Interviews

BÁL Interview

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Let’s start with the simplest question, which everyone already knows the answer to. 🙂 Your project’s name is BÁL! Apart from the fact that your name is Bálint, why did you choose the word BÁL? By the way, it sounds great, and I think it was a good choice!

Hello to all the readers, and a special thanks to the interviewer for inviting me! Let’s get into it: the name BÁL carries a lot of meaning. First of all, it’s a shortened version of my name (Bálint), and it symbolizes the damaged person behind the project. About 99% of humanity carries trauma, wounds, and bad experiences that shape our entire lives. BÁL is a way to release that pain—it’s my personal therapy that I share with others. The word “bál” has different meanings in various languages, though I only knew a few of them at the time. In Icelandic, “bál” means “fire”; in Swedish and Norwegian, “bål” means a “funeral pyre” or “bonfire.” In Turkish, the word means “honey,” and my wife calls me that! When I started BÁL, I didn’t know this meaning or know my wife yet :D. In Hungarian, though, “bál” refers to a place where people go to have fun. However, my “bál” invites listeners to a deeper emotional release.

Did you ever consider a different name?

Yes, I did. I was also inspired by a part of the Latin version of my name (Valentinus), which is “Valent.” That’s why you see “valentbaal” in my Bandcamp URL, for example. At that time, I wasn’t sure what name to go with for this journey, which, to be honest, I didn’t expect to last this long. 😀 The Duna album was already finished, and I had this strong urge to finally release it. Those were really exciting times. In the end, I wasn’t happy with Valent, and BÁL just felt more expressive as I polished and rechecked the tracks on Duna, so the name stuck.

From the beginning, did you always want to do everything alone?

Yes, that’s true. I had a bit of experience with being in a band, which I wanted to avoid. That being said, I can’t say I started completely alone—my dad gave me most of the equipment I needed for recording, and he helped with the mixing and mastering of my first full release. But everything else, from the ideas to the visuals to the release, came from me. After the first album, I can say I’ve done everything 100% by myself. But in 2017, all that work felt like it was all my own. Sometimes, there’s help, like with the cover of Nagyobb nálam (Bigger than Me), which I didn’t create, and the distorted BÁL logo, but those elements touch the project from a visual side.

Why did you start BÁL’s “black metal shredding”? How did the desire grow stronger each day?

I had some other projects before BÁL, but they were completely different. Back in high school, I experimented with EDM, but nothing serious. Later, around 2014, I thought about picking up the guitar after hearing a friend play metalcore. I was listening to a lot of that genre, and later, deathcore and tech-death too. In 2016, I worked as a graphic designer at HammerWorld, where, thanks to a colleague, I discovered the magic of black metal more seriously. I probably listened to bands and tracks from the genre before, but I didn’t know it was called black metal. Metal has always been important to me, even when I was a kid (thanks to my dad, who introduced me to music by putting for example, Cannibal Corpse tape cassettes on his Walkman when I was a little kid sucking my thumb). Over the years, my musical tastes changed, but metal always had a big role.

So, around 2016-2017, I had some personal issues, and I was practising guitar and making cover videos when I realized playing transported me to another world, just like listening to black metal. It became a good way of escaping shit. I started by making black metal covers and realized I was pretty good at it. Then, a few weeks later, I thought, why not try my own stuff? When I started playing and recording, I was surprised at how easily everything came together, like the things happening around me flowed through my fingers onto the guitar. It was such a relief. The real therapy came when I could scream my built-up stress and bitterness into the microphone. At that time, I liked writing poetry and experimented with dark, noisy poems, which you can probably still find on my YouTube channel. Writing lyrics for BÁL became easy after that—it just happened naturally.

Had you been playing guitar a lot before 2017? Do you think you’ll always play?

