The Obelisk Questionnaire: Ben Plochowietz of Scorched Oak
The Obelisk Questionnaire is a series of open questions intended to give the answerer an opportunity to explore these ideas and stories from their life as deeply as they choose. Answers can be short or long, and that reveals something in itself, but the most important factor is honesty.
Based on the Proust Questionnaire, the goal over time is to show a diverse range of perspectives as those who take part bring their own points of view to answering the same questions. To see all The Obelisk Questionnaire posts, click here.
Thank you for reading and thanks to all who participate.
The Obelisk Questionnaire: Ben Plochowietz of Scorched Oak
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How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?
I do music with two dear friends and have lots of fun giving people enjoying what we are doing a great time. It‘s entertainment, for me, for us and the fans. Also rehearsals are a great way to work off stress for me. Being at this point took me quite a while though. I’ve been in love with music for my whole life, especially rock and metal music but I wasn‘t interested in learning an instrument for a long time. I started as a death metal singer when I was 18. At the age of 21 or something like that I bought my first bass and I started playing guitar when I was 28 after a four year break from music. That‘s where it all started and shortly after that Scorched Oak was formed… so here we are :-)
Describe your first musical memory.
My first musical memory or experience is Bon Jovi I think. At least it was the first band I really liked and it was the first concert I attended in my life as a young boy at the age of ten.
Personally I think I’m quite lucky growing up in the 90s even though I was very young at this time. But I loved watching all the video clips on MTV from bands like Rage Against The Machine, Audioslave and later stuff like Korn. I was the guy in school that you never saw without headphones and a couple of cds in his backpack.
Describe your best musical memory to date.
I‘d say my best musical memory is writing, recording and publishing our first album Withering Earth. It‘s not just the first Scorched Oak record but also the first full length album I‘ve ever released. It was so much fun going through all the steps from writing to recording, talking to vinyl pressing plants and finally holding the finished product in your hands. Really intense journey so far.
When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?
A lot of things for me changed in 2015 when I was suffering from a disc prolapse in the cervical spine. Before this event I was like “you have to go to work and you have to earn a lot of money”.. but after experiencing how fast things can change because of your own health things were different. I couldn’t sleep longer than two hours and I was in constant pain 24 hours a day. It might sound a bit dramatic, but you never know how much time you have on this planet so you should make the best out of it and don’t overthink everything too much. I was lucky that everything turned out fine but who knows if it turns out so well a second time.
Where do you feel artistic progression leads?
It’s an endless journey. As well as people, their behavior, their point of view and beliefs change over time so does art. In music for example you want to experiment and try something new over time. We are writing our second album at the moment and sure we want to keep our style but we don’t want to copy ourselves over and over again. Who knows, maybe I prefer to play blues or classical music but that’s fine. It’s not good or bad, it’s just different.
How do you define success?
It’s quite hard for me to find success in anything. The moment I finish something I instantly start to think how I can do it better the next time… and most of the time I’m not proud or satisfied, I tend to find it just ok. It’s a really bad mindset which I try to give up…
What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?
I watched the documentary earthlings once.. and wow this was some really really horrible stuff I saw there. On one hand it was good to watch it but some of the images really got burnt in…
Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.
There are quite a lot of things. Speaking about music I would love to make an album with some 90s style rock like audioslave. Straight forward in your face with this particular 90s style and sound.
On the other hand I’m thinking about doing some solo stuff which I would want to be really dark folk / western style. You know like you have an acoustic guitar and the bass drum on one foot and on the other foot something like a tambourine.
There is so much stuff I’d love to do… just can’t bring up the time at the moment.
What do you believe is the most essential function of art?
Art creates emotions. It can make people think, question things, question themselves, inspire, give joy or make you sad. This makes art so versatile and powerful.
Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?
Anticipation really isn’t my strongest trait but I love traveling, especially with my wife and we are planning to go to Japan for a couple of weeks soon. Traveling is definitely my most favorite thing that is not music related.
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https://scorchedoak.bandcamp.com/
https://www.scorched-oak.de/
