Dobermann: Will you please tell us something about history of your label?

-War Office Propaganda: War Office Propaganda was established at the turn of the year 2003/2004 . It was the moment when the first part of the series Scontrum (well-known and already associated with WOP) was released. The CD was released as an independent publication of Cold Fusion, but few months later War Office Propaganda came out on the market with the release Scontrum act II. Then we officially took that particular moment as the “birth” of WOP, however, in order to commemorate and to show respect to the early beginnings we also included the reedition of Scontrum act I in the official catalogue of our releases. The breakthrough in our history was transformation of one-person-project into the publishing company which took place in November 2004. Since then War Office Propaganda has been constituted by two people Marcin and Robert and the character of its activity has got quite a new dimension.

D: What do you think about the condition of Polish independent scene? Is it worth releasing uncommercial projects in Poland?

-WOP: As publishers we look at Polish scene (the one beyond official releases) from the wider perspective. I must say not without certain sense of satisfaction, that the scene is developing and that there is a progres regarding the number and quality of new projects. In our opinion, it's always worth releasing such music and supporting people who create Polish scene. Through distribution of the CDs released by War Office Propaganda we promote Polish artists on the international scene. The CDs with WOP logo are already available in almost all countries in Europe, and alo in the USA, China and Japan.

D: To what extent should the independent label be eclectic (I mean as far as the released projects are concerned)? Is it advisable at all?

-WOP: We release such projects which we perceive as worth being presented to the wider group of people. For each artist, who represents something interesting and unique it's crucial. We do not wish to limit ourselves to one style or genre only, which would be automatically connected to War Office Propaganda. Doing so would limit us and above all would be in huge disagreement with our personal music tastes :] Despite the fact that we are first of all associated with the military scene we wish to stress that we are not limited to this particular field. We listen to various music and to many artists, not necessarily connected with the ambient or neofolk scene. The most important thing is the music itself and if we feel convinced by the sounds we shall definitely give the music the chance to be released under WOP logo. In our opinion, all the CDs we've released so far ( and there are 20 of them) make the harmonious reflection of our music taste and fascinations and as such mark the direction we are planning to take in the future.

D: What's the way you promote new bands?

-WOP: We try to be in contact with the biggest labels and distributors of the international scene. The contacts with them gives us the chance to include our releases in their distribution offer and it's an enormous chance for the projects or bands we promote to come out. We realize not all the people who wish to buy the CDs signed with WOP logo are able to do so, that's why we create our own distribution net as to make the CDs available in all the places people wish to listen to them. As far as other promotional activity is concerned, we make compilations, splits and release series which are combination of the well-known and respected projects with those less known. We try to take part in various discussions on forums for devoted fans of such music, we advertise our bands through internet and e-mails, as we see it as a form of widely understood advertising (though somehow limited ). We've recently tried to promote our bands in magazines, and this is the direction our actions will be heading to. Just after the recent interview there will be our advertisement in the next edition of 7Gates. As far as the regular contact with the customers is concerned we run a website www.waroffice.org, which is regularly updated and you may always find the latest news regarding War Office Propaganda there. We personally consider the CDs we release our best advertisement as they get very positive, even enthusiastic response. The releases are fully professional with high quality DTP; our CD-Rs are printed by screen-print on carriers of the best quality. In the nearest future we will move a bit forward and we shall release [haven] and Scontrum act V on the new CD-R Diamond, whose parameters are close to the ordinary pressed CD. Anyway, we are planning to release a bigger number of projects on CDs, the only thing that stops us from doing it, is lack of sufficient means. Still, we will be trying to keep the lowest prices both of our releases and those we have in our distribution offer.

D: What conditions does the band need to fulfil to become a part of your label?

-WOP: First of all, the music is the crucial factor in deciding which band should be accepted in War Office Propaganda. The stuff like image, ideas, theories which are far beyond music, we simply put aside, though it's important that the artist was consistent in his/her actions and creation of his/her music visions. We definitely dissociate ourselves from using the music as a mean of forming ideas or political programmes (no matter correct or not). We detest all sort of political propaganda, and we do not want to be associated with any political party neither current nor former... What we value most is music as an art of influencing imagination and it's the basic criterion. However, it rarely happens that the young band debuts with fantastic material: it may be the second, the third; what matters is to keep trying. Our task is to discover the projects with the potential and to give them the successive chances. We are hoping that our new “purchase” [haven] will be successful. The CD is planned for release at the end of September.

D: What are the most important advantages and disadvantages of your job?

-WOP: We have never thought about our job in these terms. For us there are only advantages and no disadvantages, except one: lack of greater amount of money to spend on fulfilment of all our plans;). We've got plenty of innovative ideas regarding CDs release and the only limitation we come across is the low budget we have at our disposal. On the other hand, in this case time is on our side as from the moment the idea appears to the moment of obtaining money for its realization, we've got time to improve it :)

D: What are your publishing plans and plans for the future?

-WOP: The closest publishing plans regard [haven] - "The Last Breath of Lonely Buildings" and the next part of release series „Scontrum act V”. You'll hear the French Barbarossa Umtrunk, Finnish Bunkkeriorkesteri and Hungarian Larrnakh on this album. Till the end of this year, we are planning to release a new, great CD Rukkanor – „Deora” of strongly oriental and military vibes. It will be released on CD and the first 222 copies will be available in collection edition in wooden box together with the extra VIDEO CD. There is also one big release planned till the end of the current year, the premiere material of the well-known project, but as we're still “working towards” the agreement , it far too early to speak of any details ;) As to our plans for the future; we 're planning to develop our release activity and to take up organization of the concerts which there are still too few taking place in Poland. We are also planning to support Polish scene, and not let it slump. We fight with the stereotype that you can't do anything in Poland as you will either fail or won't make it.

www.waroffice.org
www.myspace.com/warofficepropaganda

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