I think I touched on this in the last question, but I didn’t mention that around age 10, my dad handed me a guitar and showed me some chords, but I wasn’t really interested. I also tried drums for a few years, but I stopped because of school. After that, I experimented with drum and bass, electro-house, and dubstep, but that didn’t last long. When I started BÁL, I picked up bass too, though I didn’t get deep into it. It’s important to mention that guitar playing was always around me in the family. From age 7, I did folk dancing regularly for almost 20 years, and Hungarian folk music, dance, and singing had a strong influence on me, which I think impacts how I play now.

Will I always play? I’m not sure, but if I get buried with my banjo, I’ll definitely keep playing BÁL on the other side!

Many people talk about your Duna album. It was a strong debut, and you even got support from a foreign label! How did you make this six-track album, including the cover art, which I think is spot on? What were you thinking while writing? Did you manage to push that twisted reality into hell?

I’m really happy to hear that! Honestly, I didn’t know people talked about it that much. Here’s how *Duna* was made: a pinch of musical knowledge, zero music theory, cheap equipment, lots of anger and sorrow, and even more desire for releasing the pain. I don’t remember exactly what I was thinking while working on the album, but I know those thoughts didn’t want to stay in my head or in this world however they were forced to. It wasn’t about pushing something into hell but more about being trapped in front of the mirror. Before I completely shattered, only *Duna* was left for me to float down and cleanse myself in. Something like that.

Looking at your Bandcamp, there’s a “Full Digital Discography” section with a huge number: 36 releases. That’s insane—about seven years’ worth of work! Are you sure you’re human? 🙂 Have you been carrying Bálistanism inside you for a long time? How many approaches are there to darkness? Have you been able to reinvent yourself each time?

I love the word *Bálistanism*, and I might steal it from you! 😀 Yes, I’m human, and if I weren’t, BÁL wouldn’t exist. That 36 is just a number; it’ll probably be more. A lot of those are splits and some singles, so it’s not that big of a deal—it just looks like a lot. I spend most of my free time on this. Some people go to do “the pub therapy”, do fishing therapy, or join fitness therapy groups—whatever they like. I do BÁL. It’s what gives me peace, acceptance, and stress relief.

Every release has been a different approach to darkness, as you put it. I love experimenting, and I think that’s essential for not just increasing the number of releases but also for growing the project’s and my value as a musician. My project is like a Swiss Army knife, and I realized this around 2020. Sometimes it’s a knife to cut away sadness, sometimes a corkscrew to unwind and lift spirits or make you daydream, and sometimes it’s a can opener to offer some spiritual or mental nourishment (because yes, BÁL teaches me a lot). So, if you mean that kind of reinvention, then yes, that’s my answer.

Over the years, you’ve done a lot of splits, and it seems from your musical background that you get along well with other bands, both here and abroad. Have these connections helped your musical development? Are you open to joint releases and compromises, even though you play alone? 🙂

Yes, these collaborations definitely add something to you, but maybe not in the way people might expect. Usually, we agree on the basics—two or three songs, 20 or 30 minutes of playtime—but that’s it for the compromises. Most of the time, we don’t know what the other is working on until it’s out, so theoretically, someone could surprise me with a Balázs Pali cover, and I wouldn’t even mind. I really only reflect on things after I’ve listened to the final material a few times. That’s when we might exchange a few words (but even that is rare), offering constructive feedback. I listen to these comments and forget them the next moment. I love when someone analyses my songs and shares their thoughts, and even more when they praise me (that feels great), but I don’t give too much weight to any feedback. BÁL is mine, and I’m stubbornly attached to doing things my way, avoiding other people’s influences. When there’s constructive feedback, I store it away, but I don’t think it influences my next release much.

