Hatifnats

Hatifnats - before it is too late

At the beginning these guys from Warsaw were considered as a next hope of native indie-pop. However, the Hatifnats is not a next seasonal revelation, but a mature, completely individual band with its own artistic vision. Fortunately, their debut has not much in common with current trends, but it is much closer to the romantic ideal of music which should be enjoyed consciously and seriously.
Beautiful, subtle and sad vocal instead of disco punk pastiche? Almost religious flame in place of blasé “rock’n roll pose”? Guitar reverb effects and new wave bass than glamour choirs and synth riffs? And even this “Hallelujah” in the “World 2”? The Hatifnats has enough pride and self-confidence so that they don’t give in to the common terror of distancing irony. In that sense, it is consciously not contemporary group. Music is something more for them than social and ambient code. They want to enjoy the music with the power of first teenage, life and esthetic revelations. “When you are teenager, it is the most intensive period of your life and then you feel the music much more stronger” – said Michał Pydo which is vocalist and guitarist of the band. “As a teenager I was really shy and I liked to escape to my own world. I listened to the Cure, Cocteau Twins and other artists from 4AD and it has formed my music sensitivity. It is hard to immagine that this could not exist in the Hatifnat’s music. When you totally absorb music, it simply comes into your blood and it’s impossible to fight with it”.
They don’t hide their music inspirations. It can be added a list of shoegazing musicians, like Slowdive, the Ride, Icelandic Sigur Rós and Jeff Buckley and maybe also new wave Madame. The echo of this kind of music could be heard on the “Before It Is Too Late”, but Hatifnats is looking for his own language and never goes back to stylization. They prefer to use inspirations to create their own, original and equivocal expression. They are not up-to-date, because they don’t calculate. Their big power is not erudition, experience or taste, but – what a hackneyed word – emotion, because the “Before It Is Too Late” is a shamelessly romantic disc. Sometimes it is subtle and charming, but often anxious with its new wave atmosphere and noise of guitars. Focused, romantic and hypnotic. “I know that it might sound banal, but these compositions are very emotional, from the bottom of heart. They are not planned, but they arise by instinct and emotion” – admits the leader of the band. Altough the Hatifnats sometimes sounds epic and sublime, they manage to avoid pretentious pomposity. Melancholic tune and “climate” are balanced by strong rock section and guitar’s “dirt”. “I think that we are on the right side of highness” – Michał is laughing. “At concerts we are searching for some primary rock energy. However, we intended to create a little different album from our concert face. We wanted that our work on the disc wouldn’t be just a formality, but also a fascinating experience. We were open to different ideas. Before starting the session, Mariusz Szypura (disc producer, known also for Happy Pills and the Silver Rocket) lent me a disc of Nick Drake, which I always wanted to hear, so his songs also had an influence on the final form of our records. We wished to use our time in the studio with Mariusz at maximum – to test new instruments and to elaborate piano and acoustic arrangments”.
However, it wasn’t their first experience in the studio. They had recorded before the composition “Waking In The Dark” which promotes the compilation “Offsesja” and with Muchy takes part of the single released by Polish Radio. In 2007 the Hatifnats was honoured in the plebiscite “Miazgi” of monthly Pulp magazine in the category “Next big thing”. The band performed at the Open’er Festival, the Jarocin Festival and the Off Festival (they won the final of “My Stage Off”). In spite of the great fame, a premiere of the first album had been postponed. “However, the title “Before It Is Too Late” is not auto comment on our market situation, but in fact the disc could have been released a little before” – Michał Pydo explains. “But it didn’t happen – we did some mistake and maybe this lesson was useful. It is good that finally has been done the disc which we always dreamt of. Its title refers more to the music and texts. Everyone who would like to listen to it carefully, could understand the message of this album, what it is about. It is hard for me to say”. In the Hatifnats is important what is not said, misterious, hardly seen. It is not a next cool band. Pastoral sounds of instrumental intro, rising drama of beautiful “World 2”, noisy psychodelic of shoegazing guitars in “The Lost Boys”, obsessive and melodic motive “Hypoxia”, pure piano tones in the “Waking In The Dark” or dark cold of the “Mathematix” take a listener away from everyday life, suggest an existence of extra-sensual reality which could be experienc