, MO - Delmar Hall
22.05. Dallas, TX - Gas Monkey Bar & Grill
24.05. Boulder, CO - Boulder Theater
25.05. Salt Lake City, UT - Metro Music Hall
27.05. Phoenix, AZ - Crescent Ballroom
28.05. Pomona, CA - The Glass House
29.05. San Francisco, CA - Slim's
31.05. Portland, OR - Hawthorne Theatre
01.06. Vancouver, BC - The Rickshaw Theatre
02.06. Seattle, WA - The Crocodile
RIVERSIDE - Wasteland North American Tour 2019
Special guest: Contrive
03.05. Atlanta, GA - City Winery
04.05. Lake Park, FL - Kelsey Theater
05.05. Sarasota, FL - Opera House / Rosfest
06.05. Carrboro, NC - Cat's Cradle
07.05. Baltimore, MD - Baltimore Soundstage
09.05. Jersey City, NJ - White Eagle Hall
10.05. Philadelphia, PA - World Cafe Live
11.05. Brooklyn, NY - Warsaw
12.05. Cambridge, MA - The Sinclair
14.05. Quebec City, QC - Salle Sylvain Lelièvre
15.05. Montreal, QC - Club Soda
17.05. Toronto, ON - Mod Club
18.05. Detroit, MI - Magic Stick
19.05. Chicago, IL - Chop Shop & 1st Ward
20.05. St. Louis, MO - Delmar Hall
22.05. Dallas, TX - Gas Monkey Bar & Grill
24.05. Boulder, CO - Boulder Theater
25.05. Salt Lake City, UT - Metro Music Hall
27.05. Phoenix, AZ - Crescent Ballroom
28.05. Pomona, CA - The Glass House
29.05. San Francisco - CA, Slim's
31.05. Portland, OR - Hawthorne Theatre
01.06. Vancouver, BC - The Rickshaw Theatre
02.06. Seattle, WA - The Crocodile
"Wasteland Tour 2018/2019" has definitely been our best one yet in very many respects. The autumn edition of 2018 was our greatest success and this year's spring leg has only added to that. It was really lovely to meet all of our friends and we'd like to thank you here for your support, devotion, and loyalty. It was also a great pleasure to meet those of you who came to our shows for the first time. A lot of you are quite young (not only at heart!), which means we must be doing alright. All in all, we've received a massive load of positive energy and made memories that will stay with us for ever.
A big thanks also goes to Lesoir for being excellent companions and playing great shows. We wish you every success!
Thank you, Europe, for this wonderful time. Naturally, we're going to see each other here and there during a few summer festivals and one-off concerts, and then, in September, at more intimate shows in Poland and Germany, but another big European tour won't happen until after the release of our new album.
Meanwhile, we're getting ready for our biggest tour in the USA and Canada. Hey, you, on the other side of the Pond, do you still remember us?
Our warmest regards to all of you. Thanks for being with us.