You have a huge catalog of releases, which I recommend everyone to explore! On October 13, your new album “Nagyobb nálam” (“Bigger Than Me”) is coming out. It has 17 tracks and is almost an hour and a half long. Among these, 5 bonus tracks feature a different side of BÁL with acoustic versions of older songs. Have you overworked yourself again? You really defy life! You wake up, wave to the sunlight in a chaotic state, then become immortal among mirrors while the world crumbles into nothingness (putting all the song titles together in a sentence in a really creative way)! What is “Nagyobb nálam” about? Black metal, right? 🙂

Yes, it’s black metal, blekk! But I must say, your way of phrasing things is brilliant, and you play with words really well! I enjoy doing this interview because it feels very human, not cold, but humorous and friendly.

Now, to answer your question: *”Nagyobb nálam”* is built on cliché paradoxes like love and hate (or indifference, according to some), hope and complete despair, light and darkness. But all of this is intertwined with something incredible, superhuman, secret knowledge, classic spirituality, and surreal, psychedelic dreamscapes. All of this sits on a bed of aggression and depression, and eventually, a glimpse into that secret knowledge kicks you out and forces you to accept it.

When my sister Anna showed me the unfinished album cover with the BÁL logo on the middle of the distorted face, I felt something was off, but I knew why she did it. It was a logical and very kind decision. So, we put the logo smaller, in the lower right corner in a yellow-bellied tone (if you look closely, it’s there :D), and that’s when the title hit me. Next to bál, this enormous head, filled with all the thoughts of the world and more, looks so tiny. The face is distorted because it has already reached enlightenment and has all the knowledge that I probably haven’t even touched yet.

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First, it will be released digitally, but later it will be available on CD through the Colombian Masters of Kaos Productions, and in a limited-edition cassette from BÁL Records. Digital is straightforward, but what can we expect from the CD and cassette versions? Will they differ in any way? Could we expect a vinyl edition later on?

Anything is possible, and the complete opposite of it too 😀 I have no idea if there will be a vinyl release. I’m not a vinyl freak, so I don’t care much, but I do love cassettes. The CD will be very minimal, just like the album. A 2-sided cover (no booklet), a tray behind the CD, the disc itself with a print, and that’s it. As you mentioned, the CD will be produced by *Masters of Kaos Productions* in Colombia, but I’ve also contacted *Trench Warfare Productions* from Turkey, and it looks like they’ll make some CDs too. As for the cassette, I’m not sure if it will be added to the Bál Records catalogue since the label is currently on a long lunch break. I do plan to make a few cassettes for this release, which will be available on the band’s Bandcamp page and can be ordered from me after email or phone arrangements. They’ll be recorded on 90-minute ferro cassettes with an old Pioneer, Aiwa, and Marantz deck. “Want to hear more?” (Part of a Hungarian poem written by Károly Sirató Tamkó) 😀

Since we’ve brought up labels, can you talk a bit about your own label, Bál Records? What kind of releases do you handle? When did you start, and how underground are you? 🙂 Who can approach you?

This would be the perfect place for an ad, but there’s no need for that now, so I won’t go into too much detail. The label started last year, with the goal of supporting underground metal bands (mostly black metal and solo projects), specifically with cassette releases. At the end of the year, I experimented with floppy disks because I find that format interesting too, but due to sky-high shipping costs and low order numbers, I barely broke even. So for now, I’m putting it on ice. If I feel I have the time and capacity later, Bál Records will return to save the world 😀

Speaking of the release, for the 5th track (Satans Braut), the team at Smara Kand made a video. What were your ideas for this? What did you talk about that led to the final result?

Collaborating with *Smara* is similar to working on a split album. Usually, I send her the track, or she chooses one she likes from my catalogue and creates a short film for it. Sometimes, it’s the other way around—I’ve made music for her films (like for *Shock*).

In the case of *Satans Braut*, I was given German and English lyrics (written by Petra from her team) to compose the song, and other than that, there were no restrictions. Once the song was ready, I sent it to her, and soon after, she sent me the finished video. Actually, if she hadn’t contacted me with the idea of collaborating, *”Nagyobb nálam”* might not have happened at all, so I’m really glad she reached out after a long break. By the way, I don’t speak German, but when I get a pronunciation guide, I love learning and shrieking in that language.

