INSPIRATION
All the good and bad moments in life. Films, literature, and, of course, music. My first inspiration to create my own tracks were the boring exercises at piano lessons. The time I should have spent on learning the assigned tasks was devoted mainly to pasting my own melodies, which led to my playing at home. The possibilities of my first synthesizer, or rather a woeful imitation of it, spurred by the artistic creation of such performers as Tangerine Dream, Vangelis or Mike Oldfield, eventually resulted in piles of tapes with my own ideas and compositions. I've always liked the music of the bands in which my favourite keyboardists, Banks, Wakeman, Jobson, played. It was thanks to them that the, so called, progressive rock entered my tape recorder/CD player/whatever else… for good. There was also some heavy metal, or rather thrash metal to be more specific. There was a period in my life when I played in two bands at the same time. In one, I was doing metal music, singing and playing the bass, and in the other, I was playing the keyboards to create music inspired by bands like Genesis, Yes, UK or Marillion. And I'd already known back then that confining myself to just one style is simply unthinkable.

I have never been able to concentrate on one instrument. In a band, I would focus on composing rather than mastering the instrument I was playing. It surfaced with time that I felt most confident with the bass. I liked the style of Geddy Lee from Rush and John Wetton from King Crimson/UK. Both of them also sang, which inspired me to work on combining both functions. I'm glad that in Riverside I can come back to my favourite function of a bass player and singer :-)

I'm inspired by imaginative artists. The way they approach music, how they arrange their tracks, how they build up their melodic lines. It's hard to mention just a few names.

IMPORTANT IN LIFE
Love, friendship, being square with my conscience.
Creating audiovisual stuff - just a small obsession, which makes me feel alive.

FREE TIME
have great trouble with finding some. When I do, I spend it in an active way with the people who are dear to me, or I sit for hours on end in the cinema eating the disgusting pop-corn, and I torment the "paper" with inditing my thoughts.

FAVOURITE ALBUMS
It's difficult to name but a few. My favourite albums are those that somehow influenced my life, my way of approaching music when creating my own sounds. Those are the albums that evoke pleasant memories, the albums I've listened to thousands of times on my stereo. The order has no importance.

• Genesis - "Baranek" / "A Trick of the Tail"
• Peter Gabriel - everything
• Yes - "Fragile" / "Close to the Edge"
• Rush - From "A Farewell to Kings" to the end
• Tangerine Dream - From "Phaedra" to "Hyperborea" / "Poland"
• The Beatles "Revolver" / "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" / "White Album" / "Abbey Road"
• Dave Matthews Band - "Crash"
• UK - "UK"
• Led Zeppelin - everything
• Opposition - "War Begins At Home"
• Porcupine Tree - "Up The Downstair" / "The Sky Moves Sideways" / "Signify"
• Dead Can Dance - everything
• Jean Michel Jarre - "Oxygene" / "Equinoxe" / "Zoolok"
• Marillion - "Misplaced Childhood" / "Clutching at Straws" / "Brave"
• Faith No More - "Angel Dust" / "King for a Day... Fool for a Lifetime"
• Hedningarna - "Tra"
• Hooverphonic - "A New Stereophonic Sound Spectacular"
• Vangelis - everything, especially "Bladerunner", "1492"

RIVERSIDE
The true band. The brain, the heart, the lungs, the arms and the legs. How would a body function without any of these?