Could *”Nagyobb nálam”* be your biggest and loudest release so far?

It’s possible, yes. But I had the same feeling with *Tánc* and *Ütközet határok nélkül*—that those would be the big ones. I never hope for too much, but I always do my best to get my work out to as many people as possible. Maybe this release will be the most accessible to metalheads who find *Mütiilation* just noise and *Oranssi Pazuzu* pure chaos. With this album, I aimed to make it not only exciting and full of twists but also easy to understand, whether you’re listening on a JBL boombox or high-end Beyerdynamic headphones. We’ll see how it turns out.

Among the BÁL works, we see that you sometimes release covers of other artists: Burzum, Gorgoroth, Nocturnal Depression, Wiegedood, and even a poem by Sándor Petőfi in a “Bál-ified” version. Recently, you took a bold step and did a cover of Zanzibár‘s Szerelemről szó sem volt. When you first hear this, you might think it’s some trendy nonsense, but after listening, many people might have a completely different opinion. How did this cover idea come about? Do you secretly listen to this kind of music? 🙂

I do see potential in turning pop songs into black metal because this way, not only does the performer reach a larger audience, but the audience also gets more familiar with black metal. So, you might hear more covers like *United*’s *Hófehér Jaguár* or *Ámokfutók*’s *Szomorú Szamuráj* in the future. 😀 Seriously though, I came across a sponsored ad on Facebook for a competition with a really cool Ibanez guitar as the prize. Around the same time, this song popped into my head (probably not a coincidence since I heard it all the time growing up on the radio), and I seriously thought about making something out of it to make it more enjoyable for people like me. So, combining these two “coincidences,” I put together this cover. I don’t have a problem with pop music either. I mostly listen to Britpop when I’m not sipping human blood from a chalice (just to contradict my earlier statement in the 7th question).

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Do you think you’ll surprise us with more covers like this? 🙂 Will you reveal the next victim you’ll turn into a BÁL song?

I won’t reveal anything. 😀 If there’s something coming, then there will be something. If not, then there won’t be anything. But if you like, you can rub the lamp, and you can make a wish, and I’ll do it for a bar of Milka chocolate. 🤝

Everyone has plans, and I bet you have many, though you may not share them. How much BÁL will we get in the near future? Will you stay this active? Will there be new shirts or other merch?

As for plans, after the full-length album, there will be a split with the one-man band *Archurahl* from Turkey, with about 4 tracks, and it’ll be a maximum of 1 hour long. If all goes well, we’ll do something similar with the American band *Tristitia Nigrum*. I’m not sure when these albums will be released; they’ll come when the time is right. There was also a split planned with the British band *Snares of Impurity*, but the guy has disappeared, and I haven’t been able to reach him for weeks. So, those 2 tracks will likely end up elsewhere. As for merch, I don’t have the money for that investment right now, but I really hope I can put BÁL shirts back on the shelf soon.

I think some people are curious about the person behind such “terrible” music. Would you reassure psychiatrists that there’s nothing seriously wrong with you? 🙂 Can you describe the mind behind BÁL? What do you like to read, and how many things are you interested in?

My favourite books are *Autumn in Peking by Boris Vian* and *The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov *, and my family is the most important thing in my life. I don’t feel like adding anything else here.

Thank you for your answers, I hope I didn’t offend you, I just wanted to “push” you a little! 🙂 You can push someone who always creates great stuff!

Thank you for the questions, I really enjoyed this interview once again, I had a great time with it, and I really appreciate the kind words.

This is a simplified English translation of the Hungarian interview between BÁL and Kronos Mortus which had been originally placed on the 1st of October.


Websitehttps://linktr.ee/valentbaal
Bandcamphttps://valentbaal.bandcamp.com
YouTubehttps://www.youtube.com/@valentbaal
Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/valentBAAL
Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/valentbaalofficial

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